“Only Competition I Ever Had Was You”: Sterling Sharpe, Shannon Sharpe Reminisce the Days They Raced to Finish Chores

One of the longest waits for a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is ending this weekend. Wideout Sterling Sharpe, whose career was tragically cut short by neck surgery in 1994, is finally getting in after a quarter-century of waiting. He will join his younger brother, tight end Shannon Sharpe, as the only brotherly duo enshrined in Canton.

Shannon played twice as long as Sterling, but both racked up a ton of accolades. Sterling, three years older than his little brother, earned five Pro Bowls and three First-Team All-Pros in seven years. He also won the receiving triple crown in 1992, becoming just the second guy to do it since 1966.

Shannon, meanwhile, earned eight Pro Bowls and four First-Team All-Pros in 14 years. He is also top five all-time in many TE stats and has three Super Bowl rings. Both brothers were obviously talented, but the competitiveness they shared is what turned that talent into greatness.

Iron sharpens iron, and the Sharpe brothers lived that mantra while growing up. On Shannon’s Club Shay Shay podcast, the two recalled racing to finish household chores, saying those playful competitions helped mold them into the players they became.

“The old school way that we grew up … definitely formulated and impacted my life in a way that allowed me—I never did anything for public consumption. The only competitor, the only competition I ever had in my life was you. When I cut the grass,” the elder Sharpe said.

“Oh, it was a race,” Shannon affirmed.

Sterling laughed and added, “Took me 16 minutes to cut the grass. Hey bruh, I fed the hogs, the chickens, and Ringo.. in 12 minutes. That’s the only competition I ever had. … I remember people comparing me to other receivers, and I would just laugh.”

A family producing two Hall of Fame football players in the same family had never happened before the Sharpes did it, though the Watts and Kelces and Mannings might change that in the coming years.

And that competitiveness was clearly honed early on at home in Glennville, Georgia, where they lived in a big family of siblings, cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Sterling said that during many of the best moments of his life, Shannon was there, in the background, cheesing.

Shannon has not been shy about how tough their upbringing was either, once joking that they were so poor that, “a robber once broke into our house and we ended up robbing the robber.” Thankfully for that whole family, they had not one, but two future Hall of Famers (and multi-millionaires) in that crowded house back in the 1970s.

No doubt their superstar grandmother, Mary Porter—who was the most important person in raising the two Sharpe boys and passed away in 1989, just before Shannon was drafted—is looking down and cheesing herself as her second grandson is recognized with the highest honor in football.