Shannon Sharpe

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Shannon Sharpe
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Position(s): Tight end	Jersey #(s): 84, 82
Born: June 26, 1968 (1968-06-26) (age 39) Chicago, Illinois
Career Information
Year(s): 1990–2003
NFL Draft: 1990 / Round: 7 / Pick: 192
College: Savannah State
Professional Teams
Denver Broncos (1990-1999) Baltimore Ravens (2000-2001) Denver Broncos (2002-2003)
Career Stats
Receptions	815
Receiving yards	10,060
Touchdowns	62
Stats at NFL.com
Career Highlights and Awards
8x Pro Bowl selection (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001) 6x All-Pro selection (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998) 3x Super Bowl champion (XXXII, XXXIII, XXXV) NFL 1990s All-Decade Team

Shannon Sharpe (born June 26, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois) is a former American Football tight end who played for the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. Sharpe is known both for his creative commentary and trash talking. Among tight ends, he is the NFL's all-time yardage leader.

1 Early life
2 NFL career
- 2.1 Career statistics
- 2.2 Career receiving statistics
3 Post-playing career
4 Memorable quotes
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early life

Shannon, the younger brother of former NFL wide receiver Sterling Sharpe, grew up poor in Glennville, Georgia. He once joked, "We were so poor, a robber once broke into our house and we ended up robbing the robber." ^[1]

Sharpe graduated with a degree in criminal justice from Savannah State College (since 1996 Savannah State University). He commented: "I was a terrible student. I didn't graduate magna cum laude, I graduated 'Thank you, Lawdy!'" ^[2] At Savannah State he played football and basketball and competed in triple jump.

[edit] NFL career

Sharpe was selected in the 7th round of the 1990 NFL Draft, 192nd overall, by the Broncos. ^[3] He had a mediocre rookie season as a wide receiver, until Broncos head coach Dan Reeves convinced him to convert to tight end. He remained with Denver until 1999 ^[4], winning two championship rings in Super Bowl XXXII and Super Bowl XXXIII in the process. After the 1997 season ^[5] championship, his first, he appeared on General Mills' Wheaties boxes with four other Broncos. ^[6] After a two-year stint with the Baltimore Ravens, where he won another championship ring in Super Bowl XXXV, he returned to the Broncos. He played there until 2003 ^[7]. Then he retired to become an NFL broadcaster for CBS. ^[8]

[edit] Career statistics

Ozzie Newsome, Hall-of-Fame tight end, Ravens' general manager, and the man responsible for signing Sharpe before the 2000 season had this to say about him, "I think he's a threat when he's on the field. He has to be double-teamed. He's a great route-runner. He's proven that he can make the big plays. That's what separates him. He's a threat." Sharpe was selected All-Pro 4 times, played in 8 Pro Bowls(1992-1998, 2001) and amassed over 1,000 receiving yards in 3 different seasons. In a 1993 playoff game against the Los Angeles Raiders, Sharpe tied a postseason record with 13 receptions for 156 yards and a touchdown. In the Ravens 2000 AFC title game against the Raiders, he caught a short pass on 3rd down and 18 from his own 4-yard line and took it 96 yards for a touchdown, assisting his team to a 16-3 win. He finished his 14 year career with 815 receptions for 10,060 yards and 62 touchdowns in 204 games.

[edit] Career receiving statistics

Year	Team	Games	Rec	Yards	Y/R	TDs
1990	Denver Broncos	16	7	99	14.1	1
1991	Denver Broncos	16	22	322	14.6	1
1992	Denver Broncos	16	53	640	12.1	2
1993	Denver Broncos	16	81	995	12.3	9
1994	Denver Broncos	15	87	1010	11.6	4
1995	Denver Broncos	13	63	756	12	4
1996	Denver Broncos	15	80	1062	13.3	10
1997	Denver Broncos	16	72	1107	15.4	3
1998	Denver Broncos	16	64	768	12.0	10
1999	Denver Broncos	5	23	224	9.7	0
2000	Baltimore Ravens	16	67	810	12.1	5
2001	Baltimore Ravens	16	73	811	11.1	2
2002	Denver Broncos	12	61	686	11.2	3
2003	Denver Broncos	15	62	770	12.4	8
Total	-	203	815	10060	12.3	62

