ESPN anchor Sage Steele announced that she is leaving the worldwide sports leader after she believes she was punished for uttering inflammatory political and social statements on her day off.
Steele, reviled by a large swath of the Black American sports populace, claims her freedom of speech privileges were inhibited by her employers and that she wanted out.
“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 penned on Twitter Tuesday. “I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”
The conversation in question happened during ex-NFL player Jay Culter’s podcast, where Steele railed against the coronavirus vaccine, Barack Obama’s racial identity, and women who wore revealing clothes in the workplace.
During the 2022 conversation on Culter’s podcast, Steele conveyed that she was perplexed about why Obama bothered to identify as a Black man: “Barack Obama chose Black and he’s biracial … congratulations to the president, that’s his thing. I think that’s fascinating considering his Black dad was nowhere to be found but his White mom and grandma raised him.”
Steele also blamed the women who wore provocative outfits at work for the sexism they subsequently faced.
She claims ESPN and Disney retaliated against her, making Steele produce a contrive mea culpa for her statements on the podcast and then suspended her.
