A few days ago, an article was published by a fellow Longhorn about how booing at the players, particularly our quarterback for our football team, was uncalled for and disrespectful. I was so glad knowing that I was not the only one who felt this way. As a student sitting in the endzone, I heard countless students yelling explicates and profanity at our quarterback and our offensive coordinator. I’ve never felt more embarrassed to be with fellow Longhorns.

Yesterday, an article was printed in defense of the booing towards the Texas football coaches. Clearly football “is more than a game” — because of this, is it okay to disrespect your own team? I was born and raised in Texas — the football capital of the world. No one needs to explain to me that football is more than a game. At its best, it represents fun, fanhood and unity of one school supporting their team. It is this idea that makes dissing our own team terrible. There are definitely times that the coaches may not have chosen adequate plays or the players may not perform the way we want them to.

But what type of fans or unity do we have if we can’t give constructive criticism instead of publicly humiliating coaches and players?

The problem with UT is that we are used to winning. We expect national championships and beating teams by a margin of 30 points. When we don’t do these things, we have a problem supporting our team. That is where I hope that we can change.

I hate to think about what the alumni, supporters and friends of the BYU team thought of us last Saturday, as I would be appalled if I went to any other stadium and witnessed what we did. I feel as though I have to apologize to Garrett Gilbert and the coaches on behalf of those who believe it was a proper way to express anger.

— Alyssa Padilla
Undergraduate studies sophomore