You know a situation has gone completely off the rails when the head coach has to come out and basically say: 

“Yeah… maybe I should’ve just sat my ass down and answered the questions.”

Welcome to the latest episode of “How Did We Get HERE?”

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is acknowledging that he should have handled his postgame exchange with ESPN reporter Holly Rowe differently following Texas’ victory over Ohio State. 

And honestly, folks, this story has officially entered the territory where you need a flow chart, three attorneys, a media consultant and somebody from the FBI just to figure out how we got from a football interview to AI-generated videos of Sarkisian allegedly slapping Holly Rowe! 

WHAT?! 

This is college football in 2026. 

You win a football game and somehow three days later we’re discussing artificial intelligence, fake violence, apologies, social media outrage and whether a coach should have waited 30 seconds before talking to a reporter. 

Forget the College Football Playoff. Somebody needs to put this story in the College Football Soap Opera! 

Sarkisian admitted Thursday that he could have handled the situation better.

And that’s probably the biggest takeaway here. 

The Texas coach said he has tremendous respect for ESPN and Rowe and acknowledged that he should have shown more patience instead of allowing the moment to escalate. 

Apparently, Sarkisian had already been waiting around for his halftime and postgame interviews. 

Texas had just beaten Ohio State.

His team was celebrating. 

And Sarkisian wanted to be with his players. 

I GET IT! 

If I’m Steve Sarkisian and we just beat Ohio State, I’m probably thinking: 

“Where are my players? Where is the celebration? Where is the Gatorade? And why am I still standing here talking to people when my team is celebrating?” 

But here’s the problem. 

Sometimes when you’re in the middle of the moment, you don’t realize how something looks from the outside. 

And that’s exactly what Sarkisian now seems to understand. 

He basically admitted: 

“If I could do it again, I’d have waited.” 

Translation: 

“Errol, shut up. Holly, ask the question. I’ll answer it. Let’s go home.”

And THAT probably would have been the end of the story. 

Except…

Then came Arch Manning. 

Ohhhhhhhh, Arch. 

The quarterback got himself into some trouble after joking publicly about an AI-generated video depicting Sarkisian slapping Rowe. 

Now, let me make something very clear: 

FAKE AI VIDEOS ARE ALREADY A NIGHTMARE. 

You can’t believe half the stuff you see anymore.

Somebody can take your face, put it on somebody else’s body, make you say something you never said, make you do something you never did and have half the internet screaming: 

“DID YOU SEE THIS?!” 

NO! 

You didn’t see it! 

You saw a computer make it! 

And that’s where this situation gets serious. 

Because the fake video involved violence against a woman. 

Arch later apologized for his comments, and to his credit, he didn’t try to hide behind the classic athlete apology: 

“If anyone was offended…” 

Nope. 

Manning actually took responsibility. 

He acknowledged that his words were hurtful and apologized directly to Rowe. 

Rowe then said she and Manning had spoken about it and that she accepted his apology. 

That’s called handling it like adults. 

And Sarkisian made another important point.

He said there is absolutely no place for domestic violence or violence against women and that he didn’t believe Manning intended anything malicious when he made the joke. 

That’s an important distinction. 

Because there’s a difference between saying somebody made a stupid joke and saying somebody actually supports violence. 

Those are NOT the same thing. 

But here’s where social media goes completely insane. 

Social media doesn’t want nuance. 

Social media wants:

GOOD GUY! 

BAD GUY! 

FIRE SOMEBODY! 

CANCEL SOMEBODY! 

MAKE A 47-POST THREAD! 

Meanwhile, the rest of us are sitting there saying: 

“Can everybody just take a breath?” 

Sarkisian now says he should have waited for the interview. 

Manning apologized. 

Rowe accepted the apology. 

And hopefully everyone involved learned something from it. 

But you know what I learned? 

Apparently beating Ohio State isn’t enough anymore. 

You beat Ohio State and congratulations! 

You get a victory, a press conference, an AI controversy, a social-media apology and approximately 9,000 people who have never spoken to anybody involved explaining exactly what happened. 

WELCOME TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL!

And Sarkisian’s comments are actually refreshing because he didn’t spend the entire time blaming somebody else. 

He didn’t say: 

“It’s Holly’s fault.” 

He didn’t say: 

“It’s ESPN’s fault.” 

He didn’t say: 

“It’s the internet’s fault.” 

He basically said: 

“I could’ve handled it better.” 

That’s accountability. 

And maybe that’s the real lesson here. 

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do after an emotional moment is absolutely nothing. 

Take a breath. 

Wait. 

Talk. 

Then move on.

Because once you hit the internet with a controversial moment, you’re no longer controlling the story. 

The internet is. 

And folks… 

The internet has the attention span of a squirrel on three Red Bulls.

One minute you’re talking about Texas beating Ohio State. 

The next minute somebody has created an AI video of your coach committing an act that never happened. 

Then your quarterback is apologizing. 

Then the reporter is responding. 

Then the coach is apologizing. 

Then everybody’s arguing. 

And I’m sitting here wondering: 

CAN WE PLEASE GO BACK TO TALKING ABOUT FOOTBALL?! 

Because somewhere in all of this chaos, Texas actually won a football game over Ohio State! 

That’s the part that got buried! 

But that’s modern sports media.

The game ends. 

The microphones come out. 

The cameras start rolling. 

And before you know it, we’re not talking about the quarterback’s performance anymore.

We’re talking about whether the coach should have waited 30 seconds for an interview.

ONLY IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL! 

So give Sarkisian credit for admitting he could have handled the moment better.

Give Manning credit for apologizing. 

Give Rowe credit for accepting the apology. 

And maybe — just maybe — everybody can move forward. 

Because if there’s one thing we should have learned from this entire circus, it’s this:

DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE ONLINE! 

Especially when the internet is involved. 

Because today it’s an AI video. 

Tomorrow somebody will have Nick Saban coaching the Knicks, Aaron Judge playing quarterback and me running for president. 

Actually…

WAIT A MINUTE. 

Maybe that last one isn’t such a bad idea. 

ERROL MARKS 2028. 

I’ll let you know where I stand after I see the polls. 

Until then… 

TURN THE DAMN CAMERAS OFF AND LET THESE PEOPLE PLAY FOOTBALL!