Sage Steele sues ESPN for treatment over vaccine mandate comments

Sage Steele, a star “SportsCenter” anchor for ESPN, is suing the network and parent company Disney over the circumstances surrounding his sidelined late last year.

In the lawsuit, Steele alleges she suffered retaliation for comments she made about the company’s vaccination mandate on Jay Cutler’s podcast last September, violating both her contract and her right to freedom of speech.

The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint first reported on the lawsuit.

“Sage remains a valuable contributor on some of ESPN’s most high-profile content, including recent Masters TV broadcasts and anchoring our midday ‘SportsCenter,'” an ESPN spokesperson said in a statement. communicated. “In fact, she was never suspended.”

A source with knowledge of ESPN told the Post that Steele will remain on the air during the trial. His contract isn’t up for “a while”, a second source said.

“I work for a company that requires it and I had until September 30 to do it or I’m out,” Steele told Cutler, a former NFL quarterback who spent much of his 12-year playing career with the Bears.

“I respect everyone’s decision, I really do, but mandating him is sick and it scares me in so many ways,” Steele said. “It’s just, I’m not surprised it’s come to this, especially with Disney, I mean a global company like that.”

The lawsuit, filed in Connecticut, alleges Steele was benched by ESPN for the remarks and the company forced her to apologize.

“In a knee-jerk reaction, ESPN and Disney relied on the misleading characterizations of her comments, bowed to groupthink and forced Steele to publicly apologize and suspended her for a period in October 2021” , says the lawsuit.

The lawsuit further alleges that ESPN disciplined Steele 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.” “.

While Steele was reportedly off the air for some time after testing positive for COVID-19, the suit says the company used the words “sidelined” and “taking a break” to describe her absence from the air. the antenna and refers to these words as “euphemisms” for a suspension.

The lawsuit points to various stories in the press that referred to Steele as being suspended and said, “ESPN did nothing to refute widespread reports that it had suspended or otherwise regulated Steele for his comments, both because that information was true and because ESPN was standing up to benefit from public perception that it punished Steele for his remarks.

He also alleges that she suffered retaliation by losing key assignments and that the network failed to stop her colleagues from bullying and harassing her.

The lawsuit claims Steele was removed from assignments such as hosting the New York City Marathon and the ESPNW Summit, an event she had hosted since 2010.

The suit cites several instances of colleagues criticizing Steele on air or on social media. He says Steele sent ESPN executive Norby Williamson a screenshot of a tweet from SportsCenter anchor Nicole Briscoe, who “retweeted a message from someone who said she hoped that ESPN would no longer use Ms. Steele to cover women’s sporting events, with Ms. Briscoe adding, “Amen. (Even if it gets me in trouble.) Amen.”

The lawsuit claimed the tweet remained three months later.

Ryan Clark, a former Steelers player, allegedly refused to appear on air with Steele and, according to the lawsuit, was not disciplined.

“ESPN violated her right to free speech, retaliated against her, berated her, scapegoated her, allowed the media and peers to urge her, and forced her to apologize simply because his personal views did not align with Disney’s corporate philosophy at the time,” she said. attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement. “Sage stands up to corporate America to make sure their rights aren’t trampled on or their opinions aren’t silenced.”

The lawsuit claims that ESPN “violated Connecticut law and Steele’s free speech rights based on a misunderstanding of his comments and a non-existent, unenforced workplace policy that only serves pretext”.

The lawsuit claims Steele informed the company’s HR of their wrongdoing last February and followed up with a letter from attorneys.

Tellingly, after months of defendants refusing Steele’s major hosting assignments as punishment, when they received his complaint and the attorney’s letter, they promptly offered him the co-hosting assignment. at the Masters in a blatant admission of responsibility and an obvious ploy to try to dodge responsibility,” the suit says.

Steele, 49, has worked at ESPN since 2007. She currently co-hosts the midday edition of “SportsCenter” with Matt Barrie. She has previously anchored “NBA Countdown” and the Scripps National Spelling Bee.