#ESPN’s Sage Steele alleges black colleagues kept her off race special

ESPN star Sage Steele told network president Jimmy Pitaro she thinks she was excluded from the network’s special on race in June, believing two of her black colleagues, Elle Duncan and Michael Eaves, tried to keep her off the show.

“I found it sad for all of us that any human beings should be allowed to define someone’s ‘Blackness,’” Steele said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. “Growing up biracial in America with a Black father and a white mother, I have felt the inequities that many, if not all Black and biracial people have felt—being called a monkey, the ‘n’ word, having ape sounds made as I walked by—words and actions that all of us know sting forever. Most importantly, trying to define who is and isn’t Black enough goes against everything we are fighting for in this country, and only creates more of a divide.”

“The Undefeated Presents Time for Change: We Won’t Be Defeated” examined racial injustice amid nationwide protests following the police-related death of George Floyd. The special was hosted by “SportsCenter” anchors Duncan, Eaves and Jay Harris, along with college football reporter and NBA host Maria Taylor. The Undefeated is an ESPN website focusing on the intersection of race, sports and culture.

Steele, who host’s the 6 p.m. “SportsCenter,” has been with ESPN for 13 years. According to the Journal, Steele said coworkers told her ESPN executive Michael Fountain considered her for the special, but Duncan and Eaves didn’t want her involved because Steele “wouldn’t be accepted by what they considered the Black community.”

Duncan and Eaves didn’t comment specifically on Steele’s accusation in a joint statement to the Journal.

“We wish we had more than an hour to include more of the many strong voices we have at ESPN; however, we are hopeful that this doesn’t distract from the important message conveyed that night,” they said.

Steele, who describes herself as an “Army brat” in her Twitter bio, feels the exclusion from the special was another in a string of attacks on her character, according to the Journal. The daughter of Col. Gary Steele ripped Buccaneers star Mike Evans in 2016 for kneeling during the national anthem. She recently addressed the lack of criticism of DeSean Jackson for his anti-Semitic social media posts, saying on air, “the silence is deafening.”

“At The Undefeated, we don’t have litmus tests for Blackness,” Kevin Merida, Undefeated senior vice president and editor in chief, told the Journal. “ESPN has a tremendous range of Black voices, and we’ve been honored to work with many of them.We had already talked to Sage a number of times about working together, and look forward to that opportunity.”

ESPN’s latest drama comes after The Post’s Andrew Marchand reported Dave Lamont’s job was in jeopardy after he described the nature of a college football conference call on race as “venting” while Taylor was sharing her experience.