Stephen A. Smith : “I ain’t Shannon, that brother is different.”

ESPN First Take castmates Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith largely tend to agree on most non-sports-related issues. But when it comes to food, the two seemingly couldn’t be further apart.

Sharpe grew up in Glennville, Georgia, a town with a population of just under 4,000. Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith grew up in Queens, New York. So if you assumed that the two ate entirely different foods growing up, you would be correct.

On the Nightcap podcast earlier this week, Sharpe was asked by a fan to rank four foods he used to eat growing up, a list consisting of squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, and turtles.

He did just that, diving into how he preferred to eat each of these proteins.

“I would go squirrel one, raccoon two, rabbit three, and turtle four,” said Sharpe to his Nightcap cohost Gilbert Arenas. “Oh, I would take a raccoon right now. Oh man, you ain’t ever had no fried squirrel? Look, until I got to college, the only time I got chicken at home was on Sunday. I don’t eat it now. But my mom said that’s what they ate when they were growing up.”

Stephen A. Smit took notice of this list from his First Take partner, discussing it on The Stephen A. Smith Show on Friday.

“This brother is hilarious,” Smith said of Sharpe. “I called him an hour ago, and do you know what Shannon Sharpe said to me y’all? ‘Stephen A, you don’t know what you missing. The black hulk is eating squirrels.’ He might have said that list is the top four as a kid. If you watch the video, damn it, he is talking about it now. He said to me ‘Man we gotta get you outta the city. You don’t know what you missing. That New York crap, we gotta show you what real food is like.’

“Food!? Raccoons? I flip up my garbage can and run before I run back to make sure none are gonna pop out. I ain’t messing with no damn raccoon. Why the hell would I think about eating a turtle? I don’t want no turtle. I don’t want no raccoon. And I damn sure don’t want a squirrel. But I ain’t Shannon, that brother is different.”

To be fair to Sharpe, he probably isn’t eating any raccoons or turtles nowadays if given a choice in the matter. But it’s hard to fault him for eating what was put in front of him as a kid, even if it may not sound all that appetizing to most.