Desmond Howard is catching flak for comments about Vanderbilt K Sarah Fuller's kicking form on College GameDay
On Saturday afternoon, Vanderbilt could make history, as K Sarah Fuller — a champion goalkeeper from the Vanderbilt soccer team — could become the first woman to play in a Power 5 game.
The ESPN College GameDay crew shared their thoughts on Fuller during Saturday’s show, but analyst Desmond Howard made some comments that didn’t sit well with many fans.
As you can see below, Howard compared Fuller’s kicking motion to Charles Barkley’s legendarily awkward golf swing:
Yea! Let’s all laugh at the woman playing football today! Cool. #SarahFuller
@ESPNCFB @espn @DesmondHoward pic.twitter.com/dOk0kajW9n— Rachel Komyati (@rbraunwell) November 28, 2020
Though Barkley and Phil Mickleson just beat Steph Curry and Peyton Manning in a Thanksgiving Day golf event, it’s clear what Howard meant by his comparison.
Fans took to Twitter to call out Howard for the unnecessary comments:
https://twitter.com/dambach76/status/1332721843615182849
@DesmondHoward if you don’t have anything nice to say…go @SarahFuller_27 and @VandyFootball!! #GirlDad #brakebarriers
— Lucas Wilson (@LDub5280) November 28, 2020
Desmond Howard comparing Sarah Fuller's kicking stroke to Charles Barkley's golf swing is a reminder that Desmond Howard puts his foot in his mouth more than most human beings on live television.
— Connor O'Gara (@cjogara) November 28, 2020
Why is Sarah Fuller kicking for Vanderbilt a punchline for @DesmondHoward ? Go get em @SarahFuller_27 #kicklikeagirl
— Kristen Garrone (@krissygarrone) November 28, 2020
https://twitter.com/paulwerner89/status/1332720710914105345
Damn Desmond Howard about to catch hell.
— matt (@mattfsu77) November 28, 2020
Desmond Howard’s only response to Sarah Fuller is making fun of her kicking form. Got it.
— Hall of Fame Internet Person Stephen (@SHGrove90) November 28, 2020
@DesmondHoward making fun of the first collegiate female kicker (Vandy’s Sarah Fuller) on Gameday this morning was not a good look. Really, her kick looks like Barkley’s golf swing? Historic moment and THAT’S what you go with?
— Jay Torrell (@jaytorrell) November 28, 2020
We’ll see if Howard issues an apology for his statements. Vanderbilt is getting set to play Mizzou at 12 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
So now honesty is no longer a good thing!
Not necessarily this article, but honesty and facts haven’t been in vogue for awhile
The truth really does hurt these days.
Having an intelligent opinion would be a good thing. She kicks like a soccer goalie. If he doesn’t know what that style looks like he shouldn’t be commenting.
If she can’t kick a football, then her style doesnt matter. And her style is not a goalie style, it is soccer style but not executing the kick off is on her.
Um, executed as directed. They didn’t want it kicked deep.
It is when she was told to punch kick the ball and not kick off normally. It appeared they wanted her to kick but not risk her getting hit or trying to tackle someone. His comments were stupid.
His comments were meant to reflect a major college football game is made a joke by using it as a publicity stunt. Why don’t we get the flute player out of the band to be running back.
At the rate the LSU players are quitting on their team, you may need that flute player.
I’d like more information on whether this kick cost her or one of the players on the D1 football team their scholarship based on maximum scholarships allowed.
Otherwise why not give everyone a ping pong scholarship and let them also play football? And, if it doesn’t cost anyone a scholarship, is it because of special historical girl exceptions because historic girls and rules don’t apply?
SDS, practice some sports reporting, please.
You can suit up a certain amount of players. Learn rules before making ignorant comments like Howard. Think, red shirted players, walk ons, you might figure it out yourself, or, if you are a fan, Texas A&M 12th man.
You make my point for me. She’s a scholarship athlete in soccer. Starting goalie iirc. You can only have X scholarship athletes on the football team.
Did she lose hers, or will a football player lose his?
Come on man. Calling someone ignorant?
