Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, QB Arch Manning, and casual toxic masculinity; LIV Golf’s … losers?

There’s a generalization that rich white guys think it’s OK to laugh at violence against women. Most rich white guys say that’s not true.

You know what would be a great way for rich white guys to dispute that generalization?

Stop laughing at violence against women.

I know it feels these days like we’re at crisis level on several fronts, whether it’s the economy, politics, the climate, or, for lack of a better term, social justice issues. More than anything else, though, it feels like we’re experiencing an overload of casual toxic masculinity.

Two weeks after Good Good Golf ruined its brand by partnering with Callaway in a commercial in which a Good Good executive tackled and berated a woman who was preparing to touch his driver, the biggest Texas home win in 76 years, over No. 1 Ohio State, became a sidelight to the antics of the millionaire principals who made it possible.

First, coach Steve Sarkisian, working under a roughly $76 million contract partially funded by TV rights, refused to participate in halftime and postgame TV interviews, to which he is contractually obligated. Sark tried to justify his actions by citing technical glitches. Please. These sorts of glitches are commonplace on the sidelines of a raucous stadium, and Sarkisian knows it. He was just being a jerk.

He simply ditched Laura Rutledge after waiting all of 10 seconds at halftime. He was just getting warmed up.

After the game, as ESPN threw to respected sideline veteran Holly Rowe — a cancer victim who has worked the sidelines through debilitating treatments — Sarkisian ignored Rowe’s question, screamed, “That’s called Texas fight! That’s called Texas fight!” offered the Longhorns’ catchphrase, “hook ’em,” and ran off like an over-caffeinated teenage boy.

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Sarkisian should have been fined.

He was not.

He addressed the issue Thursday.

“If hindsight’s 20/20, if I could do it all over again, I would have exuded [he meant practiced] more patience in that moment and sat through and waited for the interview with Holly,” he said.

He offered explanations that only painted him as even less professional, justifying his impetuousness by saying, basically, he didn‘t want to wait before halftime, and that, postgame, he couldn’t wait to celebrate with his team.

Predictably, he failed to actually apologize, and worse, he failed to address the massive, vicious fallout that targeted Rowe all week on forums such as talk radio and social media. Sarkisian did manage to blame his quarterback’s reaction entirely on his quarterback and to paint himself and the precious program as blameless.

Even more predictably, Sarkisian didn’t bother to address the incidents at all until Thursday. They should have been addressed no later than Monday night, as things further deteriorated.

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By the time quarterback Arch Manning took to the podium Monday, an AI-generated internet meme that depicted Sarkisian slapping Rowe during their interaction had gone viral. Asked about the original video, Manning, a junior who has made an estimated $10 million in NIL money, said he considered the violent, fake one more entertaining.

“I’ve seen a few AI edits and stuff, but that’s about it,” he said. “I saw an AI edit of Sark’s interview. Y’all seen that one? That’s a good one.”

Which one?

“Of him slapping Holly Rowe. It’s hilarious!”

Again: Manning was asked about the original video, but instead blithely touted the AI imagery of a woman being beaten by his coach.

Disgusting.

Manning — who has sponsorship deals with Red Bull energy drink, Vuori clothing, and Warby Parker glasses — issued an apology Tuesday on Instagram to the millions he offended, for the shrapnel of online hate directed at Rowe following his misogyny, and promised he would be “more thoughtful” in the future.

There was nothing remotely funny or entertaining about the Good Good ad.

There is nothing remotely funny, much less “hilarious,” about the AI violence in the Sarkisian video, which Manning noted: “There is nothing funny about it.”

Really?

Seems like it was plenty funny when he was in front of a gaggle of adoring sportswriters, some of whom, astonishingly, laughed along with Manning … but not so funny when your sponsors are threatening to fire you.

One of the reporters in the room posted the video of Manning’s response with the revealing caption, “ … his answer is gold.”

You can’t make it up.

The reporter has since apologized, but his initial processing of the situation is troubling, to say the least. He was not alone.

Everywhere you looked there were people, mainly men, downplaying what the faces of the Texas program did. The same demographic downplayed the Good Good ad.

In his statement Thursday, Sarkisian said, “Nowhere do we condone domestic violence or violence against women.”

What he doesn’t realize, or what he conveniently ignores, is that there’s a big difference between expressly condoning it, which nobody does, and implicitly, tangentially seeding it by disrespecting and bullying female sideline reporters. There’s also a difference between expressly condoning it and expressing casual indifference by waiting more than half a week to address it while the real life victims endured merciless condemnation for doing nothing more than their jobs and being treated horribly by the coach and quarterback of the No. 1 team in the country.

Nobody feels sorry for the professional golfers and their caddies who began accepting tens of millions of dollars in Saudi sportswash in the middle of 2022, when LIV Golf embarked on its obvious goal of tearing down the PGA Tour that had provided those golfers and caddies the means to the millions they’d already made. They were painted as traitors, often on these pages, and were accurately portrayed.

Many now find themselves uncertain of their futures as LIV slogs through bankruptcy proceedings that will, at best, spawn a toothless replication of itself in 2027. So, yeah, screw those guys.

However …

Should we feel sorry for the folks who worked in LIV’s administration?

Should we feel sympathy for vendors and contractors who are owed millions but will get paid little, if anything, for their efforts?

After all, for moralists (like me), just like the golfers, these folks chose to work for a nation whose government was linked with terrorism against America, kidnapped and murdered a journalist residing in America, and practices a brutal and repressive theocracy. In recent weeks, as we commemorated the 9/11 attacks 25 years ago, it became even more difficult to empathize with even the commoner folk who chased inflated, oil-drenched paychecks.

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It’s a real question, and one I’m wrestling with.

My answer: Maybe we should empathize.

Maybe not.

Aren’t the administrators, vendors, and contractors just as guilty as the golfers for feeding at such a rancid trough?

Shouldn’t they have been just as leery of the Saudis, who are internationally notorious for welching on payments?

LIV laid off more than 300 employees last month. Nobody likes to see folks out of work. I know some of the people who got laid off.

My dad was a union bricklayer, but he also had a small contracting business on the side, so I also know what it’s like to not get paid cash for hard work done.

We had to accept two sheep once, 10 chickens another time, and, probably the best consolation prize, a balky, World War II “Willy’s” Jeep.

I hope the 300 laid-off employees find work elsewhere (actually, I couldn’t care less if former CBS and NBC analyst David Feherty and former Premier League announcer Arlo White, as feckless a pair as ever held a microphone, ever work again).

And I hope the contractors at least get a Jeep, because sheep are pretty useless, and those damned chickens, man, they were the worst.