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Picture this: you’re a 6’4″, 324-pound man who was caught on live camera shoving a woman to the ground, and hundreds of thousands of people on social media and in person have seen you do it. How do you respond?

If you’re Omari Thomas, a defensive lineman for the Tennessee Volunteers, you choose to shirk as much responsibility for your actions as possible. 

Here’s a little context: Thomas and No. 4 Tennessee lost a shocker to the Arkansas Razorbacks by a score of 19-14 last night. Because Arkansas was the home team, many of the fans rushed the field to celebrate. In that chaos, Thomas shoved a male student, who then collided with what appeared to be his girlfriend..

Take a look.

To be fair to him, seeing thousands of people rush at you is obviously a scary sight. But no matter how you slice it, this is not acceptable behavior. Handle the loss with more class, and keep your hands off of fans who probably aren’t trying to hurt you.

Earlier this afternoon, Thomas offered his apology for the situation, and accepted some blame for what he did. But he also decided to pass off as much blame as he possibly could – for pushing a fan to the ground.

“I apologize for my actions during the chaotic postgame scene. Even though we got run into multiple times by fans while trying to exit the field, that doesn’t condone my actions or define my character. I sincerely apologize. I wish Arkansas and their fans all the best. Big O,” he wrote on X.

He is right, that one incident doesn’t define your character, we’ve all done things we are ashamed to admit even to ourselves. But Thomas assigning blame to the fans for his indefensible action is incredibly immature and self-centered.

There should be no mention of what the fans did, only his actions. That’s about as shameful of an act that you could possibly commit, and that’s should have been the only focus of Thomas’ apology.