Shannon Sharpe Criticises Quarterbacks Without Super Bowl Rings In Front Of Dan Marino

Shannon Sharpe accidentally criticised football legends Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason, when he stated that quarterbacks without Super Bowl rings shouldn’t be considered greats.

Sharpe, Esiason and Marino are now all panelists on CBS’ The NFL Today, and a discussion on the legacy of the Denver Bronco’s Peyton Manning lead to Sharpe’s controversial comments.

James Brown, the host of NFL Today, innocently asked, “Do Super Bowl championships validate greatness or not?” Sharpe instantly responded by proclaiming, “For a quarterback, at the end of the day, you don’t even get to get into this discussion if you don’t have a championship.”

This provoked the ire of Marino, who exclaimed, “That’s the one thing I don’t have and I wish I had that feeling.” The Miami Dolphin’s demi-god then recalled how his fellow analyst, Esiason, did everything to win 1988’s Super Bowl for the Cincinnati Bengals, and was only stopped by a Joe Montana touchdown with 34 seconds left.

“Boomer Esiason walked off the field and he was winning his Super Bowl. A guy dropped an interception or he would’ve had a Super Bowl ring,” Marino explained.

Marino’s comments lead Sharpe to backtrack over his previous thoughts, and the three time Super Bowl winner later stated, “Let’s not get carried away. There are a lot of guys that have Super Bowl rings that are less quarterbacks than Dan Marino.”

Marino is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in football history, even though he never won a Super Bowl ring. His only Super Bowl appearance came in 1984, when the Dolphins lost 38-16 to the San Francisco 49ers.

Meanwhile, Sharpe was a Super Bowl champion on three occasions, as he won the coveted accolade in 1998 and 1999 with the Denver Broncos, and in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens.

Last year, Sharpe criticised New England Patriot’s coach Bill Belichick while on CBS’ NFL Today. This rebuke took place because Belicheck missed a post game interview after the Patriot’s lost the AFC Championship game.

Sharpe exploded, “There is something to be said about being gracious in defeat. We’ve seen the New England Patriots five times in the last 12 years be victorious [in the AFC title game]. And we’ve seen the opposing coaches that lost come out and talk to our [reporter] Steve Tasker. Coach [Bill] Cowher did it when he lost to them.

Sharpe continued, “Bill Belichick makes it real easy for you to root against the Patriots. You can’t be a poor sport all the time. You’re not going to win all the time, and he does this every time he loses. It is unacceptable.”