This past weekend Baylor experienced the heartache of yet another loss out on the football field. However this loss hit home hard. We had our rivals from up the road come into our house, and take over the game. As horrific and tragic it was to lose to TCU for the second year in a row, the final score of the game was not as much of an upset as the selling of the #CAB t-shirts.
Before the game on Saturday Hurley's Graphics set up a table at the George's tailgate spot to sell their shirts. In honor of the black out game the shirts were all black, long sleeve shirts with #CAB printed on the front. CAB stands for Coach Art Briles. Most people took this is a campaign to bring back Baylor's head coach. However this was not the mission of Hurley's design.
Hurley's Graphics wasn't aware that their design would cause so much upset, because their mission got lost. Hurley's posted a public apology on their Facebook page November 6th stating the following, "To clear up any misunderstanding, our position has only been to provide a product to our customers that we value. Recent posts and rants suggesting that the company condone rape are slanderous and completely false. We have three daughters ourselves and are sickened by the thought of one of them being a victim of such a heinous crime. The purpose of the order to begin with was to donate towards a charity that provides services to those effected by sexual assault. This is the cause of #CAB, as well as helping to clear a mans name from this cloud over them." - Kevin & Celsa Hurley
The Hurley's did something that no one else had the courage to do. They made a statement about the unfortunate events that have occurred on Baylor's campus for the past 6 months. They have had enough and so have we! The Hurley's made these shirts in honor of awareness for domestic violence victims and providing services for these women. The Hurley's had no intention of making a comeback for Art Briles.
I think the Baylor community needs to realize the bigger picture with this #CAB campaign. Yes, Baylor didn't show up on Saturday. Yes fans are still upset about Briles, but no that was not a protest to improve our football team with the hopes of bring back Briles. The Baylor community needs to recognize our past, and continue to move forward toward our future. We need to learn from our mistakes. We can't ignore them or push them aside.
So thank you to the Hurley's for making sure this issue isn't just tossed aside. Baylor we are. And Baylor we stand. We need to stand behind spreading awareness for domestic violence relationships, and how we can strive to be a better Baylor and better Waco community!