“ignorant” is not always a slam or inappropriate. The point made here is important and ‘maybe’ it has been addressed by the NCAA already. My ignorance won’t let me say here. But the point goes forward importantly. So somebody get the rule book out and tell us, because an institution could certainly recruit a lot of two sport athletes and use them to bolster both rosters. This could be considered unfair or just smart recruiting by the institution, or a reward to an institution for providing more athletic opportunities for student-athletes.
She can play as a walk on. Her scholarship has nothing to do with the football teams limits. You don’t have a point except it bothers you that she is playing. Ignorance is no excuse.
Except for the part where the NCAA has very specific rules on multi-sport scholarship athletes. If one of the sports is football, then football is scholarship sport. It takes precedence.
She either lost her scholarship, or a football player lost his. Or rules don’t matter. That’s what we’d like professional reporters to investigate and report on.
I’ll just leave this NCAA rule here if anyone is interested:
“Multisport Participants.
… A counter who was not recruited (per Bylaw 15.02.8)
and/or offered financial aid to participate in football and who competes in football and one or more sports (in-
cluding basketball) shall be counted in football.”
Thanks for bringing that, most people has no idea how detailed the NCAA rules are. Not to mention the NAIA rules, or the NJCAA rules.
Truth has not been in vogue since Trump was elected by people like you and probably 90 percent of the people reading and commenting on this website. You people have no credibility and your decades of “character” B.S. has been exposed by Trump.
And people like you are working hard to cancel free speech. The truth is you cant stand a smarter opinion than yours.
Amen glad.
If we’re being honest, Connor O’Gara makes SDS’s podcast unlistenable. If she’s equal, she’s game for all the poor jokes that other players get. No longer a protected class.
I mean she played soccer so yes she going to have a shorter stroke then a kicker. I’ve never seen her kick but I felt more of a poke at him saying that vandy. Since the chances will be few.
Length of the stroke has nothing to do with soccer player vs kicker. It depends on the power you want behind your kick and/or the distance. And the fact that a lot of kickers have been soccer players. For example, our very own Josh Lambo.
Why would we think that desmond howard knows anything about kicking? When has he seen her kick a football?
Optics are all that matters.
I agree with you RollTideRicky.
The truth hurts and point blank a female doesn’t belong on the football team. She can’t even be in the locker room or at least shouldn’t be. I know I wouldn’t want my daughter in the locker room with all that goes on in there.
This also has something bad to say about the male soccer team, that not one of those guys couldn’t kick better than her? I personally know that’s not the truth. Keep sports separate and keep the girls on the girls teams.
Why not just add a few males to some of the female sports then. Oh that’s right that would be unfair… just look at all the males identifying as female who are subpar male athletes annihilating the best female competitors in track and field events it’s hilarious!
I completely agree, nothing but for publicity!
There isn’t a men’s soccer team at Vandy, or the majority of major universities because of title 9
They have club teams, former high school players and college transfers that still play. Still competitive. You still have to find someone comfortable kicking a football vs a soccer ball.
There isn’t men’s soccer in the SEC. I think South Carolina and Kentucky have men’s soccer but play in another conference. If Vandy did we probably would’ve never heard of Sarah.
So keep all sports separate. No baseball and football players. Kyler Murray should have been limited to only one too. Would it be ok if it were a male soccer player? They don’t have a men’s soccer team and they needed a kicker.
no, that’s not what happened, they had a roster full of men that could kick immediately and they had a campus full of men that could walk on and kick by the rules governing, and they all got pushed aside for a publicity stunt….. Instead Vanderbilt should have brought the ENTIRE Women’s NCAA Championship Vanderbilt team on the field (like they do at Missouri football games) to take a well deserved bow.
There is an easy answer as to why they didn’t take a guy off the men’s team. The SEC doesn’t have men’s soccer. Since you didn’t know that your opinion is rendered moot.
Dumb @$$ gump you knew exactly what I meant to type. Do you feel better now that they had her kick off half-time just so she could get in the game. You’re the type of person that would scream murder if a guy tried to play in the wnba. It’s ok to be woke within reason. I’m sure you guys want a parade and everything because she kicked the ball. Whoopty-do.
