Please elaborate on the KSU bit, I'm unfamiliar with the death. I've slowly grown to dislike them living so close to campus. They strike me as unrightfully arrogant and rude.
Oh and NUance, screw you.
I'm pretty sardonic, and some stuff that I think is funny is maybe a little too harsh for other's tastes. I say that just so you get an idea that I don't get offended easily.
I'll start with what is trivial in comparison to what follows. K-State was one of the worst cfb programs ever. I don't think that's a stretch. Bill Snyder, who I do not like but respect maybe as much any coach to ever field a team, performed a true miracle, and actually turned K-State into a player on the national stage. They didn't win it all, but they achieved some lofty rankings and won some big games. All of which you know, of course. But there is something to the adage about "knowing how to win," which means that you don't start acting like a silverback gorilla when your team has only been relevant for a decade, and was a national laughingstock for ten times as many decades prior. Their fans are, bluntly, insufferable. They have an almost comical elitist attitude, which is hysterical, because they only got to the adults table last year, and they think they deserve to carve the turkey, kick grandpa out of the seat at the head of the table, and maybe fornicate with someone's wife if they feel like it. Family relation proximity is not an issue for them.
All that is really just a fan of one team bagging on another fan base. Not really worth calling the NY Post. (Although you, as a basic impartial, seem to have picked up on some these aggravating traits of the fan base on your own.)
We had a kid on our team named Brook Berringer, local kid born in Nebraska, who played in our halcyon years from '92-'95. He played an integral role as a backup to a starting QB that was going to take a lot of hits running the option. And we won a NC in '94 because of Berringer. (And a ton of other guys, don't get me wrong. But I believe we don't win that title without Brook that year. When a team loses a Heisman candidate starting QB for an extended period of time, that typically is the moment when title hopes go out the window. Not with Brook as our backup. He was more than game. To show you just how game he was, he had a collapsed lung against Wyoming. Plays the next week. (Wins.) Sits for most of the K-State game the next week but actually does play in that game a little as well. And is back the next week for the start against Missouri. Tough kid.
Berringer also played a plucky brand of QB. He had a quiet chip on his shoulder and he was the kind of guy who is natural fan favorite, especially around these parts, because he had a blue-collar aspect to his play. And many, myself included, think he may have had the best shot for an NU QB at a legit career in the NFL. We haven't produced a lot of those, running the option like we did for so long. But Brook threw a pretty ball, and he could really snap the wrist and wing it. He had solid mechanics. And...he was tough. He couldn't run like Frazier (few ever have) but he gave every inch of will he had on every single carry. A lot of those were directly into middle linebackers. After which Brook would pop back up with the same look he always seemed to have on his face: "I'm the backup because Tommie's here. Fine. But I belong on this field."
And he was from Scottsbluff. He was one of our own.
Brook was a pilot. Two days before the 1996 NFL draft, in which he would have been taken, he was in a plane crash. He died at the age of 22. And to this f'ing day, K-State fans on message boards and whatnot joyfully crack jokes about quotes from Brook's corpse, some really reveling in it. The kid f'ing died in a tragic accident. My line is way out in the sand. I say stuff I shouldn't sometimes. I like borderline stuff.
Talking about this dead kid and laughing about it and creating your own little team meme about his tragic demise is f'ing detestable, reprehensible, unforgivable. So, as I said, "f#*k K-STATE."
Sorry for the novel, but that always strikes a nerve with me. He was a good kid, just getting ready to embark on the journey of his adult life, and he died. And certain K-State fans (more than you might think) have gotten a big kick out of that for over a decade now. That's inexcusable.
I see you lurking Bucky.
)
