Nebraska Mellinger: Nebraska fans’ anger mars Huskers’ Big 12 farewell

**KcMizzou** · 04:55 PM

This seems pretty spot-on.

Quote:

Mellinger: Nebraska fans’ anger mars Huskers’ Big 12 farewell

SAM MELLINGER COMMENTARY

Nebraska football fans won’t like this column. Cold truths are hard to take, and a lot of Huskers fans are spending this farewell football season deflecting and misdirecting cold truths.

Too many of them just don’t understand why people in what’s left of the Big 12 are annoyed at them, the school, the fans and the coach. So they won’t like reading what’s to follow.

That’s OK. Folks in the rest of the Big 12 might not like this column, either. Because their truth is easier to explain and harder to take than Nebraska’s — with much worse potential consequences.

Let’s start with the part that Huskers fans won’t like.

They’re too self-important to see what’s going on in the lead-in to the final Big 12 championship football game between Nebraska and Oklahoma on Saturday night.

Huskers fans are imagining conspiracies against their team, convinced that anyone else’s dislike is code for jealousy of all Nebraska’s awesomeness. They’re completely oblivious that it’s not necessarily the decision to leave for the Big Ten that ticks people off.

People are ticked at how it’s happening.

“The ‘how’ situation is a fair thing,” says Tom Ruud, inducted to the school’s Hall of Fame as a linebacker.

The arrogance came from the very start. Nebraska folks hate it when that word is tied to their school, but it’s true. If history is any indication, Huskers fans will lash back at being called arrogant by e-mailing about how great they are.

Nebraska self-importance comes in constant references to past success, in seeing Big Ten acceptance as license to slam a group that’s been good enough for them for decades, and, most of all, in the inability to recognize that the whole thing is wrecking a reputation of class and dignity that took so long to build and promote.

For decades, Nebraska football and its fans stood for something. The rest of us mostly admired them, a program succeeding in a place it shouldn’t, a remarkable consistency and very real bond between players and the citizens who rooted them on. In so many ways, that’s ruined.

When asked if he cares, Nebraska booster Roger Brown said, simply: “No.”

With all respect, he knows that’s hard to believe.

Being a Huskers fan is engrained in that state’s DNA and personality in a way unlike any other place in the country.

They applauded the other team after games — win or lose — set an ongoing NCAA record for consecutive sellouts, and even if the narrative became exaggerated, Nebraska fans became thought of by many as decent people. Well-liked, even, in a way that Kansas and Missouri and Kansas State will probably never know.

That’s often a very good thing, but it’s also true that through all their winning and cheering, Nebraska fans never received much pushback. Now that it’s here, they have no idea how to handle it.

First, the administration blamed Texas and conference leadership. Then some fans blamed Mizzou and, in the last month or so, have come close to losing their collective sanity. They see the league’s suspension of a backup linebacker as proof of conspiracy, harass referees, flood the conference office with threats of violence, then whine when nobody shows up to present the North Division trophy.

Every school has some nutjobs, but c’mon, this is college football’s classiest fan base?

In other words, they’re not who they claimed to be. They’re a whole lot like everyone else.

Most of the rest of us aren’t mad they’re leaving. We’re annoyed they’re acting like jerks on the way out. We understand wanting more money. But don’t pretend there’s some higher calling that the rest of us just can’t comprehend.

In six months, they’ve changed how we’ll think of them forever. Forty million people live in the five states that make up the remaining league. We can’t all be wrong.

Those are the words Nebraska fans won’t like. Now, for the truth that makes the rest of us uncomfortable, the one with potentially terrible consequences:

Even after all this, we’d totally take the Huskers back.

Because without them, this is a lesser league that nobody can be certain will exist beyond the near future.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/02...ans-anger.html

**luv** · 12-03-2010, 04:54 PM

The link you have posted leads you to post a new thread on here.

**KcMizzou** · 12-03-2010, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luv

The link you have posted leads you to post a new thread on here.

Yeah, I was on the wrong tab. Just fixed it.

DJ's left nut · 12-03-2010, 05:02 PM

Whatever.

I don't care how they leave, just leave.

I'm just tired of listening to the yack already. Go away - nobody liked you before all this crap, we like you even less now.

Titty Meat · 12-03-2010, 05:04 PM

Is Mellinger a Mizzou grad?

|Zach| · 12-03-2010, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billay

Is Mellinger a Mizzou grad?

