Christian sports anchor and former “SportsCenter” host Sage Steele told Liberty University students that she believes the devil tried to use a devastating blow to her mouth from a wayward golf ball that knocked out eight teeth at the PGA Championship in May 2022 weeks after she filed a lawsuit against ESPN for retaliation to silence her.Â
During her convocation speech Wednesday at the Virginia-based Evangelical institution founded by Jerry Falwell Jr., Steele recalled the controversy surrounding her comments on former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler’s podcast in 2021.Â
According to her lawsuit, Steele alleges she was taken off air for 10 days in October 2021 and pulled from several high-profile assignments, including coverage of the New York City Marathon, the Rose Parade and the annual ESPNW Summit, because she criticized ESPN and The Walt Disney Co.’s requirement that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
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She criticized the policy after getting the vaccine herself to comply with the vaccination mandate, which she called “sick.”
The anchor, who is biracial because her mother is white and her father is black, also criticized former President Barack Obama’s decision to identify as black instead of biracial on his 2010 Census questionnaire. She also raised concern over young women looking to break into sports journalism, noting that they know what they’re doing when they “dress like that.”
“Why would I not celebrate all of me … and honor my mother and my father?” Steele told the audience in the Vines Center Wednesday.
“In order to keep my job at ESPN (owned by) Disney, I had to take the vaccine,” she added.
She said she respected people’s choice to be vaccinated but wanted control over her own body.
After criticizing her former employer’s vaccine policy on the podcast, she said was pulled off the air the same day, suspended and told to apologize.
“I didn’t understand, and after years and years and years of being told to be silent because I didn’t fit the narrative, I said, ‘Enough,'” Steele recalled, saying she decided to sue.
Steele returned to work and was waiting for her case to be resolved in court when she was struck in the mouth with the wayward golf ball from golfer Jon Rahm.
She said that at that moment, she began doubting her decision to stand up for herself until she recognized the doubts as the voice of the devil.
“I had finally realized they’re not going to be able to glue the teeth back in. They’re not going to be able to put the flesh back in my lip and I threw it on the ground. I thought, I sat there and I realized God doesn’t want me to do this. God is telling me to be quiet. God is telling me to just stop standing up for myself, stop standing up for others, stop being true to myself,” she said.
“If they want you to say you’re black and not biracial say it. If they want you to say ‘go vaccine, everybody get it,’ … say whatever they want. Because this is what happens, this is what happens when you’re true to yourself apparently. Then I realized as I was put on the stretcher in the ambulance that wasn’t God talking to me,” she recalled.
“That was something else that was evil. That was the devil, in my opinion, trying to scare me into silence because I had just filed this lawsuit that had made global headlines. And I realized it was up to me that that hit me, there in the mouth of all places for a reason — to make sure I didn’t stay silent.”
Steele, 51, said she learned to talk with eight new teeth while reading highlights on “SportsCenter” and realized she wasn’t supposed to be quiet but speak the truth with grace, covered by prayers from her parents.
“I was supposed to go into work every single day, every single day, and be true to me. Every day when I went in there, from the moment my suspension ended to the day I left ESPN, I called my parents. Doesn’t matter how old you are, 50 years old in the parking lot putting my mascara on. From the moment they brought me back from the suspension, my mom, my dad, and I would pray,” she said.
“I was raised Catholic, strong Christian. And at the end of every Catholic mass, we say a prayer quite often. ‘St. Michael the Archangel, protect me from the wickedness and snares of the devil. Rebuke them, we humbly pray.’ Every single day, I was scared to go in there because I knew I was hated by so many of my peers, the people I thought were friends, every single day,” Steele noted. “But I felt protected every day because of that prayer. I would say, ‘Lord, let my energy and my smile continue to project. Every day, I went in and did that job that I loved to the very last day, put the fear back here, and told stories and smiled genuinely, and absolutely loved it.”
Steele settled her lawsuit in August 2023 for an undisclosed sum and left ESPN.
“I was devastated, (but) I had lived the dream,” she said. “I left, and since then, there have been a lot of incredible things in my life, and it’s been such a blessing to be able to be free.”
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