Taylor Rooks Flames Emmanuel Acho For His Controversial Angel Reese Take

Fox Sports’ Emmanuel Acho made it very clear on Tuesday that he has no time for Angel Reese’s issues about how she gets treated.

“Angel Reese, you can’t be the big, bad wolf but then kind of cry like Courage the Cowardly Dog,” he said Tuesday on Speak.

“Because if you want to act grown, which she has; if you wanted to get paid like you’re grown, which she has; if you wanted to talk to grown folks like you grown, which you told a coach from an opposing team, ‘Watch your mouth.’ If you want to tell people get your money up, then post-game, when you take an L, you just gotta take it on the chin.

“Nobody mourns when the villain catches an L. And Angel Reese, you have self-proclaimed to be the villain.”

Acho would go on to add, “Nobody has sympathy for the villain. You painted the bullseye on your back. Why are you surprised when people shoot at you? So, if you want to act grown, if you want to pose grown, if you want to talk grown, if you want to talk to grown folks grown, then you gotta take the L like you grown. Because what frustrated me is you want to be the villain, but you want to hope for sympathy like a hero.”

While the part he said about Angel Reese proclaiming herself to be the villain is true, it was meant in the context of playing a game, not in life. This is something that TNT Sports’ Taylor Rooks understands, so she took serious issue with what Emmanuel Acho said about Reese.

In a 451-word post on X (Twitter), Rooks pointed out some of the problems she had.

“Your response here is actually full of opinions that indirectly (and directly) involve both race and gender,” Rooks wrote. “It’s just coded to unsuccessfully soften the blow.

“You have to ask why Angel became the villain. You have to ask why her role as ‘villain’ has not allowed her to also be human. You have to wonder why her being asked a question and simply answering has led to this level of discourse. You have to ask what you mean when you say Angel wants to talk grown or pose grown?? What is ‘grown’ a substitute for? You have to ask why trash talking – a practice many athletes engage in – is seen so much harsher when it comes from someone that looks like her. You have to ask how some of the ideas you expressed fuel the fire of the aforementioned marginalization. You have to ask why you heard her discuss unacceptable treatment and your reaction was to discuss how she can’t address it. And I have to ask if you spoke to any black women athletes about their experiences in order to give a more enlightened take before you came and said this.

“Angel has absolutely made herself a public figure and she should be open to the criticism pertaining her game and persona. She should also be allowed to express when those criticisms are out of bounds. Why did you cling to her reaction as opposed to the vitriol that caused it? She certainly does not deserve sympathy for losing a game. She deserves sympathy for being attacked and targeted for things outside of said game.”

Yes, that was a lot, and that was only around half what Taylor Rooks wrote. (The rest can be read in her post below.)

Basically, the TL;DR version of it was shared by former NFL wide receiver Torrey Smith in his response to Acho.

Seems fair.