Guy Chamberlin

Look closer. I didn't introduce Harvey Perlman to the discussion. I just reacted to Havrey Perlman being introduced into the discussion. Not sure you follow the world of controversial quotes and actions, but employers are expected to make legally vetted statements on their employee's behalf, and Nebraska's simultaneous support and "reprimands" of Bo Pelini were all standard issue stuff. If Bo Pelini required more intervention than most, that's on Bo Pelini. Right? I also wasn't talking about minor social media posts. I was talking about multiple well-produced videos that involved budgets, the use of UNL facilities, and distribution under the UNL AD communications channels. Jack Hoffman kinda stuff. I know it sounds crazy, but Eichorst and Perlman did have some motivation for Bo Pelini's team to do well. Still not sure you're getting the part where Eichorst and Perlman were far from alone in their assessment of Bo Pelini, who is currently unemployed. I guess the reason this keeps coming up is that we have exactly the coach and the AD we wanted, and entering our fourth year with them, we keep finding a newer bottom. So maybe it's not Eichorst, Perlman, Riley, Pederson, Pelini or Solich. Maybe it's just an ongoing failure to keep up with the changing nature and increased competitiveness of college football, assuming our legendary past entitles us to success we keep failing to earn on the field.

I think they supported his efforts to win football games, and tolerated his behavior as a prickly employee and poor representative of the University. Meaning they looked at Bo pretty much the same way many folks in the fanbase did, and actually gave him a longer leash than Youngstown State and LSU. I'm guessing they had private interactions we didn't, and it's possible Bo Pelini bears some responsibility in how that relationship went. I understand some of you don't like Harvey Perlman and Shawn Eichorst, and that's fine, too. I never thought about them much one way or another. They were administrators with lot of responsibilities beyond hiring, firing, or caretaking the head football coach. Perlman wouldn't have the time or inclination to weigh in on a PR initiative to help Bo Pelini. It absolutely wouldn't have happened without Shawn Eichorst's knowledge and approval, even if he hated the f#&%er. I believe Eichorst got his comeuppance less than three years into his choice of head coach, and Eichorst deserved his firing as much as Pelini. But isn't it a bit weird to be in Year Four of Scott Frost, on the heels of three losing seasons, talking about Moos and Frost trying to get out of a game they think their players are destined to lose, and we're talking about Harvey Perlman? To put it another way, if Eichorst and Riley had remained, made the exact same moves as Scott Frost, posted the exact same results, and tried to duck out of the Oklahoma game to get the beleaguered head coach an easy W, would you be More Supportive or More Tolerant?

In addition to the aforementioned contract extension, new recruiting plane, bbigger budget, and constant facility upgrades, in 2013 the athletic department put together a major PR charm offensive showing the lighter side of Bo, including orchestrated pranks and videos of kind gestures Bo made to fans, including iirc, helping a returning vet propose to his girlfriend. They were pretty successful. Both Bo and the AD team deserve credit. After a really bad looking Iowa game and Bo rant after Iowa in 2013, Bo's 2014 season started with plenty of support and optimism until it fell apart at the end in what had become familiar fashion. And if you look back at 2013's leaked tape incident, the administration gave Bo all the support he needed, and probably more than he deserved. At that point, the difference between support and tolerance didn't really matter. Some people forget all this. Bottom line, Perlman and Eichorst were roughly as supportive of Bo as Youngstown State was, and considerably more supportive than LSU. You don't have to like Perlman and Eichorst at all. Everyone involved can be an ego-driven a$$h@!e at the same time. But firing Bo wasn't the wrong call.

