Sage Steele’s new role as the lead anchor for ESPN’s “SportsCenter on the Road” initiative has already taken her back and forth between Cleveland and Chicago for a historic World Series and to New York for the marathon. Next week, she’ll head to Mexico City in advance of the first “Monday Night Football” game played outside the United States. Before then, Steele will make an important stop at Arlington National Cemetery as part of ESPN’s week-long “Salute to Our Veterans” coverage. It’s an assignment Steele has wanted for years, and one she pushed for when negotiating her new deal.
“I’m a proud Army brat,” Steele said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “My dad is a West Point graduate and the first black to play varsity football at Army. He was just accepted into their hall of fame in 2013. I lived and breathed the Army life and have such an appreciation for what the soldiers do and what their spouses and their families do. Veterans Day just means a lot more to me. I just don’t know that that many people my age and younger fully understand it these days.”
Steele lives in Arizona now, but her trip to Arlington will be something of a homecoming. She covered the Ravens for five of her six years at Comcast SportsNet before leaving for ESPN in 2007 and hasn’t been to Arlington National Cemetery since her grandfather was buried there in 2003. After arriving on Thursday morning, Steele was scheduled to shoot a couple of features, including a reprisal of a piece about her dad, Gary, who broke the color barrier on Army’s football team 50 years ago. She’ll also be talking to a historian about Arlington National Cemetery and will be anchoring live shots from Arlington every hour from 7 a.m. to noon on Friday. Steele said her parents are planning to make the trip from their home in Pennsylvania.
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“I’m so humbled to be there,” Steele said. “It’s going to be emotional, but it’s going to be really, really special. I think with all the craziness that our country is going through right now, let’s try to maintain perspective here, and that’s what I hope to bring with our coverage. ... I know I’m going to learn a lot, and I hope others will as well. I just love the idea of going there and trying to remind people of how fortunate we all are, how fortunate we are to be able to even vote, and have open conversations because people were so selfless and gave their lives.”
Steele, 43, hasn’t talked to her dad about Colin Kaepernick’s decision to protest racial injustice and police brutality by refusing to stand for the national anthem — “I can pretty much guess what his stance would be,” she said — but it’s something she has discussed with her three children, ages 10, 12 and 14.
“I just think there are other ways to express yourself,” Steele said. “No matter what, you stand when the national anthem is being sung, the Pledge of Allegiance, no matter what it is. You stand up, you put your hand on your heart, you don’t talk, you take your hat off and you [show] respect, period. I have no patience for anything less, but I respect his right to do what he wants. I just don’t respect what he’s doing. If I ever saw my kid doing it, we’d have a frank conversation and I would remind them of where their great grandfather is buried and what he gave up. ... My military ties run deep and I just think that we can come up with better ways to express our views.”
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Steele, who began her ESPN career as a “SportsCenter” anchor, is happy to be expressing her views and reporting on a wide variety of sports again after spending the past three seasons as the host of ESPN’s “NBA Countdown.”
“I’ve missed the other sports that I covered doing ‘SportsCenter’ every day,” said Steele, who will continue to host the weekend editions of “NBA Countdown” on ABC. “You had to know a little bit about a lot of things, which was awesome. To be able to now kind of go back to where I began, with football, basketball, baseball and other things that I am thrilled to be able to do now. I realized a long time ago that I’m best when I’m out in the field and among live crowds and big audiences and, frankly, a ton of pressure. I think that’s where I thrive, with the most pressure possible, and when you’re counting down to Game 7 of the World Series on the field, that’s a lot of pressure and I love it. It’s just kind of perfect and I feel really fortunate to be able to do everything that I love, including the NBA still. I kind of feel spoiled.”
Steele also touched on a number of other topics.
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On rooting for Wizards Coach Scott Brooks.
