Ron Brown Returns to Nebraska as Director of Player Development

[Landlord]

2 hours ago, knapplc said:

 

What does a few people forgetting passwords have to do with publicly accessible records? You can go down to the Assessor's office in person if you can't use the internet. Ron Brown didn't give Memorial Stadium's address as his own because of any of this.

 

 

 

I don't presume to know why Coach Brown did or didn't give his home address and why (though I presume to agree with your assessment, and always have), but there's very obviously a huge difference between voluntarily disclosing that info to anyone in earshot vs abstaining and making anyone who's really interested do the work of finding it out themselves. 

[knapplc]

Just now, Landlord said:

 

 

 

I don't presume to know why Coach Brown did or didn't give his home address and why (though I presume to agree with your assessment, and always have), but there's very obviously a huge difference between voluntarily disclosing that info to anyone in earshot vs abstaining and making anyone who's really interested do the work of finding it out themselves. 

 

Everyone knows why he gave the address he gave. 

[KingBlank]

1 hour ago, Husker_Bohunk said:

Only one person knows that for sure. Everything else is conjecture.

Lol seriously?  He used it as a position of power and intended to use it that way.  It is like saying “do you know who I am?!”.  Anyone who is trying to convince themselves otherwise is hilariously wasting their energy.

[Landlord]

1 hour ago, knapplc said:

 

Everyone knows why he gave the address he gave. 

 

No, we don't.

 

But even if we do, this is still such a minor thing to focus on in light of all the good Brown has done, and even in light of all the other public speaking he's done. I remember at least 4-5 times at school sanctioned talks in high school, or at FCA sponsored events open to everyone in my college, whatever, where he's very firmly espoused his particular fundamental/conservative Christian ideals. Some of those contexts were probably legally fine if not ethically suspect - others I don't think were. But the rules don't apply all the same when A) you're a legend around these parts and B) Christianity is still so ingrained into the dominant cultural experience/narrative in our state.

[Guy Chamberlin]

32 minutes ago, Husker_Bohunk said:

Only one person knows that for sure. Everything else is conjecture.

 

Well if every other citizen gave their home address, then Ron Brown wasn't presenting himself as an average citizen.

 

He knew what he was doing. He was proud of what he was doing. Naive to pretend otherwise. 

But Brown was clearly beloved by many players and coaches over the years, a few of them were probably gay, atheist and muslim, and everyone seemed to make it work without incident. That counts for something. You really don't want to know everyone's deepest thoughts, and he seemed to do an excellent job in what he was asked to do. 

 

Before putting this behind me, I gotta admit that the video -- which I'd never seen before-- was worse than I thought.  Not so much the boilerplate homophobia, but the self-righteous finger-pointing at the Council: If they don't have a personal relationship with God, they can't make the right decision about denying rights to gays.  Who could make the right decision?  Ron Brown, of course. Because he speaks for the Bible. He just forgot that the Bible has just as much to say about the sin of homosexuality as it does the eating  of shellfish or touching of dead pig skin. Didn't see Brown lecturing Red Lobster or boycotting football.  Brown wasn't preaching love at that meeting. He was promoting intolerance and being patronizing about it. 

 

And it's not just the homosexuality. Taking Ron Brown at face value, he believes his non-Christian players will be going to hell. He we work with them, lead them, mold them into fine young men. But if they don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, they will be burning in hell for eternity. 

 

That's not a bunch of hyperbole to slam Ron Brown. That's straight out of Ron Brown's playbook. At least when that video was shot.

 

Times change. People change. Sometimes it's not "political correctness" it's just "correctness."  

 

I'm cool welcoming Ron Brown as long as we respect why people bring the old stuff back up. It wasn't a little thing. Hopefully we've all grown. 

 

 

[The Dude]

10 hours ago, Husker_Bohunk said:

 

Besides the incident in Omaha, what else makes you say that?

All the dozens of times I've heard him talk about his religious beliefs.  I needed to hear about it zero times.

 

There's a time and place for that, and I don't think he realizes that.

