Shannon Sharpe Used a Cringeworthy Analogy Comparing Russell Wilson to a Single Woman on 'First Take'

Last night, Russell Wilson inked a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers to compete with Kenny Pickett for the starting gig next season. That means the former Pro Bowl quarterback's free agency is over before it really got going, but at least we got a fun airport picture out of it. Expectations could not possibly be lower for Wilson in his new home and the Steelers clearly agree given they offered him a contract worth $1.2 million, a pittance compared to how much he was making last season with the Denver Broncos.

The timing of the move serves as an easy A-block discussion piece for the studio shows as they get warmed up for a big week of NFL talk. It was one of the first topics on First Take on Monday morning, and Shannon Sharpe took the stance that Wilson is not the answer for the Steelers as they try to keep pace in an incredibly competitive AFC North. He chose to do so with a cringeworthy analogy that caught him some heat from a coworker.

Here's Sharpe saying Wilson is like a single woman-- no matter "how fine she is" or how many nice bags she has, there's a reason she's on the market. Stephen A. Smith was clearly a little thrown but did his best to push back, which did not stop Sharpe from comparing women and Wilson to pieces of meat at the end.

Nothing like a little misogyny first thing on a Monday, right? There is just no reason to do this. There are a billion comparisons for Wilson out there that don't involve opinions of why a woman might be single. And then to jump straight to comparing the two parties to meat? It's not great.

And it quickly caught the attention of Kimberly A. Martin, who was not on the show so she tweeted out her criticism of her coworkers.

There are simply so many ways to get Sharpe's point across that are not this. It does not matter if Sharpe wasn't intending to be demeaning towards women. It is objectively a terrible look to say on television that there must be something wrong with a woman if she isn't with a man. That kind of bullshit is supposed to be a relic of days gone by, when sports and sports-related discussion was all one big good ol' boys club where mocking the opposite gender was the flavor of the era.

It's also the sort of thing you are not supposed to get away with saying on ESPN. But that's what the new era of the network is like. If you draw enough eyeballs to the screen, you can do whatever the hell you want.