SportsCenter anchor Sage Steele seems unwilling to accept the settlement offer from ESPN in her lawsuit against the network. In April 2022, Steele, who is 50 years old, filed a lawsuit against ESPN and its parent company, Walt Disney Co., alleging that the network violated her free-speech rights following her comments about its Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
According to Front Office Sports, Walt Disney Co. offered Steele $501,000 and would cover reasonable attorney fees to settle the lawsuit. However, Steele’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has indicated that she will not be accepting the settlement offer while mediation is still ongoing. Freedman also criticized the company for its “double standards,” citing the fact that Disney wouldn’t accept a settlement from Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Freedman released a statement stating, “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. 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?”
The feud between Ron DeSantis and Disney began last year when the company publicly opposed legislation known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Steele initially sued ESPN for violating her free-speech rights after being temporarily benched and forced to issue an apology for publicly criticizing her employer’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate and former President Barack Obama’s identification as black. These comments, made on former NFL player Jay Cutler’s Uncut podcast in September 2021, sparked controversy online and in the press.
Steele’s lawsuit alleges that ESPN retaliated against her by taking away important assignments and not addressing bullying and harassment from her colleagues. She also claims that the network acted based on “inaccurate third-party accounts” of her comments without reviewing the actual comments or their context.
ESPN denies suspending Steele and she has remained on air during the ongoing lawsuit. The network’s settlement offer, submitted to a Connecticut state court, is not an admission of liability on the part of the defendants or an acknowledgment of any damages suffered by Steele, according to lawyers for ESPN and Disney.
It appears that Steele will proceed with the trial, scheduled for March 2024, rather than accepting the settlement offer.
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