Angel Reese has called out Barstool Sports double standards in how they cover Ja Morant compared to white athletes.
On Tuesday (Jan. 1), Say Cheese! posted two xweets from Barstool to X/Twitter. One of the posts featured Texas Longhorns’ white quarterback, Quinn Ewers, celebrating a touchdown. Ewers can be seen making gun gestures with his hand and firing into the crowd as he celebrates. “Quinn Ewers is having fun,” the sports account typed. The second post featured Ja Morant doing the exact celebration, but the sports account took a different tone.
“Ja spraying imaginary bullets into section 113 after the slam,” they typed.
Reese caught wind of the different tones and called out the outlet for their double standard. “Lol I’ve seen this before…,” she slyly typed.
The LSU star athlete refers to the media implementing the same double standard against her last year.
Throughout the 2023 March Madness tournament, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark celebrated with taunts aimed at other players. However, after besting Clark, Reese playfully taunted just the same, only her actions resulted in backlash.
Barstool Sports, in particular, covered the exchange extensively and oft-referred to the Lady Tigers as “villains.” The sports outlet also referred to Reese’s celebrations as “mocking” the Iowa superstar. It was during this game that Barstool expressed their apparent biases.
Further investigation finds xweets from the account that implied the refs were cheating for LSU. Additionally, the outlet showered Iowa and Clark with praise while Reese and the Lady Tigers were mostly covered unfavorably.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, even xweeted and deleted a post calling Reese a “classless piece of sh*t” for taunting Clark—which Caitlin did to Reese throughout the game.
“The Refs In The LSU/Iowa Womens National Championship Need To Be Investigated For This Technical Called on Caitlin Clark While Letting [LSU’s] Kim Mulkey Act Like A Damn Toddler On The Sideline,” they typed at the time.
Reese talked about the double standard after her team took home the championship trophy in April 2023. The “Bayou Barbie” spoke during her post-championship news conference. She doubled-down on her actions, asserting the moment was “bigger than her.”
“Caitlin Clark is a hell of a player for sure, but I don’t take disrespect lightly,” she explained. “And she disrespected Alexis and South Carolina, they’re still my SEC girls, too. You all are not going to disrespect them either.
“I’m happy,” the new world champion continued. “I mean, all year I was critiqued about who I was. I don’t fit the narrative. I don’t fit in a box that y’all want me to be in. I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. Y’all told me that all year. But when other people [taunt]—you all don’t say nothing. So, this is for the girls that look like me.”
