Steiner, who was born and raised in the New York City region, attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and started his career as a newscaster for WIRL radio. Following his graduation from Bradley, he presented his first sports program on Davenport, Iowa's KSTT radio station. After a year, Steiner relocated to New Haven, Connecticut, where she served as the news director for WAVZ radio before moving upstate to Hartford and WPOP radio in the same position.
At WXLO-FM, Steiner made his debut in the New York market, providing newscasts for people like then-morning host and future actor Jay Thomas. Later, he transferred to sister station WOR, where he worked as its morning drive sportscaster for several years while also serving as the RKO Radio Network's sports director. In addition, he provided the play-by-play commentary for the NFL's New York Jets as well as the USFL's New Jersey Generals.
Steiner began working for ESPN primarily as a SportsCenter anchor. He also performed same tasks as the network's chief boxing analyst.
A number of well-known television commercials for ESPN's humorous This is SportsCenter campaign featured Steiner. In a promo for SportsCenter that showed the SportsCenter cast talking about a backup plan for ESPN's studios after Y2K, Steiner was shown screaming, "Follow me to freedom!" while sporting a tie as a headband and Braveheart-inspired facial paint. After singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame, he shouted this sentence at Wrigley Field.
Steiner—an Emmy Award winner—became the 17th sportscaster to be admitted to the National Radio Hall of Fame. He received an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from his alma mater Bradley University and he also delivered the graduating speech..

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