Don’t shoot the messenger, Texas A&M, but one of your own wants to play Texas again.
Because Von Miller is smart.
Because Von Miller is wise enough to put aside his ego in one of the great college football debates going within our borders.
For the past few years the only people who cared to keep this debate going are big-mouthed, self-serving sports journalists who want quality content. (Not me, of course.)
Texas playing Texas A&M in kickball is quality content. Texas playing Texas A&M in football is shut-down-the-state content that will not require the help of ERCOT.
Last week, I had the chance to visit with Miller, the former Texas A&M and current Denver Broncos star linebacker. I posed the innocent question if he would like to see one of the great college football rivalries continue.
“I think both of these schools could really benefit from that,” Miller said. “Both of these schools would be alright without it.”
This is correct answer. The two have not played the other since Thanksgiving night on 2011, and both are rolling in money without the other.
(Also, neither has won a national title, or reached the playoffs. Call it the Dallas Cowboys Syndrome.)
Miller could easily have stopped there with his answer, but he didn’t. He didn’t for a reason.
“You have two big-time schools that played the game over 100 years annually. But I would really like to see it. I really would,” Miller said.
This does not make him a turncoat. It just makes him honest.
SEC’s Media Days are here, which means Texas A&M is preparing to play its 11th season in the conference that just means more. Coach Jimbo Fisher will talk on Wednesday, and he may be asked about playing Texas (again), but a decision like this are above his head.
The respective decision makers will all say they want to play again, and then promptly won’t do a thing about it.
Miller’s case is the only that should exist.
Again, this is not just some random former Texas A&M player who wants to see the Aggies play the Longhorns again.
We are talking about the greatest Aggies football player ever, who loves A&M as much as any alum could. No Aggie would dare disagree with Von Miller about anything Texas A&M football related, including this topic.
“I run into so many teasips around the league in the locker room and around [the NFL] and I have so many different colleagues [who are UT alums] that I would love to see that happen,” he said.
“Me being in the [NFL] for 11 years I run across guys in the league that went to UT or went to A&M and they didn’t play in the game,” he said. “That’s weird. That’s when I really feel old.
“‘You didn’t get to play Texas?’” he’ll say to younger players. “‘You didn’t get to play Texas A&M? You didn’t get that experience?’”
No, Mike Evans never played Texas.
Miller emphasized the game. Because he played in the game he knows not only how much it matters, but the positive, lifelong experiences that come from it.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte had approached A&M about potentially doing this a while back, because ... money.
A&M passed, but this will eventually happen because ... money.
With the reality of having to pay the players now inevitable, the costs to operate a Power 5 athletic department are only going increase from Crazy to Absurdly Crazy.
The chance to cash in on a Texas A&M versus Texas in football will soon be too big to ignore. It’s the same reason why Floyd Mayweather eventually agreed to fight Manny Pacquiao. It was time to cash in.
Meanwhile, both fan bases are dug in to celebrate the fact that they don’t need the other. Look how much happier I am now that we’ve split!
The only ones who mean it are the Texas-exes, for whom “I’m above all of it” is a part of the degree.
Yet when this rivalry resumes the moment tickets go on sale all of those same people who proclaimed how much better their lives are without Texas or Texas A&M in it will be exposed for the frauds that they are. They will all mortgage their house and smash their credit limit in order to buy tickets to watch this game in person.
For, as Miller said, the experience.
He is an Aggie, but his teasip friends can agree with him.
“That game, and that rivalry, were both amazing for both schools and they looked forward to that game,” he said. “I would like to see that come back.”
Sorry, Texas A&M and Texas, but Von Miller is right.
And you know it.
