NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
Former ESPN colleagues Sage Steele and Stephen A. Smith reunited on the former’s podcast earlier this week and relived a memory when Steele made a major move that jeopardized his already-in-jeopardy tenure at the network.
Steele spoke about how she was not included in an ESPN special amid the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, and her former Black colleagues refused to be in it if she was, which was published in a Wall Street Journal article.
“That was hidden a lot,” Steele said on his show.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
Former ESPN colleagues Sage Steele and Stephen A. Smith reunited on Steele’s podcast. (Jesse Grant; Logan Bowles/Getty Images)
“I said, ‘Okay, if I’m preaching to everyone, including my kids, to stand up for what’s right, then am I going to remain silent for fear of a lot of things that were real?’ “Then the article came out and I went on air shaking, knowing what was probably going on behind the scenes.”
Steele said he received a text message from a concerned Smith saying, “Why? How is this helping you?”
“That’s exactly what I texted you,” Smith recalled.
“I’ll never forget it,” Steele responded. “Because I knew, number one, you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t care about me as a human being, let alone, forget about the announcer. And number two, for me, it’s bigger than money, it’s bigger than position. At some point it’s about principle.”
Sage Steele speaks on stage during Bullseye Event Group’s Players Tailgate on February 13, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Bullseye Event Group)
ONE OF THE NFL’S FIRST OFFICIALS SUES THE LEAGUE FOR GENDER DISCRIMINATION AFTER BEING FIRED
“But here was the problem, and this is what I thought you missed,” Smith responded. “You’re a very, very happy woman right now; that wasn’t the case then. You had a lot going on and it’s nobody’s business unless you want to tell it. And the fact is, I knew it.”
Steele later revealed that he was going through a divorce.
“I’m not saying that had anything to do with your opinion, I’m saying it had a lot to do with your eagerness to express it. I was saying ‘why,’ in other words: you have a family, you have a lot of things to think about. It’s very easy for other people to sit back and let you do it… No, I’m thinking about the next five years of your life, the next 10 years, your family, your children. They’re not going to think about that because their I’m sorry, whoever those people are that are against you, they’re not thinking about you. “They’re thinking about the moment when you’re going to give them material to talk about… That’s what friends do.”
Steele left the network in 2023 following a lawsuit stemming from being sidelined by ESPN in 2021 when she spoke on a podcast about the company forcing her to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Sage Steele speaks on stage during The Players Tailgate, hosted by Bobby Flay and presented by Bullseye Event Group for Super Bowl LVII on February 12, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Bullseye Event Group)
After settling the lawsuit, Steele said he left the company “so I could exercise my First Amendment rights more freely.”
