Club Shay Shay - Shannon Sharpe's Journey to the NFL

Episode Date: April 29, 2021

Shannon Sharpe looks back on his journey to the NFL, from a 7th-round Draft pick, to almost getting cut, to becoming a 8x Pro Bowler, 3x Super Bowl Champ and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Mike Wright from the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast. You heard that right.

The Fantasy Footballers have officially entered the Dynasty space. Every week, we bring you the same in-depth analysis and entertainment you've come to expect from the fantasy footballers only now it's from the dynasty perspective join me and the rest of the crew every wednesday for a new episode listen to the fantasy footballers dynasty podcast on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts my grandmother sent me to savannah state for two reasons she sent me to get a degree and to go play in the NFL. And those were going to happen.

I didn't know in which order they were going to happen, but they were going to happen. And from the time I was 12 years old and I told her I was going to move her out of that house that leaked and didn't have any central heating and cooling, didn't have air conditioning, didn't have paneling, we had cement floors and cinder block walls. By the time I told my mom I was going to buy a Mercedes, those were the things that drove me. The draft was 12 rounds when I came out in 1990, and I remember thinking, you know, I had projections that I was going to go somewhere between round one and three, and considering I hadn't talked to a whole lot of people, I really thought that round one was off the table but I thought I was good enough to be a

second or third round draft pick and when that didn't happen I just remember going to bed that night that Sunday night I was up in South Carolina with my brother and I remember him walking in the room and telling him that we're gonna be okay I said I went to the combine and I went to a lot of all-star games and I said there's not one guy that's a receiver or tight end that's better than I am I'm better than those guys I know I am and it's like I just sleep don't even worry about it and I remember waking up the next morning I was like man let's go just grab a workout and so we went to the University

of South Carolina and we were working out I was lifting and someone said Shannon telephone and I remember thinking to myself, I asked my brother, like, well, who knows I'm here? And I pick up the phone and it was the Broncos and they said we selected you in the seventh round. I said, are you excited? I said, I'm very excited. I said, I can't wait to get there and show you what I got. Finished my workout. I had a plane ticket waiting for me at the airport and I flew out to Denver and I was on the board for the last cut and a coach of mine came to me and he told me, he said, Shannon I'm not supposed to share this with you but your name is on the board for being one of the final cuts and he

says I just think you should go out there and give it your all tonight because not only are you playing to try to make this team, everybody else is going to get to take with this game, and they're going to be watching this, so maybe you can flash something and someone else will pick you up if we release you. I remember driving to the stadium, and it started to rain. And I'm thinking to myself, it's raining. We're not going to throw the football. I'm a receiver.

How can I show what I can do if it's raining? And as the rain started to build, I knew I was going to be on special teams and I knew I was going to probably play late in the ball game, probably the fourth quarters after the starters came out. And I needed the flash and made a couple of plays on special teams. I got in the ball game on offense and I was cutting everything. Every DB that got close to me I cut him. And I just remember thinking, did I do enough? When I came over to work the next day and coach told me that my name was off the board, I remember thinking and it stuck with me

every day. I said I need to go to practice Every single day and give them one reason to keep me Because in that game that preseason game I gave the Broncos one reason to keep me a hustle So I went from being a seventh round draft pick to barely making the team to playing special teams To go into eight Pro Bowls for first-team All-Pros, three Super Bowls, and going to the Hall of Fame. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything because I think it helped shape the person that I became, and I know it definitely made me the player that I became.

Shannon Sharp, I'm out. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, We'll be right back. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.