Are We Being Conditioned to Hate?

It’s September, which in my part of the country means – football season. As is often the case, I watched the Oklahoma Sooners opening game last weekend with my husband in a sports bar. We were decked out in crimson and crème and cheered and “high-fived” each time the Sooners scored. And, they scored a lot, which always makes us happy!

As I was glancing at the television during one of the commercial breaks of the OU/Houston game, I saw a clip of Mack Brown dancing following the University of North Carolina’s win over South Carolina. I smiled watching Coach Brown’s dancing figure. But that would not have been the case 11 years ago.

Even though I don’t have an ounce of athletic ability, I’m a sports fan. My favorite sport is basketball, mostly because my father and uncle were high school basketball coaches, then I married a basketball coach. But I also love college football, especially the team whose name appears on my college diplomas. I cheered for the Selmon brothers, Jimbo Elrod, Steve Davis, Jamel Holloway, Sam Bradford, Adrian Peterson, Joe Washington, Billy Sims and many, many more. Because I’m a sports fan (and still married to a now retired coach), our television was usually tuned in to ESPN or a local sportscast where we would watch pre- or post-game interviews with the coaches. 

But when I moved to Dallas and turned on the local sportscast, it wasn’t Bob Stoops being interviewed – it was Mack Brown. At the time, Coach Brown was at the University of Texas. He had actually been the Offensive Coordinator at OU during the 1984 season but left to become the head coach at the University of North Carolina from 1985-1997. In 1998, he was named the head coach of the Texas Longhorns.

To say that there is no love lost between the Sooners and Longhorns is an understatement. I grew up despising the Longhorns. Every year in October, the Sooners and Longhorns converge in Dallas at the old Cotton Bowl stadium for what is known as the Red River Rivalry. In 1996, the two schools became conference rivals when the Big 12 Conference was established. To make matters worse, I married a graduate of the University of Arkansas, who had been in the old Southwest Conference with Texas before that conference was dissolved and many of the Texas universities joined the Big 12 Conference. Needless to say, I think my husband’s disdain for the Longhorns was even greater than mine. 

I’m ashamed to admit this, but I used to cringe at the sound of Coach Brown’s voice. Years of listening to Oklahoma sports reporters and fans complain about Coach Brown being whiny about not being able to win against Bob Stoops and the Sooners really did a number on me, and I bought into the rhetoric “hook, line and sinker.” If I was watching or listening to a Dallas sportscaster interview Coach Brown, I changed the channel.

Then a funny thing happened. I started listening to my friends who are UT graduates and fans talk about what a cool human being Coach Brown is (obviously when you live in Dallas, you have friends who are UT grads)! I started reading articles about his philanthropic efforts. It seems that outside of Oklahoma, Coach Brown was revered and considered one of the genuinely nicest coaches in college football. His 30+ year coaching record certainly speaks for itself, which after last week’s game is now 239-117-1 and includes a national championship in 2009. Oh, and the Longhorns and Coach Brown beat my Sooners the first two years I lived in Dallas. By the time Coach Brown retired from the Texas sideline in 2013 and joined the ESPN broadcast booth, he had become one of my favorite college football coaches. 

Coach Brown has returned to the University of North Carolina for his second stint there as head football coach. In the opening game of the season last week, the Coach Brown led the Tar Heels to a come from behind victory over Will Muschamp (his former assistant at UT) and South Carolina. When I saw the clip of Coach Brown dancing and later his emotional sideline interview, I was reminded about how wrong I was about Coach Brown when I arrived in Dallas in 2008.  

I wonder – are we being conditioned to hate? To hate others who don’t support our teams or don’t agree with our religious beliefs or our politics?

My pre-Dallas opinion of Mack Brown (and that is exactly what it was – only an opinion that was not based on facts, but on opinions of others), is not the only time I’ve been wrong about someone or something. Last week’s revelation is just another reminder for me to put in the hard work of listening and seeking truth and facts before jumping to conclusions. I’m still unlikely to wear orange, but I’m trying to do better in all the other things that really matter.