Cooper Manning says most of Arch Manning’s critics are unqualified to have opinions
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A roller-coaster ride can only begin to describe Arch Manning’s 2025 season with Texas and all of the media coverage that came with it.
The son of Cooper was widely heralded as a Heisman Trophy favorite entering the season, but a rocky start caused people to turn the other way.
But after Arch led the Longhorns to 3 straight wins down the stretch and was the star of the show in most of those games, the narrative shifted back in its initial direction.
Cooper spoke to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman about the coverage of Arch and the many people that have opinions on his son, providing some insight on what seeing that was like from a parent’s perspective.
“I think being a parent of someone who’s being critiqued on every little move is definitely a challenging spot,” Cooper said. “There’s a lot of people in this sports world that have opinions, and there’s only a small portion of them that are qualified to have them or that I would respect listening to, so you gotta pick your spots carefully. And that goes both ways when they’re saying nice things, you know that can flip on a day or a dime.
Cooper went on to specifically talk about all of the hype surrounding the season-opening loss to Ohio State, adding that was a moment that taught him to have a smaller focus when it comes to what media he takes in.
“If they were the 20th-ranked team, which they probably should’ve been, and they got beat by seven at Ohio State, it wouldn’t be the end of the world,” Cooper said. “But all the fluff and the nonsense that comes with it, and it adds to the useless banter that goes on. I’ve learned to limit what I read and listen to. It’s actually quite liberating.”
“The coverage of sports is over the top, and there are too many people doing it,” Cooper added. “It’s no different than when they were saying he was the greatest thing since sliced bread early in the season before he’d ever played.
[H/T Awful Announcing]
Parker is currently the sports editor for 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.
