How to celebrate and enjoy Baylor football — while keeping it in perspective

For more than 100 years now — through coaching changes, wins, losses, scorching heat, downpours, everything — football games have often served as our Baylor family gatherings. (Homecoming, anyone?)

We run the Line together as freshmen down on the field, and then in the years that follow, we celebrate from the stands the next class to run. As 18- to 22-year-olds, we cheer on our fellow students who put on the uniform; as alumni, we cheer on those who followed our classmates in wearing the green and gold. Even people who know and care little to nothing about the game of football still come for games and tailgates — because it’s a central Baylor family gathering.

On Sept. 2, our football team will begin the 2016 season at home against Northwestern State. Given the events of the last year, it’s incredibly important that we learn from our failures and make sure our priorities are properly aligned moving forward. But that doesn’t mean we should stop supporting the many upstanding, hard-working student-athletes who represent our university with class, or stop enjoying sports and the way they bring us together us as a family. We just have to do it the right way.

What does that mean? It means that we remember there are things bigger than sports, and we keep the games in perspective. It means that we enjoy sports for what it is — entertainment — and that, win or lose, we support the quality student-athletes who play on behalf of Baylor (across all sports). We support them not because of the jersey they’re wearing, but because they are our fellow Bears. They’re part of our family. And after the events of the last year, we — the entire Baylor family — will have the opportunity to show people around the nation what Baylor really stands for.

So moving forward, let’s make sure we, as fans, stand for integrity, and for good sportsmanship. Even more importantly, let’s stand for caring for our neighbor, in all circumstances — whether he or she is wearing green, gold, orange or purple. And above all, let’s stand for Christ, and for servant leadership, and all the things we know to be at the heart of our university. Let’s stand for one another.

Sic ’em, Bears!