Dearest Aggie Family,
I took the time yesterday to read this article, and while I don’t normally take stuff like this further than a discussion in the living room with my husband, I couldn’t shake the thought of it from a parent’s point of view. From a family member’s point of view–because Manziel is just that, family. Our Aggie family.
Why, then, are so many Aggies so quick to throw him under the bus? Let the media do what the media does, but we are Aggies. We celebrate each other and defend each other and protect each other. We shouldn’t be mad he doesn’t go to class on campus; we should be trying to fix it–together. We should want him to experience the Texas A&M we know and love in all its glory. He’s not a legacy player. He came because he could play ball. Rather than convincing him it’s one of the greatest places on earth, we’ve made it a place he can’t stand to be. A place with so much pressure and so much on the line for him that it’s not fun anymore. He’s not having fun.
I’m not at all defending his behaviors and his choices, but I do think we’re going about it all wrong. I’ve watched the clips of his questionable off-field behavior. I’ve seen the tweets. I get it. He’s twenty. He’s a star. He’s acting as most twenty year-old stars would. Let the media spin it and drag him through the mud if they must, but let them see the Aggies standing together for their quarterback in good times and in bad. When we’re fueling the fire, we’re hurting ourselves as a whole. What recruit wants to come to a school where they’re getting eaten alive by their own? What small town kid who’s intimidated by such a big school anyway is ever going to believe we’re all in this together when we can’t even get behind the kid that’s leading our team back into the wonderful world of football?
If the Aggie network is truly hundreds of thousands strong, why aren’t we going about this in a way that Aggies do? Where is the honor, the truth, the valor, that is an Aggies’ claim to fame?
We are the Aggies, the Aggies are we
True to each other as Agggies can be…
It doesn’t matter if the SEC gets it. It doesn’t matter if ESPN gets it. Maybe it’s time to quit worrying about them and start taking care of our own.