Tennessee Vols Linebacker Owns Beat Reporter On Twitter
By Zach Ragan
Tennessee Vols linebacker Quart’e Sapp isn’t playing around when it comes to the perception of college football players.
On Wednesday, Tennessee Vols beat reporter Wes Rucker tweeted what he probably thought was a harmless joke to linebacker Quart’e Sapp.
Rucker mentioned Sapp’s usage of the word “misconstrued” in an interview. He apparently thought it was out of the ordinary for a college football player to use such a word, by suggesting that Sapp sounded like former Vols quarterback Josh Dobbs (who is literally a rocket scientist).
Sapp quickly clapped back at Rucker.
No offense Wes I think your perception of the typical athlete’s vocabulary is a little “misconstrued". https://t.co/Uo21BjfNCu
— Quart'e Sapp (@Dedicated_2Work) October 18, 2017
Oh damn. RIP Wes. You’re one of the best when it comes to covering the Vols, but Sapp completely owned you on this one.
To Rucker’s credit, he was a good sport about the burn.
No offense taken. People who can dish it out but can’t take it are hypocrites. https://t.co/ke4UmWJBDW
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) October 18, 2017
Considering all of the negativity currently surrounding the Tennessee football program, it’s actually a bit refreshing to see a little good natured back and forth between a player and a reporter.
With that said, however, I think it would probably do us all a certain amount of good to remember that these are college kids we’re covering on a daily basis. They’re smart kids. Most of them won’t have a future in football after they leave Tennessee, which makes the degree they’re pursuing extremely important.
Sapp, nor any other Tennessee player, should ever be reduced to “just a football player”. Not that I think that’s what Rucker was doing at all (he knows these players as well as anyone — certainly better than me), but I do think it’s something we should at least keep in mind.