Orangebloods descended on the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, on the University of Texas at Austin campus, to hear from men’s athletics director Steve Patterson. Part of the TM Talks series, the event pivoted off the September cover story featuring Patterson and new head football coach Charlie Strong. During the wide-ranging conversation, Patterson addressed player safety, the problems facing the NFL, and the impact of big money on amateur athletics. And, yes, he answered the long-standing question on fans’ minds: Will the Longhorns ever play Texas A&M in football again? “There’s no compelling argument for the sake of the brand to play the Aggies again,” he said. To watch the conversation in full, click here.

And now a sampling of feedback from our readers.

Justify My Guv

Texans for Public Justice [“The Perry Indictment”]! Is that what the cool kids are calling corruption nowadays?! Travis County’s top law officer breaks the law by threatening the citizens with gross intoxicated driving; lies repeatedly by denying having had more than two drinks (with three different stories) while operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content almost triple the legal limit; abuses the poor cops who have to take her into custody; refuses to cooperate with the staff who must process her; throws an epic hissy fit about the unfairness of life; demands special treatment more than a dozen times; orders everyone within a one-mile radius to get “Greg,” the sheriff down there, to free her; doesn’t listen to the judge trying to explain what’s happening; and forces the staff to slap her into a restraint chair and a spit mask. This from someone in the Public Integrity Unit, someone who is supposed to be the watchdog against corruption, someone who has, in her day, thrown the book at others who did similar things. We grubby little citizens are supposed to just turn our gaze away from that? If this governor did not try to remove this horrible woman from an agency charged with guarding our system of justice from special interest groups (such as, apparently, Texans for Public Justice), then I think we should remove him from office and throw his ass in jail! But nooooo . . . the cool kids don’t want to hurt a powerful female public official’s feelings. Great, just great!
Trish Fitzpatrick, via texasmonthly.com

This was over before it even began. It’s a bogus indictment, and the Travis County DA knows it. It’s dirty politics. Even Texas Monthly knows it: the inevitable answer is in this graphic. “This is not a crime.”
John Benton, via facebook

A drunk driver runs the DA’s office. Perry refused to allocate money to that kind of corruption. It’s as simple as that for me. It’s not about Republicans or Democrats. Dinesh D’Souza just got in trouble for campaign finance fraud, and I thought it was a fair ruling. Corruption needs to stop being about politics. And the media will not stop making it about politics until citizens quit buying the bull.
Christen Hereim Rush, via facebook 

Rosemary Lehmberg should have resigned and Rick Perry would not be in this drama. Drop it and save the taxpayers the money.
Shannon Collins, via facebook

From the looks of the infographic, it seems apparent that the goal was to keep Perry occupied to try to hamper a presidential run.
Bryan Shayne, via facebook

And this will cost us how much? It should be illegal for state funds to be used for legal representation. My money would be better spent funding a home for the homeless, veterans’ assistance, women’s clinics, improving our roads—anything but for Rick Perry!
Sharon Niesen, via facebook

Perry did everything within the state laws. He has the fortitude to act when someone disgraces a public office in Texas. It’s funny: if the tables were turned, the media and all the liberals would overlook this. You know, just as President Obama does on a regular basis.
John Stubblefield, via facebook

Paulitics as Usual

I find Paul Burka’s apology for the demise of the Democratic party in Texas nothing short of amazing [Behind the Lines]. First, there is the lament of the growth of suburban voting power and the suburbanites who don’t “need anything from the government.” This is a bad thing? Apparently so, since, according to Burka, the Democrats lost their constituency, which is to say that government handouts are key to strong Democratic support. Burka also accuses Attorney General Greg Abbott and state senator Dan Patrick of being “blind to the hostility directed” toward the Hispanic population in their position against illegal immigration and efforts to secure the border while intimating that this is an opportunity for the Democrats to gain votes. Illegal immigration is just that: illegal. Nations without secure borders are destined for trouble. If Paul Burka were to ask the ceiling why the Dems continue to fail, well, I would just say, you need to read a little Paul Burka and you’ll get the picture.
Allan Mentgen, Colleyville

It is obvious to this reader that Texas Monthly and Paul Burka do not believe in the election process or a citizen’s right to vote for who he believes will lead Texas in the direction he wants. Since when does coming from the Northeast or living in the suburbs equate to not caring about social issues? Since when does being an immigrant equate to automatically looking for help from the government? Immigrants (legal or illegal) come to America and to Texas to have a better life and greater opportunities, not to instantly ask for “help” from the government. Since when is it repressive to require an ID to vote, especially when an ID is already required to do virtually anything in this country? Yes, it has taken decades, but the vast majority of Texans have made their voices heard by voting for political candidates who have a clear vision of opportunity and prosperity for all Texans.
Michelle Wolff, Merritt Island, Florida

What a junk piece of really bad garbage. Paul Burka could have mentioned all the gerrymandering Tom DeLay contributed to ensure people like Jim Hogan would be an “un-candidate.” And let’s not forget Wendy Davis. Or how about Citizens United? Keep it simple: just put a picture of Tom DeLay in the middle of all that green grass perfectly barbed and wired into the shape of Texas. That would be more telling than Paul Burka’s opinion.
DeLinda Harrell, Lubbock

So Paul Burka thinks Texas’s voter ID law is repressive. Give me a break. Typical liberal claptrap. What might turn Texas blue is the influx of northern libs like the new couple in our son’s neighborhood. They hold their little Wendy Davis jam sessions and rail against the conservative stance of the state.

Dems can RIP or they can just rest in hell. Either one is fine with me.
Jerry Cline, via email

Shaken and Stirred

It’s not often you see someone row so furiously and so publicly up the river of denial as Domingo Martinez [“The Hard Stuff”]. It was a most odd passage, down to the title. I hope there’s a person in Martinez’s life who will explain clearly that for an alcoholic, while the road to sobriety isn’t straight, sobriety itself is: You don’t drink. Period.
R. T. Castleberry, Houston 

This excerpt from Domingo Martinez’s new memoir, My Heart Is a Drunken Compass, was amazing. What a talented writer! I could not stop reading.
Kathy Hug Healy, via facebook

Meanwhile, Over at BurkaBlog . . .

Why does anyone listen to the deranged cheerleading of Paul Burka for another standard-issue liberal who will spend us into oblivion [“Davis for the Win”]? Burka’s drunken cheerleading is bad enough, but now he doesn’t even bother to fact-check Wendy Davis’s bogus claims. The claim that the Medicaid expansion dollars that Texas turned down are going to fund California’s Medicaid program is false. This claim was rated false by the lefty fact-checker PolitiFact. Burka is an embarrassment.
St. Wendy, via texasmonthly.com

Burka would’ve declared Davis the winner no matter what. Maybe she won, maybe she didn’t. But he would’ve no matter. I doubt it’ll change anything other than make either side crow about their better debate skills.
MSM, via texasmonthly.com

I’m not sure that who won the latest gubernatorial debate matters, despite reading this article. The key question is who is better-suited to help govern Texas. To that, I’m sure we each have our opinion, and we’re probably pretty committed. So let’s get to the bigger and more complex question: Who makes the best hamburger in Texas?
Rowland Williams, via texasmonthly.com