Sage Steele smilingSage Steele (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Sage Steele has shared a surprising opinion on the Black National Anthem.

The anthem, “Lift Every Voice And Sing,” has become very popular among African Americans and has recently made its way to the Super Bowl.

The former ESPN host, who is black, is apparently not a fan of the alternative patriotic song and made her feelings on it very clear while speaking to musician Reggie Watts on ‘The Sage Steele Show’ (H/T FOX News).

Steele branded the anthem “ridiculous” and “divisive.”

“I don’t like this whole Black National Anthem thing,” she said.

Watts claimed to have no idea what she was talking about.

 

“See? Well, it’s newer the last couple of years and it’s at the Super Bowl,” she stated. “Dude, we’re one big melting pot. This is good. Why are we now choosing to separate again when we’ve been in a tough time here the past several years, to say, ‘This is only our anthem, but y’all better stand up. Get your [expletive] up.’ 

“I think we’re all Americans and it’s our anthem; and all the immigrants from across the world that have come here stand up for our anthem. They’re all Americans.”

Sage Steele added that sports leagues in America are “shoving it down people’s throats.”

 

The Black National Anthem Has Been Around For A Very Long Time, Although Sage Steele Says It’s New

It doesn’t appear that Sage Steele will warm up to the Black National Anthem anytime soon, but that hardly means it’s going anywhere.

While Watts wasn’t aware of it, and it’s new to sports, the song has been around since around 1900 and was recognized as the Negro National Anthem in 1917 before being changed to the Black National Anthem.

Former ESPN Anchor Destroys Sage Steele, Calls Her The “Dumbest Person I’ve Ever Worked With”

Sage Steele attempting to put on jerseySage Steele (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Sage Steele is free from ESPN and able to state whatever comes to her mind these days.

Former ESPN host Sage Steele made social media go crazy this week when she revealed that the network instructed her to follow a “script” when conducting a pre-taped interview with President Biden back in 2021.

“That was an interesting experience in its own right because it was so structured,” Steele said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. “And I was told, ‘You will say every word that we write out, you will not deviate from the script and go.’”

Steele’s interview with the President in March 2021 was focused on sports making a transition back to being normal during the COVID-19 pandemic and the hesitation by some athletes to receive the vaccine as it was first being rolled out at the time.

Steel told Fox News that the interview was essentially “scripted” by ESPN executives.

“To the word. Every single question was scripted, gone over dozens of times by many executives … editors and executives,” she said. “It was very much, ‘This is what you will ask. This is how you will say it. No follow-ups, no follow-ups. Next.’”

“I knew this was a lot bigger than just the wonderful editors I worked with,” she continued. “This went up to the fourth floor, as we said, where all the bosses, the top executives, the decision makers are, the president of our company, the CEO, where they all worked.”

After she revealed that much about the interview, she received some backlash from a former co-worker.

Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann would soon take to X and take a major swipe at Steele while responding to a headline from Awful Announcing. In the midst of his rant, he also called Steele the ‘dumbest person he’s ever worked with in sports and news.’

“Of COURSE it was scripted. If it hadn’t have been @sagesteele – the dumbest person I’ve ever worked with in sports or news – couldn’t have gotten through it,” Olbermann wrote.

Olbermann then pointed to one part of Sage Steel’s admission in which she stated “every single question was scripted, gone over dozens of times by many editors and executives.”

“I mean Jesus, if this happened to you, you’d just assume it WASN’T being done to protect the network from you humiliating it – and yourself?” Olbermann wrote.

Sage Steele Left ESPN in August 2023 after nearly 16 years with the network, saying at the time she wanted to exercise her First Amendment rights “more freely.”

Keith Olbermann departed from ESPN for a third time in 2020.

Sage Steele Filed Lawsuit Against ESPN In 2022

Sage Steele (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Cisco Systems, Inc.)
Former longtime ESPN SportsCenter anchor Sage Steele sued ESPN and Disney in 2022, alleging the company retaliated against her for comments she made on Jay Cutler’s podcast regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and other political and social topics.

Steele said in the lawsuit she was protected by the First Amendment.