Former ESPN host Sam Ponder has explained her decision to homeschool her three children, casting blame on the New York City public school system.
“Meeting so many more families like ours in the city recently who, like us, never thought they’d homeschool,” she wrote via X on Wednesday, September 9. “I went to a huge inner city public school as a kid and thought homeschooling was weird. Then the local public school option became… weirder. I see it as a huge privilege to be able to homeschool but I wish it didn’t feel so necessary.”
Ponder’s comment came above a story from the New York Post that reported a 200 percent increase in homeschooling among New York City kids.
Ponder, 40, and her husband, former NFL quarterback Christian Ponder, share three children: daughter Scout, 12, son Robinson, 9, and daughter Price, 8.
The former Sunday NFL Countdown host was let go by ESPN in 2024 along with former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III, with the network citing budget cuts. She was reportedly entering the final year of a three-year contract worth more than $3 million at the time.
Since then, Ponder has let fans into her life as a mom, rarely holding back her opinions. In October 2025, she publicly railed against an “obviously naturally born boy” participating in her daughter’s middle school girls basketball tournament.
“It’s happened many times now living in NYC … yet another basketball game today where my middle school daughter is guarding an obviously naturally born boy in a girls tournament,” she wrote via X. “The parents cheer while the boy is physical and dominant against the girls. The all girls team loses.”
She continued, “We’ve taught our kids to never make fun of the kid … to always be kind and loving. That the parents are the problem. That no kid is born in the wrong body. But if I’m honest, watching my daughter get posted up by a boy whose parents have deceived him in this way is maddening.”
But Ponder also made it clear that her politics does not make her want to leave the city.
“To everyone saying ‘just move!’ I understand the sentiment but IMHO NYC is the greatest American city that has lost its way,” she wrote. “I want to fight for truth and love. I don’t want to give in to insanity and darkness. This is still America.”
When one fan pointed out ESPN probably wouldn’t let her bring the topic up on air, Ponder replied, “forget on air. I would never try to do that. They wouldn’t let me say that on social media.”
