ESPN Anchor Sage Steele Leaves Network, Cites Need for More Free Speech

Longtime ESPN SportsCenter anchor Sage Steele has announced she’s leaving the network so that she can be less constrained in the expression of her First Amendment rights.

Television personality Sage Steele speaks during the SXSW event in Austin, Texas, on March 9, 2018. Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Cisco Systems, Inc.

Longtime ESPN SportsCenter co-anchor Sage Steele, who ruffled feathers by denouncing the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, has announced she’s leaving the network so that she can be less constrained in the expression of her First Amendment rights.

Ms. Steele said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that her decision to leave the network comes after setting her lawsuit with ESPN and its corporate parent Walt Disney.