Shannon Sharpe has vehemently denied the allegations that were made against him in a lawsuit that was filed this week, and the Hall of Fame tight end’s attorney made a surprising revelation about the case on Tuesday.
Sharpe is being sued by a woman named Gabriella Zuniga, who claims she entered into a consensual relationship with Sharpe in 2023 but that he later assaulted her on multiple occasions. Zuniga is seeking more than $50 million.
On Tuesday, Sharpe’s attorney Lanny Davis held a press conference addressing the allegations. Davis said numerous times during the conference that Sharpe offered Zuniga “tens of millions of dollars” to settle before the lawsuit was filed on Sunday night, according to Pro Football Talk.
When reporters asked for clarification, Davis said the settlement offer was “at least $10 million” but that Zuniga turned it down.
It is unclear why Sharpe would offer to settle if he is innocent, but it is possible he was trying to prevent a sex tape from being leaked to the public. Sharpe’s attorneys have said the lawsuit is centered on a secretly recorded video of a consensual sexual encounter that was highly edited. Sharpe’s team says the video leaves out important context, and Sharpe himself said Tuesday that he has encouraged Zuniga’s lawyers to release the full video, which he says is 10 minutes.
Zuniga’s lawyers released a short audio clip on Tuesday that in which Sharpe says he is going to choke Zuniga. Davis said on Tuesday that Sharpe and Zuniga engaged in “role-playing” and that Sharpe never spoke about choking as a threat, but rather in the overall context of the sexual relationship between Sharpe and Zuniga.
In their response on Monday, Sharpe’s legal team released graphic text messages that Zuniga allegedly sent to the ESPN analyst. Zuniga wrote, “I want you to put a dog collar around my neck and choke me with it while you’re f–king me” (edited by LBS for profanity) in one of the messages. You can read some of the other messages here.
Sharpe’s lawyers have also identified Zuniga as an adult-content creator, which led to her Instagram and OnlyFans pages being discovered.
