Better dead than Go Big Red! (huck the fuskers) 1.4.02 (date written not run...usually day after)

The funniest thing I heard Thursday night was "when you look at the stats, the Huskers actually beat Miami in the second half." Bwah?!
If they did, the Huskers lost so bad in the first half that it clearly didn't matter.
I don't know about you, but I am tired of hearing about the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Thirty-three years is quite enough of this yearly ritual of replacing all of the actual broadcast news with Husker stories.
I know there are a great many of my fellow Iowans who feel the same way, but we rarely hear your opinions on the matter because there is no forum for that kind of counterpoint.
Instead, we are fed a constant stream of "Go Big Red" because we have the misfortune to get almost all of our broadcast media from Omaha, Neb.
So let me be the one to say on your behalf, "give it a rest already, I'm trying to watch Letterman."
Heaven forfend we find a steady stream of news from Iowa.
Decade after decade it is the same thing.
Honestly, win, lose or draw ... who cares? And if they do care, why do they care? Last night's game against Miami was over around 10:30, but KETV went on until midnight with meager commentary, talking to people in bars about what a disappointment this loss was.
Who cares what a guy in a bar thinks? It isn't like hops make you Howard Cosell.
I appreciate the average Nebraskan's love of the Huskers. Besides a thriving trucking industry, what else is there to get excited about over there besides Carhenge?
If you are going to live vicariously through something it might as well be college football.
But the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has so much more to be proud of. They invented "Cliffs Notes." It's true! You know, those black and yellow guides students have been using for years to study literature instead of the actual literature itself?
The people who confound me are Iowans who catch "Big Red Fever." Trust me when I tell you this is strictly a southwest Iowa phenomenon. Big Red Fever must be like hemorrhagic fever or ebola. It must be through contact only.
Whatever happened to supporting the home team? Even if they stink, they are still the home team.
Winning is irrelevant. The Chicago Cubs stink it up real good, but they have one of the most loyal fan bases in the history of sports or so I'm told. To be a Cubs fan is to know what loyalty truly means.
Cyclones, Hawkeyes, Panthers, just pick one. Personally, I would feel a little like a traitor rooting for Nebraska to beat an Iowa team. But maybe that's just me, I give priority to things like loyalty and patriotism. It is a blessing as well as a curse, I guess.
And exactly why does the morning zoo crew at KIWR, Iowa Western Radio, 98.7 The River keep saying they are in Omaha? As far as I know, they are so far out west, they are practically not in C.B. any more.
Yet for the last couple of weeks, the dynamic duo on The River's Big Party Show have called people in Colorado, told them they were calling from a radio station in Omaha and Husker-bated them.
You are not a commercial radio station, KIWR, you are an Iowa college station. You aren't hopping across the river any time soon. You are now and always will be a Council Bluffs station. So act like it. You are sitting at the cool table. Quit pretending to be from Omaha like some sad college freshman fibbing about his hometown to sound cool. Lay off the "Go Big Red" crap, it's boring and we get enough of that already. Try pretending you have a vested interest in serving the community in which you reside.
Karl Marx said that religion was the opiate of the masses but that was before the advent of 24-hour sports channels. Now the constant watching of sports keeps people from news that isn't entertainment. It keeps them from getting involved in their communities.
I played a little football back in the day. Go Kirn Eagles! Playing sports obviously builds character, look at all the saints who play for the Huskers. But watching sports all the time seems kind of futile unless you have a gambling addiction. Then it makes sense in a sad sort of way.
At least when you watch your local team, you are supporting your community.
Time was that college football was just like high school football. The players were students, REAL students not just excuses to build a winning team through charity scholarships.
Today, college football is just an industry attached to colleges for the purpose of making money. Not money for the school, but money for the athletic department of that school.
It has created this false upperclass of students who disrupt class when they go, act like little tin gods and commit crimes with impunity
Even at my alma mater, Iowa State, football players did what they pleased when they had next to nothing to show for it. Big pimpin' on campus in cars paid for by Iowa State through some loophole. A good season for Iowa State was when no one on the football team committed a crime the press found out about.
Go 'Clones!
-Greg Jerrett is a Daily Nonpareil staff writer. He may be contacted at 328-1811 ext. 279 or by e-mail at gjerrett@nonpareilonline.com.