ESPN forced her to get the COVID shot — then fired her anyway



Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele was among those in 2021 forced to take the COVID-19 vaccine in order to keep her job — but after complying and getting the shots, her employer let her go anyway.

Steele was taken off the air following a podcast appearance on “Uncut with Jay Cutler,” where she called vaccine mandates “sick” and “scary.”

“You’ve had this long career, this illustrious career, and it came to a point when truth was on the line, and you took a risk,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says to Steele.

“I had been suspended, punished at ESPN in 2021. As we tape this, exactly four years ago I was suspended and in bed, sobbing and scared to death of what was next,” Steele explains.


“I was suspended for speaking up about being forced to take the COVID vaccine in order to keep my job at Disney. ... I had to be fully vaccinated by September 30, 2021, or else, and I waited until the very last second, and I had prayed about it,” she continues.

While Steele was against taking the shots, the pressure she felt as a mother with bills to pay was too much, and she decided to comply.

“I was ready to walk away, but as the sole wage earner with three kids and an ex and alimony and all those things, I felt like I had to make the choice to do it to keep my job. I still struggle with that. I feel like I caved,” she explains.

“So, I did it, and I complied, and then I talked on a podcast about it,” Steele tells Stuckey, noting that she went on the podcast immediately after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, so she was extra angry.

“I said, ‘I think it’s sick and wrong for any employer to force an employee to do something to their bodies that they don’t want to.’ Pretty simple. I said, ‘But I love my job, and I need my job.’ And here we are,” she tells Stuckey.

“And that was the beginning of the end,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

ESPN Tried to Cancel Her. Here's How She Bounced Back | Sage Steele | Ep 1252
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ESPN Tried to Cancel Her. Here's How She Bounced Back | Sage Steele | Ep 1252

ESPN accused of removing host from network after interview about Charlie Kirk



ESPN and Disney have rejected the accusation that executives removed commentator Paul Finebaum from network shows after he spoke about Charlie Kirk in an interview that aired last week.

Finebaum, a legend in college football broadcasting, appeared in a sit-down interview with OutKick's Clay Travis to discuss a possible transition into federal politics.

'This is not true at all. The below is TOTALLY FALSE.'

Finebaum told Travis he was greatly affected by the death of Kirk, saying he was "numb" for hours after hearing about the assassination.

"I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day," Finebaum told Travis. "It's hard to describe, not being involved in politics ... how that affected me and affected tens of millions of people all over this country. And it was an awakening."

Finebaum then revealed that he was subsequently inspired by Kirk and may be exploring a run for Senate as a Republican in Alabama.

Since the interview was released on Sept. 30, Finebaum has reportedly been pulled from ESPN network shows.

"Disney/ESPN has removed [Finebaum] from appearing on ESPN since his [OutKick] interview expressing interest in running as a Republican for senate in Alabama," OutKick's Travis wrote on X. "ESPN has canceled all network appearances on all shows, including some that have occurred for a decade plus."

However, Travis was immediately confronted by one of ESPN's own.

RELATED: Charlie Kirk assassination inspires famed ESPN commentator to run for Senate — as a conservative

— (@)

About 25 minutes after Travis' post, ESPN's vice president of communications, Bill Hofheimer, responded to claims with a straight denial.

"This is not true at all. The below is TOTALLY FALSE," Hofheimer wrote on X.

Travis hit back, saying the decision was above Hofheimer's "pay grade" while asking the executive to cite appearances by Finebaum.

Travis' claims were followed by college sports site On3 confirming the story through reporter Pete Nakos.

Alabama's AL.com also said it had confirmed the story. However, ESPN is sticking to Hofheimer's statement.

— (@)

In comments to Blaze News, ESPN referred to Hofheimer's X post as its official public comment.

"Finebaum was never banned. Any reporting on this is totally false," ESPN's senior communications director, Amanda Brooks, explained.

She told Blaze News that not only is Finebaum scheduled to appear on ESPN's "First Take" on Tuesday, he is also "scheduled to do hits on SportsCenter this weekend."

The network stated that it is trying to find various college football analysts to step into different roles "in the event that Finebaum chooses to run for office" in order to be "prepared for his potential absence."

ESPN outright denied the claims made by On3, Outkick, and AL.com

Brooks said Finebaum will continue his "SEC Nation" appearances and his own ESPN show, "The Paul Finebaum Show."

Fans had noted that they saw Finebaum on SEC shows over the weekend.

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Charlie Kirk assassination inspires famed ESPN commentator to run for Senate — as a conservative



ESPN host and analyst Paul Finebaum might run for office because of Charlie Kirk despite never being involved in politics.

The SEC Network personality and host of "The Paul Finebaum Show" said in a recent interview that he is "considering" leaving the Disney-owned network to run for the United States Senate.

'I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day.'

