Tennessee head coach Butch Jones was likely already regretting his "Champions of Life" comment heading into Saturday's interstate showdown with Vanderbilt. Now that Vandy pulled off the upset, no one on the Commodores side of the fence is letting him forget about it.
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One of the sharpest barbs, though, came from Vanderbilt play-by-play announcer Joe Fisher, who during the last moments of his broadcast Saturday night, turned Jones's own rhetoric against him.
"Vanderbilt defeats Tennessee 45-34," Fisher said. "And while the Volunteers may be the self-proclaimed champions of life, they're not champions of this state."
It all started during Jones's weekly press conference last Monday when he was asked about his senior class and got a little too mushy for his own good.
Jones on this senior class: "They’ve won the biggest championship – that’s the championship of life”
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) November 21, 2016
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The whole thing became a huge running joke on the net, and it quickly became apparent that Jones's choice of words would end up coming back to haunt him.
So here's Butch Jones -- wearing Life, eating Life, playing Life. Champions of Life, indeed. pic.twitter.com/bxs5VuTIYX
— Jason Butt (@JasonHButt) November 21, 2016
And Vanderbilt's upset victory only multiplied those sentiments exponentially. Some crude internet troll (most likely from Vandy's neck of the woods) altered Tennessee football's Wikepedia page to reflect Jones's now infamous quote.
"Tennessee is the first team to lose a championship they created," an excerpt reads. "Championship of Life."
Current Tennessee football Wikipedia page is pretty darned entertaining. pic.twitter.com/Rf62rfzZM7
— Aaron Brenner (@Aaron_Brenner) November 27, 2016
Jones must be hiding in a closet somewhere by now.
