Duke’s loss to North Carolina took a back seat to a sideline confrontation that went viral. When Duke quarterback Kimari Robinson stood over injured teammate DaShawn Stone, a female staffer pushed him out of the way.
Robinson appeared to angrily swat her arm away, before apologizing later.
“Kimari Robinson, he stood over DaShawn Stone. Stone is motionless on the turf. Kimari says that Stone is like a family member to him. Two trainers are kneeled over Stone. And then a third staffer, the red-headed woman, she runs in, steps into that scene and circle, and she pushes Robinson out of the way,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says.
“He swatted her arm away. The clip then goes viral. Everybody’s got an opinion, and oh, it’s a bad look for Kimari Robinson. Robinson apologized to her that night and then again Sunday on X,” he continues.
“I want to publicly apologize to a member of our training staff for how I acted toward her during Saturday’s game. I was completely wrong, and she did not deserve that. Immediately after the game, I apologized to her personally and checked to make sure she was okay,” Robinson said in a post on X.
“The injured player on the ground, DaShawn Stone, is like family to me, and I was scared he might be seriously hurt. But being worried about him does not excuse how I treated her. I should have controlled my emotions, and I didn’t,” he continued.
“I’m truly sorry for my actions and for letting her, myself, and our program down. I have to be better than that,” he added.
“So hats off to Kimari Robinson. He owned his reaction. A man controls his hands even in panic. He failed that test. No excuse. But the narrative sense is a lie by omission,” Whitlock says.
Whitlock notes that the trainer put her hands on Robinson first in an attempt to shove him out of the way.
“You do not walk into a pile around a hurt player and shove a 200-pound quarterback in full pads. That’s not a trainer offering care. That is a trainer doing way too much in escalating a situation,” he explains.
“And my question is, where is her apology?” Whitlock says, asking, “Why is correction only traveling one direction toward the man?”
He also points out that in the clip of the interaction, “she doesn’t do anything” to help Stone.
“There’s no brace. There’s no evaluation. There’s no comfort. Her sole contribution to the entire sequence is pushing Robinson. Yet the mob demands Robinson carry 100% of the blame. She carries zero. She is cast as the innocent victim. Fragile, helpless, beyond reproach,” he says.
“She’s not the picture of innocence. She’s a girlboss showing up to put men in their place,” he adds.
Want more from Jason Whitlock?
To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.