During a candid sit-down at Sage Steele’s Florida home, the ESPN personality found himself on the receiving end of a pointed question from his longtime colleague about his public stance on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
Steele, who has been outspoken on the issue for years, did not hesitate to press Smith on his timing. “Tell me why. Why did it take three years for you to say something that I know you’ve believed this entire time?” she asked, referencing the debate that intensified around swimmer Lia Thomas competing for Penn and swimmer Riley Gaines around 2022.
Smith pushed back firmly, insisting his position was never a secret. “I said it on First Take from day one. From day one,” he said. “I was like, you’re transitioning from a man to a woman. You shouldn’t be competing against women.”
He acknowledged, however, that the network had been measured about how much airtime the topic received during that particular political climate. “They were like, listen, do you want at that particular time in that particular climate for us to belabor the issue? No. But I made it very clear.”
Steele, vocal on the topic since her ESPN days, made her feelings plain. “It’s inexcusable that it’s even a topic: men and women’s sports,” she said.
She noted she was born the year Title IX took effect in 1972, expressing frustration that women who worked for equality in athletics have largely gone quiet or reversed course on the question.
Steele took aim at the Democratic Party’s handling of the issue, pointing out a political calculation he found both obvious and counterproductive.
“Look what has happened with this issue and how Democrats literally down the line are voting basically against women and protecting women’s spaces,” she said.
Smith agreed, saying: “They’re full of it.”
Steele cited polling to support the argument that public consensus is far clearer than political posturing suggests. “80% of Americans, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, agree on this issue,” she said. Smith admitted he had not independently researched the figure but said he believed it.
The conversation took a lighter turn when Smith referenced comedian Dave Chappelle’s take on the subject, with Chappelle having joked about LeBron James entering the WNBA.
“He said LeBron James averaging 83 points a game. Like 806 points per game. And we’re all going to celebrate that, aren’t we? Because we know this is a stu pid conversation,” Smith said.
Both agreed that politicians on the left have weaponized the issue to consolidate voters, even as the strategy has clearly backfired. Smith was direct: “Some people don’t care about a damn thing unless it affects them directly.”
Steele added that too many men and women in prominent sports positions, with the financial security to speak freely, have remained silent, calling it a failure of leadership at a moment when clarity was needed most.
