The same people who can ask UVA Football coach Tony Elliott, twice, about how great it is to be in the presence of notorious dogkiller Michael Vick, are cackling with Arch Manning over an AI video of Texas coach Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe.
Obviously, not the exact same people – but, there’s your dudebro culture in the sports media corps, which I’ve been telling y’all about for years, front and center, for the world to see.
It’s the locker room writ large, only with cameras running, and supposed professionals in charge of the conversation.
I’m going to make some of y’all mad here when I say, Arch Manning is a young person – 22, so not as young as you’d think, but 22 is still immature, in the grand scheme – so, I’ll give him a pass, just this one.
You’d think growing up a Manning would have had him able to take questions at the press conference announcing his birth minutes after coming out of the womb, but anyway.
I think we can guarantee that the Mannings will make sure that the kid won’t make the mistake of showing what a dumb-jock jerk he really is ever again, times a million.
The uproarious laughter that you hear in the video that got Manning in trouble with the PR gods is what bothers me here.
The question, even – the dudebro who asked it is now trying to claim that he was referring to other AI videos of the Texas-Ohio State game, which, yeah, sure, Jan.
I wonder what the excuse is for the two guys who felt the need to get Tony Elliott to prostrate himself at the altar of Michael Vick, a former #1 overall pick who ended up being a barely replacement-level NFL QB, and yet the media here continues to be as bedazzled and bumfuddled about what he was supposed to be as everybody was back when Vick was at Virginia Tech putting up middling numbers.
ICYMI
- UVA Football: Tony Elliott fanboys over dogkiller Michael Vick, to his, and our, shame
- UVA Football: Tony Elliott, egged on by local media, falls on his sword for Michael Vick, again
And that’s before you consider that UVA Football still has a guy on its roster, as of me checking again this morning, who is facing animal-cruelty charges involving a dog (!).
Solomon Beebe is, yes, still on the roster, following his arrest on Aug. 18, and pending his next court date, on Oct. 1.
ICYMI
- UVA Football: Backup tailback Solomon Beebe arrested on animal-cruelty charges
- UVA Football: No update on the status of Solomon Beebe following arrest
- UVA Football: Solomon Beebe ‘suspended indefinitely’ in wake of arrest
It kinda stands out that the two guys who have conveniently forgotten that Michael Vick, in addition to his underwhelming actual football career, spent time in prison for killing dogs (!), also seem to have conveniently forgotten about Beebe.
And about star wideout Jahmal Edrine, who is scheduled to go before a jury on Nov. 16 on rape and abduction charges from an incident reported to Albemarle County Police a few days before the 2025 season opener.
ICYMI
- Albemarle County: UVA Football player charged with rape, abduction
- Bond set for former UVA Football wideout Jahmal Edrine in rape, abduction case
- UVA Football: Tony Elliott talks with reporters, who don’t ask about Jahmal Edrine
Maybe our local media could spend less time asking the coach questions about his level of worship of an unrepentant dogkiller, and more time keeping on top of the legal issues involving his players.
I can hear some of you right now, firing off the angry email, about how I’m the asshole here.
I’ll wear it.
Is this why I don’t called on in press conferences?
Because I’m that kind of asshole?
Maybe.
It is why I’m not entirely upset that the media-relations folks seat me literally on the fringe of the press box on Fridays and Saturdays, safely away from the cool kids.
I wouldn’t want to disrupt the chuckling.
Share
Chris Graham
