Inside the Reasons Behind Sam Ponder’s 2024 ESPN Firing

Sports commentator Samantha "Sam" Ponder (nee Steele) proved early in her career that sports talk isn't for the masculine gaze. The reporter was on the front lines covering the latest in college football as she worked as a reporter and co-host for ESPN college football and as a basketball sideline reporter. Sam also famously replaced Erin Andrews on the network's show, College GameDay.

After years of being on camera, Erin shocked her fans when she was fired from ESPN in 2024. Since leaving her tenure at the network, she has shared what she felt led to her firing.

In August 2024, Sam was let go from ESPN, along with commentator Robert Griffin III. According to The Athletic's report of the change, Robert was demoted from his role as a sports analyst on Monday NFL Countdown with two years left in his contract. Sam, who had been with the network since 2011, had been the host of “Sunday NFL Countdown” since 2017.

According to The New York Post, Sam's firing came after she was accused of "bigotry" following comments she made about the transgender women athletes competing in cisgender women's sports, claiming adding transgender women wouldn't make the game "fair and equal." The comments sparked national attention, including an opinion column from USA Today’s Nancy Armour, who accused Sam of practicing, "plain old bigotry." The correspondent later defended her thoughts via X (formerly Twitter).

"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. It is not hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls,” she wrote.

Though Sam was fired shortly after her comments and response went viral, the official reason for her being fired was reportedly due to ESPN's initiative to cut costs through layoffs.

Since she was let go from ESPN, Sam has continued building her personal brand online. She has discussed her departure from the network on social media, revealing in an Instagram Story in June 2025 that she's still close with her College GameDay colleagues, Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis and David Pollack. She said her co-workers continued checking in on her after she was fired.

“David Pollack is stuck with me as the big brother I never (jk) wanted," Sam wrote to her fans. "And I was texting with Kirk Herbstreit the day before I got fired."

The reporter is also friends with her former ESPN colleague, Sage Steele. In an August 2025 interview on Sage's podcast, The Sage Steele Show, she admitted she lost some of herself while working for the company, admitting her "entire identity was so tied up in public opinion," which she's since freed herself from.