Shannon Sharpe says he won’t let ‘six months ruin six and-a-half years’ with Skip Bayless on ‘Undisputed’ as he prepares for debut on Stephen A. Smith’s ‘First Take’ this Monday

Shannon Sharpe is set to make his ‘First Take’ debut on Monday, but the former ‘Undisputed’ co-host has no hard feelings over his exit from the show.

Sharpe split from Skip Bayless in June after a nearly seven-year run together at Fox Sports 1.

And while he acknowledged there was tension at times between the pair, he still looks back on his time with Bayless fondly, as he told new colleague Stephen A. Smith. 

‘It’s not often that someone can give you that opportunity. And I’ve said this several times, for me, I cannot let six months ruin six and a half good years,’ Sharpe said on his ‘Club Shay Shay’ podcast with Smith as a guest. 

‘Because sometimes people are willing to throw everything away for one mistake, or one bad comment or one something like this. And even though that was all we were supposed to get.’

Skip Bayless recently ushered in a new era of ‘Undisputed’ with a brand new ‘dream team’

While it’s not exactly clear what Sharpe is referring to, the two clashed over the winter because of Bayless’ reaction to Damar Hamlin’s on-field collapse.

With the Bills-Bengals game stopped before eventually being called off, Bayless tweeted, ‘No doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game – but how?’ Bayless tweeted as the medical staff tended to Hamlin at Paycor Stadium.

‘This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular-season outcome … which suddenly seems so irrelevant.’

Bayless apologized on air alone the next day as co-host Sharpe was noticeably absent.

Sharpe returned the following day but still disagreed with Bayless’ refusal to take the tweet down.

While Sharpe has since resurfaced on ‘First Take’, Smith still doesn’t feel great about the way his exit was handled. 

‘Listen, I got a lot of friends over there, alright, we all know that,’ Smith said on ‘Club Shay Shay.’ ‘I know a lot of people but that doesn’t mean what happened to you is fair. Plain and simple. 

‘That ain’t the end of the world but it is what it is. To me, it was just important for us in this industry to stand up and say yo, he’s one of us, you can’t let him go out like this. And that was it for me. You can go wherever you want, you can come to ‘First Take’, fine. You want to go somewhere else, fine.’ 

Sharpe previously spent nearly seven years with Skip Bayless on Fox Sports’ ‘Undisputed’

Smith previously admitted to getting former co-host Max Kellerman fired from ‘First Take.’

Bayless has since replaced Sharpe with a ‘dream team’ consisting of ex-NFL stars Richard Sherman, Keyshawn Johnson and Michael Irvin.

But Smith was more than happy to add Sharpe to his show in a twice-weekly role.

‘I wanted the world to know you were wanted,’ he said on Club Shay Shay. ‘In 2009, the industry cut me off & left me for dead. … So let me let the world know Shannon has me.’

Bayless’ new-look ‘Undisputed’ was dominated in the ratings by ‘First Take’ in its first week.