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Texas Longhorns Fans cheer on during the Longhorns\u2019 game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Royal-Memorial Stadium in Austin, Sept. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ricardo B. Brazziell\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Bo French\u2019s statements about a photo of presumably South Asian football fans at the University of Texas at Austin have received widespread condemnation<\/a> from across the political spectrum, including outgoing Republican senator John Cornyn<\/a>, Ben Shapiro<\/a> and even Karl Rove<\/a>. Amid the criticism, French has doubled down<\/a> on his remarks as Republicans both in Texas and beyond scramble to contain the potential fallout in advance of the upcoming midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n Others have and will continue to talk about how inappropriate, awful and racist French\u2019s comments were, and that is, of course, true. But why, in a political environment defined by constant scandal and outrage, has this specific episode struck such a nerve?\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s because Bo French came for football.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In the interest of full disclosure, we, the authors of this piece, are a University of Oklahoma Sooner and a Texas A&M Aggie. We unapologetically wish nothing but sports-related misery, failure and devastation upon the University of Texas at Austin (and, sometimes, upon each other\u2019s alma maters, too). We want the grass at Texas Memorial Stadium sown with salt from Longhorn tears.<\/p>\n After all, the Sooner\/Longhorn rivalry is infamous, with \u201cBeat Texas\u201d and \u201cHorns Down!\u201d being as central to OU\u2019s sports culture as our more official cry of \u201cBoomer Sooner!\u201d Meanwhile the Aggies, not content just hating UT, once went so far as to brand<\/a> the Longhorns\u2019 mascot, one of the most legendarily petty actions in the history of college sports (save perhaps for their kidnapping<\/a> of Rice University\u2019s Sammy the Owl). The sheer sadistic joy of rivalry is central to college football, especially in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n But however fierce the rivalries may get, American college football also represents something fundamentally valuable. It is, in many ways, a microcosm of the American experiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, we root for our teams and boo our rivals. However, throughout all that, we also all belong to something bigger: the institution of college football.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Many Americans bemoan the rise of polarized, us-versus-them thinking in our current cultural milieu. Some have even\u00a0argued<\/a> that politics has become our new national sport. However, actual sports, especially college football, demonstrate a principle that politics has increasingly struggled to exemplify: the room for rivalry within a shared social order.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is a categorical difference between the pride we feel for our alma maters, the joy we feel at their successes and the defeat of their rivals, and the kind of animosity French displayed toward the UT students in that photograph. The premise of a rivalry is this: We both belong to the same social order, but within that order, I don\u2019t like you.\u00a0<\/p>\n Belonging to that same order matters. It is why the Longhorn band played<\/a> \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d and \u201cTaps\u201d at the first A&M\/UT game following the Aggie Bonfire Disaster. It is why the first Red River Rivalry game<\/a> after 9\/11 was a patriotic affair. It is why, after devastating tornadoes ravaged Oklahoma, Houston alumni of both OU and UT- Austin came together \u2014 even wearing<\/a> each other\u2019s team colors \u2014 to raise money for tornado relief. Those philanthropic efforts continue<\/a> as those same alums still volunteer in the Houston community. And it is why Aggies and Longhorns team up every other year to help students learn more<\/a> about the Texas Legislature.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bo French fundamentally violated that premise. He raged against \u201cDEI\u201d and Americans being \u201cdisplaced by foreigners\u201d (despite not knowing the national origins of the students in the picture, meaning he was going by skin color alone). But what were the students in the picture doing?\u00a0<\/p>\n