We’ve got drama between PGA Tour star Sahith Theegala’s fiancée, Juju Chan, and ESPN SportCenter anchor, Gary Striewski.
Whew. What a way to start July. You never know where this job’s gonna take you. Head on a swivel at all times!
The beef stemmed from an incident last weekend during the Travelers Championship. Striewski saw Chan at a local coffee shop, and recognized her from her very-active social media account.
Sahith Theegala of the United States and girlfriend Juju Chan celebrate with the trophy after winning during the final round of the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa on Sept. 17, 2023, in Napa, California. (Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
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Chan has 47,000 followers on Instagram, another 69,000 on TikTok, and posts often.
Anyway, according to Striewski, the SportsCenter host sat next to Chan while Theegala was ordering the coffees, and simply whispered to her, “Has anyone spotted you yet?”
She responded, tersely, by saying, “I guess now.”
Take a look:
There are two sides to every story, of course
“That was weird,” he said of the interaction. “Again, I understand, people want to be left alone, people don’t want to be bothered. But, if you are a person that outwardly lives your life on social media, and somebody recognizes you on social media … it was weird.”
So, that’s one side of this story. Obviously, Chan responded with her side, which is starkly different. She called Striewski “extremely unprofessional,” and said he was painting a false narrative with his version of the events.
Elle Duncan and Gary Striewski speak during the live taping of “The Elle Duncan Show” at the 2024 espnW New York Summit at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge on May 9, 2024, in Brooklyn, New York. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
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“I was uncomfortable with the comment, but I was also trying to laugh it off,” she said in a TikTok. “The interaction that he’s explaining did not happen the way he’s saying it did. To me, what he said was weird. I responded light-heartedly and laughed as I said, ‘I guess now.’
“That was the end of the conversation. It was a three-second interaction. I think it’s extremely unprofessional, given the line of work that he’s in, to bring this three-second interaction to the internet and to encourage people to hate on me.”
So, where do we stand on this? For starters, the whole thing is silly. We’re beefing over coffee shop interactions now?
Lordy, do we need football back in the worst possible way. This is true “Dog Days of Summer” stuff right here. We’re digging deep into our bag of tricks to create content today. Sometimes, you’re forced to just play the hand you’ve been dealt. Oh, well.
That being said … I’m gonna side with Chan here. And I actually like Gary Striewski, dating back to his time as NESN’s Red Sox reporter. He’s also pretty good on the 8 a.m. SportsCenter in the fall, which leads right into College GameDay.
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But, this was a weird thing to say to someone. Let’s just call it as it is. Weird. Odd. Sort of … sad?
Even weirder to run to TikTok to make a video about it. It’s high school stuff. Kid stuff. Let’s be adults, please. For once.
“That guy should have never put you in a position like this,” Theegala commented on Chan’s post. “I love you so much and I’m incredibly proud of how you’ve handled it my queen. I see how kind and caring you are to all that interact with you and the people close to us know your real, incredible self.”
And that concludes the silly summer story of the day.
Fifty-eight days till college football season.
