Former ESPN host details firing after support for women against trans athletes: 'I thought this was sports'

Riley Gaines joins 'Outnumbered' to discuss her clash with Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles over transgender athletes in women's sports and Simone's recent apology for personal attacks. 

Samantha Ponder has been quiet about her firing from ESPN, until now.

Ponder had been vocal about transgender athletes in women's sports on social media back in 2023, which she said prompted a warning from ESPN executives.

Ponder told Sage Steele on the latter's podcast that she shared Paula Scanlan's "story" about swimming against Lia Thomas, but then, "one of the top, top, top" bosses reached out to both former ESPN employees.

"I didn’t really think that was going to get much of a response, but it did," Ponder said. "They were uncomfortable with me talking about the trans women in women’s sports issue and that they weren’t going to allow me to misgender people."

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Samantha Ponder recently broke her silence about getting fired from ESPN. (David Buchan/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images)

Ponder then said she got a "detailed email" from execs that described "anything I had ever tweeted or favorite that they thought was offensive and warned me."

"I knew then I was kind of on the clock, if you will," Ponder said.

Ponder had kept quiet until last summer, even opting not to make a video about Riley Gaines when an ESPN initiative was for its female employees to record a video about an inspirational woman.

That is, until Imane Khelif caught her attention. 

Ponder had shared her Olympic opponent Angela Carini's quotes about having "enough" of Khelif in the ring. Khelif was previously barred from competing in another boxing tournament due to failed gender eligibility testing.

"ENOUGH is what