Lady Vols softball coach Karen Weekly is the victim of one of the worst things about sports right now
The Lady Vols won an incredible game against Texas Tech on Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the College World Series in Oklahoma City. Tennessee won the game on a walk-off home run in the ninth inning.
The Lady Vols won an instant classic against Texas Tech on Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the College World Series in Oklahoma City.
Tennessee secured the win via a walk-off home run from Emma Clarke.
Unfortunately, the game was overshadowed a bit by some things that were said during the post-game press conference.
Former Lady Vols player calls out Karen Weekly
After the game, former Lady Vols infielder Taylor Pannell, who transferred to Texas Tech last summer, claimed that Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly told her during the post-game handshake line that she made a “mistake” by leaving UT.
“We were walking through the line just saying ‘good game’, and she said that I made a mistake instead of saying ‘good game’, which is kind of crazy,” said Pannell. “Like celebrate with your team. I just think it’s funny she’s still thinking about it. It’s old news. Whatever.”
Weekly told the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Cora Hall that Pannell’s claim is “an outright lie. I said good game like I said to every other player.”
I’m not here to litigate who said what. Only Weekly and Pannell truly know exactly what was said in the handshake line. You can choose which to believe (I tend to think most will side with the four-time SEC coach of the year).
What’s unfortunate is that Pannell’s comments are going viral while Weekly’s response will be heard by mostly just Tennessee fans.
This tweet from Barstool Sports that highlights Pannell’s quote, for example, reached over 250k views on Saturday night, but there’s no mention of Weekly’s response.
I’m not throwing shade at Barstool Sports, maybe they haven’t seen Weekly’s response (the sports news cycle moves at warp speed these days). But this is the quote that most social media users are going to see. People who don’t follow college softball are going to see that quote and think Tennessee’s head coach is a jerk without understanding the context of the situation.
Hopefully Weekly’s response will go just as viral as Pannell’s initial quote, but given what we see on the internet on a daily basis, I’m betting that’s not going to happen. And that’s unfortunate for Weekly — especially on a day where her team pulled off an incredible win and got one game closer to the College World Series finals.