I promise you there is men’s club team at Vanderbilt. They all have one since there is no men’s team. All former high school players and college transfers. They travel, the games are professionally refereed. It’s just not backed by the school nor are there scholarships.
As you and I probably agree Marine that females don’t belong in the infantry or other direct combat jobs.
If you are going to use a soccer player why would you use a goalkeeper instead of a sticker? We all know this is about getting Vanderbilt some attention and nothing more.
Dirty South, I would say traditionally goal keepers at the competitive level are usually one of the players on a soccer team, who can typically kick the furthest on a team. When they are usually the player who takes all the goal kicks and can kick a cool 60-70 yards. But at the same time it doesn’t mean they can kick a football that far either.
The media has shown clips of her kicking the soccer ball from inside her penalty box to about mid-field, so roughly 40 yards on a low trajectory. Soccer balls fly further than footballs. So this translates to about 30 yards if she kicks a football. That’s why they needed to kick the ball out of bounds.
She made field goals consistently over 35 yards in practice. Ignorance is a crime in posting!
Unless she is driving the ball 70 yards out of the back of the end-zone and preventing a run-back against a short-man kick coverage unit, you haven’t changed my point with your ignorant nit-pik about distance.
So PaulTideVol, basically from the 25 yd line is her effectiveness.
That was my question too. But if she can kick she can kick.
no, goal-keepers are trained for distance kicking, striker (forwards) are trained for quick un-telegraphed strokes.
I am pleased she’s getting an opportunity to kick for Vanderbilt this weekend. The fact that she can make history is cool as well. There is honestly some PR to it as well, we all know Vandy’s football team is not particularly good.
Her form is just fine, both of my boys play high level soccer here in Dallas and my 11 year old’s form is similar to Sarah’s and he can strike the ball. Honestly I prefer not to be in net when he shoots, even though he’s a defender. My son’s coach 100% rebuilt his shot in 2019.
My 11 year old son’s club coach played pro in Europe (as a keeper) so I am guessing he knows more about kicking a ball than Desmond Howard.
As someone who played 25 years of soccer throughout my life (I am 47 years old) and now my 2 sons play high level soccer here in the Dallas area I know more about kicking then Desmond Howard will ever know (I attempted to walk on in college but just didn’t quite have the leg, PS I never played high school football).
You also do not want to use a Striker (sticker) as a kicker because as a Striker you want to “drive” the ball (lower and with power) as opposed to a keeper who is to “sweep under” the ball and put it high into the air.
I do not care if Desmond has an opinion BUT when you are ignorant of what you are discussing you should just keep it to yourself.
Perfect response.
Good luck to your kids in club and where it take them. Put 3 through club.
I was at the game. I am a Mizzou fan. My youngest who plays varsity football (switched from soccer to football in 8th grade – burned out) and I were watching her practice. She has good form for driving a soccer ball. But for football, she needs more than 1 weeks practice. Her kicks were low drives, not lofting and she was practicing FGs from a short distance and they weren’t strong. What is she capable of? Have her compete for the job and we’ll know. The problem with what happened is it was novel, not significant. It was done for effect, not something that was earned. Now if she’d wowed everyone with her kicking (not talking about the kickoff), there wouldn’t be conversation other than to say she’s the real deal. But I didn’t see it when she practiced.
Then no one should ever again discuss politics.
You ever seen a soccer goalie punt the ball? Guarantee you she can outkick you and Desmond Howard.
Punting and kicking not quite the same. Punting in football, distance and and hang time are a plus where in soccer it’s more of a line drive. Plus she doesn’t need to outkick DH or posters here, she needs to be able outkick others trying out for the position.
Sticker? That would be a striker. If you knew anything about soccer you would know that goalies have stronger legs and usually better technique due to goal kicks.
Honest criticism is a sign of respect. I am sure she can take it. She’s a national champion.
Who cares who plays. If she is the best they have let her play. The 25 yard kick off in the second half let’s me know its a movement to promote women playing in men’s sports. Oh yea what does anyone care its Vandy.
