The effort, via a video that plays on the big screen at UVA Football games, to get fans to drop the “not gay!” coda to a key lyric in “The Good Old Song,” is admirable.
And also: not working.
I’m mostly immune to hearing it, because I’m sitting in the press box, and all I can hear is, whatever is being said at that juncture.
I’ve written about this before, in reference to students continuing the “not gay!” coda, and was informed by several students that what they’re actually saying is “Fuck Tech!” – which, fine, still sounds like some folks are using that as cover for something else.
And now I know this to be true, at least for those some folks.
My wife sat in the lower bowl for the home opener with William & Mary Friday night, and she said one fan in particular made it a point, after the video ran on the big screen, to tell everyone around that he was going to say what he wanted to, and then did.
Which, OK.
So, what’s next with this?
Today’s climate has about a third of the population thinking that it’s a constitutional imperative to express horrid opinions as publicly as is possible.
And it’s too often at football games where you have to deal with this kind of nonsense.
Fans at high school football games, for instance, chanting about building walls in games with opponents whose populations are more Latino.
I don’t like it that my UVA is on that level.
My UVA is the place that produces people like Chris Long and Malcolm Brogdon, using their platforms as pro athletes to build wells for communities in Africa that don’t have access to clean drinking water.
People who use the song that we sing to celebrate a touchdown to be homophobic assholes don’t deserve to be there.
But, what do you do?
You confront people like the guy talking loud so that everyone around can hear that it’s his right to be a homophobe, and it ends up escalating into a fight, and then you’re at fault.
Or, you don’t confront that person, because you’re cowed into silence for the sake of getting along, and you let their nonsense go unchecked.
If ushers remove the guy, and he sues, then it’s a whole ‘nuther level of stupid. Probably gets Trump tweeting about all the fine people on all sides, and … seriously, life in 2019 America is so tiresome, it’s not even funny.
Here’s another idea: scrap “The Good Old Song.”
There’s no place to “not gay!” if there’s no “Good Old Song.”
Yeah, I get it, this is another “this is why we can’t have good things” kind of thing.
A few people – OK, not exactly a few people; it’s a lot of people – continue to fuck this up for everybody.
And getting rid of the song is letting them win.
News flash: they’re already winning.
They’re pretty much farting in our general direction every time UVA scores.
The video was a nice touch, but it’s not going to work.
So, scrap the song.
We’re not exactly beholden to tradition anymore.
(See Band, Pep.)
Time to move on.
Column by Chris Graham
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