ESPN Re-Signs Anti-Caitlin Clark Race Baiters After Firing Sam Ponder For 'Budget Cuts'

ESPN fired Sam Ponder in August, citing "budget cuts." We remain skeptical.

Ponder was the network's lead NFL studio host. Yet ESPN fired her three weeks before the start of the NFL season. Secondly, Ponder had become the network's only female talent to speak out against transgenderism in women's sports, a non-grata topic at the Disney-owned media operation.

Specifically, Ponder had posted "XY= male XX= female" on X – in response to the International Olympic Committee permitting a fighter with XY chromosomes to box against women in the 2024 Olympics – just weeks before her firing, which sources tell OutKick infuriated ESPN executives.

ESPN's reasoning for laying off Ponder would be more believable if the network were actually cutting down on salary expenses. ESPN is not. In fact, the network announced on Thursday that it had re-signed three basketball analysts: Kendrick Perkins, Chiney Ogwumike, and Monica McNutt.

Hmm.

While Ponder had become a political pariah inside ESPN – for believing that men should not play women's sports – Perkins, Ogwumike, and McNutt have firmly established themselves as soldiers on the other side of the culture war.

Perkins is best known as an analyst for, without merit, accusing NBA MVP voters of racism in 2023. He cited since-debunked "facts" about the number of white voters and white MVP winners to make the case that Nikola Jokic could not win the MVP if he were not white.

Perkins then fumed in a now-deleted Twitter rant that white people are allowed to make mistakes on television because of their "privilege" and black men like him are not.

Well, it turns out black men are allowed to make mistakes. 

Not only did Perkins' commentary seemingly cost Jokic the award (voters were afraid to be