“I Was About to Get Cut”: Shannon Sharpe Reveals the ‘Scariest Time’ of His NFL Career

Legendary tight end Shannon Sharpe made plays in the league that were hard to cross. The former Broncos athlete set numerous records and also set the standard for how an ideal tight end should play. All in all, the Pro Football Hall of Famer had an envious career worthy of thousands of compliments. But that was not always the case. Sharpe recently recounted one of the scariest incidents that happened to him when he was a rookie.

The Denver Broncos selected Sharpe out of Savannah State as the 192nd overall pick in the seventh round of the 1990 NFL Draft. He made it his mission to give his all to the game, and he did so because with him on the roster, Denver became a powerhouse. But what if he wasn’t in the shiny squad of Broncos Country?

Can one imagine the Denver Broncos without Shannon Sharpe?

The eight-time Pro Bowler appeared on ‘New Heights,’ the podcast hosted by the Super Bowl winner TE Travis Kelce and his older brother, the Eagles center Jason Kelce.

While Sharpe was explaining how he rose to become a prominent figure in the league, he also touched on the part where he was very close to getting fired from the roster.

 

“I was on the board to get cut. I was one of the last 12-14 guys to get cut…a seventh-round draft pick. That’s my rookie year 1990. We’re playing, I’ll never forget this, we’re playing Arizona Cardinals and one of the coaches came to me and said, “Shannon,” he said, “your name is on the board to get cut. Now you might, you might not but your name is on the board. He said, ‘What you should do is go out there and bust your ass,” Shannon stated.

How did Sharpe save himself from getting cut?

One thing that the coach suggested the three-time Super Bowl winner to do was to play impressively against the Cardinals. By doing so, if the team cut him off, the tape would show other teams how talented a player Sharpe is. But it rained the night before the game, which stopped the team from throwing the ball.

Then he was put on the special teams, where he was a gunner, a punt returner, and a kick returner. “So, I was like, ‘man, how am I gonna show?’ Now, mind you, i don’t get into the game on offense until the fourth quarter. I cut everything to move. I cut the refree. If you move you were cut…on running, I lined up 15 yards deep. When I hit the line, I was in full speed.”

My All Time Team: Tight End, Shannon Sharpe, Denver Broncos https://t.co/y3wzTeUiG8 pic.twitter.com/sS2FP1a8IM

— allthings18 (@ALLTHINGS18) October 18, 2019

Hence, Shannon’s impressive performance made the team rethink their decision, and that is how the reign of Sharpe as one of the sharpest TEs started.