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ESPN Firing Sage Steele After Back-To-Back Controversies?

ESPN Firing Sage Steele After Back-To-Back Controversies?

Renowned ESPN host Sage Steele found herself at the center of multiple controversies this week.

Initially, Steele was pulled off the air on Monday after appearing on Jay Cutler’s podcast and making provocative statements regarding ESPN’s COVID-19 vaccine policy, former president Barack Obama and female reporters.

Specifically Steele described her company’s COVID-19 mandate as “sick and scary.”

“I respect everyone’s decision,” she said. “I really do. But to mandate it is sick, and it’s scary to me in many ways. But I have a job, a job that I love and, frankly, a job that I need.”

Steele then went on to question why President Obama identified as black.

“Well, congratulations to the President, that’s his thing,” said Steele. “I think that’s fascinating considering his Black dad is nowhere to be found, but his white mom and grandma raised him, but OK. You do you. I’m gonna do me.”

Steele also addressed the topic of female journalists dressing “inappropriately” – something that an SEC reporter landed in hot water for not long ago.

“When you dress like that, I’m not saying you deserve the gross comments, but you know what you’re doing when you’re putting that outfit on, too,” she said.

For obvious reasons, many called on ESPN to fire Steele for her comments.

According to Carlos Greer of the New York Post, however, that is not going to happen.

Steele’s punishment will end “sometime next week,” a source familiar with the situation told Page Six. At that point, she will be permitted to return to SportsCenter.

“A day hasn’t been set yet,” the source continued. “She’ll be back on-air sometime next week.”

This isn’t Steele’s first dance with controversy. She famously took a very strong stance in relation to one NFL player’s offensive commentary – something that didn’t win her too many friends within ESPN.

She was also famously bullied by two of her colleagues, with nothing much coming from the incident.

A lot of folks seemed to be hoping that Steele’s time at ESPN would end as a result of this most recent blow-up – but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

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Carlos Garcia

A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.

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