ESPN anchor Sage Steele is suing the network for violating her free-speech rights after she was benched for publicly criticizing her employer's COVID-19 vaccine mandate and former President Barack Obama's decision to call himself black.
Steele, who is bi-racial, claims ESPN temporarily benched her and forced her to issue an apology after her comments.
They were made last September on former NFL player Jay Cutler's Uncut podcast, sparked controversy online and in the press.
The suit, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, alleged ESPN retaliated against Steele by taking away 'prime assignments' and failing to put and end to bullying and harassment from her colleagues.
The SportsCenter host also accused ESPN of taking actions against her based on 'inaccurate third-party accounts of Steele's comments, and that the network did not immediately review the actual comments or the context in which they were made.'