Nebraska Football: The Media's Big, Red-Headed Stepchild?

As a die-hard NU fan it is sometimes hard for me to take off my Scarlet and Cream colored glasses, but I can. I am mature enough to know when my team deserves to be praised and when it deserves criticisms.

I have friends that try to take jabs at me, Iowa State and Texas fans themselves, I believe they would have difficulty taking off their colored glasses.

All year I have been saying that we have the potential to win the Big 12, I have been saying from the start that I wanted to face Oklahoma and not Texas in the championship game.

I have not been saying that we are going to win a national championship; I think we are on track to achieve that soon, just not yet.

What bothers me, and it has for many years, is the fact that I can take off my colored glasses and the media can’t.

It makes me upset that the media beats up and berates Nebraska so much. I have felt time and time again, whether it is on ESPN, ABC or PPV there is a decidedly anti-Husker tone in the air.

Here are the media created hype stories I was/am sick of hearing about:

• What are the Blackshirts going to do without No. 93? 
• Lee, Green, Martinez: The Quarterback Controversy. 
• Niles Paul, Niles Paul, Niles Paul.
• The home-game jinx. 
• The helmet-to-helmet tackling.

Time to take off my Scarlet and Cream colored glasses and get on my Big Red Soapbox… Ahem…

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While I am not a statistics guy, I leave that to more detail-oriented and talented writers. As a fan, I am pretty sure the Blackshirts are doing a good job this year. The strength the defense seems to be more in the secondary than the D-Line, but our D-Line is still very strong.

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Yes, I am a Martinez fan.  (I wish his jersey number was 19 instead of three, since 19 is my favorite number and we have the same last name, and I spent time living with my family with Corona, Calif. and he went to the same high school as my stepbrothers.)

Like I said, yes I am a Martinez fan. I think he has a long way to go and I am excited to see what he will do over the course of his time at Nebraska. Do I think the coaches made the right choice? Yes. Would I have been happy if they chose Green or Lee instead? Yes. They are the coaches. They know best. Next Question.

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Niles Paul is a hell of a player. I saw him play ball in high school. We went to the same high school, though he went there after I did, he was there when my brother was in high school.

The thing I feel like I have to remind the media is that he is a COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYER. He is not getting paid to play the game. He is not perfect. And yes, he has fumbled the ball and dropped some passes.

But he has also made some amazing catches, had some amazing runs and some great blocks. Niles is a team player with a lot of heart. Get off his back.

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Nebraska is jinxed at home this year….wait…what? We lose one game, one, and suddenly we can’t win at home?!? Yes we struggled against SDSU, but we still won. Those guys from SDSU got the opportunity to play in the game of their lives and they laid it all on the line, but they still only scored three points.

I count five home games and four wins. I’m not saying, but I’m just saying.

And the media created another hype story for the SDSU game, completely discounting the school. All I heard from the players were well-coached answers about how the game was just as important as any other game, and they were not overlooking SDSU. The media however, turned the game into a joke before it started and almost became a punch line.

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The helmet-to-helmet tackling. I’m sorry, but what sport are we playing? This isn’t baseball, this isn’t curling, this is football. And in Nebraska, football equals smash mouth, in your face, full contact, go big or go home.

Yes, a player shouldn’t lead a tackle with his helmet. Martin was leading with his shoulder! It was accidental helmet-to-helmet contact and it wasn’t even flagged in the game.

Courtney Osborne was flying at Gabbert and Gabbert crouched. Once again, unintentional, once again not flagged, but once again, a media circus starting with the commentator about how bad it was.

Yes, this can be a violent sport, yes, players can get injured, sometimes seriously, but if we over react to every possible injury and hit, we might as well put flags on the players.

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Yes, this sounds like a ranting, raving fan. But I am looking for some honest answers from the media. What is it about NU that makes the media so anti-Husker?

If you still don’t agree with me, I will leave you with one more comment made by the media.

Multiple times during the OSU game they commentators mentioned OSU having the momentum, even after Nebraska was leading, even after Nebraska scored.

They even said that OSU was doing the victory formation to end the first half. How can you do the victory formation while losing? Isn’t it just called taking a knee? It doesn’t matter which teams were playing, that’s just dumb.

Time to hop off the soapbox and clean off my Scarlet and Cream colored glasses.

***One topic a friend pointed out that I forgot to add. Going back to Martinez. According to the media, Martinez is not a passing quarterback. Ha!