Right when I thought I was doing too much unplugging my cat cam until I left the house and covering up my laptop camera until my eyebrows were filled in, Shannon Sharpe reminded us all of the importance of double, maybe even triple checking your devices. 

 

Yesterday, he started trending on social media, after going live on Instagram while having sex. In the video, which, luckily for him, doesn’t actually show him and the mystery woman (who he refers to as “Michelle” in the video) in the act, it did give the audience of nearly 7,000 people a pretty solid audio spectacle of how he throws it down.

Like many others, I was equal parts grossed out and super intrigued. I mean, it’s not every day that one of the biggest personalities in sport and podcasts is caught in the act. That act, anyway. And so naturally, the responses, which expressed everything from shock and horror to haha you got caught were endless, especially with so many of his friends in the sports world taking full advantage of the opportunity to poke some fun at the man they affectionately call “Unc”.

Here are some of my faves:

I’ve always argued that Nene Leakes has given us some of the most universal, meme-worthy reactions and tweets like this are why:

 

This user, without a visual, suggested that Shannon had the mystery woman the same way Melvin had Juanita in Baby Boy, starring Tyrese. And judging by the grunting heard in that video, I don’t think they were too far off.

https://x.com/JAAY_ROCK_/status/1833971871290696025

Speaking of grunting, there was also this reaction.

Meanwhile, this podcast account suggested Shannon was thrilled that Kendrick Lamar released a surprise song after being announced as the Superbowl Halftime show performer, implying it was keeping the spotlight off of him and his…bedroom activity.

And while some accounts fed into the narrative that he went live accidentally, there were others that were a bit more…skeptical, doubtful, if you will, that this wasn’t all just part of some master plan of Shannon’s. 

 

As to why anyone would want to livestream the act, even if only audibly, it stems from two things. First, the fact that men pride themselves on the amount of sex and women they get with, particularly as they get older, with it being an indication that they “still got it”. But second, in Shannon’s case, specifically, one thing casting a huge doubt on this not being some elaborate PR stunt stems from some rumours circulating that Shannon may not be entirely heterosexual. 

The word being used, mostly, is “zesty”. And from what I gather, it’s not quite a declaration or assumption one is gay, but rather an assertion that their behaviour, for whatever reason, raises some eyebrows when it comes to their sexuality. 

Earlier this year, comedian and actor Mike Epps went all the way, insinuating Shannon is gay, something he later apologized for. But by the time he apologized, people were already questioning Shannon’s sexuality, mostly because around this time, he stepped out in this outfit:

 

To be clear, whether we try and dress this up as some form of light version of homophobia, the sheer interest in his sexuality reeks of homophobia, which is especially commonplace in sport. So reactions like the ones below about him, finally, once and for all, proving his heterosexuality through this livestream ordeal, filled timelines, instead. Quickly.

As for Shannon’s response to the video making the rounds on social media, it’s a two-parter. Almost immediately after discovering he had been livestreaming, his knee jerk reaction was to allege his account had been hacked, which also lent itself to some pretty humorous memes. 

 

This excuse was entirely unnecessary and super unbelievable considering Shannon’s voice is pretty recognizable. Like, dude, you had sex and we heard. You don’t need to blame hackers. 

But eventually, he did fess up, admitting that he was not, in fact, hacked (gee, shocker). He used the most recent episode of Nightcap, which racked up over a million views since it was published to YouTube, as an opportunity to speak out about the ordeal. And he was adamant that this was not intentional. 

After hearing him talk about it, I really do believe him. Especially with Ocho Cinco reminding us just how terrible Shannon is with technology. 

By all accounts, Shannon seems to be taking this in stride, joking that he needs to work on his cardio because it sounded like he was out of breath. 

https://x.com/RealDealChris/status/1834041630296301656
 

But as we’ve seen in other episodes of this podcast, including this one where he made some unfavourable remarks about Meg Thee Stallion, which is very much rooted in machismo, a lot of the jokes these two made have been made at the expense of the woman he was being intimate with, with some accounts even trying to dox her. So we are absolutely going to have our laugh at him, too. 

But of all the funny reactions, perhaps the funniest reaction was from none other than Katt Williams. You may recall the explosive interview between Shannon and Katt from earlier this year, which I wrote about here. 

In this clip, Shannon revealed that Katt called him after the video surfaced, with some reassurance in the wake of a pretty embarrassing scandal, telling Shannon, “You ain’t gay today.” 

Photo credits: Instar Images

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