What bothers me is all these reactions trying to say they’re laughing at her. They’re laughing about the fact that Vandy almost never scores so she wasn’t likely to kick more than once (either first or second half kickoff). Are we only allowed to laugh at a team that hasn’t been playing well if there are no women on that team?
Well the history of her kicking off was hilarious! 25yr lame duck kick Haha!
If it were a guy kicking that he would’ve lost his scholarship and been hounded on by the special teams coach! No she’s praised for making history… Total Joke!
25 yard^
The coach told her to pooch kick it. But you would know that if you actually did your homework, instead of commenting like a semester pig.
*sexist pig*
Because she can’t kick it out the back of the end zone ya tard haha
You guys need to watch the bigotry here in your responses. How could you compare innocent pigs to the filth trotted out by the leftist sports network?
Pigs Lives Matter……..at least until they are on my plate.
Coach told her to pooch kick it huh? Well couldnt anyone on the team pooch kick it or do you need a special talent to pooch kick? Watched her pregame warm up videos on youtube. Looked as if the ball was barely making it over the goal at the 2 yard line. She kicks the ball low. The furthest in the videos that she was kicking was from the 14 yard line I believe. Do all the make kickers practice so close? If this woman was so qualified and equal for the job, let her do it. Dont just squib kick it and give her golf claps for something most anyone can do. Degrades her and the sport if you ask me.
Why would he tell her to pooch kick it and give Missouri even better field position? He may have told her that knowing full well she could not put it in the endzone.
I am wondering if anyone here who’s mocking Sarah for her kickoff has ever kicked a football off a tee?
Her kick was not great but if you want to be real she was not going to reach the end zone so it was the wise decision to kick short.
Here’s a challenge to all of you who think it is easy. I challenge you to go to Wal-Mart (why spend more than necessary) and purchase a tee and regulation football and head to the park. Trust me a small park will be fine because you will not be able to kick it particularly far.
Warm up, set it on the tee and kick 15 to 20 and let me know how far you were able to kick it in the air.
FYI in high school and college I could kick it 40-45 yards in the air off the tee. I attempted to walk on in college but didn’t have the leg and I never played football in high school, only soccer.
You will quickly discover that it’s not as easy as you think.
sexist pig…you are most definitely female. Worn out phrases from the 1970’s…groovy..I can dig what you layin down.
I guess the bigger question is – did she beat out any of the BOYS who were offered a tryout to kick? If she did and won the competition then it means something – if not, then it’s just a publicity stunt to take the media’s and administration’s minds off of how poorly the team has played for seven or so years!
Never saw anything about a tryout being held. It was definitely a PR Stunt… or that would definitely have been the headline!
Sorry, girls just don’t belong on a football field.
exactly
Vandy is so bad playing at the game of football, they resorted to a publicity-stunt.
EXACTLY!
Why?
She was asked to do it because of many players being out with covid-19. Nothing special just her filling in for someone
You want to think it was Coach Mason’s only option, which obviously is not true.
To be fair to Coach Mason, he only had one other option. First, Vanderbilt does not have men’s soccer. They offer it as a club sport only.
There were no students on campus after Friday, November 20, three days before Vanderbilt was faced with the situation of losing all their placekickers to Covid Protocols.
The punter on the team cannot place kick. He was the first option, but he had issues trying to placekick and then punt.
Another player on the team had kicked some in high school, and it came down to that player and Fuller. In practice, Fuller was more accurate and had more distance on kicks. Most importantly, her place kicks gained altitude much quicker than the other guy, who they felt his kicks stood a strong chance of being blocked.
Fuller was still on campus, as the women’s soccer team was still practicing after winning the SEC Tournament. Actually, the only other option for a kicker at all was to find another woman on the soccer team.
Coach Mason is not a villain in this scenario. He did what he felt was best and went with the best option to help his team win and possibly save his job. Missouri was the only SEC win last year.
