Obsessions of a Husker mind: Topic No. 3
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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Some might call them obsessions. Conversation starters might be a nicer way to put it.
What we present to you today is the third in a weekly series looking at topics that constantly find their way into conversations among Husker football fans.
They are often things that might seem silly to an outsider. But bring up one of these subjects at the dinner table and soon there will be animated discussion, perhaps a little arm flailing.
Topic No. 3
On occasion, they are critiqued almost as much as the game itself. Once in a rare while, you will hear a sports announcer/analyst receive praise from a fan. But more often they are called terrible or — worse than that — biased: Announcer X hates Nebraska.
Some might call it paranoia. Some are sure of its truth. There are those out there who are quite certain Brent Musburger has it in for Nebraska. Or that Mark May plots out his lines with the intention of making some guy in Omaha shout foul words at his television.
“Announcers are always against Nebraska,” one Big Red fan from Colorado recently opined on the Journal Star blog. “I think it started out as an East Coast bias and blossomed when we kept beating the (tar) out of all their precious East Coast schools.”
Don’t even get some Nebraska fans started on ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit. He made himself a target for many around here when he took issue with an Internet poll — the voting dominated by Husker fans, of course — that chose Nebraska’s 1995 and 1971 teams to be the best college football teams of all time.
One Husker fan placed the video of Herbstreit complaining on YouTube. The fan titled the video: “Kirk Herbstreit is a whining little girl.” There are 591 comments below the video, plenty of them from Nebraska fans agreeing that, yes, Kirk Herbstreit is anti-Big Red.
And once you’re on that list ... well, good luck to you.
Most Husker fans can’t help but keep track of what outsiders think about their team. And when critical words are said, there is always someone somewhere sure an anti-Husker bias was behind those comments. Occasionally it could be so, though probably not as often as people think.
Some Husker fans grow tired of fans obsessing over whatever comments come from the talking heads.
“Parsing each and every word the announcers utter for any hint of bias against Nebraska is an absolute waste of energy,” wrote another fan. “Nothing takes the fun out of watching a game like listening to your companions whine incessantly about something that has no bearing whatsoever on the game’s outcome.”
Of course, talk of an announcer bias is hardly exclusive to Nebraska. Find your way onto a Kansas Internet message board in March and you’ll find Jayhawk backers convinced Billy Packer loathes their basketball team.
Thin-skinned? Possibly. But many consider defending their team against outsiders’ critical remarks to just be part of the job description of a fan.
“We (in the privacy of our homes/local watering holes) are allowed to speak ill of our beloved,” wrote a Big Red backer from Florida. “But nay onto the others who should dare to downgrade the greatest teams/fans in the history of college football.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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