Sam Ponder Was The Only Woman At ESPN To Speak Out Against Men Competing In Women's Sports | Bobby Burack
ESPN fired Sam Ponder on Thursday, citing "budget cuts."
The timing is suspicious.
Ponder was the network's lead NFL studio host, the anchor of "NFL Sunday Countdown." The NFL season is three weeks away. Sources tell OutKick ESPN has not decided on a replacement host.
While Robert Griffin III was also fired, he was viewed on his way out of the company. ESPN had recently demoted RGIII off "Monday Night Countdown" due to poor performance.
RGIII's ousting was inevitable. Ponder's was not.
Except, maybe it was.
Ponder had emerged as the only female voice inside Disney since Sage Steele's departure to speak out against "trans women" (as in men) competing in women’s sports.
Most recently, Ponder posted "XY= male XX= female" in response to the International Olympic Committee permitting Imane Khelif, who has XY chromosomes, to box against women in the 2024 Olympics.
Ponder first commented on the issue in May 2023, reminding her followers that it is "not hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls."
"I barely said anything publicly abt this issue & I’ve had so many ppl msg me, stop me in the street to say thank you+ tell me stories abt girls who are afraid to speak up for fear of lost employment/being called hateful," Ponder added.
That simple statement turned the Mean Girls of Sports Media against her. Ponder is no longer allowed at the lunch table.
Notably, USA Today hag Nancy Armour filed a hit piece with the headline "What ESPN's Sam Ponder calls 'fairness' is plain old bigotry."
Per Armour:
"Don’t be fooled by the people who screech about ‘fairness’ to cloak their bigotry toward transgender girls and women, the transgender girls and women who have the audacity to want to play sports, in particular. This is, and always was, about hate, fear and ignorance."
Ponder sympathized with female athletes who are afraid to express concerns about competing, showering, and sharing a locker room with males. According to the USA Today, that makes Ponder a "hateful bigot."
We assumed that ESPN would have Ponder's back after the article. Months before, the network released a statement defending Mina Kimes against an unknown local radio host who questioned her knowledge of football.
However, ESPN did not defend Ponder.
"If Mina Kimes gets a mean tweet about her lack of qualifications to be considered an NFL insider, the white and black knights of ESPN rushed to Twitter to protect their Asian queen," wrote Jason Whitlock at the time.
"There's no rush to publicly rally around Ponder or Steele because there's no money or social media clout to be gained. You can't elevate your corporate equity index pointing out the absurdity of men competing against women."
Well said.
In fact, the network remained silent when fellow ESPN pundit Sarah Spain shared several tweets claiming Ponder engages in – wait for it -- "bigotry" over her wish to keep men out of women's sports.
Sources tell OutKick ESPN did not ask Spain to take down her posts or offer support to Ponder. Spain, who dismissed Christianity as "bullshit" on ESPN last summer, remains employed. Ponder does not.
Seth Markman and Sam Ponder (Photo by David Buchan/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Ultimately, ESPN and parent company Disney were never going to have Ponder's back once bad faith actors dishonestly labeled her opinion on trans athletes "right-wing."
Her opinion is not right-wing.
New national polling by Scott Rasmussen found that 72 percent of registered voters oppose transgender-identifying males competing in women’s sports, which is consistent with a Gallup poll months prior.
Conservatives and most liberals agree with Ponder.
Thus, her absence leaves ESPN without a female voice to represent those 70 percent of Americans. Viewers will have to settle for Spain, Mina Kimes, and Elle Duncan trying to downplay treating gender like an on-demand choice.
We look forward to Women's History Month, which ESPN used to honor Lia Thomas for calling him "trans" and swimming against NCAA women with male genitalia, which he repeatedly and grossly exposed in the female locker room.
At Disney, trans people are always right. Even when they are so obviously in the wrong.
Finally, Ponder's firing and Steele's previous suspension will only further discourage other women at the company from standing up for the voiceless women forced to play against men in athletic competition.
And surely there are other women – and men – at the company who agree with Ponder about trans athletes. Several of them have reached out to OutKick privately to express their frustrations over the double standards that allow only certain opinions to be heard.
Those ESPN employees feel they have to self-censor – like the female athletes Ponder spoke out in support of over a year ago.