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Veteran sports anchor Sage Steele filed a lawsuit against ESPN for retaliation last week, alleging that the network suspended her after she shared her opinions on a podcast, a violation of her constitutional right to free speech.
Steele’s opinions were shared on former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler’s podcast last fall, where Steele called ESPN’s vaccine mandate for employees “sick” and “scary.” Steele also made comments about former President Barack Obama, who has a white mother and a Black father. She questioned why Obama identifies as Black when his father was “nowhere to be found.”
In her lawsuit, Steele cited several examples of events that occurred with co-workers at ESPN, claiming the instances are evidence that she was punished for exercising her first amendment right. Among these was an incident that took place on November 12, 2021, when NFL analyst Ryan Clark refused to appear on air with Steele because of her comments on Cutler’s podcast. Clark asked Steele’s superior if she could be replaced on the segment with her co-host. ESPN refused to replace Steele for the segment and Clark skipped it, but he suffered no penalty from the network as a result.
Full details regarding Steele’s lawsuit can be found here.