[edit] Post-playing career

Sharpe is a commentator for the CBS Sports pregame show The NFL Today, including the Nextel Halftime Report and the Subway Postgame Show, replacing Deion Sanders and co-hosting with James Brown (formerly with FOX NFL Sunday) and former NFL quarterbacks Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason. ^[9] In the 2004 NFL regular season ^[10], Sharpe defeated Marino and Esiason in the pick 'em game of The NFL Today with a 53-21 record. His critics say that his broadcasting skills are hurt by his poor grammar and pronunciation of words (Sharpe has a very noticeable lisp and drawl).

Sharpe also appears on SIRIUS NFL Radio's Movin' The Chains and writes a column on NFL.com ^[11].

Sharpe now resides in Glennville in his free time. On the National Football League Players' Association Players Inc. Web site ^[12], while he played in Denver, he cited his hobbies as fishing, basketball, weight lifting, and spending time with his Rottweiler dogs. He also played in the 2005 World Series of Poker.

Sharpe will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

[edit] Memorable quotes

People Sharpe has commented on:
- The New England Patriots: "Mr. President, call in the National Guard! Send as many men as you can spare! Because we are killing the Patriots! They need emergency help!" (during a 34 - 8 rout vs. the Patriots on November 17, 1996) ^[13]
- WR Plaxico Burress: "Plexiglas"
- WR Chad Johnson: "ocho no-show" instead of "ocho cinco"
- RB Corey Dillon, "the biggest robbery since the Louisiana Purchase" (Subway Postgame Show, 2005-01-16, AFC divisional game IND 3 - NE 20)
- QB Jake Plummer: "They're about to take out the 'SN' in Snake and put an 'F' in front of it." (from Movin' the Chains) ^[14]
- QB Kyle Boller: "You do have your teammates behind you: your fullback and your halfback, and that’s only because they have to be." ^[15]
- QB Kyle Boller: "I've got a better chance of winning the Kentucky Derby on the back of a donkey than they have of winning the Super Bowl with Kyle Boller."
- Head Coach Tom Coughlin: "I would rather die in an abandoned building alone, and my family not know what happened, than play for Coughlin."
- LB London Fletcher-Baker: "LondonFletcher-Baker.com; he's logged in."
- Jacksonville Jaguars' strategy in a divisional playoff game against the New England Patriots: "Nothing cheap, nothing deep." (January 12, 2008)
- CB Ray Buchanan, who wore a dog collar to Media Day and has guaranteed an Atlanta victory in Super Bowl XXXIII: "Had anybody heard of Ray Buchanan before he got to Atlanta?"
- QB Steve DeBerg: "DeBerg is old enough to be my father, and he's still in the league. How old is DeBerg, 105?"
- TE O.J. Santiago: "Santiago? Who, Benito?"
- FS Eugene Robinson: "He can't out-talk me or cover me. He went to Colgate, but I'm smarter than he is. I might bump into him. I know he's not going to be covering me one-on-one. We know that's not going to happen, don't we?"
- About the four people he'd invite to a dinner party: "Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Michael Jordan and Halle Berry. I'd talk to Gates, Buffett and Jordan first, and then me and Halle would go get another table in the back that's candlelit. And I'd let them discuss whatever they want to discuss."
"I won't talk about someone's mother. I won't talk about their girlfriend or their wife, but if you have a deformity, I would talk about that."
About growing up in Georgia and hating the Atlanta Falcons: "I've pretty much been in Atlanta my whole life, and I never liked the Falcons. What was there to like about them? They lost all the time. If you had a pair of cleats on and you were in Fulton County, they'd put you in the ballgame, they were so bad. For $20, you could sit in the luxury box with the owner."
About the Indianapolis Colts Defense winning the Super Bowl: "I have a better chance of hitting a home-run grand slam in Yankee's Stadium with a toothpick."