ESPN's Sage Steele Blasted for Criticizing LAX Airport Protesters

ESPN's Sage Steele used Instagram to criticize those protesting at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday and was blasted on social media for it.

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Over the weekend, thousands of people converged on airports all across America to protest the Muslim travel ban that President Donald Trump put into place late last week. One of the airports that was affected the most by this was Los Angeles International Airport, where about 4,000 protesters showed up outside of the Tom Bradley International Terminal on Sunday and chanted things like, "Love, not hate, make America great." The demonstrators shut down traffic in front of the terminal at times in an effort to get those people who were being detained inside of the airport released. And they were successful in sending a loud and clear message about where they stand on Trump’s immigration policy.

As you might imagine, though, a protest of this magnitude inconvenienced many of those travelers who were trying to get into the airport to catch a flight. The Los Angeles Times published a story early Monday morning that featured a handful of frustrated travelers sounding off about the struggles they encountered when trying to access the airport. And there were many other people who used social media to speak out about how the protests negatively impacted their travel plans on Sunday.

One of those people was ESPN’s Sage Steele. She worked the NBA Countdown show with Jalen Rose on Sunday afternoon before making her way to LAX to board a flight to Houston, where she will spend the next week covering Super Bowl LI. And after arriving at the airport, she was forced to walk two miles due to the protests that were taking place, which ultimately caused her to miss her flight. So she put up a photo of the protests on Instagram along with a caption that seemed to be critical of the people who were demonstrating:

Steele’s IG post didn’t go over well with many people who accused her of being out of touch with what was happening on Sunday. Here are some of the reactions she faced in the hours after putting up her photo and caption on IG:

Steele refused to budge from her original opinion despite the controversy that it caused. After seeing the backlash she received on social media, she took to Twitter to respond to some of the people who called her out for her IG post. She challenged them to re-read her post and wondered why she wasn’t allowed to express her thoughts on the protests:

This is not the first time Steele has made waves recently as a result of something she has posted on social media. Back in November, she ripped Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans for protesting the national anthem before a game and was met with a similar backlash. She later took to Facebook to respond to those who were critical of her in that situation.

We wouldn’t be surprised if she’s forced to do the same thing here. As of 8 a.m. on Monday, Steele’s name was the top trending topic on Twitter, and it’s clear that she touched a nerve with her latest social media post.

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