A woman claiming Shannon Sharpe sexually assaulted her released audio of a phone call between them where the sportscaster allegedly threatened to “choke” her.
“Don’t manipulate me,” Jane Doe tells Shannon at one point during the call.
He responds, “If you say that one more time, I’m going to f—ing choke the s— out of you when I see you.”
Doe tells Sharpe that she does not want to be choked.
“Yes, you do,” says Sharpe. “I don’t think you have a choice in the [matter].”
TMZ obtained an audio recording from attorney Buzbee of Shannon Sharpe threatening to choke his accuser
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) April 22, 2025
"If you say that word one more time, I'ma f*****g choke the sh*t out of you when I see you." pic.twitter.com/Y24o3R8M35
In a statement released to the press, Sharpe’s attorney says the call was just roleplay and that his client was not speaking literally.
“I don’t have a confirmation from Mr. Sharpe himself or his attorneys about the authenticity of the tape, but we have no reason to dispute this is what Mr. Sharpe said,” Davis said.
“I do know that it was in the middle of an argument of this particular conversation and that he said it in the heat of the moment and did not mean the words explicitly.”
Doe filed a bombshell lawsuit in Nevada, claiming the NFL Hall of Famer and podcast host used his fame and power to “manipulate, control, subjugate and violate women.”
According to the civil complaint, the woman says she was 19 when she met the 56-year-old Sharpe at a gym in Los Angeles in 2023. What started as a “rocky consensual relationship” reportedly spiraled into a nearly two-year stretch of alleged aggression, manipulation—and multiple instances of rape.
She is suing Sharpe for $50 million.