Veteran ESPN anchor Sage Steele announced Tuesday that she would be leaving the sports network to exercise her First Amendment rights.
Steele sued ESPN and parent company Disney last year, alleging the network retaliated against her for making negative comments about COVID vaccine mandates and former President Barack Obama. The anchor was suspended after making the remarks in September 2021 before she apologized a few weeks later.
“Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment (sic) rights more freely,” Steele wrote on X. “I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”
In an appearance on former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler’s podcast in 2021, Steele criticized ESPN’s requirement for employees to get vaccinated against COVID.
“I didn’t want to do it,” she told Cutler. “But I work for a company that mandates it and I had until September 30 to get it done or I’m out.”
“I respect everyone’s decision, I really do, but to mandate it is, um, sick,” Steele continued. “And it’s scary to me in many ways. But I have a job, a job that I love, and frankly, a job that I need, but again, I love it. I’m not surprised it got to this point, especially with Disney, a global company … but it was actually emotional.”
During the podcast, Steele also questioned Obama’s identification as black, “considering his black dad was nowhere to be found but his white mom and grandma raised him.”
Steele said her apology for the comments a few weeks later came under pressure from ESPN. She sued in April 2022, and Disney initially offered Steele a $500,000 settlement, but her attorney slammed the offer in June, The New York Post reported.
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“Disney and ESPN clearly admit their liability by offering to pay Sage Steele more than half a million dollars for taking away her right to free speech. The offer misses the point. Disney cannot purchase their employee’s constitutional rights no matter how powerful they think they are,” attorney Bryan Freedman said.
The 50-year-old sports anchor began working for ESPN in 2007 and hosted the evening broadcast of “SportsCenter.” In 2013, Steele began hosting ESPN’s “NBA Countdown,” where she was the face of the show until 2017.
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