ESPN anchor Sage Steele is suing the network for violating her free-speech rights after she was benched for publicly criticizing her employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and former President Barack Obama‘s decision to call himself black.
Steele, who is bi-racial, claims ESPN temporarily benched her and forced her to issue an apology after her comments.
They were made last September on former NFL player Jay Cutler’s Uncut podcast, sparked controversy online and in the press.
The suit, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, alleged ESPN retaliated against Steele by taking away ‘prime assignments’ and failing to put and end to bullying and harassment from her colleagues.
The SportsCenter host also accused ESPN of taking actions against her based on ‘inaccurate third-party accounts of Steele’s comments, and that the network did not immediately review the actual comments or the context in which they were made.’
Steele is seeking unspecified damages, and says ESPN is hypocritical, because it allowed other colleagues to make unspecified ‘political comments’ with no blowback ensuing.
SportsCenter host Sage Steele (pictured) is suing ESPN and its parent company, Disney, for violating her her free-speech rights
The drama began last September when Steele appeared on Cutler’s podcast and touched on political and social topics, including vaccines and Obama’s blackness.
Steele told the former NFL player she had recently gotten the COVID jab after Disney, ESPN’s parent company, issued a ‘sick’ mandate requiring all employees be vaccinating.
Feeling ‘defeated,’ the longtime anchor allegedly complied in order to keep her job.
‘I respect everyone’s decision, I really do, but to mandate it is sick 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,’ Steele told Cutler at the time.
She also talked about her decision to identify as biracial and seemingly criticized Obama’s decision to call himself black on the U.S. Census despite having been raised by a white mother and grandmother.
‘I’m like, “Well, congratulations to the president. That’s his thing,”‘ Steele said. ‘I think that’s fascinating considering his black dad was nowhere to be found, but his white mom and grandma raised him, but hey, you do you. I’m going to do me.’
Steele (pictured in September on Jay Cutler’s podcast) claims she was benched for publicly criticizing her employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and former President Barack Obama’s decision to call himself black
In early October, after her commentary sparked outrage on social media, Steele was told she would be ‘sidelined’ or ‘taking a break’ from the network, according to the complaint.
Steele claims she saw the ‘break’ as a ‘euphemism for a suspension,’ however ESPN argues the anchor was not suspended.
The SportsCenter host also claimed she had to issue a compulsory apology, saying: ‘I know my recent comments created controversy for the company, and I apologize.
‘We are in the midst of an extremely challenging time that impacts all of us, and it’s more critical than ever that we communicate constructively and thoughtfully.’
The complaint continues on, after she returned to work a few weeks later, Steele was removed from ‘major assignments’ such as the New York City Marathon and the network’s annual diversity summit.
She reportedly sent a letter to the the network’s human resources department in February 2022 complaining about the alleged treatment and was ‘subsequently offered’ the opportunity to co-host the Masters Tournament.
Now, Steele (pictured before Game Six of the NBA Finals in 2019) is suing ESPN, alleging the network retaliated against her by taking away ‘prime assignment’ and failing to put and end to bullying and harassment from her colleagues
Now, the anchor has hit ESPN and Disney with a lawsuit, alleging the company retaliated against her for comments she made while appearing on Cutler’s podcast as a ‘private citizen’ who ‘wasn’t speaking for her employer.’
The complaint alleges the network’s response to Steele’s remarks was an example of ‘selective enforcement of a network policy that bars news personnel from taking positions on political or social issues’.
She cites other examples in which ESPN colleagues allegedly made political comments on-air and online but were not penalized by the network.
Her legal team has also accused the network of violating Steele’s freedom of speech ‘based upon a faulty understanding of her comments and a nonexistent, unenforced workplace policy that serves as nothing more than pretext,’ as well as state law.
According to the complaint, Connecticut law prohibits companies from disciplining employees for exercising their constitutional right to free speech as long as their statements do not ‘materially interfere with their performance or working relationship with the company.’
‘Sage is standing up to corporate America to ensure employees don’t get their rights trampled on or their opinions silenced,’ her lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told The Wall Street Journal in a statement Wednesday.
In response, ESPN issued a statement reading: ‘Sage remains a valued contributor on some of ESPN’s highest profile content, including the recent Masters telecasts and anchoring our noon SportsCenter.’
DailyMail.com has outreached to Steele, her attorney and the network for comment.
