Sage Steele has been in the news for several days after she admitted she got her COVID-19 vaccine ahead of ESPN’s mandated deadline, but only because she wanted to keep her job. The SportsCenter anchor voiced her frustration with the policy on an episode of the Uncut With Jay Cutler podcast.
“I got my shot today,” Steele told Cutler. “I didn’t want to do it, but I work for a company that mandates it and I had until September 30th to get it done or I’m out.”
The sports commentator had a lot more to say on this day, but the former NFL quarterback had an eye-popping comparision for her.
Cutler told Sage Steele she was referred to as “the Candace Owens of ESPN” and it caught her off guard that even she had to laugh.
After laughing, Sage responded with, “I respect the hell out of Candace Owens because whether you agree or not she doesn’t give a crap what you think, and she’s going to say what’s on her mind.”
Here’s the full podcast:
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Steele, who has been at ESPN for nearly 15 years, said “it was actually emotional” getting the vaccine, but not in the way that you would think
“Everybody else has their ‘Yay look, here’s my [vaccine] card’ … You wanna see what my face looked like when I had to do it?” she continued. “I get it to an extent, but I think the mandate is what I really have an issue with. I don’t know what comes next, but I do know for me personally I feel… defeated.”
Disney announced July 30 that it would implement a company-wide vaccine mandate for all salaried and non-union hourly employees, giving their staff 60 days to comply and that “all new hires will be required to be fully vaccinated before beginning employment.”
Steele has been one of the most controversial figures at the Worldwide Leader in Sports for her opinions and what she has said about how she’s treated for being bi-racial and marrying a white man.
“The worst racism that I have received, [as a biracial woman married to white man] and I mean thousands and thousands over the years, is from Black people, who in my mind thought would be the most accepting because there has been that experience,” she said at the Christianity-based event back in 2017. “But, even as recent as the last couple of weeks, the words that I have had thrown at me I can’t repeat here and it’s 99 percent from people with my skin color. But if a white person said those words to me, what would happen?”
She got married to husband Jonathan Bailey on October 1999, who is apparently a stay-at-home dad who formerly was a personal trainer. They have three children together.
