It looks like we can count longtime ESPN employee David Dennis Jr. among the people who isn’t quite as ready to call Arch Manning’s laugh at the AI video of Holly Rowe getting slapped “water under the bridge.”
Taking to X this morning, Dennis admonished people for being too quick to forgive Manning for his behavior. He declared that Manning is 22 and that people shouldn’t be so quick to call it the mistake of a “kid.”
“Guys. Arch Manning is 22. Yall gotta decide who yall give grace to as a ‘kid’ and who you don’t. And why,” Dennis wrote. “‘He’s just a kid who made a mistake’ no he’s a grown ass man who thoughts/thinks violence against women is funny.”
Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images.
Not sitting right with the fans.
College football fans were a little mixed on Dennis’ remarks though. Some feel that Manning’s actions were dumb and deserving of at least some backlash while others doubled down and accused Dennis of taking it too seriously.
“Like! It was so stupid for him to do, granted I’m not going to crucify him for it…. But to act like it wasn’t dumb and tone deaf is just immature. It is ok to make mistakes and OWN it and move on lol. But to act like he doesn’t deserve any backlash is just plain childish and immature!” one user remarked in Dennis’ replies.
Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
“You guys are throwing a fit because he found an AI video funny. What is wrong with you?” wrote another.
“Actually we don’t and that’s the beauty of the country we live in. We don’t owe that to anyone and can think and speak freely. At the end of the day, the guy/kid laughed at an AI video. There are far worse things he could’ve done and he still apologized directly. Move on,” a third wrote.
It looks like some people are going to hold this incident against Manning for a much longer period of time than even Holly Rowe intends to.
