Samantha Ponder (née Steele;[1] born December 11, 1985) is an American sportscaster who most recently hosted Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN.

While in New York City, she applied for a hostess job at ESPN Zone where she met Ben Keeperman, a college football researcher and manager with ABC Sports Radio, which led to an internship at the network, which in turn led to a researcher-assistant job with ABC-TV on the college football studio show.

[9] Ponder, along with Kevin Dunn and Lowell Galindo, were the newly created network's first three talent hires.

[8] In August 2024, ESPN fired Ponder, removing her as host of Sunday NFL Countdown.

[11] After briefly dating, she married then-Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder on December 17, 2012, in Hudson, Wisconsin.