Arch Manning Apologizes to Holly Rowe After Calling AI Slap Video ‘Hilarious’
Arch Manning got this one right, and it only took him a day.
On Tuesday, the Texas quarterback posted an apology for comments he made about an AI-generated video that showed Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe with the back of his hand. Twenty-four hours earlier, Manning had called that video “hilarious” in a press conference. Tuesday, he called it something else entirely.
“In my press conference yesterday, I made an insensitive comment about an AI video,” Manning wrote. “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.”
He went further and named the person who actually absorbed the damage. “I specifically want to apologize to Holly Rowe for what she has personally had to deal with because of my comments,” Manning said. “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.”
This is what an apology is supposed to look like
Most athlete apologies are written by a crisis consultant and read like a tax form. This one wasn’t. Manning didn’t hide behind “if anyone was offended.” He didn’t blame the internet. He said the words were hurtful, said he knew it, and addressed Rowe by name.
The 22-year-old also got out ahead of it quickly, which matters more than people admit. Twenty-four hours is fast. Plenty of programs would have spent that same day workshopping a statement that said nothing.
That said, the original moment was bad. Asked by Inside Texas reporter Evan Vieth on Monday whether he had seen any edits from the weekend, Manning volunteered it himself: “I’ve seen a few AI edits and stuff. I saw an AI edit of Sark’s interview. Y’all seen that one? That was a good one, of him slapping Holly Rowe? Yeah, it’s hilarious.” That is a quarterback describing a fake video of his coach hitting a woman who does her job on that sideline every week.
The real problem was the room
Here is the part that should stick with people longer than Manning’s quote. The room laughed. A reporter in that room called the answer “gold.”
The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach flagged it immediately, writing that “the laughter from all the men in the room … so, so gross.” Kim Adams put the emphasis exactly where it belongs: “Less on Manning, who has a lot to learn as a 22 year old. More on the room’s reaction and the reporter calling the answer ‘gold.'”
Adams is right. Manning is a college kid who said a dumb thing and then owned it in public with his name on it. The credentialed adults in that room, the ones who share a workplace with Rowe, laughed along and then treated it as content. Nobody is asking them to apologize on Twitter.
The backdrop for all of this is Sarkisian himself, who blew off Rowe’s postgame interview after Texas beat Ohio State 24-23 at DKR Texas Memorial Stadium, looking into the camera, flashing a Hook ’em Horns sign and walking off. That became meme fodder and fan edits, one of which turned into the slap video. Sarkisian had also skipped a halftime interview with ESPN’s Laura Rutledge with Texas down 20-3, though Rutledge later explained that was a technical issue on ESPN’s end and apologized to him on air.
So the coach walked off, the internet built the joke, and the quarterback laughed at it in front of a room that laughed with him. Manning is the only person in that chain who has publicly said he was wrong. Make of that what you will.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.