Weekend Plans With Sage Steele, Uncanceled And Unfiltered

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture. 

This weekend, veteran broadcaster and longtime ESPN anchor Sage Steele takes a timeout from filming “The Sage Steele Show” to sit down with The Daily Wire. Splitting her time between Nashville and her little slice of heaven in Florida, she joins us in-studio to describe falling in love again after 50 (with her husband, Dave Barbuto, in her corner), committing daily to God’s purpose for her life, and unleashing the courage to face any storm and find her voice. Here’s how she inspires us all to be bold, brave, and resilient.

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Sage Steele radiates the kind of glow that can only be earned by surviving trial by fire. “When you were little, did you ever think, ‘I want to grow up to be canceled’?” I ask. She laughs, “That word didn’t even exist in 1972!” 

Sage forged her dream career in sports broadcasting by becoming the face of “SportsCenter” and “NBA Countdown” on ESPN. A self-described “proud Army brat,” she loved athletics as a kid and overcame her natural shyness to be even better than the boys at memorizing names, numbers, and stats — and talking about it on camera. By age 11, before she ever saw female sports anchors on TV, Sage declared to her parents that she was headed to the big leagues. 

“My mom and dad were like, ‘Okay, so you want to be on TV? You’re gonna have to talk,’” Sage says, reliving the genesis of her lauded career. “We’re watching TV and I have to memorize the names, the jersey numbers, the position, where they went to college, all those things. My dream was to be around world-class athletes and professional athletes, to learn from them. I never knew that I’d actually be able to accomplish it.”

Sage’s gift for storytelling could draw even the sports-curious over the finish line. She also lent her hosting talents to the Miss America pageant, “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” and the Scripps National Spelling Bee, among others. But everything changed when Sage became the headline herself. 

Just 48 hours after she settled her lawsuit with ESPN and Disney, I first heard Sage detail how simply speaking out about COVID vaccine mandates — after she was forced to comply — led the media giant to pull her off the air. She eventually parted ways with the network that had been her professional home for nearly 17 years. A single mom to three after her first marriage of 20 years dissolved, she felt everything was on the line. But she sure wasn’t letting her right to speak get swept off the table. 

Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

“I think there was relief and exhaustion and then total fear, because what do you do?” she remembers. “I’ve always only worked for people, for networks, so I didn’t know what to expect. I thought, somebody will forgive me for standing up for myself and hire me, and I can go back to doing sports. And that never happened.” Sage cops to the disappointment that accompanies difficult endings, but she embraces new beginnings. “It’s the way it’s supposed to be based on God’s plan.”

Now more than two years into producing her own podcast, Sage often wishes she had spoken up sooner. But the timing made her a champion for generations to come. “I get why people go quiet and go dark. I did for a long time too,” she says. “And then you say enough. It makes me sad that we as a country allowed it to get to the point where someone who disagrees with you can silence you.”

Anyone who still thinks they can shush Sage Steele out of the conversation has another thing coming. “I highly recommend getting canceled,” she says. She’s serious. “It’s been so cool. There have been so many blessings that have come from it.”

Speaking of one of those blessings, Sage’s hubby — retired U.S. Army officer and entrepreneur Dave Barbuto — joins the conversation, casually holding her hand like they’re two cool kids in high school. (The perfectly matched pair celebrated their first anniversary in September). Here’s what a little “cancellation” can do for someone who still believes that anything’s possible.

When you know, you know

“I look at him every day and I still get butterflies,” Sage says. She and Dave met at a veterans benefit in Nashville in 2024 when neither one of them was looking for love. Dave had just broken off a previous relationship, and Sage was attending as her friend Katie’s plus-one. Once he spotted Sage across the room, Dave summoned his best icebreaker.

Courtesy of Sage Steele

“I just said, ‘Hey, my name is Dave. And your mom and my mom, 32 years ago, took care of retired nuns at a convent together,’” Dave says. “And I played high school basketball against your brother.” It was all true. Sage remembered the family name and how their mothers had stayed friends ever since they took elderly nuns out for ice cream at Dairy Queen. The conversation flowed into after-party cocktails where the two talked for hours. 

Sage was the first to pick up on the chemistry. “I knew halfway through the night at the after-party,” she says. “We were talking about everything we both had been through — difficult divorces and kids and just balancing it all — and then he was in the military and our fathers were both [in the military]. It hit me, we just had this connection. Then I started to act like a 16-year-old child.” Sage laughs. “I mean, I had had a couple glasses of wine.” 

Sage recalls how her friend Katie advised, “‘You’re going to marry him. Don’t screw it up.’ And I looked at her and I said, ‘I know.’” They got married almost a year later at Diamond Creek Farms in Nashville, the place where they first met.

“The altar that we had set up was probably 10 feet from where I met her,” Dave reminisces. The wedding was officiated by Sage’s longtime friend and former host of “The Bachelor,” Chris Harrison. I suggest this ceremony was the inspiration for Chris’s new faith-centered relationship show, “The Vow.”

