Not a great look…
First things first, how we feelin’ after this past weekend of college football?
Honestly, I feel sorry for people who don’t watch sports because this may have been the greatest weekend of college football, possibly ever. We had three of the top 5 teams coming into the weekend lose on Saturday, including unranked Auburn taking down #1-ranked Georgia on the road. That’s not even counting Tennessee demolishing Alabama, Florida taking down Mizzou after appearing to be dead in the water, and a controversial finish that saw BYU upset #2 Notre Dame just months after the Irish backed out of playing the Cougars in the Pop-Tart Bowl.
It was madness. And it was incredible.
One lowlight of the weekend though came during the in-state rivalry game between Duke and UNC. Bill Belichick seems to have turned things around in Chapel Hill, with the Tar Heels sitting at 4-2 following a 24-20 win over the Blue Devils on Saturday. And during the game, cameras also captured Duke cornerback Kimari Robinson having a physical exchange with…one of the team’s athletic trainers.
The moment came while junior safety DeShawn Stone was injured on the field and being tended to by medical staff. The female trainer ran in and moved Robinson out of the way so she could provide assistance to his injured teammate, but Robinson responded by slapping her arm out of the way:
The response from Robinson quickly drew backlash, including from former NFL QB and current analyst Robert Griffin III who called out the Duke CB’s reaction:
Of course there were also people who were saying that the athletic trainer shouldn’t have touched Robinson first and that his reaction was justified, but she was trying to help his injured teammate and get there as quick as possible, and he was just standing in the way.
Anyway, after the video went viral with most criticizing the player for his actions, Robinson has issued an apology, saying that he apologized to the trainer personally after the game as well:
“I want to publicly apologize to the member of our training staff for how I acted toward her during Saturday’s game. I was completely wrong, and she did not deserve that. Immediately after the game, I apologized to her personally and checked to make sure she was okay. The injured player on the ground, DaShawn Stone, is like family to me, and I was scared he might be seriously hurt. But being worried about him does not excuse how I treated her. I should have controlled my emotions, and I didn’t.
I’m truly sorry for my actions and for letting her, myself and our program down. I have to be better than that.”
https://x.com/krobinson7__/status/2111994132486864995
(I mean, if you’re worried about your teammate it seems like the best thing to do is let the training staff get to him as quick as possible…)
Despite rumors that circulated after the game, Duke coach Manny Diaz has not announced any discipline for Robinson after the incident, and it seems unlikely that anything else will come of it after his apology.
Stone was later able to get up and walk off the field under his own power, so hopefully the injury isn’t too bad for him.
