With college football less than a week away, the spotlight is beginning to shine on college football players once again. From August to January, these guys are watched as if they are under a microscope. They aren’t allowed to be on social media, they wake up before the sun for practices and stay at school after dark for tutoring sessions. Everyone loves football season and their favorite players, which is understandable, but sometimes I think we forget that football players are just people too. So, just in time for football season, I wrote a letter to these players:

Dear College Football Players,

Thank you for putting in so many hours in the weight room and on the field, for waking up for 5 a.m. practices and still making it to class that day. I don’t think that we appreciate the time and effort you dedicate for four hours of our entertainment on a Saturday afternoon.

I know you are trying to make a name for yourself and maybe make it to the big league one day, but for now, you are playing on a collegiate level and have lots of eyes watching you at all times. Your classmates, professors, and young kids respect you for many reasons. Your hard work and determination are admirable.

I think that our society makes it easy for you to see yourself as the Big Man on Campus, and while you are certainly easy to pick out of a crowd in your Nike apparel and team logos plastered across your body, I hope you know that you are just like the guy you sit beside in math class. You are a college student who is trying to balance all of your responsibilities, just like the rest of the people you attend school with. This might look a little different for every person, but we are all still wandering our way through tests, lectures, and relationships. Recognize that you are not too good to speak to people in the hallways or too popular to smile back at a group of people walking past.

We have exalted the sport of football and the athletes who play the game to an inexcusable level. Football players are not gods nor should they be treated like them. They have enough pressure to perform well in front of coaches, scouts, and thousands of fans. The least we can do is appreciate them for who they are, not for how well they can catch a football or how fast they can run the 40 yard dash.

So, when you see a football player walking around campus or run into a group of them in Walmart, take a minute to stop and say hello. Don’t ask for a picture with them for Snapchat; ask how their day was. Don’t ask them to sign your t-shirt; ask them how their classes are going. They have enough people running up to them to get something from them, so why don’t you try a different approach and simply show them you care?

College football players are people too and deserve to be treated that way. They are not the weight they can squat, the sprints they can run, or the girls they can get to hang out with them. They are so much more, worth so much more. And they deserve to know that.

These boys spend all day having coaches yell at them, professors snarl at them, and people whisper about them as they walk by on campus. Have you ever heard the saying, “To have a friend, you must be a friend?” If you really want to be friends with a football player, and I’m not talking about being his friend on Snapchat, you should treat them like normal people. Say hello when you pass them on the way to class, smile at them in the Zaxby’s line, and just treat them with the kindness that all people deserve.