Oh it wasn't just me making that phone call. It was thousands of stalwart Husker fans braving the Athletic Department phone tree to help save the program from embarrassing itself. Turns out we were right: the AD read the situation wrong. Please don't give me too much credit. It's just what heroes do. I think I made two posts just this morning stating my feelings about the coming season. If they weren't blatantly optimistic, they were hopeful and open-minded. There's no need to cast me as a hater just because I mock your rather elastic defense of Scott Frost, As far as continuity and Perlman go: Bo Pelini had seven years as head coach, and prior to his last season Eichorst gave him a contract extension, a new plane and a bigger recruiting budget. Back in those innocent times, you'd be hard pressed to find a Nebraska fan who considered Bo's 9-4 continuity to be acceptable. The only question was how many more years you give him to start winning the meaningful games. Perlman did not make the head football coaching gig undesirable Fan expectations did. And the fans were correct, if you thought Nebraska needed to be competing for at least divisional Big 10 titles. After Bo called his AD a c*nt in a long self-pitying final speech to his players, he went to the safety of his home town Youngstown team and a totally nurturing administration, where he wore out his welcome in similar fashion and is no longer a head coach, instead using his reputation as a defensive guru to lead LSU to some of the worst defensive performances in its history. Ipso facto, Perlman and Eichorst made the right call, whether you like them or not. It's also not Perlman's fault that Husker fans assumed the HC position at UNL would lure any top coaching candidate. We developed that expectation on our own. Turns out we weren't competing for Nick Saban or Jim Harbaugh. Brett Bielema and the second tier weren't interested, either. That's how we ended up with Mike Riley. Nebraska wouldn't have stood a chance for UCF's Scott Frost if he wasn't a native son. He was really tempted to go SEC as it was. Did Harvey Perlman, chancellor of the University of Nebraska, personally resent that his shepherding of a huge multi-faceted educational system would be judged by the success of the football coach -- the highest paid public official in the state? Probably. Harvey has been gone for 5 years.

Your posting history suggests otherwise. Serious question: wouldn't three years of continuity under Moos and Frost be enough to establish trends and accountability? Per my previous post, this year is a helluva schedule and I don't expect to see the numbers go up, but the effort, execution, and talent should be visible after the three season learning experience. I'm always excited to see who steps up. We could argue the down cycle is closer to 20 years long at this point, and the bar for Frost and Moos is far lower than it has been for any coach or AD of the last 60 years. But don't try to cancel the 50th anniversary of the Game of the Century because you're worried about your coaches and players being too emotionally fragile, then try to blame it on economics. At this point the fans are keenly aware of the odds against the Huskers, because they're now uhm.....used to it. The palpable fear of failure is generally the worst look possible for a team wanting out of a down cycle. Tempting as it might be, you don't even entertain the notion of dodging Oklahoma, much less let it leak out to the public and players. You buck up and play the game. And if you're as good as last year's 4-6 Kansas State team, you beat them in Norman.

Speaking for myself and I think a lot of skeptics, I am always willing to judge progress by the product on the field. If I see young players emerging, scrappy team effort in every game, a couple games we could have won but didn't, and and least one legitimate upset where coaches and players all had their ears pinned back and a well-scouted strategy, then I'm still all-in on Scott Frost moving forward. A Bethune-Cookman kind of win means less than nothing to me, and the bars, restaurants and hotels of Lincoln, Nebraska will lose money when the fanbase loses its pride, and that's the slippery slope we're on.

Hey, I was wondering where you were and how long it would take you to blame this on anybody but Scott and Bill.

When exactly are these "worst years" of which you speak in the past tense?

In situations like this, there's usually an echo chamber at play. The folks inside the Athletic Department assume Husker fans will breathe a sigh of relief when they take Oklahoma off that brutal schedule and get us an early W to take some of the pressure off Scott Frost. Maybe they considered how the national sports press might run with it. Maybe they did not. They're just trying to help the program win. But they honestly didn't know what a bad look this is for Nebraska football until it leaked out and fans went in the exact opposite direction. This is about pride, and they read the room totally wrong. The AD is actually lucky this got leaked. Had they secured a new opponent and made the official announcement, it would have been much uglier. Maybe the leaker has an axe to grind against NU. Maybe the leaker was a true Nebraska fan. The fact that both could make the same case is kinda telling. As expected, the official explanation was panic-induced bulls#!t, but it did stop the bleeding. It's hard to believe the swapping maneuver would be done without the knowledge and approval of Scott Frost, and that's the hardest pill to swallow.

It's about time Oklahoma started getting some bad publicity to deflect from our bad publicity about our Oklahoma s#!t. (I saw what you did there, OP)

Say, if we want to combine nostalgia and winning, why not celebrate the 111th anniversary of the Nebraska-Haskell game?

3 out of 4 so far!

