Shannon Sharpe forces Marcus Spears to walk off First Take set in disgust at Joe Burrows ‘slander’ in heated moment

SHANNON Sharpe’s most recent wild opinion had Marcus Spears ready to abandon First Take for the day.

Joe Burrow produced a spectacular performance in a loss to the Washington Commanders on Monday, but Sharpe said it wasn’t enough.

ESPN/First Take

ESPN/First Take

The Cincinnati Bengals fell to 0-3 after the loss to the Commanders, but saying it was Burrow’s fault would be crazy talk.

He passed for 324 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions during the 38-33 loss.

Burrow having a good performance in the game shouldn’t be debated, but Chris Canty said on his ESPN Radio show on Tuesday and claimed “Joe Burrow let his team down.”

Dan Orlovsky said the take was crazy, and Stephen A. Smith , Jeff Saturday, and Spears all agreed with him.

However, Sharpe came to Canty’s defense during the segment.

“He played well, not well enough to win,” Sharpe said.

The statement saw Spears immediately get up from the First Take desk and walk away to go look out a window while Sharpe finished talking.

“I’m gonna be honest,” Spears responded.

“I don’t want to live in a world where a quarterback throws for 330 and three touchdowns with no turnovers and we’re gonna say he didn’t do enough to win a football game.

“I don’t want to live in that world in the NFL.”

“I do!” Sharpe fired back.

“You live in a world where they make $55 million. Why do they make so much if so much isn’t expected of them?”

Sharpe followed up with even more ridiculous statements, saying Burrow needed to be able to match every score his opponent produces, going as far as to say he should be Superman.

“When the hell is three touchdowns for 330 not Superman?” Spears yelled.

“Shay, he needed six touchdowns?”

First Take viewing figures

First Take went from strength to strength under the guidance of Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim last year.

The weekday ESPN debate show averaged 496,000 viewers in 2023 – making it the most-watched year in program history.

Its December average of 611,000 was a 24% year-on-year increase compared to 2022.

The show also reported more than 250 million views on YouTube.

First Take was helped by the addition of Shannon Sharpe alongside Smith and Qerim after he left Fox Sports’ Undisputed.

It’s not like the Bengals offense played poorly outside of Burrow either. The team didn’t punt once or turn the ball over. The game was the first game since 1940 with no punts or turnovers from either team.

NFL fans couldn’t believe Sharpe’s take, and called him out on social media for the overreaction.

“To be fair Shannon probably didn’t watch the game,” one fan said.

“Bengals scored 33… not Burrows fault,” another fan said.

“You couldn’t have played more of a perfect game from burrow. What is Sharpe smoking?” a third fan said.

“He played a near perfect game. Him and Daniels both. It’s a team game. Shannon just talking too much,” a fourth fan said.

ESPN/First Take