[teachercd]

57 minutes ago, The Dude said:

All the dozens of times I've heard him talk about his religious beliefs.  I needed to hear about it zero times.

 

There's a time and place for that, and I don't think he realizes that.

Why listen?  I never listen to the guy.  Just like I never listen to TO when he starts going on about how booze and gambling are wrong.  

[Ulty]

6 hours ago, Landlord said:

But even if we do, this is still such a minor thing to focus on in light of all the good Brown has done, and even in light of all the other public speaking he's done. 

 

Sure, he has done a lot of good, there is no doubt about that. But I don't think this is a minor thing. He openly advocated for discrimination and exclusion. That's pretty damning in my book.

[Danimal]

NU recently had to can a zealot from one end of the sociopolitical spectrum and now we're opening ourselves up for embarrassment with a zealot from the other end. Brown is one of the better coaches in the history of the program but this is a pretty sketchy proposition. Hopefully Frost has made it completely clear Brown needs to keep it to football and avoid any more controversy. 

[Fru]

Wonder how many folks who are just fine with Brown using his stature as a coach to spout anti-gay rhetoric are also the same folks who slam NFL players for kneeling during the anthem to bring awareness to unarmed people being killed by police. 

[Mavric]

7 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

Before putting this behind me, I gotta admit that the video -- which I'd never seen before-- was worse than I thought.  Not so much the boilerplate homophobia, but the self-righteous finger-pointing at the Council: If they don't have a personal relationship with God, they can't make the right decision about denying rights to gays.  Who could make the right decision?  Ron Brown, of course. Because he speaks for the Bible. He just forgot that the Bible has just as much to say about the sin of homosexuality as it does the eating  of shellfish or touching of dead pig skin. Didn't see Brown lecturing Red Lobster or boycotting football.  Brown wasn't preaching love at that meeting. He was promoting intolerance and being patronizing about it. 

 

Always fun to see people act they they know something and then prove that they have no idea what they're talking about.

[knapplc]

 

[Saunders]

Ron Brown developed some damn fine football players while at NU. Hell, just look at the RB's he developed under Bo (Roy, Rex, Ameer), and look at what's happened since then. If some of that teaching/coaching can translate over, it will help overcome the debacle of the last 3 years sooner.

[Moiraine]

8 hours ago, Landlord said:

 

No, we don't.

 

But even if we do, this is still such a minor thing to focus on in light of all the good Brown has done, and even in light of all the other public speaking he's done. I remember at least 4-5 times at school sanctioned talks in high school, or at FCA sponsored events open to everyone in my college, whatever, where he's very firmly espoused his particular fundamental/conservative Christian ideals. Some of those contexts were probably legally fine if not ethically suspect - others I don't think were. But the rules don't apply all the same when A) you're a legend around these parts and B) Christianity is still so ingrained into the dominant cultural experience/narrative in our state.

 

 

Maybe using his position during his arguments was minor but what he was fighting for was not. He was fighting against a law that would make it illegal to discriminate against/fire employees solely for their sexual orientation.

[Enhance]

17 hours ago, TAKODA said:

I guess what bothers me most, is the fact that this is the first thing some people are thinking about, rather than the positives. It’s like there always has to be that guy, who pisses on the campfire. This twitter or should I say tweet from Josh P, almost begs of him needing attention, or listeners to react. I don’t know, SF is the man in charge, lets see where it goes from here. 

For some people, Brown's actions are/were intensely personal, so I don't have an issue with people being upset about it. However, as you astutely point out, the exception would be if people are mentioning it for no cause other than to stir the pot. I don't know if that was Josh's intent.

 

So far, I haven't seen any player (current or former) criticize the decision. I don't think we can draw a sweeping conclusion from that though.

 

Spotted the below on Twitter this morning. I've never heard of that website, however, they did also write an article about Brown's testimony in 2012 where they said "sad that a man this damaging to impressionable young men is given a platform to force his religion onto others." It appears they inject a modicum of editorialism into some of their content.