“I’m a big Wizards fan again because I love Scotty Brooks. I’m friends with him from his Thunder days and he’s a great guy. At this stage in my career, I just hit my 21-year anniversary of starting in TV, and at this point, more so than rooting for teams, I root for people, and Scotty Brooks is one of those people that I definitely root for. Terry Francona is a person I root for. Joe Maddon is a person that I root for. Marvin Lewis. Steve Bisciotti, the owner of the Ravens, is a tremendous human being. So I think I’m jaded enough to not cheer fully for teams, but to root for people to succeed. ... Brooks kind of got a bad rap there in Oklahoma City with the [Kevin]Durant/[Russell]Westbrook thing. I’m really rooting for him in D.C. He doesn’t have an easy go there either, with some of those personalities and just the history, but he knew that coming in. It takes a while, but the Thunder weren’t good for a while either.”
On being a Cubs fan and not hiding it during the World Series.
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https://twitter.com/sagesteele/status/793994126702223360
“I’ve been a Cubs fan since 1993, which is when I met my husband in college, who was born and raised a Cubs fan. I was like, ‘Oh, my hot new boyfriend is a Cubs fan? Then I’m a Cubs fan.’ I just grew up as an army brat overseas and it was football and basketball and that was really it. I didn’t have a rooting interest in baseball until I met him and he is obsessed. It was just almost comical to me that the first World Series I covered involved the Chicago Cubs, of all teams, who could never get there, and a team I have literally watched every single game since 1993 almost because of my husband. I feel so lucky to have been there, literally front and center for their run. ESPN, I feel like in recent years, kind of lets hosts and anchors and reporters just be honest about where we’re from and who we cheer for. It doesn’t mean that we’re biased. I wouldn’t be a sportscaster if I hadn’t been a fan of a team or players first. It’s impossible. Come crunchtime, I do have a rooting interest, but that doesn’t mean I can’t report unbiased and accurately. If anything, sometimes I think I’m tougher on the teams that I’m rooting for because I want them to win. I thought it was fun for the first time to be able to be open about who I was rooting for. At the end of the day, I also would’ve loved it had the Indians won, because I knew Terry Francona from when he was at ESPN after the Boston job and I love a lot of their players and I love the city of Cleveland. To me it was a win-win.”
On traveling so often and being away from her kids.
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“It’s been hard to be gone, but my husband is a saint. ... I’m a zombie right now. I feel like I’m a terrible mother and wife and an average employee. I’m doing my best to get used to it while still balancing everything at home. I’ve always struggled with that. I’m proud of how my husband and I have handled it, but it’s not getting easier with the ages of our kids and just how much more they need us as they get older, which is the opposite of how I thought it would be. I thought it would get easier with age, but it’s not. The key is that one of us is always home. We’ve done it this way and have just figured it out. The thing that has saved me the most is technology and to be able to see my kids’ faces and them to see mine when we’re on the phone. I try to do it every night no matter where I am. ... I also hope that they’re seeing that hard work really does pay off. When I’m home, I’m all there as much as I can be. This is the job that I announced to my family — my brothers and my parents — when I was 12 years old, that I wanted to be a sportscaster and I wanted to be on ESPN. The fact that I’m doing that, and doing it in this way, is really humbling and I’m just trying my best to do it well and make my bosses proud and make my family proud.”
On the NFL’s TV ratings decline.
“Frankly, the matchups, the games, the competition has been really weak this year in the NFL. The really, really riveting teams, to me, are few and far between. When you look at the NBA over the past couple of years, it is hands down the best era since the Jordan era ended. You’ve got really relatable superstars, with Steph Curry at the top of the list. If you didn’t know his face, you could walk right by him and not think he’s any different than you or me. The games themselves have been as good as they’ve been in 20 years. To me, it’s about the level of competition and the star power. ... Also, I do think that some of the big-time superstars in the NFL are just aging. As awesome as Tom Brady is, he’s pushing 40. Peyton [Manning] is now gone. Aaron Rodgers is getting older, Drew Brees. Look at all of the big-time stars. You see Dak [Prescott] in Dallas and he’s someone that I think is going to draw viewers and fans, but the NFL has been king for so long, people aren’t going to fully stop watching it. I just think there’s an ebb and flow to things. I do think people tend to overreact because dollars are involved, but look at the product. It’s not as good, while basketball is excellent right now.”
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