Back to the drawing board for ESPN.
On Monday, it was reported that the World wide leader in sports had offered Sage Steele $501,000 plus money to cover “reasonable” attorney fees to settle the lawsuit that the ESPN anchor filed last year alleging the company infringed upon her First Amendment and Connecticut free-speech rights.
Steele claimed she was suspended following some comments she made on a podcast with former Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.
Steele’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, is speaking out as he revealed they will not be accepting that offer.
“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 said.
“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?”
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The lawsuit was filed because she was also made to apologize for comments about the vaccine mandate made on Jay Cutler’s podcast “under threat of termination,” meaning that she would lose her job if she did not comply.
“I work for a company that mandates it and I had until September 30 to get it done or I’m out,” Steele told former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler on his podcast.
“I respect everyone’s decision, I really do, but to mandate it is sick and it’s scary to me in many ways,” Steele continued. “I just, I’m not surprised it got to this point, especially with Disney, I mean a global company like that.”
ESPN’s settlement offer was filed in Connecticut state court, and said in part that the offer should “not be construed as an admission that defendants are liable for any of the claims asserted in this action, or that plaintiff has suffered any damage as a result of any of those claims.”
Steele has remained on-air at ESPN while the lawsuit has been ongoing.
