Riley Gaines: ESPN Fired Only Woman Defending Women's Sports

Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines has spoken out about ESPN's firing of "Sunday NFL Countdown" host Samantha Ponder.

"So ESPN fires @samponder, the only woman at the network who [has] publicly said men don't belong in women's sports. 3 weeks before football season? Sam is one of the most beautiful, genuine women I've ever met along with@sagesteele who had a similar fate.... not a coincidence," Gaines posted on X.

The New York Times' The Athletic reported that ESPN told Ponder and analyst Robert Griffin III on Thursday morning that they were fired, citing a source who had been briefed on the situation. A source told The Athletic the two were let go due to budget cuts.

Ponder and Griffin both earned more than seven figures working for the Disney-owned sports network.

According to The Athletic, sources said this football season would've been Ponder's last of a more than $3 million, three-year deal. The "Sunday NFL Countdown" hosting gig was her only appearance on ESPN — she essentially didn't work for the remainder of the year.

Gaines pushed back on the report that one of the largest media companies dropped the pair for budgetary reasons.

"This was news to me. I was looking up, you know, what was the reasoning; they said this was for budget cuts," she said.

"But it should be no surprise that Sam Ponder was the only current employee — the only current female employee — at ESPN who was willing to publicly declare that men do not belong in women's sports. Just about a year ago, Sam, she quoted one of my tweets talking about the Biden administration and Title IX and what they were doing to this ruling, effectively abolishing Title IX.

"She quoted one of my tweets," Gaines continued, "and said that it wasn't hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls. Then USA Today columnist Nancy Armour, she then attacked Ponder for her views.

"She claimed that her views reflected bigotry and they were a sham. Ponder — she has been the host of ESPN's "NFL Countdown" since 2017 — she went on to then respond to this article by Nancy Armour saying that biology is not bigotry and even went on to say that loving people does not require the absence of boundaries. Absolutely."