ESPN Host Sage Steele Steps Out After Settling a COVID-19 Vaccine Suit – The Hollywood Reporter

Sage Steel

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ESPN host Sage Steele is leaving the channel after settling her lawsuit with the sports media giant.

“ESPN and Sage Steele have mutually agreed to part ways. We thank her for her many contributions over the years,” said an ESPN spokesperson. Hollywood Reporter.

“After successfully settling my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my First Amendment rights more freely,” Steele shared on X/Twitter. “I am grateful for the many great experiences over the past 16 years, and I am excited for my next chapter!”

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Steele, anchor V.I Sports Center and former host of NBA countdownsued ESPN and its owner The Walt Disney Company last year alleging violation of its free speech rights in response to widely criticized comments in a podcast regarding the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and for comments about former President Barack Obama.

On the podcast hosted by former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler, Steele called vaccine mandates “sick” and “scary to me in many ways.”

She also discussed Obama’s identification as black in the US Census: “I’m like, ‘Okay, congratulations to the president. ‘” That’s his thing. I think that’s pretty cool considering his black dad is nowhere to be found, but he was raised by his white mom and grandmother, but hey, you do. Mine will.”

In her plea, Steele argued that ESPN selectively imposed its policy on news staff who comment on political or social issues.

“ESPN’s inconsistency in how it treated Steele compared to her peers demonstrates that Steele was penalized not only for exercising her constitutional right to free speech but for the content of that speech,” said the complaint, filed in a Connecticut state court. “Steel was disciplined by her employer in violation of Connecticut law because she exercised her First Amendment right for expressing opinions that ESPN and Disney disagree with.”

Disney has faced a number of lawsuits over its mandate for vaccines (a policy that has been adopted by most major employers as well as the US government). Rockmond Dunbar, a former cast member of the 911sued the company last year on a number of grounds, including alleging he had been terminated for refusing a vaccine.

And Public Hospital Star Ingo Rademacher sued ABC to fire him, claiming it was because he refused to get the vaccine.