Joe Kinsey
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If you were on the fence about whether Vanderbilt using soccer goalie Sarah Fuller as a fill-in kicker for Saturday’s game against Missouri was a publicity stunt or a necessity, you got your answer on Sunday when it was announced that Fuller had given a halftime speech to her new teammates. Keep in mind, Fuller hadn’t yet stepped foot on the field for her kickoff before giving this speech.
ESPN reporter Courtney Cronin jumped on a Zoom call to chat with Fuller about her time on the Vandy football team and that’s when we learned that Fuller was given the floor to address her fellow football players.
“If I’m going to be honest, I was a little pissed off at how quiet everybody was on the sideline,” Fuller told Cronin. “We made a first down, and I was the only one cheering and I was like – what the heck? What’s going on? And I tried to get them pumped up, and I was like, ‘You guys need to start [cheering] your team on.’
“My main thing was during the SEC tournament, my entire team was cheering the entire time. It didn’t matter if we were in the locker room or if they were on the sidelines, I think that’s what won it for us. Everybody was cheering non-stop. I just went in there, and I said exactly what I was thinking. I was like, ‘We need to be cheering each other on. This is how you win games. This is how you get better by calling each other out for stuff, and I’m going to call you guys out.’
“We need to be supporting one another. If we get a first down, if an interception happens, it’s our fault. We need to be lifting each other up. That’s what a team’s about. I think this team has struggled, and that’s been part of it. We really just need to build that team camaraderie where they can all lean on one another. It was an adjustment going from that team mentality where – hey, we’re all here supporting one another, and I just wanted to bring that to this team.”
As for this speech, you mean to tell me that a kicker who was pulled off the women’s soccer team and who started practicing with the football team on Tuesday was given the floor to lecture teammates on Saturday?
“I hope I gained their respect. It wasn’t ill-intentioned at all, I just want this team to succeed and do well,” Fuller told Cronin. “I’m a Vanderbilt student-athlete. I want all our sports to succeed. I call it how I see it, and I’m not going to BS anybody. Didn’t want to BS them.”
Do you think freshman players on the women’s soccer team who’ve never seen the field get up and give speeches to players who’ve given four years to a program? Nope. Not happening.
There’s no further debate about this. Fuller was used as a publicity stunt, and it is clear as day ESPN had its hands in it. Don’t be shocked if we find out soon that ESPN had cameras rolling during Fuller’s hero speech.
A kicker giving a halftime speech. Think about this for a minute. Those of you who thought this was a sincere act from a Vandy program desperate to field a team during uncertain COVID times have been had. This is all nonsense.
“I had coaches come up to me and say ‘I’ve been wanting to say that for awhile now,'” Fuller told Cronin.
Sarah Fuller kicks off the second half for Vanderbilt. pic.twitter.com/FvTc7HdVWm
— Jordan Dajani (@JordanDajani) November 28, 2020
Vanderbilt had a female kicker, who had never played a snap of organized football, give a halftime speech where she chastised football players who were on a D1 scholarship…..
This clearly explains why Vanderbilt is 0-8. What a bunch of losers.
Her words must have REALLY pumped herself up for that 2nd half opening kickoff to carry a full 27 yards in the air.
Naturally I got roasted on Twitter Saturday night while discussing the absurdity of this PR play by Vanderbilt. Sorry folks. This was no Jackie Robinson moment in P5 football. It will be when a female play middle linebacker in a P5 game. Until then, this is yet another example of virtue-signaling, cancel-culture bullshit that shows how rapidly-declining our society is facing. Jason Whitlock nailed-it in his column earlier Saturday.
I used to kick, and was quite good. If I ever had a message for the team, I would pull aside one of the captains and let him deliver it. I knew better, nobody gives a shit what the kicker thinks.
This also speaks to the difference between men’s and women’s sports. You know why women cheer each other on even when they are losing? Because men and women are different. Being 0-8 and losing 41-0 might mean little to Sarah, but the men were feeling depleted, for sure. Losing actually lowers men’s testosterone levels. Then comes some harridan to nag them about attitude? Fuck off, Vanderbilt.
Women also cheer each other because there are like 10 people in the stands.
ESPN is praising her for being “Two Sport Immortality” Those assholes are so WOKE! SMH
I coach women’s college sports. You wouldn’t believe how many coaches (almost always female) truly believe it is cheering that makes teams win. Most of those teams are forced to cheer and most of the players hate it. But the culture that has developed in coaching and among some female athletes is that cheering is a must and that it is more important than hitting, pitching, throwing, fielding, etc. It’s utter insanity. When it’s explained logically to most female athletes, they begin to see the light. We don’t practice cheering, unlike many college softball teams, believe it or not – we practice hitting, fielding, baserunning, pitching, etc. And I’m trying to imagine being a Vandy football player having to listen to that halftime speech. They had to be thinking wtf did I get myself into here.
The sad part is that the players are probably too young to remember this, but while she was speaking, this would have been on ‘repeat’ in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GILXUJa2l1w
The fake news leftist scumbags at ESPNs fingerprints are all over this asinine woke publicity stunt. I’m sure with a little effort, they could have found a girl that could actually kick a football. The idiot leftists are doing everything they can to kill the enjoyment of sports.
“I had coaches come up to me and say ‘I’ve been wanting to say that for awhile now,’” Fuller told Cronin.
So I read the entire statement that Vanderbilt put out on Derek Mason’s firing. Very blunt, no detail, which I guess is pretty standard these days. But who wants to bet most of the coaches were insulted by this whole thing and made it known to the administration that either the head guy goes, or we all go, and they were facing an embarrassing mutiny? Why fire the guy with a game still left on the schedule?
I’m probably in the minority. But I just don’t think this story is that big of a deal. It’s probably forced a little but it’s just not that major.
The initial story was ridiculous enough (Jason nailed it). Add an insulting halftime speech to the mix and it officially becomes flush worthy. Definitely wreaks of ESPN..”The Worldwide Leader Of Woke”.
I just checked for information only available to those who have access the internet. The 7 other teams competing against Vanderbilt in the SEC East have a total of 22 kickers listed on their respective roster. Mizzou has 5.
Now some of these may be redshirts and I don’t blame Sarah Fuller for participating, but the story doesn’t add up.
A female soccer kicker, now your place kicker, who had learned how to put on shoulder pads for the first time earlier that day, walks into the locker room at halftime, as you trail 21-0, to criticize your football team’s energy.
Whew. Well boys, I have good news! You have just experienced what the bottom looks and feels like, so you can only go up from here, baby!
Sarah Fuller for Vandy HC! Make herstory again!
When they make the Disney adaptation of this stupid stunt, the 0-8 team that lost 41-0 will be so inspired that they will lose 41-3, when our brave Mary Sue hits a chip shot field goal as time expires.
Wow just wow. No wonder Vandy sucks. For a coach to think this was a good idea is insane. I know Mason was going woke in effort to land a job with ESPN. But to pull this stunt too? No respect. Derek Mason should never coach football again period.
Lift each other up by calling each other out?
Clearly this coach just wanted to emasculate his players and she stepped up to be the castrator…no wonder he got axed.