[Husker] Re: sellout string ending

[Steve Reichenbach]

> Yeah, keep telling yourself that and maybe you'll start believing it.
> If we were 13-0 last year you'd be first on this list talking about
> what a genius BC is.  I have two words for you and those like you:
> "fairweather fan."  I have five friends coming in town this weekend to
> go to the game--and the worse we do, the more people I'll ask to come
> to games.  I can almost hear you foaming at the mouth to "stick it to
> 'em" when I read your post.  These current struggles really show the
> true colors of some of you--and they're not Red.
> 
> Jason

I'm reminded of the saying: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a
scoundrel."  [Samuel Johnson, Boswell's Life of Johnson]

  "If we were 13-0 last year you'd be first on this list talking about
  what a genius BC is."

No doubt, but so what?  Instead, NU is 10-10 and we are discussing not
his genius, but whether he is going to be successful at some point in
the future.  That isn't being a "fairweather fan", it is dealing with
the present reality, not what might have been.

When successful people and aspects of the program valued for more than
forty years are cast aside, objections to those actions are, in my
view, proper responses for true fans.  On the other hand, the
accusation that those who do not offer unquestioning support for the
casting aside of successful people and the heritage of the program are
"fairweather fans" is a low and specious ad hominen attack.

Quoting Johnson again:

"It is unpleasing to represent our affairs to our own disadvantage;
yet it is necessary to shew the evils which we desire to be removed."
[Samuel Johnson: Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain]

Now, I have nothing against Callahan, other than the feeling that he
hasn't been as successful in his first 20 games as I and most everyone
hoped he would be.  And, I wish Callahan the greatest of successes as
the NU coach, because I prefer NU winning its games better than losing
them (even if that makes me a fairweather fan).  However, I would like
to see Pederson fired, resign, or otherwise be removed from his
position, not for anything quite as dreadful as the "evils" in the
political state of Great Britain in the late 18th century, but for his
manifest mistakes with the NU football program, to which I objected at
the time, which have thus far been detrimental, and which I am convinced
are rooted in his egotistical and arrogant approach to management of
the athletic department.

> > The end of the "sellout string" is not the problem, it's only a symptom
> > of the bigger-picture problem: sending a message that perhaps you are
> > unhappy with the direction SP (and his backers in the Administration,
> > etc.) have taken / are taking the football program.
> > 
> > The reason it started was the joyful enthusiasm everyone had for
> > Devaney's end of the doldrums.
> > 
> > The reason it's continued so long is the consistency of the program
> > (until 2004) and the belief of longterm fans like Mr. Lohr, who set
> > attending a game as a real priority in his life.
> > 
> > Merely attacking those who hate to see it end doesn't solve the
> > underlying problem.
> > 
> > As the program slips, maybe the priorities in individual lives change as
> > well. It isn't whether we're 13-0 every year. It's more whether fans feel
> > "everything's right" with the program that the Bobfather, TO, and even FS
> > bequeathed to us all.
> > 
> > Younger fans may just not intuitively "get" that. They sure don't "get"
> > it at too many other Big 12 schools, over many other places around the
> > country IMHO.  Penn State, possibly.
> > 
> > Bill Laughlin
> > Wichita, KS