(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Lessons From the Children of the Corn [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-11-12  

I was born a Cornhusker fan; and through the first four decades of my life, it was an easy thing to be. Two National Championships in the 70’s and another three (ok, I’d argue four) during a dominant 90’s – all that under only two head coaches and one old-fashioned offense. The winning was a given, but I always felt proudest of us, the fans, the “Sea of Red.” I remember a huge thanksgiving game against Oklahoma, it was a home game, and we suffered a heart-breaking last second loss – but our reaction is the vivid memory in my mind; the Sooners field exit was below where we were seated, and as I held back the tears of a ten year old I felt everyone around me rise to their feet and begin to applaud. Stifling the disappointment to show true appreciation to opponents in a hard-fought game. I remember the Oklahoma players, their looks of confusion slowing realizing the sincerity of our ovation. They waved back – and suddenly the pain of the loss faded, at least a little.

I was lucky – I was raised in a world where booing schoolchildren playing a game was unthinkable – I had no idea how rare that kind of thinking would come to be.

I remember TV announcers talking about this behavior as “quaint” or “midwestern,” except for Keith Jackson – he saw it simply as a reminder of how folks out to behave. Other sports people said that it was easy to be polite to opponents when you usually beat them by 50 points. And that brings me to today’s lesson from the Children of the Corn.

Yesterday Nebraska hosted another home sell-out, not that there’s been a non-sell-out since November of 1962. The announcers noted that the stadium did not look like the stadium of a team that hadn’t posted a winning season, nor gone to a bowl game in decades – who were these people? Didn’t they know how to behave? Yes, we do. And this game might just be the one that gets us back to the winning and bowl game stuff. But Nebraska lost. And we lost in the particularly painful, seemingly cursed way that only Nebraska has been capable of over the past few decades. Three young men took turns playing quarterback; they all threw interceptions – none of them meant to – it’s what happens sometimes when you try to do really hard things when you are young and 86,000 people are watching you. The Children understand that.

We didn’t throw bottles onto the field, we didn’t chant things with bad words – and after losing to a last second field goal, we took a deep breath, remembered how Coach Osborne had taught us to behave, and we stood and applauded the other team as they walked off our field. They seemed as confused by it as the Oklahoma players had all those years ago.

The Children of the Corn understand something important – the other side isn’t evil; they are children wearing different colored clothing, playing a really hard game.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/12/2205328/-Lessons-From-the-Children-of-the-Corn?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/