The attorney representing Shannon Sharpe against a $50 million lawsuit alleging the football Hall of Famer raped a woman released hundreds of text communications between Sharpe and the purported victim on Tuesday.
The complaint, filed Sunday in Nevada state court, claims Sharpe assaulted, sexually assaulted, committed battery, sexual battery and had intentionally inflicted emotional distress during the nearly two-year relationship.
Sharpe described the lawsuit as a “shakedown” in a recorded statement released Tuesday, and his lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, released text exchanges that he described as showing “a pattern of sexual role-playing that specifically includes her being choked by him.”
In one text that was released, the alleged victim, who was named by Sharpe’s legal team but is not being identified by The Post, wrote in a message on June 14, 2024, “i wanna be abused daddy.”
In a separate text on July 6, 2024, the woman wrote to Sharpe, “i want u to tie me up like this and abuse me daddy” accompanied by an explicit image of a male and female performing an intimate act.
She also texted the ESPN personality using handcuffs on several occasions and sent Sharpe several sexually explicit images involving the use of handcuffs.
“I want like some hardcore bdsm action tho,” the alleged victim texted Sharpe on Jan. 31, 2024.
Sharpe during a 2023 Fox Sports 1 Super Bowl broadcast. Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup for Fox Sports/Shutterstock
Amid the released texts, there appeared to be one from earlier this year on Jan. 2 — the same day that the woman says she was raped by Sharpe in her lawsuit — where she confronted him about the alleged assault.
“but I cried when u left because I begged you to put a condom on and not put it in my ass and u didn’t listen,” she texted him. “I don’t care what our history is, no means no shannon.”
She also texted to him, “idk how to process this.”
He replied: “Can I call you later?”
It wasn’t clear from the released text changes whether they discussed what had happened on the phone.
The messages came on the heels of several texts shared by Sharpe’s team on Monday in which she asked Sharpe to “put a dog collar around my neck” and “tie me up and do bad things to me.”
The text release and a Tuesday press conference by Sharpe’s lawyer were part of an attempt to publicly push back on the allegations made in the lawsuit.
Davis told reporters during the virtual press conference that Sharpe had been willing to pay the woman, at least 30 years younger than the ex-NFL star, “at least $10 million” to settle the lawsuit, but she instead opted to take “advantage” of a “very lucrative” contract for Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast that was recently reported on.
The attorney also said the woman was an OnlyFans model who participated in “role playing and virtual fantasy with people who pay her.”
“It was a fact that the plaintiff started to charge Mr. Sharpe money. This is who she is by the facts. I’m just describing that she’s on OnlyFans and charges people money to do role playing,” Davis said.
Sharpe has denied the allegations.
ESPN has declined to comment on the matter.
