Laura Rutledge recalls backstory from viral Georgia sideline hit, aftermath
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Roughly 5 years ago, ESPN’s Laura Rutledge got a true taste of SEC football while sideline reporting. During Georgia’s 66-27 win over UMass on Nov. 17, 2018, Rutledge was getting ready to shoot a report when a UGA player was shoved out of bounds and knocked into her.
Took an L in Athens today. So many thanks to everyone at @UGAAthletics for their help after this happened…even though I’m a Gator ? pic.twitter.com/b1FTCPaqtH
— Laura Rutledge (@LauraRutledge) November 18, 2018
Rutledge was fine, and she recounted the event and its aftermath on a recent SDS Podcast Episode.
“The funny thing was that they [Georgia] did not want the video out, but I did,” Rutledge said. “Cause I was like ‘this is funny, I can’t believe that this happened.'”
The ESPN host explained that she had to sign plenty of paperwork afterwards but did not sustain any injuries. Rutledge did say that her boot was badly damaged, yet she still delivered her sideline report right after.
“We did X-Rays at halftime too, that was funny,” Rutledge said. “Georgia was so nice about that.”
Coming from a Florida Gator, that is high praise.
Remember the time that @LauraRutledge got run over while reporting on the sideline at Georgia?
There was more to that viral moment than people realized, which she shared on the latest @TheSDSPod.
Full interview: https://t.co/c4pAlt4wr7 pic.twitter.com/XU8EhhGtcq
— Connor O’Gara (@cjogara) September 15, 2023
Parker is currently the sports editor with the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
