Sage Steele has come out in the open after her controversial suspension from ESPN in the fall of 2021.

Steele had a clean track record since she joined ESPN in 2007. That run ended in October 2021 after the network suspended her for her controversial comments on Jay Cutler's podcast. When Steele returned to work several weeks later, she felt scared because she thought many people hated her.

“I was scared to go back to work when I got off my suspension. I was so scared. Because I had been made to believe that everybody hated me,” Steele told “The Megyn Kelly Show” on Thursday (via Awful Announcing's Brandon Contes).

“And you don't just walk back in and work, you walk back in and you have to perform on live television in front of millions of people,” she continued.

Sage Steele was the consummate professional at ESPN 

Despite Sage Steele's fears, she decided to put that controversial episode behind her and trudge forward. She dug her heels in, struck up conversations with producers, and interviewed her subjects with her usual vigor.

“Why am I going to stop just because there's this other crap going on, as wrong as it might be? But I walked in there every day, and I did it,” Steele exclaimed.

Steele eventually apologized for her remarks on ESPN's COVID-19 vaccine protocols, female journalists, and former president Barack Obama in Cutler's podcast.

Although ESPN never made Steele's suspension official, she still considered it as such. She even filed a lawsuit against the network in the spring of 2022 claiming it violated her contract and her freedom of speech.

Sage Steele continued working for ESPN despite her legal battle. She even got plunked by a Jon Rahm drive in the PGA Championship one month after filing her lawsuit. Fortunately, Steele recovered quickly from that ordeal. She eventually hosted her final “SportsCenter” episode on July 27.