Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams caught some flak for his proposed bill that would make planting a flag at Ohio State a felony, and that now includes criticism from on prominent sports anchor.
ESPN’s Elle Duncan is now among those poking fun at the proposal, as she made apparent during her “SportsCenter” segment “Taking the Elle” on Thursday.
She labeled Williams’ proposal “the softest thing I’ve seen today.”
Duncan blasted the Republican lawmaker’s bill — dubbed the O.H.I.O Sportsmanship Act — that he introduced following the on-field brawl that took place following the Michigan-Ohio State game last month after the Wolverines attempted to plant a Michigan flag in the middle of the field at Ohio Stadium.
If passed, the legislation would make it a felony to commit such an at Ohio Stadium.
Duncan saw the move as a ploy to “curry favor with your constituents by virtue signaling about integrity.”
“This is unnecessary because you can’t actually plant a flag at Ohio stadium, because, you know, it’s turf,” Duncan added. “Secondly, this is asinine. You want actually try to police sportsmanship as if that’s the job of a lawmaker. You know who’s job it actually is? The coach’s job.”
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The ESPN presenter then pointed to the fact that Steve Sarkisian, the head coach of Texas, prevented his players from planting their flag on the field after a win over Texas A&M.
Duncan also took issue with the flag planting being any more dangerous than when students rush the field or pull down the goalposts, both of which are celebrated traditions across the college sports landscape.
“The deal is that these young men are gladiators and they risk great injury every single time they step onto a field,” she said. “And we sit back and cheer it on, but now we need the law to teach emotional control in victory and defeat? It’s stupid, I’m sorry, it really is.
“The real crime: losing to your rival at home as a 24-point favorite.”
Despite Williams being mocked by college football fans and now an ESPN host, he isn’t backing down from his hope to see the bill move forward.
In a video posted to TikTok this week, Williams was confronted by a person telling him that the internet thinks he’s soft for the bill.
He replied simply: “I don’t care.’
When the person taking the video asked another state legislator, Rep. Tim Barhorst, his thoughts, Barhost said that Williams was just trying to help make sportsmanship cool again.
“If I have to be called soft to preserve the integrity of our institutions and prevent our law enforcement officers from getting injured from a violent encounter on the field cause of a damn flag, I don’t mind being called soft,” Williams fired back at the person videoing him.
The video later cut to Williams talking with the videographer about the state of the Buckeyes and agreed that head coach Ryan Day “needs to go.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
