Serious question. Has the basketball team gone "woke" and are kneeling for the anthem and all that other social justice warrior-ing stuff? Just got a letter about my season tickets and I'm trying to decide if I go to games this year, push my money I already paid to next year, or cancel and get a refund.

I refuse to fund a false narrative and just want to make an informed decision. Not trying to stir things up.

I didn't know season ticket money was being funneled directly into social justice issues.

I don't see Buzz allowing that to happen. See his video where he made his Virginia Tech team practice standing for the national anthem.

I don't think 'wouldn't allow it to happen' is the right phrasing. I do think he'd talk to the players first about it, what message they're trying to send, are there better ways to send it, are you kneeling for a specific purpose or just because it's a thing people are doing, etc.

Put another way, I trust Buzz to have the right conversations with our team.

SMH at the basketball enthusiasts dissing the OP because his patriotism exceeds his love for Aggie basketball....

paterfamilias79 said:

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SMH at the basketball enthusiasts dissing the OP because his patriotism exceeds his love for Aggie basketball....

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I think our student athletes have the right to support different ideologies or have different opinions than people in this forum or a certain group of our alumni. Similarly, Jeremy (OP) has the right to cancel or ask for refund of season tickets if he feels student athletes' opinions or behavior related to supporting X/Y are not aligned with his set of values.


As a former high school educator, I can tell you that young adults need a safe space to learn and shape their set of values/beliefs. A lot of learning happens during these formative years. Texas A&M and Buzz's leadership offer our student athletes a safe place and support during this learning process so hopefully you feel confident about it.

We live in a country with more than +330M people and what makes it awesome is that we are allowed to have forums like Texags to discuss freely our opinions.

Alright, alright. In addition to taking EXCELL's seats and leaving them empty, I'm going to take jeremy's seats and put a heterogenous mannequin in the seats with a BLM shirt on.

jeremy said:

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Serious question. Has the basketball team gone "woke" and are kneeling for the anthem and all that other social justice warrior-ing stuff? Just got a letter about my season tickets and I'm trying to decide if I go to games this year, push my money I already paid to next year, or cancel and get a refund.

I refuse to fund a false narrative and just want to make an informed decision. Not trying to stir things up.

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We opted out of our BB season tickets for this year My wife and I had a discussion about what we would do if, at first home game, some players took a knee during the National Anthem. We both said we would get up and leave as soon as the music stopped and demand a refund from the TMF. So will stay at home this season and see what happens. We both like BB more than FB and love Buzz, but BB is just a game while patriotism is more important.

I certainly trust Buzz to handle this as well or better than anyone. But he is in a tough spot. And I think Jimbo has handled it well but he does not have the kneeling problem during the SSB. So nothing overt on the FB field.

You love Buzz but you're not getting season tickets because of something that hasn't even happened yet?

This is just wild to me.

That is the main reason. Also, after seeing where people were being re-seated to, confirmed our decision. The virus was a distant third.

agtrevino07 said:

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paterfamilias79 said:

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SMH at the basketball enthusiasts dissing the OP because his patriotism exceeds his love for Aggie basketball....

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I think our student athletes have the right to support different ideologies or have different opinions than people in this forum or a certain group of our alumni. Similarly, Jeremy (OP) has the right to cancel or ask for refund of season tickets if he feels student athletes' opinions or behavior related to supporting X/Y are not aligned with his set of values.


As a former high school educator, I can tell you that young adults need a safe space to learn and shape their set of values/beliefs. A lot of learning happens during these formative years. Texas A&M and Buzz's leadership offer our student athletes a safe place and support during this learning process so hopefully you feel confident about it.

We live in a country with more than +330M people and what makes it awesome is that we are allowed to have forums like Texags to discuss freely our opinions.

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I admire that you are a former high school educator...so is my wife, daughter (current), daughter-in-law(former hs educator) so there are my references. So tongue-in-cheek, here, I think we should require Chinese as a second language in grade school and beyond. It will enable the next generations to fluently and accurately ask their captors "Where is my safe space?"

We'll also walk if it happens. Women's sports 100% so far, hoping for the best with Buzz.

So do y'all have a social justice tolerance meter?

Like a pregame show of unity is okay as long as it's not during the national anthem, but if a member of the team is warming up in a BLM shirt you're out?

Man some of y'all need to learn how to ignore stuff that doesn't have any effect on you.

I seriously don't understand how you can have the conversation above and be a basketball fan. I mean, I can only assume y'all had tickets during the BK era. You guys annually paid to go see one of the worst coached teams in the SEC but this is where you draw the line? Based on some social media posts from like 6 months ago?

If you are referring to my post, we are basketball fans but patriotism and country trumps any game, any day. And if it doesn't for you, then, in my opinion, you need to get different priorities.

I don't understand how, after a life of Aggie fandom, some of y'all can still be so fragile.

If Buzz's players wants to kneel, I'm confident he will allow them after much discussion about it with the team. There will be a lot of discussions around it on why they are kneeling and what is the message they are trying to send. It will not be "coach we want to kneel" and him simply saying "ok". It will be an open discussion among the team. And the end result might be ok there are other ways to send the message we want than kneeling for the anthem. But if it happens Buzz or his players will speak out about the message they are trying to send. It won't be just guys kneeling snd people assuming they know why they are kneeling or players kneeling and themselves not knowing why they are kneeling.

Marc, I do agree 100% with what you are saying. But I think they can find less divisive ways to protest or show allegiance to whatever they want to show allegiance to.