Perhaps surprisingly, Finebaum said that he would run on the Republican ticket in Alabama, finding inspiration after Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10.

"I spent four hours numb, talking about things that didn't matter to me. And it kept building throughout that weekend," Finebaum said.

"I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day."

Finebaum continued, "It's hard to describe, not being involved in politics ... how that affected me and affected tens of millions of people all over this country. And it was an awakening."

Seemingly revealing his political affiliation for the first time, Finebaum said he is a "registered Republican in North Carolina as of this hour. And I was a registered Republican in Alabama before I moved."

Finebaum also told OutKick's Clay Travis in the interview that he voted for President Donald Trump, but "they also tell us not to discuss that."

RELATED: Another coach in the Senate? Auburn basketball's Bruce Pearl rumored as Tommy Tuberville's replacement

South Carolina football head coach Will Muschamp (R) speaks with radio personality Paul Finebaum. Photo by Lance King/Getty Images

As for the potential seat, Finebaum said after talking to "someone ... who made it clear that there was a desire for me to be involved," he is now considering a seat in Alabama. That seat will be vacated by Senator Tommy Tuberville (R), who has his eye on becoming the state's governor.

Finebaum also revealed to Travis the reason he was so reluctant in the first place.

When Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl was initially rumored to run for Tuberville's seat, Finebaum said he was "hesitant" and did not take the idea of running "too seriously."

Eventually, however, the person he spoke to was so "compelling and compassionate in the approach" that Finebaum began to think about running.

"One or two people in Washington had reached out to me about whether I would be interested in politics, something I'd never thought about before. Something I didn't really think possible," the analyst continued.

"I gave some thought to it as the weekend [after Kirk's murder] unfolded ... and got a little bit more interested."

Born in Tennessee, the college sports host went into greater detail about why Alabama would be the best fit for him, besides the obvious reason of the vacancy.

"Alabama has always been the place I've felt the most welcome, that I've cared the most about the people. I've spoken to people from Alabama for 35 years, and I feel there is a connection that is hard to explain," he noted.

RELATED: 'Ireland is ran by traitors': Steelers quarterback, disabled senior mugged in Dublin during NFL visit

BlazeTV host Steve Deace said he believes Finebaum "absolutely has the name ID to win a primary."

"Which means winning the election in Alabama," Deace said.

Regarding the idea of yet another sports personality getting into Alabama politics, Deace commented, "I'm fine with people in sports getting involved in politics, as long as they agree with me and know what time it is. It would be delicious irony for woke ESPN to produce a senator inspired by my friend Charlie Kirk's boldness."

ESPN declined to comment on the situation. Finebaum's show did not return a request for comment.

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Lee Corso Epitomizes The Spectacle Of Modern College Football

On Saturday, Lee Corso will make his final appearance on College GameDay, the ESPN show he has worked for since its inception in 1987.

ESPN torpedoes Colin Kaepernick-Spike Lee documentary



Spike Lee was reportedly hard at work on a documentary series for ESPN featuring ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, until it was scrapped.

“ESPN, Colin Kaepernick, and Spike Lee have collectively decided to no longer proceed with this project as a result of certain creative differences,” ESPN said in a statement. “Despite not reaching finality, we appreciate all the hard work and collaboration that went into this film.”

The series was supposed to chronicle Kaepernick’s career with the San Francisco 49ers, which ended in 2016 when his dedication to social justice causes overtook his dedication to his sport. Most famously, Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem before games to protest racial injustice in America.

He has been unable to sign with any other team since, and in 2019 he reached a confidential settlement with the NFL after filing a grievance that accused the league of actively working against him to keep him unemployed.


BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock has his theories as to why the documentary series didn’t work out.

“Spike Lee is not talking about why. He signed an NDA — nondisclosure agreement. He got paid, got his money, so he’s going to keep his mouth shut,” Whitlock says.

“I think more than anything, there were all these people that were promising Colin Kaepernick, ‘Man, you’re going to go down in history. It doesn’t matter what they say now. Fifty years from now, people are going to be talking about you like you were MLK,’” he continues.

“And here we are just nine years from 2016, and Colin Kaepernick is a laughingstock. ... And so they just scrapped the whole thing that Spike Lee was going to do. It was just going to cause a bunch of negative publicity. The Colin Kaepernick psyop is a failure,” he says. “That’s my takeaway.”

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Amid Endless Streaming Silos, Live Sports Still Attract Millions Of Eyeballs

Two recent deals demonstrate the immense power of live sports.

One company may just have killed pay-per-view forever



A pair of monumental streaming deals have likely ended the chances of two major brands ever appearing on pay-per-view again.

In recent years, sports fans have typically only dished out cash for pay-per-view events if they were for boxing, mixed martial arts, or professional wrestling.

'It’s an outdated, antiquated model.'

Fans of the latter two have been left frustrated in recent years, as events they would have simply paid a one-time fee to watch in the past now get locked behind subscription paywalls.

