Ok, I just felt like I wanted to get this out there. There's going to be a lot of people saying a lot of things. I'm sure there will be poster boards at football games the whole next season. Message boards lend themselves to getting nasty about this kind of thing.
All that said, I just want to say... man, I am sorry for the rank-and-file fans right now. By and large, the Baylor fans who have been actually filling the stands at your games these days had nothing to do with this. By and large, you guys may have defended your coach or your team when early allegations came out, but you don't think rape is at all ok and probably would be rightfully upset as things came out. You've been enjoying the greatest run your football team has had, and suddenly that is being tainted and, depending on what happens next, ripped away from you guy... and that really, really sucks. Because for the most part, the fans add to the good part of what happens when a program is having success, and I'm fairly certain that for the most part you guys had no idea this stuff was going on until we all did.
As long as you all are respectful and supportive towards the victims of the atmosphere and the behavior behind all of this, then I have no problem with you at all, and I really do feel for you. When people end up not being what they appear, and you either look up to them, idolize them, or are excited for what they are able to accomplish... the revelation that follows can be just plain $#!%%y. I have cousins who went to Penn State. Huge fans of football. But who knew that the revelations that came out were horrible and things had to be done. Still, it sucked for them. They, as students, or alumni, or fans, weren't the ones who'd done anything wrong. And neither had most of the players. But what happened, beyond what they knew, was horrible... and things had to be addressed accordingly.
I hope your program and school continue to do what needs to be done to remove the element that allowed this kind of behavior to thrive (and that the sport in general does the same, because we all know that there is unacceptable behavior going on other places as well), and that everyone can move forward once those elements have been removed.
Good luck to all those players and fans who had no idea this was going on and who find the behavior involved abhorrent. Hopefully Baylor can maintain a level of success to help keep the conference exciting and that new stadium of yours full.
All that said, I just want to say... man, I am sorry for the rank-and-file fans right now. By and large, the Baylor fans who have been actually filling the stands at your games these days had nothing to do with this. By and large, you guys may have defended your coach or your team when early allegations came out, but you don't think rape is at all ok and probably would be rightfully upset as things came out. You've been enjoying the greatest run your football team has had, and suddenly that is being tainted and, depending on what happens next, ripped away from you guy... and that really, really sucks. Because for the most part, the fans add to the good part of what happens when a program is having success, and I'm fairly certain that for the most part you guys had no idea this stuff was going on until we all did.
As long as you all are respectful and supportive towards the victims of the atmosphere and the behavior behind all of this, then I have no problem with you at all, and I really do feel for you. When people end up not being what they appear, and you either look up to them, idolize them, or are excited for what they are able to accomplish... the revelation that follows can be just plain $#!%%y. I have cousins who went to Penn State. Huge fans of football. But who knew that the revelations that came out were horrible and things had to be done. Still, it sucked for them. They, as students, or alumni, or fans, weren't the ones who'd done anything wrong. And neither had most of the players. But what happened, beyond what they knew, was horrible... and things had to be addressed accordingly.
I hope your program and school continue to do what needs to be done to remove the element that allowed this kind of behavior to thrive (and that the sport in general does the same, because we all know that there is unacceptable behavior going on other places as well), and that everyone can move forward once those elements have been removed.
Good luck to all those players and fans who had no idea this was going on and who find the behavior involved abhorrent. Hopefully Baylor can maintain a level of success to help keep the conference exciting and that new stadium of yours full.