COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Ohio State sophomore forward E.J. Liddell stayed away from his phone notifications following the Buckeyes’ upset loss to Oral Roberts in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, instead opting to close his eyes and listen to music on the hour-long ride back to the team’s hotel in Indiana.
On the drive back to Columbus though, Liddell looked through his messages on social media. It was far from the first time Liddell had received disparaging words following a tough game, even dating back to his senior season of high school basketball in Belleville, Illinois. These messages, though, stuck out in particular.
“It definitely bothered me a little bit, just because I go out there and put a smile on my face every game just ready to play basketball,” Liddell said. “Just for people to feel so ill about me after a couple turnovers or missed one-and-one free throws, it just doesn’t sit right with me because I have feelings too.”
At 12:50 a.m. on Saturday morning, around seven hours after the Buckeyes became the ninth No. 2 seed ever to be upset by a No. 15 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, Liddell took to Twitter to show the world exactly what kind of harassment he was facing.
Liddell’s tweet, which now has nearly a quarter-million likes on the platform, displayed direct messages from multiple accounts that used racist and homophobic slurs to put Liddell down, and even threatened him physically.
“Honestly, what did I do to deserve this? I’m human,” Liddell wrote in the caption.
The story quickly gained traction, and athletes from a multitude of sports, both professional and amateur, reposted Liddell’s tweet, reached out to him specifically or shared similar stories about the harassment they receive.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith posted a message of his own on social media, which said that local authorities will be involved in any situation where threats are made to Ohio State student-athletes.
While Liddell said Wednesday that he wouldn’t want to prosecute against these people, he would like to ask them a question if he was to encounter them face-to-face.
“I would just ask them why he felt like it was OK to say something to another human like that,” Liddell said. “Not even me, just the fact that you think so bad about a person or feel so bad about a person that you could say things like that.”
To those that would say Liddell and other athletes could simply turn off social media or ignore such messages, Liddell said that during this past season in particular, with stringent COVID-19 protocols to follow at every turn, social media was his social life.
Not every message Liddell receives is as cruel as those sent on Friday evening though, and Liddell made sure to follow up his original tweet on Saturday to express his love for Ohio State fans.
“It’s mostly like 98 percent all positive, but there’s always that 2 percent that comes at you pretty rough,” Liddell said. “If you have an off night, people won’t have your back, but you have a great night, people will definitely have your back. Sometimes fans will get too high or too low honestly, and they act out of emotion. But I feel like most of the time it’s all Buckeye fans being positive.”
Liddell said he won’t let the negative comments weigh him down after a season that had plenty of upside for both the team and himself individually before the disappointing end.
However, Liddell, who is taking a short break from basketball and looking forward to seeing his family in Illinois, said someone had to speak up about this form of online harassment, and he’s happy to be a spokesperson for the cause.
“If the outcome doesn’t go our way, what makes them think they’re more hurt than us?” Liddell said. “Because that’s our sweat, blood, tears.”
