Sports broadcaster Sage Steele is hardly winning over new fans after claiming that her personal view on identifying as biracial provoked Barbara Walters to allegedly elbow her.
Steel recently announced her departure from ESPN after 16 years. Her exit comes on the heels of settling a lawsuit against the network and its parent company, Disney, where she accused them of violating her contract and right to free speech. “I have decided to leave so I can exercise my First Amendment rights more freely,” she wrote on X on Aug. 15.
Days later, on Aug. 17, she appeared on “The Megyn Kelly Show” and alleged that she was assaulted by the trailblazing journalist nearly a decade earlier. The crossing of wires between the women was fueled by Steele’s past critical remarks about former President Barack Obama choosing to identify as Black despite his father being “nowhere to be found.” Steele has been vocal about not identifying solely as Black but instead as biracial. Like Obama, her mother is white and her father is Black.
Steele claimed that while co-hosting “The View,” her stance on culturally having the best of both worlds caused Walters to express disdain. “Barbara Walters is the one that went nuts and asked me about it live on TV. This is in 2014. I said almost the same thing in 2014, live on ABC, which happens to be owned also by Disney,” the former “SportsCenter” co-anchor told Kelly.
When Walters, Steele, and the other talk show co-hosts reconvened backstage, tensions allegedly reached a breaking point. “I was probably about four feet from the wall and the trash can, and Barbara was standing over here in front of me. She just started to back up toward me and looked at me and got close and elbowed me, and it pushed me back into the wall and the trash can. I was like, ‘What did [she] just do to me? This 140-year-old woman just tried to, like, tackle me,’” recalled the polarizing sports news veteran.
According to Variety, a representative for the late journalist’s estate cast doubt on Steele’s story. “I find this impossible to believe and uncharacteristic of Barbara!” said the rep. But the memes and jokes about the shove have been merciless. See some of the reactions below.