Professor Carlson’s Musing

by Larry Carlson

Oct. 26, 2022

THE NEW POLITICAL FOOTBALL

If you fondly recall the cult classic "Napoleon Dynamite" film, you still laugh about the high school election campaign promise of the affable but unremarkable Pedro. "Vote for me and all your wildest dreams will come true," droned the reluctant candidate.

Sadly, Pedro's nonsense just mirrors modern campaign material, when it's not pumping out the even more common tactic of spewing unchecked negative bile about the opponent. But a new campaign tool lurks now on college campuses and could have major implications on matters much larger than any kind of university-geared student politics.

I'm not aware of any ripples of NIL cash for political endorsements already lapping at the shores of college football. Nothing yet. But I'm thinking it could blow up a pretty big storm when the campaigns of 2024 arrive in two years.

If car and truck dealers, sports apparel companies and even HVAC companies have felt compelled to sign up for the perceived influence of "amateur" athletes, Joe Politico is bound to be already strategizing.

How easy would it be to utilize social media -- ghost-written by campaign professionals -- to sway fans and followers of teams or individual stars? Elementary, that's how easy.

Maybe it will be ugly, maybe it won't. I'm guessing that a majority of Texans and Americans really have no desire to know which way their favorite 18-year-olds might lean politically. Especially if only fast cash drives that lean. But if political gain is at stake, well, nobody has ever doubted the lack of ethics in the nasty business of battling for elected office. And the primary target audience will be youthful voters, many of whom have not previously been eligible to cast a vote.

Think, if you will, how much clout athletes such as Tim Tebow, Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray or Johnny Manziel might have had with young voters in particular. How 'bout Vince Young or Kevin Durant?

Whether the balloting is for a senatorial, gubernatorial or presidential election, there is no denying the potential for impact on close races. Your favorite players might soon be wearing political t-shirts or caps in their own free time on social media. Casual endorsements in the form of product placement.

Sadly but as a matter of record, many young Americans have taken their voting cues over the years from late-night television comedians and Hollywood blowhards with expertise in music or movies, not political savvy. I'm guessing that unless there's some kind of NCAA ban on political money, athletes in key states might reap political paychecks in 2024. And if there is a ban, it will be challenged. Bet on it.

All in the Family

ALL IN THE FAMILY?

Maybe it's just me. I don't think so, though. It's my strong belief that Texas fans are gonna have a tough time buying into all that SEC camaraderie and "a rising (Crimson?) tide lifts all boats" mentality of pulling for your conference neighbors against outsiders.

Sure, it could be fun to belt out "S-E-C, S-E-C" choruses across DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium when the Horns beat up some hateable foreigners like Notre Dame, Penn State or USC in the not-so-distant future.

That's IF the UT brass dares to add to its SEC schedule with any non-conference entrees outside the dregs of the Mountain West or Conference USA. And there's no real joy in crowing "S-E-C" to a handful of fans from New Mexico or Florida International as they trudge away from a dissatisfying payday in Austin.

The Southeastern Conference has long prided itself on fans of its proud members stepping up to cheer on other conference schools in all outside warfare. I encountered a Bama fan at the airport in Dallas almost a dozen years ago, as we were both changing planes to get to Phoenix for the national championship game between Oregon and Aw-barn. His wife was decked out in the blue and orange of her Tigers while he had gone neutral, save for a low-key Tide cap. But the gentleman told me he would be pulling for Auburn, tnose "vulgarians from the plains" as bestselling author/Bama grad Gay Talese referred to Alabama's version of the Aggies. I figured the Bama fan was forced to keep peace in the household but he bravely said something like, "Well, we've always gotta pull for the conference."

A confession here. As a Texas fan, I never pulled for A&M once in their days in the SWC. Or at any other time. I've jokingly told friends that should Aggy ever schedule the Taliban, I'll have to mull over my rooting options. I never could bring myself to pull for Arkansas in a big bowl game when the Texas-Arkansas rivalry was white hot in the '60s and '70s. And no Longhorn backer worth his Bijan Mustardson has ever, ever favored OU over anybody.

It wasn't always this cut-throat. Daddy (UT '47) even told me when I was a kid, that we wanted other Southwest Conference teams to utilize bowl games to beat back the outsiders and prove the pigskin bona fides of the SWC.

He had grown up in the era in which a Rice, TCU or SMU might have the only shot at whipping up on some Yankee sissies. Fans in the great Southwest felt like everybody -- well, maybe not Arkiesaw -- was in the Great State was family. Okay, I could buy into that.

So when Arkansas managed a 14-13 decision over Texas after the Horns missed a late two-point try in '64 to ruin UT's run at back-to-back national titles, I sure as heck was not going to call the Hogs to a victory over Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl. They won, anyway.

The next year, though, when those Razorbacks beat Texas again and got another Cotton Bowl bid, LSU came through for me and edged the Arkies. Geaux, you Bayou Bengals! I cared not a whit that the Tigers might have made the SWC "look bad."

I suspect that a lot of Longhorn fans under the age of ninety have seldom worried about a fellow conference representative making "us" look good. Sure, sure, it would only make self-serving sense to hold the nose and root for a neighbor school who could help Texas get into the NCAA playoff picture.

Short of that, most fans are still in it for their team. Just their team.

I mean, Texans have always been an independent sort. What other state was its own country?

That lone star brand means more than a cool cerveza to the Sons of Davy, Travis & Bowie.

And Longhorns themselves were singled out by the legendary cattleman, Charles Goodnight, for "endurance, self-sufficiency and a fiercely independent nature."

Besides, all this brotherhood preached by SEC members might not really hold much bourbon and water.

I can't easily picture Ole Miss fans interrupting a toddy or a Southern-cooked meal at the Ajax or City Grocery to cheer on the 'necks from Starkville. And Gators fans are bound to gag at the thought that Georgia ended a four-decade title drought last season.

Let's face it. Texas fans have already been needled with sarcastic "S-E-C, S-E-C" chants from rowdies in Lubbock and Stillwater this fall. So unless the young generation of UT students and fans buy in totally to the mantra of inclusion and empathy, it might be a stretch to think that lovers of all things Longhorn will actually want to bust out in vocal SEC pride unless it's a case of boasting for the burnt orange.

Former teen idol Ricky Nelson might have called it best as a maturing 32-year-old in his "Garden Party" song, when he figuratively shook his head at a lot of former colleagues, friends and fans who expected him to stick to one note in singing and songwriting. Now he was Rick instead of Ricky and had soaked up some wisdom about looking out for number one.

"But it's alright now...I learned my lesson well. If you can't please everyone," Nelson reasoned, "...you've got to please yourself."

For Texas fans, I'm betting that's the name of that tune.

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