In what may be the most unusual and admirable sportsmanship gesture of the year, two LSU football players published an open letter in their campus newspaper Daily Reveille urging the student body to cool it with their vulgar chants toward opposing teams at home games.

Here is the letter by running back Jacob Hester and All-American defensive lineman Glenn Dorsey:

The LSU student section is the heartbeat of Death Valley and the center of emotion for our great stadium.

But during the last two games, vulgar language directed at our opponents by the student section has been disappointing and embarrassing to our school.

Your chants can be heard by the national television audience that tunes in from all over America. When those chants include offensive language, it only damages Louisiana State University. More importantly, these chants can be heard by young children in the stadium who come to see their Tigers play.

We need to support our team. You are important to our success. But that doesn t mean you need to insult our opponents. Let us, the players, take care of our opponents through competition on the field.

We are taught by our coaches to act like champions, play like champions, and win like champions. We need you to do the same.

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