I can’t stand Nebraska fans. You might think that would be a problem, considering I’ve lived in Omaha for a total of 15 years of my life, but I’ve managed to maintain my disdain for the Big Red faithful. In fact, Nebraska fans (specifically, the football fans) are why I don’t particularly care for the Huskers. No…it’s stronger than that. I actively root against the Huskers unless they’re playing a program I can’t stand even more than them.
Don’t get me wrong—there are a lot of teams I root against. I’d rather see the NFL fold than the Dallas Cowboys win another Super Bowl. I’d rather watch the New York Yankees or Manchester United lose every game they play than ever drink coffee again. I would give up hyperbole and sarcasm to ensure that Alabama never won a meaningful football game again.
The difference is that Nebraska stands alone in the Halls of the Strongly Disliked (“hate” is a strong word) in the fact that it’s the only team on the list that I dislike because of the fans.
So what sins have Husker Nation committed that have proven so appalling to me? Let me count the ways.
- They’re always undefeated, even when they’re winless. One could argue that Nebraska hasn’t been nationally relevant since they left the Big 12 (and possibly before then). Their record since leaving the Big 12 is 75-72, 47-55 in the Big Ten Conference (current as of March 18, 2023) Yet despite all this, every week they act as though they are the undefeated national champion of the world. They complain about the refs, the conditions, the other team’s play style, and occasionally even turning on the coach. How dare they be sub-.500 when they are NEBRASKA? And you can’t reason with them. You can’t talk about how maybe they just don’t have the talent, or the speed, or that Nebraska isn’t the draw for recruiting that they were when Tom Osborne and Frank Solich were in charge. Nope. They expect they should walk into every match, and walk out with a win.
- The sellout streak. The fans are so proud that they’ve sold out every home game since 1962 – a 389 match streak as of November 2022. Yet that sellout streak has survived dubious attempts to keep it intact, such as a feat in August 2021 where a bunch of tickets were donated to underprivileged youth. Now don’t get me wrong—even I have to admit that letting kids who couldn’t normally see a game get to have such an experience thanks to generosity is extremely cool. But they are so loud and proud about their streak, it makes one question the altruism behind the act. Did they really want to give kids a good day out, or just hold on to the streak that keeps them going when their on-field record lets them down.
- They are angry when they lose. I once knew a Mormon who did his mission trip to Omaha. He told me his instructions were never to go knock doors on Saturday during football season. Apparently guns had been drawn before. The whole state lives and dies by this team, and you can tell when you go out shopping, eat at a restaurant, or just drive around on the day of a Husker loss (especially in a game they were supposed to win). The entire mood just descends like corn dust after a harvest—thick, inescapable, and usually hazardous to your health.
I could go on about how they dominate the conversation. I could talk about how my wife (while we were dating) was told that she needed to drop me and find herself a Husker fan to marry. I could talk about the looks I get when I wear my Razorback shirts (wrong shade of red, apparently). But if I have to be honest, the biggest problem with Husker fans is that they’re incredibly, annoyingly, and upsettingly supportive of their team.
And as I think about it, isn’t that what a fanbase is supposed to do? They’re supposed to get loud and annoying. They’re supposed to bring the passion and fire in what they do. They’ve chosen to support a team, and in doing so hitched a part of themselves to the men and women athletes that decided to wear the right shade of red on their uniforms. They piss me off, and that’s just fine.
My feelings toward the Nebraska fanbase is not the real reason behind this article, though. I’m offering it as background for something I’m finding more and more in the sports realm — toxic fandom. There have always been toxic fans in every fanbase, and the advent of the internet has made it propagate exponentially. A very vocal minority can ruin what most people find to be an escape. And let’s be clear—that’s what sports are for most fans.
I don’t truly want to see the NFL fold, and my life won’t be impacted beyond minor annoyance should the Cowboys win the next 50 Super Bowls. I’m not giving up coffee, hyperbole, nor sarcasm, and the Yankees, Man U, and Alabama will definitely win games again. It truly is all a game, and especially so in the stands. We use it to feel those dopamine-releasing emotions and help us relax from life a little bit. Or at least we should.
If anyone has a right to get violently pissed off about a game, it’s the players who have careers and livelihoods on the line (yes, even in college, where many student athletes are using it to go into a career other than sports). Yet, we don’t see them get as out of control as some fans who are only supposed to be using this for fun and relaxation.
