It happens to the best of us. Who can’t relate to a beverage spill on your computer keyboard or your phone?
Panic sets in, you scramble for paper towels, clean it up as fast as you can and you hope for the best. Plus, there’s always the old bowl of rice trick!
But when SportsCenter anchor Sage Steele spilled some of her tea in Studio X on Tuesday morning, the clean-up required more than Bounty and Uncle Ben’s.
“It’s really cold in the studio [Editor’s Note: True.] so I always have coffee or hot tea,” Steele said. “I was about to interview former Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford and as I turned to say hello to him, my hand grazed [Editor’s Note: Define ‘graze.’] the side of my ceramic mug and. . . that’s all she wrote.”
But the story of Steele’s SportsCenter spill was actually just starting.
“The show ended a few minutes later and as I was taking my microphone off, a member of the studio crew asked me if there was any honey or sugar in my tea,” she said. “I use honey. That’s when I realized this was not your typical spill.”
The sticky substance seeped through the tiles of the SC floor and caused some minor damage.
Anchor David Lloyd sent Steele a text reading: “I hear you broke the studio.” And some of her other SportsCenter colleagues had their own fun with the mishap on their shows.
Said anchor Kenny Mayne, who couldn’t help but mention the spill as he and Steve Levy tossed to Scott Van Pelt for the midnight SportsCenter (see video above): “They are very careful about what we can bring into the studio. I wanted to light some candles for a lead to a Tom Brady story once. . . I was trying to give it a yoga feel. Not that I’ve ever seen candles burning in a yoga studio. Anyway, I got shot down on the candles. Also they don’t like it when I throw footballs even though I am very accurate. Those studio people are all business. Now because of Sage I’ll have to drink from a fire hydrant before shows begin. Rules.”
Steele was “mortified” and has been apologizing profusely to her co-workers.
“I feel horrible because the crew had to work hard to get the studio back up and running,” she said. “Who knew that the combination of a simple cup of tea and a clumsy host could cause such a ruckus?”
