Sage Steele Praises Jimmy Pitaro For Kicking Off Needed Culture Shift At ESPN... At Least Temporarily

Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele joined Michele Tafoya who guest hosted OutKick's Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich on Thursday morning.

The two broadcasting veterans discussed how Steele's former employer changed from being a place where viewers could escape into the world of sports, to a network that pounded people over the head with political talking points. Many of which they may not even agree with.

Tafoya mentioned one such instance of this. She talked about having a women's college basketball game on TV when the discussion turned away from hoops to Florida's Parental Rights In Education Act.

If that rings a bell, it's because it was erroneously dubbed the "Don't Say Gay Bill" by its critics.

"The day after (the bill) passed, we had a women's basket college basketball game on in the house," Tafoya said. "The announcers decided before or at halftime to talk about how they didn't agree with this rule in Florida; this new law.

"And I was like, 'Could you just talk about the basketball game?'"

Tafoya lamented the fact that the network had turned into a platform that lectures viewers about politics.

One Announcer Didn't Want Anything To Do With The Political Grandstanding

Steele agreed and recalled watching that same game. However, she recalled one of the announcers not wanting to address the law, which was, of course, completely unrelated to basketball.

"I know that at least one of the actual announcers on the game that was being played, didn't want to do it, and they were told to do that," Steele said. "For the vast majority of all those people they agreed with it and were probably fine with it."

That same game, announcers held a moment of silence. One to protest a law, they likely didn't even understand.

"The moment of silence during halftime — or was it the pregame; I don't remember — that was an embarrassment," Steele continued. "And I thought what are we doing? We are injecting ourselves into this when it is not necessary."

Saage Steele commended ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro for his efforts to rein in the network's politics. (Getty Images)

Steele Commended ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro's Efforts To Curb The Networks Turn Into Politics

Steele said that while ESPN became more overtly political while Donald Trump was in office, then-president and current ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro tried to rein it in.

"I've been gone for almost five months now, on airplanes everywhere people say, 'Oh my gosh, what happened?'" she said. "When this new president — Jimmy Pitaro — came in four or five years ago, he did an incredible job of really saying, 'Guys stop.'

"They'd gotten out of hand after Trump's election in the prior president John Skipper allowed it and liked it as he was, you know, anti-Trump," she said. "But when he came in, it was no more politics. He did an incredible job. I remember thanking him for that and others did too."

However, things took another turn in 2020 with the pandemic and George Floyd, That sent the network back onto the political bandwagon.

"It was over after that and they lost control," she said.

Steele said that she hopes the network gets things under control again. However, it won't be easy.

"I hope that they can get it back. But that will take major decisions probably beyond ESPN, she said. "Up higher. Disney, Bob Iger. And they've seen the cost. They've felt the cost of what this going woke means to the bottom line at Disney and their films."