19-year-old Coco Gauff won the US Open on Saturday night. She became only the second 19-year-old to ever accomplish this after Serena Williams did it in 2001. After her victory, Gauff got down on her knees, clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and bowed her head. ESPN was completely baffled by what she was doing.
Gauff was obviously praying and thanking God after she handily defeated Aryna Sabalenk. She had just pulled off an amazing accomplishment. Whether it was out of sheer pagan ignorance or whether ESPN was just being a bunch of jerks is unclear. But they seemed to have no idea what Gauff was doing when she knelt to pray.
SportsCenter’s Twitter/X account put it like this: “@CocoGauff took a moment to soak it all in after winning her first Grand Slam title.”
Soaking it all in? Huh? What kind of moron leans so far to the left that they can’t recognize when a person is humbly bowed in prayer?
Legendary NFL Coach Tony Dungy just couldn’t take ESPN’s stupidity. Like Gauff, Dungy has never been shy about expressing his Christian faith. Gauff herself has talked about her faith and how it impacts on her work as a professional tennis player.
She explained in one interview, “I don’t pray for results. I just ask that I get the strength to give it my all. Whatever happens, happens. I’m so blessed in this life. I’m just thankful for this moment. I don’t have any words for it, to be honest.”
ESPN, which is supposed to be covering sports for a living, apparently missed all the times when Gauff talked about her faith and the importance of prayer. Tony Dungy let ESPN have it in his response to their dumb tweet:
I hate to break this to you SportsCenter but Coco Gauff was not “soaking it all in” at this moment. She was praying. She has been very open about her Christian faith in the past. It seems pretty obvious what she is doing here. https://t.co/UOZ6zoCEPC
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) September 10, 2023