I just did something I've never done in my 60 years as a Husker fan. I called the Athletic Department. The answering system gave me a lot of choices, but I went with the Communications Department, precisely because they're stuck in the middle of this. Nice young guy answered. I said "you've probably gotten a lot of calls today." He said that was correct. Told him I'd never been this embarrassed by the program before. He seemed understanding, told me they had just issued the statement (posted above) and offered to read it to me. I told him I was glad they responded, but the unanswered speculation about how they must have been spinning this for the last 8 hours wasn't a good look for Moos or Frost. He did not deny that, either. I asked if he could give me any inside dirt that I could spread on social media. He laughed. I feel sorry for the Comms department.

1) Commit to playing the game. 2) Claim a misunderstanding, even if we know it's bulls#!t. 3) Apologize to Nebraska fans and the Oklahoma program. We look forward to honoring the Game of the Century 4) Hope this is forgotten in six months; do everything possible in that time to field a competitive team loaded with self-respect.

To be fair, it worked for most of Nebraska's forty year run of excellence, too. Alabama and other SEC teams always have an embarrassing creampuff or two on their non-cons every year, and generally get a week of grief for it. This is the 50th Anniversary of the Game of the Century. It could only happen by coordinating non-con schedules for the benefit of the fans and the programs. Once you've agreed to it, you don't change your mind. You double down on pride and work your a$$ of to represent. Or just give up on respect altogether.

Just remember that beating weak teams and losing to conference rivals is what lost Bo Pelini his job. It will likely lose Jim Harbaugh his job, too. That's not a Nebraska thing, it's a winning thing. As someone just pointed out, there is no glory or even progress in going 4-8 vs. 3-9 if you swap Oklahoma for Bethune-Cookman, and it this case it might be the opposite. Know how some folks are paranoid about the national media having it in for Nebraska? They don't, really. But there would be no other way to report this. We ran away from celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Game of the Century. Easy fix, though. If we just want to ensure this heralded game is celebrated in a full stadium, work to push it back later in the season or till next year. But do it transparently. Anything less and Nebraska takes a huge and deserved hit. And what if we gave Oklahoma a good fight in a close loss, like we did a much better Ohio State team on the road in Frost's first year? What if....we won? A team that's scared of its own shadow will never know.

Do you know who beat Oklahoma early in the season last year? Kansas State and Iowa State. Are Kansas State and Iowa State too lofty for Frost and Moos to role model? FFS.

Someone just needs to remind M.J. Morris that as soon as Logan Smothers throws his first interception, Morris will become the most popular player in the state.

My opinion is that you know the multiple changes in voting requirements are specifically designed at the state GOP level to discourage Black voters, who predominantly vote Democrat, and that you're okay with it because you're a Republican. Arguing that it's simple to get an ID lets you ignore that this strategic voter suppression is pretty ugly at the core, and few can deny its racist underpinnings with a straight face. Of course I may be wrong. But I'm betting not.

I think when people remind you to "be careful" when answering a post, it's simply because you''ve already walked into a corner that's either willfully ignorant or offensive, and you will likely have to pretend you're merely debating a point of order rather than the unpleasant belief system behind it. This is based strictly on everything you've posted.

A Black colleague of mine was wearing a sports coat, carrying a briefcase on his way to a business meeting in Los Angeles, when he was confronted by police at gunpoint and ordered to lie facedown on the sidewalk. He complied, although he kept getting plenty of verbal abuse while bystanders watched. Turns out there had been a burglary in the general area involving a Black man. My friend was shaken but not surprised. Something similar had happened to almost every Black friend he knew. It's happened to zero white guys I know. I tend to avoid strictly anecdotal evidence, but c'mon man.....

No.

