Shane Beamer apologizes for his reaction to USC’s Title IX moment that went viral
An in-game recognition of something good Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium gained attention for the wrong reasons this weekend.
USC honored all 275 of its female athletes on the field between the first and second quarters during the football team’s 48-7 loss to No. 1 Georgia. It was part of the school’s ongoing celebration of the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX legislation.
Getting those 275 women off the field so the game could resume, however, took some time and delayed the restart of the on-field action.
In that moment, the ESPN broadcast camera showed South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer, who looked agitated and shouted “Get off the field!” while motioning toward the end zone where the student-athletes had just been honored.
Beamer apologized Sunday, saying he wasn’t clued in to what ceremony was taking place and intended no disrespect toward USC’s women’s sports athletes. Game officials told coaches to be ready to play as soon as TV timeouts were over, Beamer said. Those TV breaks typically last three to four minutes.
The Gamecocks were lined up to snap the ball, but the game couldn’t restart until the field was clear. Beamer’s reaction that was caught on camera came in the heat of the moment with a crucial fourth-down play coming up for the Gamecocks, he said.
“My initial reaction was to yell, get off the field,” he told reporters Sunday. “I had no idea who was down there.”
The ensuing play was an ill-fated fouth-down attempt by South Carolina that saw quarterback Spencer Rattler hit Jalen Brooks for a four-yard gain, but resulted in a turnover on downs.
The on-air Title IX moment gained larger attention Sunday when South Carolina women’s soccer player Jyllisa Harris posted a response to a Twitter post with the video of Beamer’s reaction.
“All female student athletes were asked to come to the game to recognize 50 years of Title IX,” Harris wrote. “We were on the field for maybe 15 seconds then screamed at to get off. If you want to honor female student athletes, then do that, not this.”
Harris’ tweet had more than 50,000 interactions as of midday Monday. The video of the scene had 2 million views.
“I apologize to anyone that I offended,” Beamer said. “Certainly I know game management has a tough job and a lot of moving parts. I’m sure they feel like they could be better in that situation in regards to when and how we honored those female student-athletes and more importantly how to get them off the field a lot quicker than what we were able to when the ceremony was over.
“I hope people know me well enough to know what an advocate I am for women’s sports. I’ve got two daughters of my own that play sports. I’m at as many women’s athletic events at Carolina as I can possibly be because I believe in them and support them, and anyone that thinks otherwise surely doesn’t know me.”
South Carolina added commemorative logos to the contest’s rally towels for the Title IX celebration Saturday.
Said USC’s Jyllisa Harris on Sunday evening via Twitter: “There is just still work to do! Coach Beamer however was coaching in the heat of the game and has been nothing but supportive of female sports.”
Here’s more from Beamer from his Sunday comments:
“The officials said, ‘We’re gonna try and speed up the game as much as we can coming out of TV timeouts, so we would ask when the TV timeout is over that you’re at the line of scrimmage ready go to.’
“We had a critical fourth-down decision to make on what we were going to do in that instance, whether we were gonna kick or go for it. We decided to go for it. The whole time, I’m not even paying attention to what’s going on down in the end zone.
“We send our offense out there to go for it. They’re on the line of scrimmage. Georgia is able to see the formation that we’re in. We did what we were asked to do and we were not able to snap the football. I look down in the end zone and I see why.
“My first initial reaction was to yell, get off the field. I had no idea who was down there. I don’t meet with game management before games and they clue me in on who’s being honored between TV timeouts and ceremonies and things like that.
“We were so immersed in trying to make a decision on what we were going to do that I didn’t even look down there in the endzone. I was worried about what was going on in our offensive huddle.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2022 at 7:47 PM with the headline "Shane Beamer apologizes for his reaction to USC’s Title IX moment that went viral."
