COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hours after the Ohio State basketball team was upset by Oral Roberts last Friday in the NCAA Tournament, E.J. Liddell sat on a team bus scrolling through Instagram. When you lose as the Buckeyes did, a player like Liddell — who has over 44,000 followers — is experiencing the full spectrum of fan reactions. Encouraging words from some telling him to “keep his head up” to digital blame for not making all his free throws. Then there are the others. Bitter. Angry. Racist and threatening. In that moment, still sorting through his own emotions, Liddell had enough. “Honestly, what did I do to deserve this? I’m human,” Liddell tweeted alongside photos of direct-message attacks. While Liddell’s feed that night might have reflected the very worst of the trolls and the unhinged, it was also just the super-sized version of comments that have existed since he emerged as…
Continue Reading: Standing tall against harassment, Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell emerges as a voice for student-athletes
