Congratulations, LSU students.
You finally got it. After three years of making fellatio jokes, someone’s noticed you.
Flip through today’s issue of The Daily Reveille, and you’ll see that LSU coach Les Miles and the Athletic Department took out an entire page in the paper.
Pleading. Begging. Imploring you to shut your mouth in a letter signed by the entire football team, University President F. King Alexander and Athletic Director Joe Alleva.
That’s not all. As you walk in to Tiger Stadium on Saturday — if you even show up — you’ll be handed a flier asking you not to tell the 85,000 people around you to “suck your Tiger d***.”
Even better, the Tiger cheerleaders will hold “Keep it Clean” signs toward the student section.
On LSU football’s social media platforms, you’ll find PSA-style videos starring junior wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry.
Sounds a lot like a kindergarten class doesn’t it? Like when teachers would give warning after warning to the talkative kid before banishing them to the principal’s office.
No, instead it’s all part of a new “Tradition Matters” campaign launched by LSU Athletics in advance of Saturday’s game against Texas A&M.
For a program that prides itself on having the greatest fans in college athletics and is the constant target of national exposure, it’s necessary.
But isn’t it sad that we’ve gotten to this point?
It’s pathetic that I got a call from LSU officials yesterday asking me to “challenge your fellow students.” Pathetic that Beckham and Landry had to be bothered for a video.
And pathetic that the LSU Athletic Department was forced to spend its own money to scold a group of 18- to 24-year-olds acting like a clique of sixth graders that just learned certain four-letter words are socially unacceptable.
I’m not going to absolve myself of wrongdoing. Yes, I’ve been in the student section and yes, I’ve chanted vulgarities as the band plays “Neck” alongside my fellow students.
I fell into the trap of “everybody’s doing it.”
It was ignorant and immature. And I didn’t realize how sleazy it made my university look until I sat in a press box last season and watched my professional colleagues shake their heads in disgust.
It’s not my job as a reporter or a student to tell my classmates and friends what to say — that’s a job for the Constitution or a parent.
As students at Louisiana’s flagship university, I challenge you to take the next two days to think about how you want LSU portrayed to the nation.
If the last two years are any indication, I think I already know the answer. And if that’s your prerogative — to embarrass an entire university in the most immature way possible — rock on with your bad self. It’s completely your right.
But the powers that be have spoken. It’s clear they won’t tolerate any sophomoric actions from their students and have exercised all possible measures to quash them.
So, as the Tigers kick off against a team with tradition oozing from its seams on Saturday, the question is put forth.
Do you want to redefine LSU’s tradition?
It’s up to you.
Chandler Rome is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Baton Rouge.