Shannon Sharpe says he gave his first super bowl ring to his brother after a neck injury took his career early, and says he did it because he was only there because of his brother, and the player everyone saw was because of how much he learned from his brother Sterling “It did, man. I remember when he called me and said, ‘Man, I don’t know. I don’t think I’m going to be able to play again.’ I said, ‘Is that what the doctor says?’ He says, ‘Well, I’m going to meet the doctor, and I’ll let you know.’” “But I remember his girlfriend at the time, who’s now his wife, she called me. She said, ‘Sterling’s not going to play again.’ I’m like, man. You got to realize now, he’s in his prime. He’s seven years in. I mean, he had just had 108, 112, 94. His last year, 94 catches, 18 touchdowns, over a thousand yards, and never played another down. And I just remember going to do an interview, and I told him, I said, ‘When I win, I’m going to give my brother the ring.’ He didn’t know. He didn’t know I would do that.” “This is the way I’m going to say thank you. This is the way I’m going to say, ‘Bro, everything that you’ve ever done for me.’ I had a single-minded focus. I was looking straight ahead. I was thinking about all the people in Glennville. My grandmother’s watching. A thousand-square-foot, cement floor, cinder blocks. My brother.” “So I’m going to go get this ring for him. I’m going to go get this ring. I said, ‘We about to get this.’ I said in the interview, like, three days earlier. This was the only time Mike Shanahan, the head coach, he said, ‘Shannon, we’re going to kick their ass, but let’s make them think that they’re going to win. So don’t say anything crazy.’” “Like, man, you know I got to talk this thing up. I’m like, okay. I said, ‘Yeah, oh man, it’s going to be a great game. They’re defending champs. They got the MVP.’ We’re going to tear y’all up. Y’all don’t even know. We felt that way. What do you want to do? You want to play man coverage? Do you really want to put your safeties on me, or do you want to drop them in the box and stop T.D.?” “I just remember going up to his house, telling him, ‘Thank you. I’m here because of you. What you see, the player that I am, is because of you.’ And because you couldn’t get one, the only thing that I can do, this is the only thing I can give you, bro. Besides a kidney, you don’t need that. But the next thing, the best thing I can give you is this.”