Sheesh. I always really liked her.
Yeah, she's gorgeous and all that boring stuff (besides being married to former NFL q-back Christian Ponder), but she's, like, so smart, knows dah foosball, and she's so normal.
For the...
Extra
Sensitive
Pencil
Necks
...running the uber-woke, flailing, AWFL-bimbo-sprinkled Disney enterprise that was a real woman too far.
BREAKING: ESPN has *FIRED* @samponder, who is one of the ONLY women at the network to speak out against biological men playing in women's sports.
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) August 15, 2024
Ponder made headlines in May 2023, when she agreed with swimmer @Riley_Gaines_ speaking out against Lia Thomas participating in… pic.twitter.com/tYOBiu4Zkb
VURT DA FURK
Oh, yeah - "budget cuts."
For the record, they also let former quarterback Robert Griffin III go, who hadn't been with the network nearly as long and had recently been demoted in favor of ESPN hiring the other Kelce brother.
But Ponder is going to really set a few teeth in a snarl because she was one of the few women of courage to speak left standing in the sports broadcasting world. One by one, they are being picked off in favor of chicks in low blouses, tight skirts, and little opinion.
It's kind of a shame, really. I already miss Sage Steele and Michele Tafoya, and Ponder's pre-game show was an antidote to the inanities of football broadcasts, like wondering how a dolt like Chris Simms ever got an analyst's job anywhere.
He still has his.
Ponder had to know the knives were coming for her, considering who she works for, what's happening at the network around her as it sinks further into the abyss, and the reaction to her "fairness" comments about male swimmer in a female suit, Lia Thomas, last year.
She was immediately branded a bigoty bigot and accused of putting trans lives in danger by an outraged USA Today AWFL.
ESPN broadcaster Sam Ponder came under fire on Sunday as her support for keeping women’s sports fair and equal was the subject of an opinion column from USA Today’s Nancy Armour.
...Recently, Ponder spoke about the issue again after Gaines tweeted the messages she received about transgender high school runners participating in the girls division in California.
“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,” Ponder tweeted.
However, Armour called Ponder’s words “plain old bigotry” in her column.
...Armour particularly took issue with Ponder choosing to speak out about this issue rather than talk about how girls and women’s sports don’t have equitable funding with boys and men.
“Did Ponder use her platform to express outrage at any of this? Urge her nearly half-million followers on Twitter to write or call their representatives and ask that women be given the funding and opportunities they rightfully deserve? Did she publicly participate in any of the many excellent documentaries, videos and commentary ESPN did to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX last year? Or even Tweet about them?” Armor wrote.
“No, she did not. Her public concern about ‘fairness’ for female athletes starts and stops with the miniscule number of transgender women who are participating in sports.”
Armour accused Ponder of putting transgender people in further danger with her tweets “by further amplifying the bogeyman that cisgender women’s participation in sports is being threatened by transgender girls and young women.”
The "budget cut" excuse isn't finding many swallowers. Perhaps if there were, like, four or five other women still on the network with solid WE SUPPORT WOMEN credentials, people would believe the line.
Ponder was the last girl standing.
Wow @espn just fired @samponder, the only woman still employed at the company to speak out forcefully against men competing in women’s sports, a couple of weeks before the football season started citing “budget cuts.”
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 15, 2024
Riley forcefully went to bat for her friend, as you'd expect. These women are something else.
And the comments on Disney - woof. You could light a fireplace with them.
In my lifetime Disney turned from THE family viewing to a disease on the family and reality itself.
— newmanian (@newmanian2) August 15, 2024
Disney, ABC, ESPN are all showing the signs of a well developed systemic disease that is progressivism.
Even Barstool's Dave Portnoy, who has no love for Ponder and her outspokenness, gave her what, for him, are massive props.
Also Sam Ponder once ambushed me at a restaurant and got right in my face. We argued for an hour. Gained a ton of respect from me as opposed to people who hide in the shadows. https://t.co/OVu58pZJXV
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 15, 2024
I think Portnoy hits it on the head here: respect.
That's where Sam Ponder constantly set herself apart. She spoke plainly, stood for something always, put in the work, and people of all walks of life respected her.
I hope she lands something really terrific that she's happy to do, if she wants to do anything at all.
Disney looks like the bigoted, intolerant fools here.
But, as Ed always says, it is a day ending in "y."
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