SW AG80 said:

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If you are referring to my post, we are basketball fans but patriotism and country trumps any game, any day. And if it doesn't for you, then, in my opinion, you need to get different priorities.

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Not sure what college kids possibly kneeling during the anthem have anything to do with my patriotism. Being offended by the silliest things is a choice and your right.

I don't think kneeling is anti-patriotic, but even if I did I don't let someone else's patriotism or lack thereof influence whether or not I want to enjoy a game of basketball.

Some of y'all do, and that's your right, but don't tell other people they need to get their priorities in order.

So what reason do you think players would kneel? Are you against people wanting to feel equal to and not less than? Do you honestly think people of different races are treated equally still in 2020? Are they burning flags? Have you ever had a meaningful relationship with a black person and maybe can have empathy to why people may feel compelled to take a knee? The world doesn't revolve are you. You want to cheer them on but not support people who simply want to be equal to.

Quote:

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I don't think kneeling is anti-patriotic, but even if I did I don't let someone else's patriotism or lack thereof influence whether or not I want to enjoy a game of basketball.

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I have a great friend of 20+ years. We used to talk a couple times a day on the phone about sports. We'd go to 50+ sporting events a year. He went off the deep end during the Kaepernick kneeling and now hasn't watched the NFL, NBA or any sporting event since BLM ramped up. He won't allow his family to wear Nike and if I ask him about a specific event (example: Dak Prescott's injury) he says: "man I don't watch that sh*t. Needless to say, we barely talk anymore. He is not in a good place, in my opinion, and has let his mind go wild with drama and hate.

Bobinator, I've been trying to relay your exact message to my buddy, but I just couldn't get the thought out correctly. I think you posted my sentiments exactly, just in a better way.

rlb28 said:

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Quote:

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I don't think kneeling is anti-patriotic, but even if I did I don't let someone else's patriotism or lack thereof influence whether or not I want to enjoy a game of basketball.

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I have a great friend of 20+ years. We used to talk a couple times a day on the phone about sports. We'd go to 50+ sporting events a year. He went off the deep end during the Kaepernick kneeling and now hasn't watched the NFL, NBA or any sporting event since BLM ramped up. He won't allow his family to wear Nike and if I ask him about a specific event (example: Dak Prescott's injury) he says: "man I don't watch that sh*t. Needless to say, we barely talk anymore. He is not in a good place, in my opinion, and has let his mind go wild with drama and hate.

Bobinator, I've been trying to relay your exact message to my buddy, but I just couldn't get the thought out correctly. I think you posted my sentiments exactly, just in a better way.

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Sounds like without sports you had no relationship. If he doesn't want to talk sports, why try to force it on him?

http//:www.youtube.com/embed/2eBxVxOOnh4 Is how I feel about standing for the NA. Talking to an old, old friend yesterday about our memories of the 2nd WW and how really tough times were. Realize many of you were not alive then. Won't go into all the other memories of wars, hard times, 9/11, etc. Will mention that when I was stationed in San Diego in '96 the navy trained medics knew if they were assigned to the Marines their chances of coming home was 50%. So many have given so much for this country for us to now be able to protest, etc. that can not understand disrespecting the flag or do I want to see that disrespect. I can understand the black tops, flags, etc, but awful hard to see the disrespect for the Flag .Just the opinion of some one that has seen and felt a lot.

This is the core issue, and it's not a solvable one, which is why these threads go in circles.

Your life experiences and beliefs are that not standing for the national anthem is an unpatriotic act. That doing it means you're disrespecting the people that have died for this country. Respecting the flag, to you and to others, is respecting everyone that's died in service of our country.

But other people don't see it that way. They don't see kneeling during the anthem as disrespecting the people that have died for this country. They see it as a way to symbolically indicate that changes need to be made in this country, and that message doesn't have anything anything to do with the troops or anything.

You see it as disrespect, but that's not what they mean by it. (at least usually, I don't want to speak for everyone, some small percentage probably do disrespect it.)

The flag and the national anthem can mean different things to different people, which is fine, and we all have to decide how we want to react to it. I just think we can do that without putting words into the mouth of the people that disagree with us.

Announcers literally ask people to rise or stand to honor the flag/country.

It's disrespect not to, or to do something else.

Now, they have the right to disrespect the country, flag, etc.... But, it's disrespect.

I remember when we "read the Batt" during visiting team introductions, and then the kibosh was put on that because it was "disrespectful".

So, disrespect has been censored before.

MUAG said:

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http//:www.youtube.com/embed/2eBxVxOOnh4 Is how I feel about standing for the NA. Talking to an old, old friend yesterday about our memories of the 2nd WW and how really tough times were. Realize many of you were not alive then. Won't go into all the other memories of wars, hard times, 9/11, etc. Will mention that when I was stationed in San Diego in '96 the navy trained medics knew if they were assigned to the Marines their chances of coming home was 50%. So many have given so much for this country for us to now be able to protest, etc. that can not understand disrespecting the flag or do I want to see that disrespect. I can understand the black tops, flags, etc, but awful hard to see the disrespect for the Flag .Just the opinion of some one that has seen and felt a lot.

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It's always been commendable the sacrifices that you made for this country's freedoms. You wholeheartedly made the sacrifice for all of us not just those that are perfectly happy with the status quo. The freedoms they(we) fight for have nothing to do with the flag and everything to do with being treated equal in the eyes of the law and it's citizens. Kneeling down for the anthem is a symbol of unity for those who want to make this country better by including those that have for so long been treated unfairly.

You fought for freedom, they're fighting for justice and equality. Aren't we all talking about the same things that are explicitly stated in the Constitution?