The kickoff was the best choice to hold Missouri to the least advantageous starting position. Had Fuller kicked normally, the ball would have travelled to between the 15 and 20 yard line with low hang time, and besides allowing the Tigers a chance for a 20-25 yard return, it could have endangered Fuller. Remember, that she is the star goalie that basically allowed VU to win the soccer championship. What if Kumar Rocker had been available to kick for Vandy. You can bet that Mason would not have allowed Rocker a chance to hurt his multi-million dollar pitching arm.
Mason has detractors, and he has probably reached the limits of where he can take the Vandy program, but that’s because it isn’t possible in 2020 for Vandy to do what they did in 2010. Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ole Miss were all down during James Franklin’s tenure at Vandy, and the same recruiting allowances given to Franklin have been taken away since the Gang of Four trials and convictions.
Mason looked like a coach that has had enough yesterday in the post-game Zoom. He did not expect the team to post a no-show and make it the second worst performance of his time at Vandy.
The key to the possibility of his being dismissed is that the next guy up most likely will not have any new preferential treatment. The facilities are substandard not only for the SEC but for FBS. They wouldn’t spend $500 to fix a broken air conditioner in their weight room. They wouldn’t spend $500 to fix a faulty thermostat in their hot water heater, much less buy a new one and have it installed. The stadium locker rooms are so pitiful that Florida chose to partially dress at their hotel and then spend halftime in the back of the end zone like some high school teams do.
Commissioner Sankey has supposedly read the riot act to the VU administration. The next step is to possibly move home games away from Vanderbilt Stadium to either Nissan Stadium (Titans’ Field) or be forced to play SEC games on the road or in neutral sites.
Maybe this will force Vandy’s hands to reconsider its commitment to scholarship athletics for the second time in a quarter century. Prior consultation contracted to “figure things out” ended with a one-vote edge by the powers that be to continue playing Division 1 athletics versus going to non-scholarship Division 3. Those were the only two viable options, as the costs to do anything in between were not possible.
Vanderbilt would be a perfect fit in the Southern Athletic Association with Centre, Sewanee, and Rhodes.
Then they should’ve have presented it as such, but they didn’t. They wanted to make this into something it wasn’t: a girl truly deserving to play in a Power 5 game.
The full story was presented. They had no kickers. The SEC does not have men’s soccer. Who really cares?
Does anyone know why she had a holder for a kickoff? I only got to see the replay so I have no idea if it that windy. No troll. Just an honest question. Goalies always have strong legs and some of the best kicking forms so just wondering.
Because she’s special didn’t you see the headlines lmao
It was her choice to kick off the ground. I think I heard that she had not been as accurate kicking off a tee. Vanderbilt was hoping the ball would hit the ground and bounce back toward their gunner racing down the sideline.
Too many retards in the world today… Now every time someone criticizes a player for mechanics or weird ways of doing sh#t it’s a crime. Who cares if she’s the first at this or that lol her team got blasted. She can go home and check twitter and finger herself to everyone thinking she’s special. Get over it lol kuddos to her for doing it but geez the guy was telling the truth
So, because she’s a female she’s off limits for criticism? Treating her like Cinderella will only set back the chances for other females to have a shot.
the whole thing seems like a publicity stunt by Vandy and ESPN. The network didn’t fail to push the “woman can do everything a man can do” message at every halftime show all day yesterday. this season has been a joke for several reasons and this is just another in a long list.
That was a huge PC lead up to and celebration of….a squib kick. I think a lot of us, maybe most, are sick and tired of the PC media trying to change biology and wanting to force me to see the K Pop group as relevant. I could go on, but I’ll just say I agree with Desmond Howard. Vanderbilt’s gimmick reminds me of the story about the St. Louis Browns bringing in a midget (sorry, little person) to distract from being constant losers.
It is more like when the Browns had Pete Gray in their outfield for an entire season. Gray had one arm, but he was the best option the Browns had that season with so many players at war.
Maybe they’ll lock Desmond in a cell with Bill Cosby and they can make jokes and laugh. The one good thing about covid may wind up being the sjw media realizing how completely useless they actually are in a meritocracy.
Ok so every single male player is allowed to be criticized but she isn’t? Seems fair
Political-correctness at it’s worst… & now permeates our society. My gosh…it is his “opinion” no more/no less.
