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The rivalry between Waco’s Baylor University and Fort Worth’s Texas Christian University intensified yesterday after an anonymous Baylor fan threatened a “boycott” of beloved smoked meats spot Heim Barbecue.
The controversy kicked off with a tweet from one anonymous Baylor alum, who dug up a February 2017 missive from the Heim Barbecue Twitter account. Then, they threatened to “boycott” the restaurant over the tweet, which suggested that the university should receive the “death penalty” — the NCAA’s harshest punishment — in the aftermath of the allegations of rampant sexual assaults committed by members of the university’s football team.
Check out both tweets below:
Since this is your company's official stance on the issue, I will be permanently boycotting your place, and call for others to do so as well https://t.co/HLtP85a1Gz
— GoldMind (@1Gold_Mind) July 12, 2017
Death penalty. There's no excuse. https://t.co/Wfm61qNQzw
— Heim Barbecue (@HeimBBQ) February 3, 2017
In response, fans of Heim began tweeting back that they would now patronize the restaurant even more, but owner Travis Heim had a better suggestion. Instead of encouraging his customers to come eat, he suggested that they make donations to the Women’s Center of Tarrant County, which provides assistance to women and children in the aftermath of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Scope out the full statement from Heim below:
No matter who you support, lets use this situation to bring about something good Please donate today to @WomensCenterTC #SicEmBears #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/pRsTNxtoMP
— Heim Barbecue (@HeimBBQ) July 13, 2017
The call for donations has inspired at least a few Heim fans to donate, as evidenced by several tweets of receipt screenshots. “Obviously we’re big TCU fans, but this issue is more important than any school affiliation,” Heim told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “My thought today was, if we could direct any of this attention toward a great local charity, that would be the best ending to the story. We may lose some business from diehard Baylor fans but I’m not worried about that.”
This isn’t Heim’s first time to wade into Twitter controversy, especially over sports. Last year, the pitmaster earned ire from Canadians for offering Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor free barbecue for life after he punched the Toronto Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista in the face during a game. Clearly that incident didn’t push Heim to shy away from bold opinions on social media.
