Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington’s explanation for her controversial Threads post hasn’t done much to stop the backlash surrounding her Flagrant 2 foul on Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham. In fact, former 1988 NFL MVP Boomer Esiason has now suggested that the incident and Carrington’s social media activity after looked less like isolated frustration and more like a deliberate assault on Cunningham.
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“Because of the timeline of everything, if you want to call it the jealous nature, the legitimate hatred for somebody because of what they believe in and because of what they look like and because of how popular they are, I could say it’s a targeted attack,” Esiason said, speaking on WFAN sports radio.
“In her next post, she puts the game date of the next time they’re gonna play the Fever. Yeah, I mean, that’s almost like, you know, it feels to me like it’s a threat,” Esiason added.
The incident occurred on Saturday, August 8, during the Fever-Sky game. DiJonai Carrington chased Cunningham during a fast break in an attempt to block the shot. Instead, she ended up swiping her arm across Cunningham’s face and neck area as she rose for a layup, sending her crashing hard to the floor. The officials initially assessed a Flagrant 1, upgrading it to a Flagrant 2 after video review, resulting in Carrington’s ejection.
That foul generated significant online backlash for Carrington, given the force of the contact. Specifically, Esiason and several other analysts noted that Carrington’s action appeared to reflect tensions outside of the game itself. And Sophie Cunningham‘s own postgame comments suggested she shared that suspicion.
“Clearly, I think it was unnecessary,” she said. “I’ve never really spoken to her, and I have no beef with her, but I guess she has some pent-up stuff.”
The controversy was amplified by the fact that, within minutes of her ejection, Carrington made a racial remark post on Threads, tagging the Indiana Fever’s official account. The post immediately ignited a new wave of reaction, viewed as an attempt to frame a correctly called Flagrant 2 as a racially motivated decision.
Esiason wasn’t the only NFL voice speaking on the matter. Former NFL star Emmanuel Acho also spoke on his podcast about Carrington’s X post. DiJonai Carrington has since come forward to claim that the post had nothing to do with the foul against Cunningham. That explanation has not softened the backlash.
Esiason also finds DiJonai Carrington’s post about the date of the next scheduled Fever-Sky game as a potential threat to the Indiana Fever star. And that further adds to his belief that the entire sequence of events was more than just a heated moment during a basketball game.