By Jim Souhan

Texas quarterback Arch Manning issued an apology for expressing glee at seeing a fake video of his coach, Steve Sarkisian, slapping ESPN reporter Holly Rowe.

Good. If Manning didn’t understand before that laughing about violence against women, real or theoretical, is wrong, maybe he does now.

What remains troubling is that when Manning laughed about the AI video in a room filled with reporters, many of the reporters laughed along. Those people need to reevaluate their lives.

Rowe is a remarkably hard-working reporter who has earned her position as one of the most respected people in sports media. The AI video was a takeoff on Sarkisian’s actual “interview’’ with Rowe, which he rudely cut short.

I’ve been dissed by a thousand coaches and athletes. That’s fine.

Sarkisian dissing Rowe is different, for two reasons:

1. Women in sports media already deal with enough. During this week’s Dawn of Sports, Dawn Mitchell and I spoke with Wild in-game host Kirsten Krull, who discussed the way she’s treated online. Every woman I know in sports has a horror story or 12. Anyone who contributes to women in sports feeling uncomfortable or worse should be called out by men in the business. Rowe was doing nothing other than her job. I could make the point that Rowe is excellent at her job, but that doesn’t even matter in this context. If the sideline reporter had been a rookie struggling to ask a question, Sarkisian wouldn’t have been right to behave rudely.
2. Sarkisian doesn’t make tens of millions of dollars because he’s good at his job. Lots of people who are good at their jobs will never make big money. Sarkisian makes big money because television networks pay entities like the SEC and University of Texas billions of dollars. Sarkisian may not be smart enough to make that connection, which is a sad thing to say about someone who works at an institute of higher learning.

I’ll leave the mouth-breathers with a few thoughts. I’ll type slowly so they can keep up:

-The sports world is a much better place when women are present. I covered sports when there were very few women reporters in the workforce. Men generally behave better when women are around.

-Mistreating or dismissing women, even virtually, isn’t a sign of strength. It’s a sign of weakness and stupidity.

-You’re fighting a losing battle. Women’s sports are on the rise, and the number of women in sports will continue to rise. There will be more people like Mina Kimes, Jessica Mendoza, Courtney Cronin and Lea B. Olsen on your TV screens, and the sports world will be better for it.

-The hot listen: The Dawn of Sports Interview with Krull was outstanding.

-The hot rec: This isn’t my favorite season of “Reacher’’ on Prime Video. I do recommend the source material – Lee Child’s books. I’m not a fan of those written by his son, who took over the franchise when Child retired.

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