Rope a dope

When the UFC inked a deal with ESPN in 2019, the fight promoter abandoned standard PPV and made its events purchasable only through ESPN+, which requires a separate subscription. Viewers, now effectively required to pay for the opportunity to pay for an event, were understandably miffed.

Meanwhile, WWE, also owned by TKO Holdings along with UFC, has until now been showing its premium events through Comcast's subscription-based streamer Peacock, without an additional fee.

Now, in the span of a week, TKO Holdings may have eliminated this hurdle — and the business model — forever.

As part of its new rights deal, UFC will abandon a PPV scheme, as viewing options slowly creep toward looking like traditional TV again.

RELATED: MMA star's miracle faith awakening: Ben Askren finds Christ after defying death by surviving double lung transplant

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

Down for the count

Last week, TKO signed with ESPN to provide the WWE's biggest live events to the Disney-owned network, which will shift ESPN+ to a direct-to-consumer model. Simply put, WWE events will either appear on the ESPN app or on television and the app at the same time.

As for UFC, it will depart ESPN for Paramount, which on Monday acquired the rights to UFC events for $7.7 billion over seven years, per CNBC.

All 13 marquee UFC events along with 30 "Fight Nights" will appear on the Paramount+ app, but it will not charge subscribers an added fee the way ESPN+ did.

RELATED: The Rock responds to WrestleMania criticism by telling media the whole business is fake: 'Enjoy the show'

Photo by Waleed Zein/Anadolu via Getty Images

Fight club

What is left are two gigantic brands, no longer on PPV models, with some of the biggest wrestling events of the year appearing on ESPN's cable channels.

"The pay-per-view model is a thing of the past," Mark Shapiro, TKO Group's president, said. "What’s on pay-per-view any more? Boxing? Movies on DirecTV? It’s an outdated, antiquated model," he told CNBC.

"When [fans] find out, 'Wait, if I just sign up for Paramount+ for $12.99 a month, I'm going to automatically get UFC's numbered fights and the rest of the portfolio?' That's a message we want to amplify."

For now, subscription models may reign supreme, but it seems entirely possible that premium products may wind up being free for viewers on whichever type of screen they choose to view it on, even if it is the dreaded living-room TV.

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Jason Whitlock goes wild after Michelle Obama’s ESPN slam — 'She's right!'



You know it’s gotten dire over at ESPN when Michelle Obama compares the analysts to Bravo’s “The Real Housewives” franchise while chatting with two gay men.

On the July 30 episode of her podcast, “IMO,” the former first lady was candid with fellow podcasters Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang about her thoughts regarding ESPN.

“If I listen to ESPN for an hour, it's like watching ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta,’ you know? I mean, you know, it's the same drama, and they're yelling at each other, and they don't get along, you know? I mean, Stephen A. Smith, he's just like every other talk show host,” she said, calling ESPN’s dynamics “sociological drama.”

Jason Whitlock finds the comment hilarious and accurate. It perfectly captures what he’s been saying about ESPN all along: It’s a “feminized clown show.”


“Hats off to Stephen A. Smith and Bob Iger and Ryan Clark and Gilbert Arenas and Shannon Sharpe. You have feminized ESPN to the point that a supermodel first lady, one of the most beautiful women to ever walk in the White House, is talking with her gay friends ... about how you remind them of a bunch of housewives in Atlanta,” he jeers.

“[Michelle Obama] is right. It’s a soap opera at ESPN."

But it’s not just the antics of the hosts on air that make them comparable to Bravo’s bickering, shallow housewives; it’s also the scandals many of them are entangled in.

Whitlock points to Shannon Sharpe’s latest controversy as an example. He had just settled a $50 million lawsuit with 20-year-old OnlyFans model Gabriella Zuniga, who accused him of sexual assault and recording intimate moments without consent, when he was hit with yet another lawsuit — this time a $20 million defamation lawsuit by another woman.

Or take former NBA player Gilbert Arenas, a guest analyst on ESPN's "First Take," who was recently arrested and charged with three federal counts for allegedly running high-stakes illegal poker games out of his California mansion. Following the charges, Arenas live-streamed a video of himself laughing about the experience.

Whitlock plays the clip of his incoherent, expletive-ridden recount, during which he laughs maniacally in front of a social media filter of flames.

“I don't blame [Michelle Obama]. She's actually accurate here. This is a bunch of feminized men who allow Bob Iger to put puppet strings on them and behave and talk in a buffoonish ghetto fashion,” he sighs.

To see the footage of Michelle’s recent comments and Arenas’ bizarre rant and hear more of Whitlock’s analysis and commentary, watch the episode above.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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Exposing the Reality of ESPN, What They Don't Tell You About Divorce & More | Sage Steele
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Exposing the Reality of ESPN, What They Don't Tell You About Divorce & More | Sage Steele