Why don't they see it?

So I'm sitting at work yesterday, listening to my daily dose of Husker propaganda from a guy some of you know. (thus, I won't reveal his name...but you can guess.)

Anyhow, we get into our usual daily argument about how Nebraska sucks, which turns into me being "jealous" of their success, which turns into me calling him a myopic fucking idiot. So he starts going on and on about all the reasons why the Huskers are going to the BCS this year.

Don't get me wrong Husker fans...your dedication is admirable. I mean, it takes YEARS of hard work to get as delusional as you guys are. This isn't something that just any state university football team can accomplish. It almost has to be the perfect storm of myopia. I could even sum it up in algebra form: Tradition + Middle of nowhere + no natural rival = group of fans who think they can beat USC on the road after struggling with Maine at home the year before.

You get the idea.

Anyway, this guy and I are arguing about the Huskers...for the 16,305th day in a row, and he tries to break it all down. They have tons of guys returning. They have a favorable schedule. They have entered year 4 of the Clownahan era...which if you remember back to 2002...was the year they were supposed to be "back". It was right about this time, it hit me like a ton of bricks....These people don't know any better.

I mean, think about it. They've had a solid, if not great program (at least for a 4-year run in the mid 90's) for a while, and have developed that swagger that teams get when they believe they can't lose. Throw in the Solich/Pederson/Callahan fiasco, and you get trauma. And what happens during a traumatic experience? You start to imagine that things are better than they are. I made this analogy a few years ago on a message board, and it still rings true.

Remember when Farah Faucet was smoking hot? Everybody wanted a piece of her. She was on every magazine cover...everybody's 'it' girl. Her poster to this day is still a best-seller. (I saw a guy selling them on the streets of Tijuana the other day. No joke.) Anyhow..what happened to Farrah? She got a bit older...got a bit more strung out. Eventually, only her fans thought of her the way she was. And eventually...everybody else could see the problems but her.

Husker fan is the exact same way. They're so involved, so devoted, so emotionally attached to their team, that they don't know any better. To them, it's still 1995 and Coolio is still belting out 'Gangster's Paradise' at the Grammy's. But the truth be told, Southern Miss beat Nebraska in Lincoln recently. They've lost to every Big 12 team but Baylor within the past few years. Hell, K-State doesn't even tear down the goalposts anymore since they've beaten them so often.

The point of this rant is this: As this guy was going on and on about how great NU was going to be this year...you could tell in his voice that he was dead serious. Meanwhile, as he's going on and on...I keep thinking about how they had the 107th rushing offense in the country last year and LOST their best back. I remember Brad Smith running for 480 yards against their great defense. I remember stories of the Oakland Raiders literally wanted to strangle Bill Callahan.

How come I can see it and he can't?

Because he doesn't know any better. So next time some jackoff is spouting off about how great NU is going to be this year...just remember to take it easy on him. He doesn't know any better. Just like Farrah, it's going to take an embarrassing loss on a national stage to realize just how far they've fallen.