Kansas.

Nice try though.

|Zach| · 12-03-2010, 05:06 PM

Independently of the debate this article will bring. He has been a solid writer. IMO.

Titty Meat · 12-03-2010, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by |Zach|

Kansas.

Nice try though.

Just a question. It's cute though so far i've counted 3 different Mizzou grads writing about Nebraska. I guess nobody wants to read about Mizzou in the gas station bowl?

**Dave Lane** · 12-03-2010, 05:06 PM

Thats the bottomline shut up and go away all ready.

|Zach| · 12-03-2010, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billay

Just a question. It's cute though so far i've counted 3 different Mizzou grads writing about Nebraska. I guess nobody wants to read about Mizzou in the gas station bowl?

You want them to write articles about a bowl that Missouri hasn't been asked too? It is the biggest story line of the Big 12 right now.

Titty Meat · 12-03-2010, 05:09 PM

And the conspiracy has been proven true. If there were death threats howcome nobody has been arrested? The trophy is presented in the locker room, Ed Stuart is a former Husker All-American who works for the Big 12 they could have sent him up. Nebraska wasn't even the first team trying to get out of the conference. Of course none of you will try and debate these points because you can't.

|Zach| · 12-03-2010, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billay

And the conspiracy has been proven true. If there were death threats howcome nobody has been arrested? The trophy is presented in the locker room, Ed Stuart is a former Husker All-American who works for the Big 12 they could have sent him up. Nebraska wasn't even the first team trying to get out of the conference. Of course none of you will try and debate these points because you can't.

Is that what happens every time someone threatens someone else?

They are found and arrested?

Billay world: If a person who makes a threat isn't caught. There was never a threat.

Durrrr

|Zach| · 12-03-2010, 05:13 PM

http://twitter.com/#!/mellinger/stat...13366393790464

Titty Meat · 12-03-2010, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by |Zach|

Is that what happens every time someone threatens someone else?

They are found and arrested?

Billay world: If a person who makes a threat isn't caught. There was never a threat.

Durrrr

See smartass comments like this you aren't willing to debate the facts. They don't have ISP trackers in Texas? Really?

**KcMizzou** · 12-03-2010, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by |Zach|

http://twitter.com/#!/mellinger/stat...13366393790464

Nice.

12-03-2010, 04:54 PM	#2
luv MY LITTLE #15 Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Springfield, MO Casino cash: $6149600	The link you have posted leads you to post a new thread on here.
Posts: 63,436

12-03-2010, 05:02 PM	#4
DJ's left nut Sauntering Vaguely Downwards Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Columbia, Mo Casino cash: $2829099	Whatever. I don't care how they leave, just leave. I'm just tired of listening to the yack already. Go away - nobody liked you before all this crap, we like you even less now. __________________ "If there's a god, he's laughing at us.....and our football team..." "When you look at something through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags."
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12-03-2010, 05:04 PM	#5
Titty Meat Inmem 2.0 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: My house Casino cash: $2107558	Is Mellinger a Mizzou grad?
Posts: 75,314

12-03-2010, 05:06 PM	#7
\|Zach\| For The Glory Of The City Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $5246768	Independently of the debate this article will bring. He has been a solid writer. IMO.
Posts: 53,448

12-03-2010, 05:06 PM	#9
Dave Lane Space Cadet and Aczabel Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Kanab, UT, USA Casino cash: $9333275 VARSITY	Thats the bottomline shut up and go away all ready. __________________ Thanks, Trump for the civics lesson. We are learning so much about RICO, espionage, sedition, impeachment, the 25th Amendment, order of succession, nepotism, separation of powers, 1st Amendment, obstruction of justice, the emoluments clause, conflicts of interest, collusion, sanctions, oligarchs, money laundering and so much more.
Posts: 40,584

12-03-2010, 05:09 PM	#11
Titty Meat Inmem 2.0 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: My house Casino cash: $2107558	And the conspiracy has been proven true. If there were death threats howcome nobody has been arrested? The trophy is presented in the locker room, Ed Stuart is a former Husker All-American who works for the Big 12 they could have sent him up. Nebraska wasn't even the first team trying to get out of the conference. Of course none of you will try and debate these points because you can't.
Posts: 75,314

12-03-2010, 05:13 PM	#13
\|Zach\| For The Glory Of The City Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $5246768	http://twitter.com/#!/mellinger/stat...13366393790464
Posts: 53,448