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You’re setting yourself up to be judged if people on the internet get the opportunity to look at some food you made. A number of college football coaches have had their culinary skills called into question after sharing pictures of a meal, and now, Shane Beamer has gone out of his way to back his wife’s baking abilities after the cookies that were featured on a Netflix series raised some eyebrows.
If I’ve learned anything after spending more than 15 years making a living working on the internet, it’s that there aren’t many things people online love more than an excuse to make themselves feel superior to someone else.
That’s become easier than ever in a world where countless social media users routinely go out of their way to share photos and videos of largely mundane day-to-day activities. Many of those posts involve some food they’ve prepared, and while showing off a picture of a meal you nailed can be a bit of a flex, you’re also just asking to be criticized if you failed to stick the landing.
Oregon football coach Dan Lanning caught some heat a couple of years ago for cooking steaks in an overcrowded pan, and Lincoln Riley will probably never live down the Easter brisket that was sourced from a cow that died for nothing (a cooking sin that made the tuna he also butchered look tasty by comparison).
South Carolina skipper Shane Beamer has managed to avoid coming under fire for similar reasons, but he did need to go to bat for his wife after her cookies became a hot topic of discussion.
Shane Beamer pushed back against the critics who went after his wife for the cookies that were featured in Netflix’s SEC football series
Netflix gave college football fans a peek behind the curtain of the sport’s premier conference when SEC Football: Any Given Saturday dropped on the platform earlier this month. The series took a Hard Knocks approach to the 2024 season, and while it primarily focuses on developments related to what unfolds on the gridiron, it also has some lighter moments relating to what transpires off the field.
South Carolina was one of the teams that agreed to let a camera crew chronicle its season, and in the fifth episode, we were treated to a seemingly innocuous scene where Shane Beamer’s wife Emily whips up a batch of cookies in her kitchen.
Netflix
Netflix
More than a few viewers noticed those cookies probably could have spent a few more minutes in the oven before coming out—descriptors I’ve seen included “raw” and “medium rare”— and on Tuesday, the Gamecocks coach felt the need to address those critics during a press conference where he said people had flocked to her Instagram with unsolicited baking tips.
Beamer made it very clear he did not have an issue with her approach to baking cookies, saying:
“I do have a statement to make. I think my wife is getting some undue criticism on the cookies she makes…
She’s actually had people that have reached out to her telling her that she’s not cooking the cookies long enough. Much respect for the people that took the time to reach out to her to criticize her for her cookies, but the cookies are the freaking bomb, just so you guys know. I’ve got my girl’s back…
She does it every Thursday for all the people in this building. To the people who reached out to her on Instagram to criticize her and tell her that she isn’t cooking them long enough, come up here on a Thursday after practice when I put those cookies out and see how fast they are devoured and gone. Because they are gone in about five minutes.”
I don’t doubt the end product is still pretty tasty, and as someone who considers myself a fairly accomplished amateur cook and baker, I’m very aware of the frustration that comes with having to deal with unsolicited advice from backseat chefs.
With that said, those cookies are objectively undercooked.