ESPN and host Sage Steele have settled the lawsuit she filed after being disciplined for comments she made in 2021 about the company’s policy requiring employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
She also was required to make a public apology, the lawsuit said.
Steele’s comments critical of ESPN came while she was speaking on a podcast hosted by former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler and just after getting the vaccine herself to comply with the policy, according to her lawsuit. She said that while she respected everyone’s decision to get vaccinated, she believed that a corporate mandate was “sick” and “scary to me in many ways.” She also indicated that she did not want to get vaccinated but did so to keep her job and support her family, according to the lawsuit.
Steele also said on the podcast that she identifies as biracial and questioned former President Barack Obama’s decision to identify himself as Black on the recent U.S. Census. She also said that female journalists “need to be responsible as well” if inappropriate comments are directed at them based on how they’re dressed.
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,” her lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.The terms of the settlement disclosed Tuesday were not immediately made public, and Steele’s attorneys did not immediately return emails seeking comment.
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