One cringe moment turned Arch Manning into a QB who says nothing | Opinion - USA Today
He's quite the loquacious fella. A real wordsmith, this one.
Ask Robot Arch how he feels about playing at Tennessee, where Real Arch’s uncle became a legend, and Robot Arch will say something like: Excited for the game.
Ask Robot Arch a follow-up about why he’s excited for the game, and he might say: Should be a good one. Very excited.
Here’s one real exchange between a reporter and Robot Arch (who replaced the human we used to know as Arch Manning).
Reporter: “Why do you feel like y'all haven’t had more explosive plays on offense?”
Robot Arch: “Yeah, I just gotta be more explosive in the offense.”
Robot Arch sounds like a 1.0 iteration of an LLM, just figuring out this communication thing. Robot Arch seizes on a few words within a reporter’s question, and then repeats them back in a short-sentence form.
Nothing Robot Arch said this week could have offended anyone, unless it bothers you that he's “excited” to play Tennessee.
Robot Arch briefly faltered once. He smiled when asked what he thought of Tennessee’s "Rocky Top" anthem. He then snapped back into form.
According to one journalist who covers Texas, Robot Arch fielded 19 questions at his presser on Sept. 21 and answered in a sum of 56 seconds.
If he had been wearing a short-sleeve, too-tight hoodie, you might’ve thought you were listening to Bill Belichick. "We're on to Tennessee." *Blank stare.*
I miss Real Arch, the guy who smiled and laughed and showed us a sliver of his personality. Real Arch was sometimes funny in a dry-humor sort of way. Likable, too. Also, imperfect.
Real Arch laughed at a crude AI video that depicted Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN’s Holly Rowe, before the Texas coach scampered off like a madman in the scene.
This AI reel emerged online after Real Sark snubbed Real Holly on ABC following Texas' win against Ohio State. That awkward Sark-Rowe interaction spawned a thousand memes. When Real Arch admitted to seeing and laughing at an AI video many people deemed offensive, he lit a powder keg of outrage and virtue signaling.
On one side of the debate, some people wanted their pound of flesh from a college athlete who laughed at a spoof that depicted violence against a woman.
On the other side, a bunch of twidiots got inflamed because Real Arch apologized to Rowe and to the public for his comments. How dare Real Arch show decency after he offended people! Some obnoxious bloviators even blamed Rowe for the situation.
My take: It was cringeworthy when Real Arch smiled, laughed, and told a room full of reporters he thought the AI video of Sark slapping Rowe was "hilarious." The cringe of the moment accelerated when reporters in the room laughed along with Real Arch.
In an era in which the masses scrutinize press conferences, Real Arch was unwise and insensitive to make light of the video and chortle about it. Real Arch seemed to recognize his flub mere seconds after his comments. He glanced off to his right, where I imagine he saw a media relations professional with a panicked look.
I respect that Real Arch issued a public apology, which came across as sincere. That shouldn't be taken for granted. Many people much older than Manning, 22, can't manage an apology without defaulting to the “I’m sorry if you got offended” no-pology. Manning pulled none of that nonsense. He owned his comments, apologized, and expressed sincere regret.
Good for him. An apology was the mature way to handle this.
Rowe accepted his apology. Good for her.
If you’re among those who think Real Arch was wrong to apologize, my guess is you don't have many friends, because you've offended everyone in your orbit at some point, stubbornly refused to apologize, and who wants to be friends with a jerk?
If you’re among those who thought Real Arch is a heinous, unforgivable ghoul because he laughed at a distasteful AI video, my guess is you're the insufferable, self-righteous sort of person with whom I'd very much dislike having a beer.
Any decent person would agree real violence against a woman is despicable and not at all funny. Although no real violence occurred in this situation, Real Arch displayed some youthful foolishness, poor judgment and a lack of empathy when he called this AI creation "hilarious." (It wasn't.) Then, he showed some decency when he apologized.
AI spoofs and deepfakes are ubiquitous online, especially on social media, and I wonder whether these AI videos desensitize us to real-life violence or odiousness.
We used to ask that question about video games, movies, and TV shows. I laughed at "The Three Stooges" without ever emerging from an episode with the desire to shove my fingers into someone’s eyeballs. I played endless hours of "GoldenEye," and it never made me want to shoot anyone, and "Grand Theft Auto" never made me want to steal a car or run over someone while behind the wheel, even if the game glamorized violence.
But, these AI spoofs are getting alarmingly more advanced at making make-believe look real, and this particular video did not involve cartoon or fictitious characters like a '90s video game. It reimagined an encounter between real people.
No public relations professional would've advised Real Arch to make light of such a video. He did, he apologized, and then he (or the flacks in his orbit) locked Real Arch in the closet.
Robot Arch doesn’t offend people. He rarely smiles. He doesn’t joke. He doesn't say anything remotely interesting. If Robot Arch watches AI videos, we'll never hear about it.
I'd love to know what Real Arch thinks of Robot Arch. Does he think Robot Arch is a tremendous drag? Or, maybe, Real Arch is laughing at Robot Arch’s mastery of monotony, and he thinks it's hilarious how "excited" Robot Arch is, even as he looks as if he just underwent a lobotomy.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
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