Stephen A. Smith is pushing ESPN to bring back Shannon Sharpe

Stephen A. Smith is pushing ESPN to bring back Shannon Sharpe as one of his “First Take” debate partners.

Smith recently appeared on the “Out The Mud” podcast and revealed that he has made it clear to ESPN leadership that he wants Sharpe back on “First Take.” He added, however, that the final say does not belong to him.

“I’m always going to want him back. The company knows I want him back,” Smith said, via Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. “Now, y’all going to do what y’all got to do because I’m the executive producer, but I’m not an executive VP of the company. I have bosses to answer to. They have to make that decision. But they already know I want him back. If we can get him back, I want him back, I ain’t apologizing for that to nobody. He was great for me. He was great to me, and I’m not gonna forget that. He was great for the show.”

Sharpe stepped away from ESPN roughly a year ago when he was accused of sexual misconduct. He eventually settled that lawsuit, but the network chose not to bring him back.

Sharpe has made it clear he would love to rejoin “First Take,” so it is obvious that the only people stopping it are top decision-makers at ESPN. In the meantime, he continues to host his “Club Shay Shay” podcast, but seems to know that a phone call from ESPN probably isn’t coming anytime soon.