Rosemary Pennington | Oct. 27, 2007
 |
| Photo by Rosemary Pennington |
| ESPN anchor Sage Steele had four internships before getting her first job. |
“This is not your territory,” Steele said of NFL locker rooms. “If you drop something, never pick it up. Just leave it on the ground.”
Steele said her first experience in a locker room full of naked football players was traumatic (“I ran right back out”), but she didn’t stay out for long. After her cameraman reminded her there were interviews they needed to get, Steele walked back in, picked up her microphone and remembered to keep her eyes above the waistline.
“And this isn’t just for the women,” Steele told the students. “The players look to see if there are any guys looking, too.”
Steele, B.S. ’95, was at the School of Journalism as part of the J492 Media Internships class. And, during her talk, she emphasized the importance of internships.
“I did four internships before I got my first job,” Steele said. “I did everything. You’re not going to get hired on-air for your first job. I didn’t; I was a producer first. You need to be able to do it all.”
She joined ESPN in February and currently provides SportsCenter updates as well as interviews for both ESPN First Take and Mike and Mike in the Morning. She says her ability and willingness to do it all helped her quickly leap from reporting gigs at WSTB-TV in South Bend and WISH-TV in Indianapolis to covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for WFTS-TV and the Baltimore Ravens for Comcast SportsNet.
As she leapt from job to job, Steele began forming relationships with players and coaches, including Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy while he was with the Buccaneers. But, she cautioned students, she was careful to not allow how she felt personally about someone affect what she reported.
“If you get caught up in it,” Steele said, “you’re not going to be a journalist. You still have to remember why you’re here: Because you’re trying to help people at home understand the game.”
Sports communication senior Justin Skipper said that was something he hadn’t thought of.
“I think it was interesting how she talked about how she had to ask all these hard questions to some of the people she had established relationships with,” Skipper said. “I put myself in her shoes and thought how difficult it would be to ask those tough questions, but it’s part of the job.”
Another part of the job is balancing personal life with work life. One female student, who was worried about having a relationship and career, asked Steele about the sacrifices she had to make.
“You miss a lot,” said Steele, who is married with three small children. “But I have zero regrets. It’s never going to be the right time. You’re never going to have the right house, the right job. Everything else will fall into place, but you have to have someone who’s going to support you.”
Although her parents weren’t too supportive of her career choice in the beginning. Her father wanted her to be a nurse.
“But he’s proud of me now,” Steele said, even if he does e-mail her saying he doesn’t like her hair.
And that is something students wanting a career in broadcasting have to be prepared for as well: the constant critique of how they look and sound.
“You do have to care a lot,” Steele said. “You have to be ready to be criticized about the way you look. You have to accept it or don’t do it.”
But for all the ups and downs in her career, including being told by a news director once she wasn’t worth a $2,000 raise, Steele says she can’t imagine doing anything else.
“I’ve wanted to do this almost my whole life,” Steele said. “I don’t think I’d change anything.”