Really what Vandy did, I see more as a political statement or a attention to the program getter than anything. I dont see anything wrong with what Desmond Howard said. All these snowflakes today afraid to get their feelings hurt over being honest. If you cant laugh about yourself and take criticism, then this world is in worse shape than I thought. My Question to Vandy is why? If you have a female on your team as a kicker, why pooch kick it? Why not have her show her leg off and show how far she can kick it. If they are afraid she will get hit, why is she playing anyhow? I mean its a mens sport that is violent. Where do we stop with this? If we are all about equality, let her run down the field on a punt and keep her head on a swivel so she doesnt get hit so hard snot bubbles is the only thing she remembers. I think Vandy tried to make a feel good story that really back fired. Now if she made a field goal or kicked it out of the end zone on kick offs, then we could see why she was on the team other than for a PC stunt. Which IMO this is all this is.
Men make fun of each other…you wanted equality? Welcome to equality.
Sorry but a college football is not the place for a publicity stunt. Desmond Howard made a joke out of it because that’s what Vandy was doing. If all they wanted was a pooch kick, 50 people on that team could do that. If you want to show equal rights to women show them the respect they are due. Don’t degrade them by making a spectacle of them.
poptiger. Well said. So the punter in no way could have been taught a pooch kick off a T? I’m right there with ya. If they had a freshman kicker, could have been used without burning a redshirt in a year when it doesn’t matter due to NCAA rona rules this year. Nashville is a very left city as evidenced with their politics and money is given from these political entities to Vandy.
Fuller was able to more consistently kick the ball to the exact spot the Vanderbilt coaches wanted the ball kicked and not be returned. Others might have had stronger legs, but she was the most consistent. They wanted the ball kicked 30 yards with enough hang time for the outside gunners to arrive at the ball with a chance to recover it near the sidelines if Missouri could not field the kick.
It reminds me of the story of the animal trainer that taught his elephant to hit a golf ball.
“How far can he drive?” the golf fan asked him.
“400 yards,” the trainer replied.
“How does he hit his approach shot,” asked the golf fan.
“400 yards,” the trainer replied.
You drive for show and putt for dough. Fuller was the best putting option they had.
That ball had almost no hang time at all. All that Missouri player had to do is get out of the way because the trajectory of the ball was going out of bounds in a hurry. She out kicked her coverage team. If the ball went out of bounds, flag would of been thrown and she would of been made a fool of. Really Missouri did her a favor by landing on the ball before it went out of bounds. Nice joke but let that Monkey hit a golf ball with 11 gorillas trying to take his head off and see what he does. That put for show was almost a flag with 15 yards added to it if it would of went out of bounds. If Fuller was their best option, then Vandy better throw in the towel on football. Plainly a PC stunt.
Yeah right. The whole thing was a joke. It’s really sort of pitiful that the feminist movement is so insecure that they have to resort to pulicity stunts like this.
Despondent and ESPN are part of the politically correct culture that rejects facts and demands adherence to Lefty progressive group think and the collectivism of identity politics. No sympathy here for Desmond. They helped build this Lefty monstrosity.
Desmond, not despondent. Although . . . .
Next week Vanderbilt will be lining up a paraplegic wide receiver who will not get open, which will be a first for any paraplegic to play in a Power 5 Conference football game. In the second half, a blind quarterback will be taking a snap in from the shotgun on 3rd and long. This will be another first for a blind player to debut in a power 5 football game.
And I better not hear anyone pointing out these players are not qualified because they have never played a down of football in their life. If they suit up they are qualified. It’s not a stunt.
lol I can see a Tik Tok video in the making. The paraplegic wheeling down the field with the ball and everyone getting out of his/her way until that one kid with a sack trucks him/her at the 10 making snot bubbles go everywhere. They would be tik tok famous.
