Sam Ponder ties her shocking ESPN exit last year to her views on transgender athletes and an infrequent work schedule, and believes some of the reasoning for it is “legit crazy.”
Ponder, who spent 14 years with the Worldwide Leader before being let go last August, provided her first deep dive on her dismissal on Wednesday’s episode of “The Sage Steele Show” and primarily linked it to a chain of events coinciding with a July 2023 retweet about transgender athletes.
“I don’t really think me losing my job was solely because of that, but the timing of it almost certainly was,” Ponder said while opening up on her exit. “I was told after the fact privately that most people at the top of the company did agree with me on the issue but there is a loud activist group at Disney and they were not happy with me. I can say all that and tell this part of the story and still tell you, Sage, it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me.
“I was on that hamster wheel and I was not going to jump off on my own. I needed to get kicked off. As much as the part of the reasoning behind it is legit crazy, I feel no bitterness or even frankly sadness. I had a great career, I was 20 years in the business. I met some awesome people and there are still some really great people there. Never thought this would kind of be the way out but should have spoken up a long time before, I should have been a lot more courageous when I knew what was right.”
The former “Sunday NFL Countdown” host revealed she knew her time could be coming to an end after the chain of events started two years ago with her retweeting a video post of former Penn swimmer Paula Scanlan detailing her time as a teammate of transgender athlete Lia Thomas.
Ponder wrote in a quote tweet of an Independent Women’s Forum post: “No matter where you stand on this issue, it is well worth your time to listen to @PaulaYScanlan share her own story as someone who actually lived this while a female athlete at UPenn.”
“I didn’t think that was going to get that much of a response, but it did,” Ponder said.
Ponder said she had one or two other replies to individuals that she called “fairly innocuous,” although she already had come under fire for supporting controversial former swimmer Riley Gaines, who is one of the leading voices in attempting to keep transgender athletes separate from women’s athletics.
An ESPN higher-up allegedly then emailed Ponder claiming the company was “uncomfortable” with her discussing transgender women in women’s sports and “they weren’t going to allow me to misgender people.” She followed up asking for specifics, to which the individual could not immediately provide.
“Because I still didn’t think, and I didn’t say anything mean-spirited, I was basically trying to give more spotlight, whatever limited spotlight I had, to these girls’ stories, whether it was Riley Gaines or Paula, cause I just felt like I wasn’t seeing it on ‘SportsCenter,’” Ponder said. “I honestly didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but when I got the email I knew it was.”
Ponder, 39, said she received a detailed email the following week that noted how she favorited a tweet from conservative voice Megyn Kelly that said men don’t need gynecologists. Ponder said she didn’t view that as a big deal, having just favorited it, and added that “we’ve all agreed” with that viewpoint.
“In some ways, I thought it was funny how ridiculous it is,” Ponder said. “Any woman who’s been to the gynecologist can understand that, I think.”
The email also contained further specific examples of anything the company allegedly deemed “offensive” and she claimed they basically warned her, “We’re not doing this.”
And that’s when Ponder made a startling realization.
“I knew then that I was on the clock if you will,” Ponder said.
The discussion surrounding transgender athletes had already been a hot topic for Ponder, who recalled a series of events surrounding Women’s History Month that bothered her.
ESPN asked her in 2023 to a profile of a woman who was the “most inspirational” for Women’s History Month and while she wanted to choose Gaines, she opted for her mother.
“I knew deep down in that moment I was supposed to talk about Riley,” Ponder said. “So, I did a little self-censorship there.”
When ESPN aired a piece recognizing Thomas in 2023, it didn’t sit well with Ponder.
“That just did something to me,” Ponder said. “I don’t know why, but it’s kind of emotional to me. Man, there’s so many incredible women that have dealt with all the struggles that are unique to womanhood.
“And for the company to basically say, we’re going to take that spot and we’re going to give it to someone who by their own admission, has only quote-unquote become a woman within the last year, was Will Thomas on the team the year before, and I’m hearing stories about these girls who were in the locker room saying, ‘I had to get undressed in front of a fully intact male 18 times a week.’ And we’re a company that — I thought — feminists and girl power and we’ve got all these women in position of power, we’re not going to listen to that voice, we’re not going to platform that voice to say, ‘Hey man, ‘I’m uncomfortable with this. We’re going to silence these people?”
Fast forward to last summer and the discussion of gold-medal winning boxer Imane Khelif, whose eligibility became an international storyline.
Some questioned her sex during her run to Olympic fame after allegedly previously failing a gender test, and an Italian boxer ended a fight early against her since it was “unjust.”
Ponder quote-tweeted an Aug. 1 a post featuring comments from said boxer, Angela Carini, with the caption: “ENOUGH is what all of us should be saying!! Proud of this woman 👏🏼💪🏼.”
“I knew when I sent that, like, this isn’t going to go over well,” Ponder said. “But to me, that’s abuse. You have a male in a boxing ring with a female literally beating her and we’re just supposed to like, ‘Yay,’ in the name of inclusion. No, like, what about her?”
Ponder said the next week, while she was at a store down the road from the house shared by her and former NFL quarterback Christian Ponder, she received a text asking her to hop on a call in an hour with several folks, including one she never deals with.
“I was like, this is it,” Ponder said.
ESPN characterized Ponder’s exit — along with Robert Griffin III — as financial decisions, The Post previously reported, and the pair still had time left on their deals.
Ponder noted that she believes her infrequent appearances on ESPN programming factored into the company moving on.
“I never believe I was solely fired for this,” Ponder said of her views on transgender athletes. “I think the model of my career at that point, only working Sundays in the fall on ‘Countdown’ was not what they wanted and they felt like they were paying me too much money to do just one thing. I had turned down opportunities in the past to work more and do more because of the season of life I’m in, I got three little kids. I’m not giving up that time with them for any opportunity.”
Ponder also added that she believes that in commenting on transgender athletes and the fierce discussion surrounding the topic, she had been sticking to sports.
“I thought this was sports. We’re talking about female collegiate athletes, Olympic athletes, and it’s wrong to shine a voice on that and give another voice, another opinion?” Ponder said. “I wasn’t against debate or healthy discussion. I just didn’t want anyone telling me, ‘No, no, no, you can’t talk about that. I wasn’t really giving my own opinions on it, as much as I was saying, ‘Listen to these girls, they’re in the locker rooms. Why do their opinions not deserve a platform when we’re giving awards for Women’s History Month to someone born male? I couldn’t understand it, I still don’t understand it.”
