The personal friction traces to their time as teammates but exploded into a public dispute on Nov. 11, 2002, when Raiders defender Bill Romanowski and Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe had a physical sideline confrontation during a Broncos–Raiders game; Sharpe left with a partially dislocated right elbow and later missed games because of the injury [15][17][11]. Romanowski was quoted describing the play from the Raiders' perspective and saying he landed on Sharpe's elbow while also telling reporters, "You hate to see a guy get hurt, but that's the name of the game" [16][17]. Broncos coach Mike Shanahan publicly called the contact "good football" while Sharpe told reporters he was unsure whether the contact was intentional and added, "I don't know if he did it intentionally. I don't think he feels bad about it" [15]. Pre-existing unease from their time as teammates framed the exchange, and the on-field injury turned that unease into a documented, public dispute [18][19].
Their dispute remained publicly active through at least September 2003, when Sharpe reiterated that he had disliked Romanowski even when they were teammates and that his objection was to "the things that he did" [18][19]. Romanowski publicly dismissed Sharpe's post-injury accusations in media roundups, calling Sharpe "got a big mouth" in December 2002 [20]. There is no widely reported reconciliation or notable public interaction between the two after 2003 in the sources cited here [18][19][20].
They had a documented, personal dispute centered on the Nov. 11, 2002 sideline incident that left Sharpe with a partially dislocated right elbow and produced public comments from both men through 2003; Sharpe said he disliked Romanowski's actions and Romanowski dismissed Sharpe's accusations in media remarks [15][17][18][20].
The immediate trigger was the Nov. 11, 2002 sideline confrontation in which Shannon Sharpe suffered a partially dislocated right elbow; Sharpe questioned whether Bill Romanowski acted intentionally and Romanowski publicly defended the play, prompting on-record back-and-forth in December 2002 and comments in 2003 [15][16][17][20].
There is no widely reported reconciliation or joint public interaction in the sources cited here after Sharpe's Sept. 2003 remarks and Romanowski's December 2002 dismissal; contemporary coverage through 2003 treats the matter as unresolved in on-the-record comments [18][19][20].