The University of Texas has for the first time signed a sponsorship agreement with a beer company, to support their athletic department. It may be one of the first athletic departments at a major university to sign a direct sponsorship agreement with an alcohol company. And this has some people losing their mind. I’ve heard everything from it will encourage kids to drink, to encouraging adults to drink more, to its unseemly for an alcohol company to sponsor athletic programs. Really?

First let’s look at the relationship between athletics and alcohol. Tailgating especially at football games with her college or professional, go hand-in-hand. They are not drinking soft drinks exclusively at these events and many programs or teams serve beer in the stadium. Heck, Sonny Jurgensen, former quarterback for the Washington Redskins was infamous for playing drunk or hung over from his activities the night before. The Oakland Raiders became famous for having beer in the locker room before and after games not to mention the movie North Dallas Forty, which documented the antics of the Dallas Cowboys under Tom Landry. Most professional sports teams still provide beer in the locker room after a game.

Let’s not forget the Miller Lite commercials from the 70s and 80s in which personalities from the sports world hocked the product. The relationship between alcohol and sports is long-standing. Just ask any guy or gal who has played slow pitch softball.

And the idea that having Corona sponsor Longhorn athletics is somehow going to encourage more undergraduates to drink is ludicrous. When is the last time you were on a college campus? They don’t just drink at athletic events, they drink all the time. Did the sun come up today? That’s a good reason to throw a keg party! Your roommate failed his biology 101 test for the fifth time? Time to make some jungle juice! Besides, most college students I know are not going to drink Corona, it costs too much. They are drinking PBR, Schlitz, or Kansas Wheat Beer because you can buy a case for $3.95

And let’s not get started on the argument that adults will begin drinking at athletic events just because of a sign on the stadium. I really could not find anything on the Internet that even remotely suggested that adults or teenagers began drinking just because they saw an advertisement. Yes they might change the brand of what they are drinking but to go from abstinence to abuse of alcohol en masse just doesn’t happen.

Finally there was an argument that because many of the students are under the age of 21 they should not be exposed to advertisements for alcohol of any type. That’s right, because not telling our kids the truth or not exposing them to things that they can’t have or shouldn’t have has worked so well for the current generation of snowflakes who need safe spaces when someone says the word “Trump”.

The simple fact is this, there’s nothing wrong with having Corona or any other adult beverage company as a sponsor of college athletics. The money will help out the entire athletic department not just the football team and the student-athlete will benefit from that influx of money. All of these specious arguments about the potential of harm are just more liberals trying to control our lives and keep us from having any fun. Yes there are probably people who will abuse alcohol but there is plenty of help for them and we don’t need to keep the 97% of our population who can handle it from having the fun they want and deserve to have because 3% of our population might suffer harm.

We need to get away from this liberal idea that if a very small minority of our population might be offended or suffer in some way because of what the vast majority of us are doing or want to do offends them then we must all stop doing it. So now I’m off to have an adult beverage or 12 and I’ll get a designated driver to take me home. But by gosh I’m going to have a lot of fun in the meantime.