Steele filed her lawsuit in Connecticut, alleging that ESPN suspended her for her remarks and that the network demanded she apologize.
“In a knee-jerk reaction, ESPN and Disney relied on the misleading characterizations of her comments, bowed to groupthink and forced Steele to publicly apologize and suspended her for a period of time in October 2021,” the lawsuit states, according to NBC News.
The lawsuit also references numerous media stories that reported Steele was suspended, and said, “ESPN did nothing to rebut the widespread reports that it had suspended or otherwise disciplined Steele for her comments, both because those reports were true and because ESPN stood to benefit from the public perception that it had punished Steele for her remarks,” according to the New York Post.
The court document also alleged that Steele lost prime assignments, like hosting the NYC Marathon and ESPNW Summit, and that the company did not stop the harassment and bullying she received from colleagues.
In 2017, ESPN created a guideline that prohibited employees from making statements on political matters unrelated to sports. Steele alleges ESPN selectively enforced this rule with her situation, Sports Illustrated reports.
ESPN, however, said they had “direct” and “private” conversations with Steele, according to the Post.
“Sage remains a valued contributor on some of ESPN’s highest profile content, including the recent Masters telecasts and anchoring our noon ‘SportsCenter,'” an ESPN spokesperson said in a statement, according to the Post. “As a point of fact, she was never suspended.”
A source informed the Post that Steele would continue as an on-air host during her lawsuit.
