FOX Reporters Disgusted By Arch Manning’s Reaction to Violent Holly Rowe Clip: “Should Be Ashamed”
from Essentially College Football
Arch Manning had already been through Ohio State once before, and it wasn’t pretty. His first start against the Buckeyes ended in a 14-7 loss last season, leaving the quarterback with something to prove when the teams met Saturday again. This time, Manning got his moment.
Texas trailed 23-3 entering the fourth quarter before he helped spark a stunning comeback, sending the Longhorns past the No. 1 team in the country. It was the kind of night that should have left Manning answering questions about one thing: how Texas pulled it off. Instead, one question about the social-media edits from Saturday sent the room in a very different direction, and Manning’s answer has now put him at the center of an unexpected controversy.
Asked Monday if he had seen any of the edits that had surfaced online after Texas’ win, Manning immediately had one in mind. “I saw an AI edit of Sark’s interview,” he told reporters. Then he laughed and asked, “Y’all seen that one? That’s a good one.” Manning was referring to a fake video that made it appear as though his head coach, Steve Sarkisian, had slapped ESPN reporter Holly Rowe. “It’s hilarious,” he added.
That answer landed differently once the video in question was clear.
Manning had not been asked specifically about Rowe or Sarkisian. The question was whether he had seen social-media edits from the celebration, and the quarterback himself volunteered the fake interview clip.
The video he had in mind was an AI-altered version of a real moment from Saturday night. It made it appear as though Sarkisian had slapped Rowe, something that never happened. The actual exchange lasted only a few seconds.
The original footage came moments after the game clock hit zero. While the Longhorns were celebrating their fourth-quarter rally, Sarkisian was approached by Rowe for a postgame interview. Rowe barely got into her question before Sarkisian cut in, shouting, “Let’s go, Texas fight! Let’s go, Texas fight!” into the microphone, then adding “Hook ‘Em!” before walking away toward his team.
The moment looked abrupt on the live broadcast, and Rowe’s visible frustration only added to the attention it received online. But there was more context behind Sarkisian’s tense interactions with ESPN that weekend.
Earlier, his scheduled halftime interview with ESPN’s Laura Rutledge had also gone awry. Cameras caught Sarkisian heading toward the locker room, and Rutledge later explained that he had waited through technical problems before leaving.
“He had waited a long time, been very patient with some technical issues that we had,” Rutledge said before the third quarter. “He apologized to us. We should be apologizing to him, which we did.”
Texas later said technical difficulties also played a role in the postgame interaction with Rowe. That makes it difficult to reduce the episode to Sarkisian simply refusing to speak to an ESPN reporter, even though the brief exchange with Rowe still drew criticism.
The brief exchange quickly spread online, with ESPN personalities including Stephen A. Smith and Paul Finebaum criticizing Sarkisian’s handling of the interview on First Take. From there, the real footage became material for memes and edited clips, and one version took the incident into an entirely different realm.
Users began turning the footage into memes and edits, including one AI-generated version that altered the moment to make it look as though Sarkisian had violently slapped Rowe across the face. The fabricated clip circulated online and eventually reached Manning before Monday’s media availability. That is where the quarterback’s own words became the new story.
The exchange itself also drew laughter from people in the room. That detail became a major part of the backlash, too.
FOX and NBC Sports host Kylen Mills was among those who pushed back, writing on X, “Can we stop making violence against women the punchline of a joke.”
Sports broadcaster Kim Adams took a broader view of the moment, arguing that the response inside the press room deserved scrutiny as well. She pointed to the laughter around Manning’s answer and the reporter who described it as “gold,” rather than placing the entire focus on the quarterback.
ESPN’s Clinton Yates also criticized the exchange, writing that it was “a horrendous exchange on a couple levels,” while specifically questioning the post that had characterized Manning’s response as “gold.”
NFL reporter Crissy Froyd echoed the criticism, while FOX Sports host Devan Kaney shared the clip and wrote, “Just so y’all know this is the video Arch Manning (and apparently the room of ‘journalists’) found so hilarious.”
Emmy-winning sportscaster Chris Williamson also questioned the reaction, writing that he could not understand “what in the world is so funny about a coach slapping a reporter in an AI edit,” before adding that “everybody laughing should be ashamed of themselves.”
NBC Sports college football reporter Nicole Auerbach was similarly focused on the atmosphere in the room, writing, “The laughter from all the men in the room…. so, so gross.”
Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wolken took a more measured approach. After watching the clip, he wrote that it was “not funny at all.” Wolken also gave Manning some benefit of the doubt because of his age, suggesting that “one day he will look back and want a do-over on that one.”
Arch isn’t just another college starter. He is a Manning, carrying a family name built on spotless public relations and camera-ready composure.
As of Monday night, neither Texas nor ESPN had publicly responded to Manning’s comments, and there was no public statement from Rowe addressing the quarterback’s remarks. For Manning, the controversy now sits awkwardly alongside the biggest win of his Texas career, a comeback that had initially made him the story for all the right reasons.