I stated from the outset my rejection of Reparations as a solution. The issue was really whether the American timeline of racism from slavery until today is more cause for hope than concern, and given the police shootings, voter suppression, and having a President of the United States endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, the notion of progress has taken a serious hit. Suggesting that Blacks not focus on the distant past and thank America for its caste-less system could quite literally be interpreted as "stop whining, move on." Acknowledging that racist people will exist far into the future is the opposite of nothing being discussed here. This thread is full of links to factual articles about racial inequities, disturbing trends, and problems we thought have gone away, yet haven't. You chose not to address those. So the presumption that FBI hate crime stats somehow negates all this is telling. Especially if the takeaway is that the rise in anti-Semitic and anti-Hispanic hate crimes means Blacks have less room to complain. https://apnews.com/article/hate-crimes-rise-fbi-data-ebbcadca8458aba96575da905650120d Yes, Black people can now enter the front door of the grocery store. Again, you seem to dismiss that as something from a deep past that's no longer relevant. Do you know what still happens to Black people in America on a daily basis? s#!t you would never, ever tolerate if it happened to you or your family. Those videos of over-reacting cops and unhinged Karens that go viral aren't outliers -- they just mean everyone has a cell phone camera now, and we're seeing things that have been happening all along. That discomforting reality forces some people to blame the Black people themselves. Maybe I"m old-fashioned, but that's f#&%ed-up. Replace my dad's grocery store with a modern Denny's, Walgreen's, or Anthropologie, and you'll still find Blacks being systematically profiled and treated with suspicion. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/05/as-black-buying-power-grows-racial-profiling-by-retailers-remains-a-problem.html

This notion that we've put racism in the rear view mirror, and Black grievance is just whining, and that cherry-picked stats and straw men arguments will show them how wrong their grievances are might be part of the problem. There are indeed some statistics on race and hate crimes and poverty that might surprise the average limousine liberal, especially when removed from the larger context.. But you really shouldn't use them to dismiss persistent issues. The GOP doesn't want any Democrat to vote, and they are overtly targeting Black populations with voter suppression. This would tend to cause a Black person to think your "slavery WAS bad, but it's time to move on" argument a tad insensitive. I don't know if you trust any source, but there are plenty of state Republicans who've freely admitted racist tactics to achieve their conservative goals. https://time.com/5902729/black-voter-suppression-2020/ https://truthout.org/articles/georgia-bill-would-criminalize-giving-water-to-voters-waiting-in-long-lines/ Also, white supremacism in both tacit and violent strains is most definitely on the upswing. You know that fear some people get that a liberal is coming to take their guns away? Replace that with facts and multiply by ten. But don't tell the rest of us America is "moving forward." Tons of other sources for this — including a very recent FBI assessment if you want to fish around. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/06/25/white-supremacist-terrorism-on-the-rise-and-spreading/?sh=3d5e6c2e5a0f Say, as long as you brought up dirt poor Iowans, here's a little something about my Dad, who passed away a couple months ago. When I say dirt poor I mean Tobacco Road, no car, no phone, dirt floor rural Iowa. As a teenager he worked triple shifts at the small town grocery store to make a little money for his family and save a little for himself. Unlike the rest of them, he wanted out of there. There was one Black family in town, and the father would come around every week to the back door to get his groceries. The owner told him he could use the front door, but the Black father didn't want to make trouble. The lesson was that even the poorest white kid with the crappiest job was socially superior to any grown Black man. Some people appreciate any power they can work to their advantage. My dad knew it was wrong as a boy, and lived the rest of his life knowing the difference between hard work and institutional racism. For most of my life, the story was that my Dad worked three shifts to put himself through college. It's the American story, and it's not entirely untrue. But about 10 years ago he added a qualifier: all his hard work wouldn't have gotten him into college, that bar was still too high. He had volunteered for the Army during World War II and served in the Occupying Force in Germany and Belgium. Only through the money and entry provided by the GI Bill when he returned home was my dad able to afford the University of Nebraska. He spent the rest of his life with the understanding that leveling the playing field isn't socialism, it's equal opportunity. And it can make all the difference in the world. You're right, Archy. Writing this stuff does make me feel better. Thanks for listening.

How far back in the past should we go? 7 years ago when they started gutting the Voting Rights Act and kept going? Two months ago, when the President of the United States told Confederate flag waving insurrectionists "you're special, we love you." The stunning rise of violent white supremacists and millions of their barely-cloaked enablers, happening as we speak? Or at some point do you realize this goes on every single day in ways you choose not to imagine, and 150 years ago means nothing because it's one long horrific history that white conservatives want to blow off with anecdotal pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps horse s#!t. The mere suggestion that this is the "far past" and Black people need to let go of something that would outrage you to the very core suggests a profound lack of empathy.