From Billy Luicci / Texags "I truly believe there is a concerted effort going on right now to damage Manziel, Sumlin and the A&M brand. If it could ever be proven, a lot of people would, deservedly, lose their credibility and, hopefully, their jobs.
Spin control?
Someone told me about this earlier today.
There is no grand conspiracy by the world at large to damage the aggy brand. What's happening is that the aggy brand is finally becoming known on a greater stage. A university flush with financial resources but absolutely devoid of the ability to keep from humiliating themselves. Their move to the SEC was partly driven by their desire to gain increased brand awareness on a national stage. Well, they have sure accomplished that.
The reality is that the aggys are their own worst enemies. How they have become so damaged as a culture is a mystery to me. They have a history that, if they were to embrace and accept, they would have ample reason to be proud. I can't think of another major university that started as a branch of their state's premier state university and, within 75 years of being split off from the larger university, because a major university in their own right. This year marks 50 years of aggy becoming elevated from an all male college to university status and during that half century, they have accomplished a lot.
However, their fabricated claims to glory including their false version of their founding as anything other than a branch of The University of Texas, their false claim to have originated the whole "12th Man" thing, their obsessive and misplaced focus on things military and not on things academic (Harvard counts over twice as many alumni as Congressional Medal of Honor recipients as does aggy but one would never know that by walking around the Harvard campus), their fake claims to "previously unknown" national championships (need I go on?) have robbed the ags of the ability to be self reflective. Why are they the only ones who don't see their constant need to whip out the burnt orange yardstick to measure their every accomplishment? Why is everything misfortune that befalls them the result of some grand conspiracy instead of simply an instance where they could have done better? Its comical how the ags always have to blame others for what ags do to themselves. Its also somewhat sad.
If Billy Luicci really wanted to help promote the aggy brand, he should help repair the collective aggy psyche. Can anyone name another sports website that maintains a constant vigil for every obliquely critical comment to be edited or deleted. To repair their battered collective psyche, the ags need the critical introspection that happens amongst fan bases of healthy and successful programs. It would be much easier (and much more productive) to tweet about how Manziel might better represent tamu instead of how the rest of the world is at fault for the growing negative national reputation of tamu and its athletic program.
Tamu is a program that before last year hadn't won bowl games in back to back years in 75 years. It hadn't finished a season ranked in the top 5 in half a century. It hadn't won a significant bowl game in a quarter century and it hadn't beaten an SEC school in 20 years. That isn't the resume of a powerhouse program. None of past failures of the aggy program are the responsibility of anyone but aggys, just as the embarrassment being experienced by the university and its football program today isn't the responsibility of anyone but aggys. We aren't all out to humiliate the ags or damage the brand of the aggys, Billy. We don't have to. At every turn, you guys humiliate yourselves and save us the trouble.