“I would like to take credit for that,” Sage laughs. “I always used to say to him, ‘You need to start a show for old people like me.’” I mention “The Golden Bachelor,” which didn’t check enough boxes. “I’m not quite that old,” Sage says. And about the contestants she jokingly refers to as “Psycho Barbies in their 70s,” she adds, “And I’m not that thirsty.”

I ask Sage and Dave if there was ever a point where they had given up on falling in love again. If two meaningful relationships might be one too many for this lifetime. 

Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images for DailyWire+

“I would never have given up on love, but I did wonder if I could trust someone,” Sage shares, acknowledging the firestorm around her public image. “I had friends who didn’t want to hang out with me, much less men. I had been told before by a man that I was too controversial and he wasn’t comfortable introducing me to people,” she admits. “I was like, oh gosh, I need to make myself smaller because otherwise I’m going to be alone in my life.” After praying on it, so to speak, she found peace with being herself. “The right person won’t run away from me.” 

Team effort

In the midst of a conversation where Sage is lamenting the metabolic shift of a certain phase of life — she says “It sucks” and “I’m going to be fighting it until the bitter end” — Dave points out that they remain committed to a good sweat five days a week.

“We work out in our home gym and then we walk a ton,” Dave explains. “We live in 12 South, so it’s like the best walking neighborhood.” Sage jumps in on Dave’s ab workouts and keeps up the weightlifting form she developed from her CrossFit days. “I honestly have the Peloton app. I don’t have a bike anymore, but their strength classes are so good on there,” she says. 

As for her playlist, Sage cranks up “The Zac Brown Band … Morgan Wallen, Lauren Daigle, Post Malone, Francesca Battistelli, Jelly Roll, Dermot Kennedy, Stevie Wonder, old Tracy Chapman hits … a little bit of everything.” When she looks over at Dave and says, “It’s so hot to see him working out,” I confirm for the official record that they are both #goals. 

“Genetically, we’re lucky because we’re tall and we work hard,” Sage explains. But, blessedly, she’s also real about it. “It’s not like I don’t try.” Her ultimate goal for maintaining her fitness? “I want to be around to haunt my children for a very long time.”

Made with love

Sage openly calls out Dave’s beer snobbery, revealing of their wedding, “He helped plan everything, but his number one priority was not just the type of beer we had there, but the quantity as well. Five different beer selections along with all the wine, too. I was like, who needs five options?” Dave laughs, “There were no complaints.” But the one thing they agree on is that “date nights always revolve around food and wine.” 

Dave does most of the cooking, preferring “steak for sure, red meat, a lot of pasta,” but Sage skips the starches, opting for her favorite “big, fat, juicy medium-rare ribeye with broccolini.” When they’re going grill-adjacent, Dave notes, “We’ve gotten into these bowls where we just do some sort of meat, tons of vegetables, sometimes couscous or rice, and a bunch of arugula.” Sage adds, “We don’t use dressings anymore. It’s just fresh lemon, salt, pepper, and olive oil.” 

These days she’s doing less of the sweet stuff, but Sage has also been down for a good bake session. “During my kids’ childhood, I made weekly banana bread from scratch,” she says. “I really enjoyed doing it alone at, like, midnight. My kids just loved it. I would switch up fresh blueberries in it or chocolate chips, dried cranberries. That made me feel that when I was working, they could taste that and think of me and be like, ‘Look what my mom did.’ That’s why I did it.”

After she describes her chocolate chip cookies, her “really good carrot cake,” and her lemon squares that absolutely require fresh-squeezed lemon, I’m mentally clocking a future cookbook. “I find it very therapeutic,” Sage says. “I did it during a lot of tougher times in my life. I’d turn on a podcast and pour a glass of wine and make a lot of stuff.”

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Trusting the journey

Sage and Dave would never refer to themselves as spiritual influencers, but they’re hoping to share what they learn about their faith with fans. I’m curious about the book they regularly dive into on Instagram: “Trusting God with Today,” a daily devotional by Charles F. Stanley. It was a gift to Sage and her siblings from her dad.

“Shortly after we met, I was living in Florida and [Dave] was [in Nashville]. So we just did it over the phone or we’d send each other a screenshot and then share what we took from it,” Sage says. Sage and Dave both grew up Catholic and put God first when things started getting serious. Dave had no qualms about asking Sage, “What are you looking for in a relationship? What’s important to you?” After scribbling down Sage’s answers while he was traveling for work, he remembers her “first thing was faith, which was my first, too.” 

“It’s been uncomfortable to be open about my faith,” Sage admits. But step by step, she’s inviting others to ask hard questions along with her. Maybe someone else out there is wondering, “Why has God pointed my life in this direction?” 

“I’m only standing because of some tough times where I finally just gave up and gave in and was like, ‘Okay, I don’t know what to do, God. Help me,’” Sage explains. “How can I keep that to myself when I know how helpful it’s been to me?”

“Don’t give up hope, but let go and let God,” she says. “Trust the timing. You just don’t know what’s next.”

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