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Former ESPNer Sage Steele believed it was a “blatant decision” by the network to skip the national anthem during the Sugar Bowl broadcast a day after a terrorist attack occurred in New Orleans.
The World Wide Leader came under fire for not airing the anthem ahead of the Notre Dame-Georgia game that took place on Jan. 2 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
The game was played a day after 14 people died and 35 were injured after 42-year-old U.S. military veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar began running down New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street before being killed in a shootout with police.
Steel called the decision not to air the moment of silence and national anthem “so egregious” during an appearance on Outkick’s “Outkick The Morning” program.
“You are a mile away, maybe less than in New Orleans, from where all of those people were murdered on the morning of what was supposed to be the game that was airing on ESPN,” she said. “And you chose to ignore it when people are suffering and it’s so much bigger than football? They were crushed. They were crushed, and deservedly so, for not doing it.”
ESPN did not air either pregame moment, but did air a montage of shots from before the start of the game and a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post at the time that the unusual circumstances played into the decision.
The network’s flagship program “SportsCenter” stepped in to handle pregame coverage after the Sugar Bowl had been pushed back a day due to the attack.
Following an interview, the network had gone to a commercial break right before the moment of silence and did not return from it until the middle of the national anthem “making it awkward” to cut in at that point.
The decision drew a fiery response from some online and Steele couldn’t help but feel the decision was made on purpose.
“I really do try and stay away from too much that revolves around my former employer. That life is gone, and I am so glad to be past it, grateful for those years,” she explained. “I couldn’t help it, because it was such, to me, a blatant decision to skip.”
Steele announced she was leaving ESPN in 2023 after 16 years with the network to “exercise my First Amendment rights more freely.”
The former “SportsCenter” host had sued ESPN and parent company Disney over the treatment she faced following comments critical of the vaccine mandate the company put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and comments about former President Barak Obama.
The lawsuit was settled before her departure from the network.
English (US)