Texas QB Arch Manning should know better, but it's hard to blame just him for viral moment when his whole life has been scripted

Holly Rowe has been the most prominent female sideline reporter on ESPN's college football telecasts for a couple decades, which means we only know about a small percentage of the sexist garbage she has to deal with on a daily basis.

But we should all be able to understand, even for a seasoned pro like Rowe, the awfulness of the challenge she now faces. Every time ESPN's top broadcast team is assigned to the Texas Longhorns , she will know that the most prominent player on the team — and very likely many of his teammates — were in the locker room yucking it up over an AI-generated video of head coach Steve Sarkisian slapping her.

As thrilling as Texas' 24-23 comeback victory over Ohio State was on Saturday night , the aftermath has been an embarrassing, toxic mess.

On Sunday, you had a candidate for statewide office — a Republican named Bo French — ruining a picture of the postgame celebration that showed the joy of some Texas students by twisting it into racist grievance because of their skin color. It blew up into a social media debacle, drawing condemnation from many in his own party and elevating a race for Texas railroad commissioner into a national story.

Then on Monday, Texas quarterback Arch Manning strode in for his weekly press conference, which was going well enough until someone asked him if he had seen any "edits" on social media of the postgame scene.

"I've seen a few AI edits of stuff, but that's about it," Manning said, starting off innocently enough. "I saw an AI edit of Sark's interview. (Laughter in the room.) Y'all seen that one? That's a good one … of him slapping Holly Rowe. (More laughter.) It's hilarious."

Though it took 24 hours, credit to Manning for issuing an apology Tuesday : "In my press conference yesterday, I made an insensitive comment about an AI video. There is nothing funny about it. It's easy to say I didn't mean it, but I know my words and actions were hurtful to a lot of people. I do not take that lightly and am deeply sorry for that.

"I specifically want to apologize to Holly Rowe for what she has personally had to deal with because of my comments. I have a ton of respect for her and appreciate her showing me grace in this moment. I need to do better and will be more thoughtful going forward."

It was a necessary clean-up job, but the work isn't done.

Because we would not be here if Sarkisian simply acted like a normal human being Saturday night. Though he was understandably frustrated when he had to bail on the standard halftime interview due to technical issues on ESPN's end, there was no reason for Sarkisian to bigfoot Rowe in the postgame scramble by yelling "Texas Fight, Hook 'em!" and then storming off rather than standing there for 30 seconds and answering two questions like every winning coach does after every game.

Sure, these interviews don't add a ton to the broadcast because you're not usually getting deep insights into the game amidst the adrenaline rush of victory. But the way Sarkisian acted was disrespectful and immature — and it obviously trickled down to Texas fans on the internet and his locker room.

You can't do much about somebody taking the video of that interview and using AI to invent a new ending where Sarkisian turns toward Rowe, knocks her to the ground with the back of his hand and runs off with fists raised. The internet is going to do what the internet's going to do.

But it's not funny. A man hitting a woman, real or AI-generated, should never be turned into entertainment.

Manning is a college student, but he is also a 22-year-old grown man who was surely raised to understand that violence against women — even if it comes in the form of satire — is inappropriate. He's also, as we saw Monday, still a bit of an immature kid who's got some growing up to do and his apology was a good first step.

We're not here to "cancel" Manning or call for him to be suspended or lose his endorsements.

And it's understood that since 2024, a segment of America that tends to be very loud on social media has launched a cultural backlash against the policing of offensive speech. But it's not reasonable to see violence against women, even if intended to be comedy, as a place to draw the line.

For a player who has lived much of his life in the spotlight and been pretty buttoned-up in his public comments, it was a surprising whiff by Manning and a moment that he'll hopefully learn the right lesson from.

Teams take on the personality of their coach, and Sarkisian has had other incidents during his time at Texas where he raged at folks who are just trying to do their job. Remember the Alamo Bowl in 2022 when he screamed obscenities at a staff member in the tunnel who was trying to get him to wait before running on the field?

If he's that comfortable being a jerk to people when the cameras are on, it makes you wonder what he's like behind the scenes when something doesn't go exactly how he wants it.

For anyone who has been around college football teams, with all that testosterone flowing through the locker room and a culture of trying to out-bro each other, it's not a huge surprise that players would find their coach belittling a sideline reporter kind of funny. And anyone who has spent time around Gen Z knows how influenced they are by absurdity on social media.

But if you want your program to be about turning boys into good men, you should set that example in how you interact with women on national television. Rowe is too professional and too good to be turned into the butt of a joke in the Texas locker room. There is nothing cool or funny about an image of her on the ground as a victim of a violent slap, even if it's fake.

Saturday was Texas' biggest victory in years, and the Longhorns certainly deserve all the praise for coming back from a 23-3 deficit in the fourth quarter to win.

But within 72 hours, nobody was talking about that anymore. Instead, a racist tweet by a politician and a cringeworthy media appearance by Texas' star quarterback was consuming all the oxygen.

Texas looked like a potential national championship team on Saturday. By Monday night, it looked like a program that isn't ready for prime time.

As a young guy figuring all this out, Manning deserves a little bit of grace. But the fundamental issue that led him to it — including the fawning Texas media laughing it up with him — is an organizational problem.

Maybe Sarkisian doesn't care. But he's not serving himself, his players or his university very well by opening the door for a standard postgame interview to become a sexist meme.