Sage Steele continues to share her perspective on the final days of her tenure at ESPN, which concluded after a contentious parting between the two sides.
In August, Steele made the decision to depart from the network, leaving behind what she once considered her “dream job” after dedicating 16 years to The Worldwide Leader in Sports.
The 50-year-old had filed a lawsuit against ESPN in April of the same year, stemming from her removal from on-air duties for nearly two weeks due to her expressing opinions on the company’s COVID-19 mandates.
It’s worth noting that her punishment also arose from her comments regarding former U.S. President Barack Obama’s racial identification in the census and her discussions about the presentation of female reporters in locker rooms.
Steele opened up about the challenging ordeal in an interview with Fox News Digital this week.
She said, “The hardest thing I’ve done in my professional career, for sure. And it’s up there probably in the top two personally because I knew that by truly taking a stand, it was going to mean something with legal action. And once you take legal action, your time at a company is probably not going to last much longer. Just knowing that I was the one who was going to make the decision to end it was very overwhelming.”
She also delved into the three contentious topics that played a pivotal role in her departure:
“The three controversial topics about my thoughts with women in sports and just how we present ourselves. That’s my opinion, that’s my experience through 25 years at the time, 27 years in this industry, many times as the only woman in locker rooms, etc. That’s my experience and my opinion. About being biracial and why I choose to acknowledge both my mother and my father. That’s my opinion and that’s my experience. And that’s what I am. I’m both and I’m proud. So, I didn’t think that really was an issue. I was telling a story on something that involved ‘The View’ and Barbara Walters from 2014, when Barbara Walters brought up comparing me to Barack Obama. So, this is seven years prior. To me, this was old news. It was just another person asked me a question about why I’m so passionate about acknowledging both sides of my family. And, finally, with the vaccine. The mandate. And I was very careful to make sure that I respected everybody’s opinions. And that my issue was with being forced to do it. And the fact that I had complied. I had literally just come from getting the mandatory shot. I waited until the very last second because I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it. So, I complied but still could have an opinion.”
She added, “I was livid. I was fighting it, but I was told by my agent that if I didn’t apologize, then I would not have a job. I didn’t have a choice, and I had to apologize. And I was forced to work with their head PR guy.”
Check out more of Sage below:
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