Lawyers representing ESPN personality Sage Steele issued a strong rebuke to ESPN’s parent company Disney on Tuesday, charging the media giant with admitting liability and attempting to ‘purchase the constitutional rights” of their client.
In 2022, Steele filed a lawsuit against ESPN and Disney, accusing her employers of violating her constitutional rights and contract after the SportsCenter host criticized the company’s vaccine restrictions.
SportsCenter on ESPN anchor Sage Steele gives the invocation before the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on March 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Specifically, Steele alleges that she was removed from consideration for important assignments and faced harassment from colleagues. Steele was taken off the air after she tested positive for Covid.
Front Office Sports reported on Monday that Disney offered Steele a $501,000 settlement to cover legal expenses and put the matter to rest. Steele’s attorney Bryan Freedman pushed back strongly on the proposed settlement while accusing Walt Disney Co. of a “double standard.”
“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 told the New York Post in a statement.
“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?”
In September 2021, Steele appeared on the Jay Cutler Podcast and called Disney’s vaccine mandate “sick.”
TV personality Sage Steele during a panel discussion at SXSW on March 9, 2018, in Austin, Texas. (Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Cisco Systems, Inc.)
“I work for a company that mandates it and I had until September 30th to get it done or I’m out,” Steele told Cutler.
“I respect everyone’s decision, I really do, but to mandate it is sick and it’s scary to me in many ways,” Steele added. “I just, I’m not surprised it got to this point, especially with Disney, I mean a global company like that.”
Steele’s lawsuit claims that ESPN forced her to apologize for the remarks “under threat of termination.”
ESPN counters that Steele was not suspended and that their settlement 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 continues to host SportsCenter for the time being. Should a settlement not be reached, her case will go to trial early next year.