Shannon Sharpe’s efforts to make an analogy in response to some comments about Tom Brady may have ruffled some feathers.
On the latest episode of his Nightcap podcast with Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Sharpe admonished Brady for some recent comments he made about quarterbacks needing to protect themselves more. He pointed out that Brady comes across as a poor messenger to him because there were numerous rule changes made directly in response to the way players would hit him.
“Tom Brady is the wrong messenger because they had a rule changed,” Sharpe began. “Does he not know ‘The Brady Rule’ was instituted to protect him? I get it; I get what he’s saying, Ocho, but he’s the wrong messenger. Because a lot of these rules that they put in place to protect the quarterback, he benefitted from.”
But then Sharpe likened Brady’s comments to Hispanic people talking about deporting others in the U.S.
“It’s kind of like what we see with a lot of Hispanics when they talk about ‘Yeah, deport, deport, deport.’ When they got over here, we see it. We know how they got over here. See, it’s easy to say ex post facto. ‘Well, I’m here now. I don’t give a damn. Close it — don’t let nobody else over.’ Tom Brady said, ‘Well, hell, I ain’t got to take no more hits; punish the quarterback.’ Really, bro? Really? Really?
“And I get everything that they said, Ocho. The late slide — Patrick Mahomes is notorious for that. Seeming like he’s gonna slide, and then he wiggles and finagles. No that’s wrong; punish it… Tom is the wrong messenger when he benefitted when he was one of the most beneficiaries of the rule change to protect the quarterback, so how is he going to say this now?”
Fans were as outraged by the comment as they were downright confused. Some on social media have accused Sharpe of believing that all Hispanic people are illegal immigrants while others believe he needs to just avoid talking about politics like the plague:
“Shannon, it’s better you stick to sports cuz your political analogy makes no freaking sense,” one user wrote.
“stay outta politics shannon … ur way out of your league,” wrote another.
“Oh yes, the racist thinking that believes all Hispanics are illegal immigrants,” a third remarked.
That remark probably could have been done a little bit better if he was trying to be clever.