Excuse me, but I think you’re missing out on Guarantano as the first blind QB. He’s already had 32 starts for cripes sake. What does he have to do to get some RespecT!!!!
lol
ESPN wants to destroy college football or anything that could be patirotic about it. Historical reference. They had no trouble pushing BLM patches and commentary which their lucky rona kept what lower number of fans would have been in those seats. Just like the push BLM with the NBA and NFL. This female kicker playing had to be quashed by someone on ESPN because it’s, “woke” participation used on themselves. The same group at ESPN has no issue with transgender M to F playing sports and destroying true world record by natural biological females.
It’s just about publicity and fitting in with the retards now. Trans got no business in women’s sports as women have in men’s. It’s all just becoming a sideshow circus act all in the name of being progressive lmao. Next it’ll be a woman of color or some handicapped chick out there wasting our time and money to see be below average just to “make history”.
If you wanna make real history sell some mfking water for less than 10$ a bottle, so we don’t dehydrate watching this bs
Can’t wait for the b#tch in a wheelchair to try an extra point
BUT, BUT, BUT…EQUALITY!!! If ANY guy kicking at a Power 5 school had such a stroke with similar results, he and his coaches would be ROUNDLY (and rightly) criticized!
What a complete farce. Let women’s sports stand on their own.
Glad to see Desmond Howard catching some flack after he was calling for Nebraska to be kicked out the conference just because they wanted to play football. If he didn’t support playing football this year, why didn’t he opt out from ESPN coverage this year? Hypocrite.
I really could care less what Desmond Howard thinks or if she’s a girl or a guy, but if they asked her to pooch it just so she wouldn’t have to make a tackle then she shouldn’t be out there on the field with the big boys.
First off Texastom, spot on. Second, the fact that some of you have a right to vote and to reproduce is astounding. She is an athlete, plain and simple. And from what I have seen, an ass kicking athlete. She is stronger, faster, smarter and more all around athletic than anyone on this board. She would embarrass you. And to make yourselves feel better you vent under a side name because you know your own sons wouldn’t be able to make the Vandy team. Why don’t you boys try to sit there, look pretty and smile for me while you get get me another beer!
This is why they should have let her boot it for real.
ESPN will order Desmond to attend sensitivity training including a one hour online lecture on sexism
He was just telling the truth.
I don’t understand why so many people are defending a publicity stunt like it’s monumental. Marketing has become news — news has become PR — and no one understand the difference anymore: Mason want’s to either make a point or salvage his job, or both; that would make it about marketing, not news, nor sports.
It certainly lacked logic from a competitive perspective, as the existing punter could/would have likely done as good or better job on a 30 yard squib/onside kick (or whatever that was), and he’d have put in the practice time and effort to get that opportunity — righteously.
Pi$$ing down someone’s neck and telling them it’s raining has regrettably become fashionable in media — worse-yet our mundane people believe it.
My son was a 3 year letterman and 2 time all-district DT in HS. It was his sophomore year that a girl came out for football and they had to allow her to play. She wanted to be RB so the coaches put her on the scout team. At practice scout team went up against first defense. My son was salivating to introduce her to football but anytime a defender was about to lay her out, the coach blew his whistle. The coaches knew of the possible repercussions if she got seriously hurt. She quit after 3 practices.
But somewhere that girl-now-woman is telling everybody she played HS football and didnt get enough publicity.
Yeah call us back when you find a girl who will play O Line….and include a picture just for reference.
He doesn’t need to apologize for expressing his opinion.
More crying about a girl getting “mean” stuff said about her?
You idiots are a joke
Now the question is…Wil the new Interim-Coach allow her to be kicking again ? I surely hope not…college football is about playing the game not publicity stunts.
I thought she was going to boot it a good 50/60 yards to be honest. If you wanted a squib the kick, they could have had anyone on the team do it.
It was a nasty disservice to Miss Fuller to turn her into a sideshow.
That is a point I didnt think of. Sure, she should have been allowed to kick away..good or bad. Maybe she should play one more game and kick off or punt. A field goal attempt is probably out of the question unless its meaningless. But still, its all a publicity stunt. Where else have you seen a team get absolutely slobber knocked and have one of em in a post game interview.
