Romanowski Publicly Dismisses Sharpe's Accusation

After the Nov. 11, 2002 sideline confrontation that left Shannon Sharpe with a partially dislocated right elbow, Sharpe questioned whether Bill Romanowski's contact had been intentional in postgame remarks and media appearances [15]. On Dec. 22, 2002 media roundups printed Romanowski's response to those accusations: "Shannon's got a big mouth. If he wants to cry about it, that's his deal," a dismissive public remark that re-framed the exchange as a personal disagreement rather than a football controversy [20]. The December remarks circulated in columns and wire copy, making the disagreement not only an on-field injury story but also an explicit, quoted personal dispute in national and regional sports coverage [20]. This episode took the feud beyond the sideline by documenting direct personal comments from both men in the press within six weeks of the injury [15][20].

Romanowski's Dec. 22, 2002 dismissal matters because it transformed an on-field injury incident into a public interpersonal dispute with on-record adversarial language from both parties. That shift made the exchange part of the personal narrative between the two men—rather than a closed medical or officiating matter—and ensured the disagreement was referenced in later pregame and feature coverage of Broncos–Raiders meetings [20][15].

The public dismissal kept the dispute in sports pages for months: Sharpe continued to question Romanowski's actions into 2003, and Romanowski's refusal to concede any intent left the matter unresolved in contemporary reporting. No formal apology or public reconciliation appears in the sources cited here through 2003 [18][20].