Media outlets outside of sports were paying attention to Sage Steele’s comments last week on Jay Cutler’s Uncut podcast. The SportsCenter anchor made headlines for controversial comments about ESPN’s vaccine mandate and Former President Barack Obama’s racial identity.
On Tuesday, ESPN announced that Steele would be off the air for at least a week. The move was supposedly a response to her comments, but the network also noted that Sage Steele has been diagnosed with Covid-19. That would keep her out of the studio during that same time frame anyway.
CNN welcomed Cari Champion to New Day on Wednesday to talk about Steele’s comments. In an interview with Brianna Keeler, Champion said that the comments weren’t surprising to anyone that knows Steele. Champion added that it didn’t mean that they weren’t harmful.
Champion described Steele as an inspiration for plenty of minority women in broadcasting.
“I think a lot of people, regardless of her experience or how she chooses to identify, looked up to her as the brown girl at ESPN,” Champion said.
While Champion did not like what Sage Steele had to say about the former president, she said that Steele’s comments about the way she views other women in sports media are what really bothered her.
Steele said that she has refused to help young, female reporters in the past based on what they were wearing in the video they sent.
“So, when you dress like that, I’m not saying you deserve the gross comments, but you know what you’re doing when you’re putting that outfit on, too,” Steele said on Uncut. “Like, women are smart, so don’t play coy and put it all on the guys.”
“That’s dumb. I don’t have any other eloquent way to say that,” Champion responded when shown the clip.
She said it was clear that Sage Steele has “issues with women.” Cari Champion added that Steele’s comments were particularly disappointing because it makes things harder for women in a business already dominated by men. The industry forces women to compete with each other in a way men don’t have to.
“There’s this mentality that there can only be one. [Sage Steele] upholds that in so many ways.”
Sage Steele and Cari Champion were both at ESPN from 2012 until Champion left last year. While they worked on opposite sides of the country, both anchored SportsCenter beginning in 2015.
Cari Champion herself is bias against black men!!! Stating that she refuses to date “black men” because “they want to much”. I didn’t realize there was only one brain that all black men shared and passed around, smh. She and Sage are really in the same boat if you ask me.