Let me start by saying that she is a very good soccer player, but you can’t tell me there wasn’t another male player on the team who could of squibbed a kick like she did. Yes I know they were hoping for a short FG or an extra point but I still think there was someone on the team who has messed around kicking. Heck, I was a DL in HS and kicked a 35 yd FG. (Not in a game)
I’m not upset that she kicked in the game, I’m upset that she is considered a trend setter in the sport which is not the case. A trend setter makes a decision to achieve a goal to play football on a ongoing bases and earn their way onto the team but she was asked to participate for 30 seconds of fake fame.
Don’t fall for it, guys.
I am wondering if anyone here who’s mocking Sarah for her kickoff has ever kicked a football off a tee?
Her kick was not great but if you want to be real she was not going to reach the end zone so it was the wise decision to kick short.
Here’s a challenge to all of you who think it is easy. I challenge you to go to Wal-Mart (why spend more than necessary) and purchase a tee and regulation football and head to the park. Trust me a small park will be fine because you will not be able to kick it particularly far.
Warm up, set it on the tee and kick 15 to 20 and let me know how far you were able to kick it in the air.
FYI in high school and college I could kick it 40-45 yards in the air off the tee. I attempted to walk on in college but didn’t have the leg and I never played football in high school, only soccer.
You will quickly discover that it’s not as easy as you think.
I’ve made a 60 yard field goal off the ground (not off a tee, and also not in a game or with people trying to block it). Relative to other athletic endeavors, kicking a football is not difficult. Background: I was a D1 athlete (not soccer or football), and I played soccer from age 5-18. I’m sure there are many, many, many other people who could also do that. My wife played D1 soccer (she’s now in her mid-30s). No question, she could walk out onto the field and do exactly what Sarah did. I’d love to see Sarah go out there and nail a tough FG, but don’t pretend that what she did Saturday was special, difficult, or meaningful.
Come on man. Most of us cant be President or Governor but that shouldn’t preclude us from having an opinion about it. Someone here said she was kicking 35 yard FGs in pregame. That’s a kick from a line of scrimmage at 18 yards with placement at the 25. In high school a lot of us could do that during practice..no big deal at all.
After all the ridiculous stuff Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith say, and ALWAYS gets away with, I am just shocked a black man, in the media, can indeed be criticized.
The fact that women want to play football is not the issue. The fact that they want to play on a men’s team is not the issue. What really is messed up about the whole things was the publicity stunt aspect of it. In warm ups Sarah was kicking from the 3 yard line. Yes the “3”. Literally not a kick anyone can make in a game. She put the ball on the extra point line and was kicking it. The problem is no coach or player bothered to tell her that was not the right place to kick from. Yes it was a publicity stunt for a team that cant win and a coach that knew he needed good press. The other issue with Sarah was when she was interviewed she never once mentioned the team. When was the last time a football player stood in front of a camera and said “I was glad I was able to do that” Not one mention of the other 10 people on the field. Wuite possibly because she didn’t have to go through 2 a day practices in the heat of summer getting hit and beat down by your fellow team mates who help you pull through the grind of those practices. Not one mention of how they all had to work together to make that happen. So please forgive me if i don’t stand up and cheer for someone that wasnt there for the team but only so she could kick on a football team. AND what kicker kicks the ball and runs off the field? When do you ever see a kicker try to tackle the ball carrier? I saw it last week on another game. Not from a kicker than kicks and runs off the field. They all have a place to play and go to when the ball is kicked. Unless its a publicity stunt. Spare me your righteousness in this lame article. Grow some balls if you ever played the sport yourself.
Sarah Fuller only kicked the ball about 20 yards and needed someone to hold it on the kickoff. I could do that. Also, as soon as she kicked it, she instantly ran off the field. What about those times where the receiving team breaks free? The kicker is supposed to be the last line of defense, but she exited the field immediately. Vanderbilt got into field goal range once, but had to go for it on fourth down because Sarah Fuller’s max kicking distance is VERY short. Desmond Howard was honest, I can’t lie. Derek Mason’s decision to play Fuller was simply a stunt to try to keep his job. It would be different if Sarah Fuller played well, but she didn’t. She didn’t do anything spectacular.