Shannon Sharpe Blasts Detroit Lions Over Fan Behavior Decision

The incident between a Detroit Lions fan and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf continues to make headlines over a week after the wideout appeared to take a swing at the fan.

Metcalf alleges that Lions fan Ryan Kennedy used vulgar language towards him and called he and his mother slurs, while Kennedy retorts that he simply called the receiver by his full name. The incident has sparked conversation about fan conduct at games and the Lions' handling of the incident.

Metcalf was suspended two games as a result of the incident, which could've led to him forfeiting $45 million in guarantees. However, the Steelers elected not to void his guarantees.

Former NFL players Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco discussed the incident in a lengthy segment during a recent podcast. Sharpe referenced the Lions' handling of a recent controversy last season, when a season-ticket holder got into a verbal altercation with Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur prior to kickoff.

The former NFL tight end noted that the Lions were swift in handling that incident, but have not taken the privileges away from Kennedy based on Metcalf's account.

“This is their fan, this is one of their ticket holders, why wouldn’t they do that? This could have been removed,” Sharpe said. “When the fan had an altercation with (Matt) LeFleur last year, they took his tickets immediately!”

Reports have indicated that Metcalf had an interaction with this specific fan dating back to last season, when the Lions hosted Metcalf while he was playing for the Seattle Seahawks. In that game, Metcalf reportedly told security about Kennedy's behavior towards him.

As Sharpe explained, Metcalf followed protocol. NFL insider Jay Glazer claims to have the communication between Metcalf and the Lions' organization from the prior incident, which could spark conversation between the organization and the league about why nothing was done.

"All I'm saying is DK did everything he's supposed to do. He reported the incident to his security, security took it to the Detroit Lions," Sharpe said. "The NFL's gonna want to know why the Lions didn't do anything, I can promise you that. The NFL's gonna want to know, 'Okay, if you had this information, and it was corroborated that he said this, why was he still allowed to come into this building?'"

Ochocinco also chimed in on dealing with fans in road environments, noting that sometimes fans cross lines without fear of retorts from players because they are in the stands.

"It's unfortunate. Listen, I'm all for, I love being in hostile environments," Ochocinco added. "I love fans talking trash, I love talking back. But now, you think you're invisible because you're in the stands. 'Now, I can get away with saying whatever I want.' Come on, now."

During FOX's NFL pregame show on Sunday, Glazer reported that he has the communication between Metcalf and the organization, which stated that Metcalf asked for the fan to be removed. Glazer claims to know what was said, and that fans in the surrounding area of this specific individual corroborated Metcalf's account.

As Glazer reported, “I actually have the security communication between the Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks’ security from a game last year when DK Metcalf, when he was with the Seahawks, complained about that exact same fan to security. And, at the time there, he asked for that fan to be removed over a very derogatory commenter.

“I’m not going to repeat what the comments are that are on here," Glazer added. "Obviously, we don’t condone ever hitting a fan or anybody else, but in this it says, ‘When we investigated during the game, the individuals around him stated and corroborated that the fan was being out of line and had indeed said these derogatory statements. They even asked us to remove the guy.' The odd part of this also is that the Pittsburgh Steelers had no knowledge of this."

Shannon Sharpe went off on the Detroit Lions for not protecting DK Metcalf from alleged racist comments By the fan . He says they are making laws censoring people and their speech but it seem like it’s only for certain people while they can say whatever pic.twitter.com/J3MW9cQAvg
— joebuddenclips/fanpage (@chatnigga101) December 29, 2025

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