Sage Steele Leaving ESPN After Settling Free Speech Lawsuit With Disney

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Sage Steele has announced that she is officially leaving ESPN after settling her free speech lawsuit with the network and its parent company, Disney. The 50-year-old leaves ESPN after spending the last 16 years with 'the worldwide leader in sports.'

While Steele noted that she had many wonderful experiences during her time at ESPN, the last couple of years have been anything but smooth for the now-former SportsCenter anchor.

Steele was suspended by ESPN after she noted that COVID-19 vaccine mandates were "scary" and "sick" during an appearance on Jay Cutler's podcast in September 2021. She also spoke about former president Barack Obama calling himself black when, like herself, he has a white mother.

READ: SAGE STEELE’S LAWSUIT AGAINST ESPN, DISNEY IS WORTH MORE THAN MONEY | BOBBY BURACK

Steele officially filed a lawsuit against ESPN and Disney in April 2022 alleging that the companies infringed upon her First Amendment and Connecticut free-speech rights by suspending her. In June of this year, Walt Disney Co. offered Steele $501,000 to settle the lawsuit, but her attorney, Bryan Freedman, made it clear they had no plans to accept the offer at the time.

“Disney and ESPN clearly admit their liability by offering to pay Sage Steele more than half a million dollars for taking away her right to free speech. The offer misses the point. Disney cannot purchase their employee’s constitutional rights no matter how powerful they think they are,” Freedman explained.

“How about apologizing and treating people fairly? Let me put it this way, would Disney be willing to accept money from the state of Florida and Governor DeSantis in exchange for being silenced? Why the double standard?”

Steele explained that the lawsuit has since been settled in her post on X, formerly known as Twitter, but it is unclear what the settlement includes at this point in time.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.