News/Commentary

University of Texas Longhorns new slogan triggers social media outrage

August 27, 2023 | | Print Article

A Texas football team’s rallying cry against detractors was more than some social media snowflakes could handle while others leaned into “the hate.”

As the University of Texas begins its last year in the Big 12 before joining the SEC, the Longhorns head football coach Steve Sarkisian triggered a leftest language lecture over the described mentality for the 2023-2024 season. Without intended irony, the slogan behind the meltdowns that also managed to sell out T-shirts encouraged UT fans to “Embrace The Hate.”

Calling back to the phrase he had said prior to the Longhorns game against Texas Tech last year, Sarkisian re-upped the expression during a press conference at the beginning of August. “I think this team is on a mission, they’ve taken this mindset of being on a mission. They’ve kind of adopted the John Wick mentality.”

“I think that they’ve kind of assumed this mentality of, ‘Embrace the hate.’ We get it. We’re the University of Texas, we get it. This is our last year in the Big 12,” he continued. “We can sit there and be a punching bag, or we can go attack the people that we’re going to play. And I think that they’ve assumed that responsibility to say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go after everybody else too.’ I think that that’s the right mentality to have.”

The rallying cry became a T-shirt available at the University Co-op that, amidst backlash, had a promotional post deleted from X. However, while a youth version could still be found on the website (sold out and available for pre-order), the school’s vice president and athletics director Chris Del Conte showed support for the message and shared an image of a T-shirt with the caption, “Pickin’ up whatcha putting down.”

Support from on high was not enough to sate the social justice virtue signalers who vocalized an out of context critique of the slogan.

One lament read, “As the parent of a current student, this is appalling. Since when is the flagship university teaching ’embrace hate’? Competition…Rivalry…Coming together for the love of the game…But embracing hate? Tone deaf and harmful, especially in the current political climate.”

Another was replying as part of a thread that had pointed out, “If the shirt said ’embrace race-based mass shootings’ that would be one thing. But that’s not what it says or means and you should be smart enough to know that,” and said, “The word you’re looking for here is ‘racist’. ‘Racist mass shootings, like the one today. ‘Embrace the hate’ is a bad message, no matter what it ‘means’. Especially now. And as a Longhorn, I’m smart enough to know that.”

Despite the meltdown, Del Conte had spoken highly of the slogan during an interview with Anwar Richardson of “The Old Fashioned Sports Show.”

“We know we have to embrace the hate this year. Everyone in the Big 12 is mad at us,” he said. “They think we broke up the Big 12; they think we broke up the Pac 12 because we left. We left for what’s right for the University of Texas. And that’s my job. That’s our job as leadership is to protect the brand and put ourselves in the best position to be successful.”

Others also showed their favor for the slogan as they knocked the backlash.

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Kevin Haggerty
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