ESPN Anchor Leaves Network After Settling Lawsuit

Another ESPN personality is leaving the network. On Tuesday, Sage Steele announced she has settled her lawsuit against ESPN and is now leaving the company after working there since 2007. 

“Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely,” she wrote on social media. “I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”  

In October 2021, Steele was taken off the air for 10 days after being pulled from several high-profile assignments because she criticized ESPN and The Walt Disney Co.’s requirement that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. Steele filed a lawsuit in the Connecticut Superior Cout in May 2022. Her comments came when she was speaking on a podcast hosted by former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler. Steele said she got the vaccine to comply with the policy, according to the lawsuit. 

On the podcast, Steele said the mandate was “sick” and “scary to me in many ways.” She also stated she did not want to get vaccinated but did so she keep her job and support her family, per the Associated Press. “In the lawsuit, her lawyers wrote, ESPN “forced Steele to apologize, allowed media to destroy her, and let media reports that she had been suspended go unchallenged, and allowed Steele’s colleagues to defame her in violation of company policy without so much as a reprimand.” 

In June, ESPN offered to settle the lawsuit for just over $500,000 plus attorneys fees and costs. The terms of the settlement were not made public, but ESPN issued a statement confirming Steele’s departure from the network. “ESPN and Sage Steele have mutually agreed to part ways,” spokesman Josh Krulewitz wrote. “We thank her for her many contributions over the years.”

Steele, 50, was the co-anchor for the noon ET SportsCenter with Matt Barrie. Before moving to the noon SportsCenter in February 2021, Steele anchored the 6 p.m. ET edition for several years and before that was an anchor for SportsCenter: AM. From 2013 to 2017, Steele hosted NBA Countdown on ESPN and ABC. Before working for ESPN, Steele co-hosted the Miss America pageant on ABC and was a featured guest host on ABC’s The View.