It's been a few years since Sage Steele last appeared on ESPN following her fallout with the network. One of the pivotal moments in that saga was her decision to give a statement to the Wall Street Journal, which - among many things - earned her a text message from Stephen A. Smith that she'll never forget.
Smith was a guest on her podcast this week and during the conversation the topic shifted to her decision to speak out against ESPN for feeling excluded back in 2020.
“I gave a statement and it was in the Wall Street Journal… I said [to myself], ‘OK, if I’m preaching to everybody, including my children, to stand up for what is right then I’m going to continue to stay silent for fear of many things that were real,” Steele said on the latest episode of her podcast.
“So the article came out and I went on the air [on ESPN] shaking knowing what was probably happening behind the scenes and I get a text from this one [Smith, that said] ‘Why? How does this help you?'”
Smith Speaks
Smith confirmed that he sent that message and said that he was just looking out for her given the state of her personal life at the time.
“Remember, I wasn’t aware of any of that stuff, I knew nothing,” Smith said. “But I saw the article and then I saw your reaction and what did I do?”
“But here was the problem and here’s what I thought you missed. You are a very, very happy woman now — that wasn’t the case then. You had a lot going on and it’s none of anybody’s business unless you want to tell it. And the fact of the matter is, I knew that."
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“I’m not saying that that had something to do with your opinion, I’m saying that had everything to do with your zest to express it. I was saying ‘why,’ in other words — you got a family, you got a lot of stuff to think about.
“It’s real easy for other people to sit by and let you do it and vent… Nah, I’m thinking about the next 5-10 years of your life, your family, your children…. They ain’t going to think about that because their sorry asses, whoever those people may be that are rooting against you, they’re not thinking about you. They’re thinking about the moment you’re going to provide for them to have fodder to talk about you. So I said why ? How does this help you? I know that you knew I meant your family… that’s what friends do.”
Steele was suspended by ESPN in 2021, sued the network in 2022 and settled with ESPN in 2023, at which time she left the network for good.
