Sage Steele Files Suit Against ESPN

CLAY: Buck, we have talked a lot on the program about how we disagree with vaccine mandates that were put in place by many different companies, sometimes — for instance, in your home of New York City — it was implemented and demanded by the city legal structure, and so there weren’t choices to be made for individual employers.

Thankfully, the OSHA mandate that Joe Biden tried to put in place was struck down by the Supreme Court. It wasn’t for health care workers, by the way, and we still feel for a lot of you out there that had to make the very difficult decision of whether or not to keep your job or get the covid shot. Certainly, also same thing for a lot of soldiers out there.

Whether you’re in the Army, whether you’re in the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, a lot of people had to make choices about whether or not to get the covid shot there as well. The reason why I bring this up is, you should be, I believe — and I think most of our audience believes — able to share your opinion about whether the covid shot should be required in order for you to maintain your job.

Back in September, an ESPN anchor named Sage Steele went on Jay Cutler’s podcast. We’ve had Jay Cutler actually on the show, Buck. He is a former quarterback in the NFL, now lives near me here in Nashville and has been outspoken against the mask mandates on kids. His kids go to a public school near where mine go.

So she went on this podcast, Buck, and she said, “I don’t agree with Disney/ESPN mandating that everyone has to get the covid shot in order to keep their job,” and ESPN took action against her for sharing those opinions. And yesterday afternoon, Buck, in the state of Connecticut, Sage Steele filed a lawsuit against ESPN arguing that that restriction violated both Connecticut law and her contract in not allowing her to speak out on her opinion.

Outside of work, by the way, not at work, not on television, but outside of work on another podcast. She says that they basically were suspending her without saying it publicly and that they took her off a lot of the biggest and best events that she otherwise had been enjoying. I think it’s a really intriguing story to see how this lawsuit ends up playing out because of the particular aspect of the Connecticut law which guarantees employees the right to say what they think.

BUCK: You think she’s gonna be able to win in this lawsuit, by the way? How do you think it’s gonna go?

CLAY: She’s in the air. So ESPN is not pulling her off the air. I think she’s got an intriguing case. Under, again, Connecticut law — which I’m not an expert in, but based on my reading of Connecticut law — you can’t be fired for something that you say that has nothing to do with your job outside of that job. So based on that rudimentary legal knowledge, I think she certainly has made a case that could not progress to the point of a jury being able to hear this thing before all is said and done. So it’s one to follow if you also have been trying to fight back against vaccine mandates at your place of work.