NFL hall of famer rocked by $50-million rape lawsuit after ‘rocky consensual relationship’

Article content

Former NFL superstar turned ESPN commentator Shannon Sharpe has been hit with rape accusations in a $50-million civil lawsuit.

The lawsuit, which was filed in a Nevada state court by a woman under the pseudonym “Jane Doe” on Sunday and obtained by the New York Post, alleges the football hall of famer committed assault, sexual assault, battery, sexual battery and engaged in the intentional infliction of emotional distress with a woman more than thirty years younger than him.

The plaintiff alleges Sharpe brutally sexually assaulted her several times at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 after a “rocky consensual relationship” that had lasted nearly two years.

WARNING: Details of alleged sexual assault

The outlet reports that Jane Doe accuses Sharpe of threatening to kill her multiple times, being “manipulating and controlling” and “repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her.”

“One time specifically, he was yelling at her while there a was a firearm visible in his room,” the complaint states. “Terrified for her safety, Plaintiff tried sharing her location with friends from her iPhone — just in case. But Sharpe saw her doing this. The moment he realized what she was doing, he grabbed her by the neck and told her ‘If you ever do that again, I will f***ing kill you.’”

The complaint also states that Jane Doe is not the woman that Sharpe accidentally shared explicit audio of on an Instagram livestream in September 2024, but that incident led to the plaintiff beginning to end the relationship with the ESPN star because he “cheated” when she thought they were in an exclusive relationship.

“A woman can say ‘yes’ to consensual sexual relations with a man ninety-nine times, but when she says ‘no’ even once, that ‘no’ means no,” the first page of the complaint reads.

“Defendant Shannon Sharpe, a man who is accustomed to getting what he wants, completely fails to understand this basic concept. After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff — a woman more than thirty years younger than he — and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of ‘no.’”

The lawsuit also alleges that Sharpe would physically, emotionally and psychologically control the complainant during their relationship.

“This cycle of control, fear and submission became routine,” the complaint states. “Yelling at her, controlling her, forcibly grabbing her by the neck when he got upset, saying he was going to ‘kill her,’ and asserting dominance became the norm.”

According to the filing, the plaintiff and Sharpe, now 56, first met at a Los Angeles gym in early 2023 when she was 20 years old.

Sharpe, who appeared on ESPN’s First Take on Monday, has not yet publicly addressed the lawsuit.