I think that God gives each of us the innate ability to know if something is right or not … now, sometimes that ability may run askew. You may choose to blind yourself to the moral reality, but deep down you know it’s not right.
This could lead to many topics … and today I’m choosing college football.
I have loved college football for years. When I was nine years old, we won our first football national championship (“we” being the University of Nebraska). When I was ten years old, we won our second national championship. Then, when I was thirty-three, thirty-four, and thirty-six, we won our third, fourth, and fifth championships. (The 1990’s were great.)
One of the things I really enjoyed about it was that we were playing with a lot of home-grown boys, plus a few very talented “out of towners” who brought in their expertise … I’m thinking Tommie Frazier, for one … what a sensational QB! And he lives in Nebraska now, I believe … anyway, he’s always been a Husker through and through. And Turner Gill. And Irving Fryar. And Mike Rozier. And Ndamukang Suh.
But this football portal thing is destroying the state-built school structure. When Coach Sanders goes into Colorado and portals in an entire (almost) team with new folks who didn’t grow up with each other and who hadn’t played together and whose names didn’t have nearly unpronounceable strings that end in WCYJIVXY (just kidding about that one), it’s hard to believe that the team will feel united, where they go all out for each other because they’re playing as one team.
I admit that I could be totally wrong about them. Maybe Sanders has a GREAT idea and maybe it’s the way to go. I’ve got to complain, though, because it’s possible they”ll kill us tomorrow (Saturday. CU *does* have amazingly talented players, including the coach’s son as QB.)
Anyway, good luck to you tomorrows, CU. I hope it’s a close game, like in the old days. We had some great games for the fans to watch. Personally, I’m hoping the Huskers can come in and catch you off guard. We haven’t seen much of you — just that first game last week. Then again, you haven’t seen much of us. Will the “old rivalry” factor play a part? Perhaps. I (think) I hope so.
Best to all. Let’s have a great game!
Go Huskers!
Some of you are transferring to get more playing time … some of you are transferring to get more money with your valuable image and notoriety. Those aren’t necessarily bad things on an individual basis, but it seems to be changing the game to be all about money.
Maybe it’s been all about money (for you guys) for a long time. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, I was naive to all that. I believed in the game for the game’s sake. It was an honest (it seemed) system, the games were hard-fought, smash-mouth, may-the-best-team-win kinds of affairs. Did you see the Nebraska – Minnesota game last weekend? What a game! Minnesota won the hard-fought contest in the waning moments of the game with a field goal. There are a few transfer portal players on each team, but not a whole heck of a lot. And it’s okay if we get more. But I certainly wouldn’t advocate dropping an entire team (which is almost what Colorado has done) and repopulating it with transfers. That’s like saying you can skip Aunt Ruth’s corned beef hash and go directly to the tira misu. Not healthy, not smart.
Who wants to play on a team where you haven’t grown up together, where you haven’t melded together as a team. You haven’t lived through the lean times.
Maybe it’s better this way. Maybe it’s the new culture. I don’t have to like it though. I was thirty-three once. Then I blinked, and suddenly I’m sixty-two. I don’t know how that happened. Maybe I stumbled on Life’s Great Portal. Perhaps Parkinson’s Disease is that Great Transfer Portal in the Sky. After all, it did grant me early access to walkers and wheel chairs. Yee ha! Okay, now I’m just being silly.
I tell you, adversity does indeed give you an edge. You learn to handle things. You learn to overcome. You learn to deal with it.
I hope I get to play.