So let’s get back to one of the most fun (in my opinion) and dopamine-releasing aspects of sports fandom—trash talking. This time-honored tradition amongst fan bases has gotten even better since we took to the cyber realm and can, in real time, remind a team’s fans that they suck and we rock anywhere they are in the world. What makes this so fun is that I can provide my opinion and put my personal attachment to the team of my choice out there for all to see, and (in an emotional sense) make a wager that will raise the stakes of any game that I’m watching. I mean, what’s better than watching your team win, knowing you called your shot with your trash talk?
At the same time though, what is more deflating than building your team up all week only to see them lay an egg and, with it, embarrass you in front of those opposing fans? Watching them dance on your logo, or hold up their trophy, and prove that the team you’ve invested in isn’t as good as you’d hoped can take an equivalent amount of joy and emotion out of you as winning will give you.
Thus, I’m starting to look at fandom and support in a different way. Consider that everyone has emotional capital — this is the amount of joy and emotion you get out of something. Investing in a fandom is investing some of that emotional capital into that team or entity. The better they do, the more emotional return on that investment you get, because they are a reflection of you, the fan. When you go to games, you invest more emotional capital. Your time and money are put toward showing support and hoping that it increases the results on the field. Then you invest more—the time and effort to chant, sing, and trash talk. Each increasing emotional investment increases return. When they win, you feel great, and feel that your support, chanting and singing spurred the team on to victory. You feel included as part of the team and culture.
As with anything increased investment also increases risk. When they fail, you feel worse the more invested you are. Not only that, but failure isn’t just success on the field. Failure is a social media faux pas. Failure is releasing a hideous uniform. Failure is having to postpone a game because you didn’t have lights for your stadium. Failure is having a player arrested.
All of these things allow other fanbases to chip away at your investment. They get to trash talk and increase their investment, or reap the short term gains of getting a point on another fanbase. Major successes (like defeating the other team) go a long way toward mitigating any losses due to these other failures. It’s a constant roller coaster of emotional highs and lows.
The final bit of this emotional investment involves finding a marketplace. This isn’t just finding a fandom to become a part of, but, for those who wish to do so, a thriving community that allows for the kind of rivalry trash talking or mutually supportive fans to give the opportunity for such investments.
In the old days, it was friends at a sports bar or watching matches at someone’s house. The internet has exploded the marketplace, and now you can find other fans with a click and a type. It’s infinitely enjoyable, it connects you to a larger community, and, in the case of this pseudo-introverted penguin, it gives you a chance to make friends with a common interest.
It also exposes you to the more toxic side of fandom.
There are always those that take it a little too far. Every small rise in the market brings out boisterous elation. Every small dip brings out despair, or worse, angry outbursts and lashing. Without being a psychologist, my theory is that it comes from either not having enough emotional diversification (definition of self solely by fandom), or not having enough emotional capital to afford a loss. Of course, it could be that some people just like to be trolls.
It’s extremely easy to fall into, no matter how level headed or emotionally secure you are. There’s going to be an emotional reaction when you invest emotional capital and see it heartbreakingly taken from you. There’s always going to be a troll that just gets your goat. The best of us sometimes will get drawn in. Luckily, there are some ways to keep yourself out of the toxic portion of the fandom.
- Never make it personal. I don’t really think the Nebraska fan that suggested my wife leave me actually wanted her to leave me, but it gets close to the line if you can’t read sarcasm or tone very well (e.g., on Twitter). That’s important for rival fan interaction. The team has failures. The team is inferior to my team. The program is what I’m attacking.
The fan isn’t less of a person for supporting their team. They aren’t stupid, they aren’t helpless, and they aren’t responsible for the actions of their team. Yes, some fans will cross lines and will attack on a personal level. I’ll get to that in a bit, but the key to enjoyable fan interaction is understanding that everyone involved is a human being, worthy of an opinion and personal respect, even if they wear the “wrong colors”.
For example: Fan A: “Player X is the greatest player ever.”
Fan B: “That’s ridiculous, the stats say that Player Y is way better.”
NOT: “You’re an idiot. You don’t know anything about this game.
You wank goats if you think Player X is the greatest.”
The first example attacks the opinion. Even if you just leave it at “That’s ridiculous”, you aren’t calling the person ridiculous, just the opinion. Crossing the line into “You wank goats” is just going to make this devolve into toxicity. - Never make it personal especially against the players. “Your play was terrible/dirty/ appalling” vice “You’re a disgrace/We hate you/(insert racist comment here)”. The ribbing of players, especially visiting players, is a time-honored tradition of fans. But they aren’t just people, they’re people that are providing the means of your enjoyment.
That said, there are occasionally those players that feed it back to the crowd. Obscene gestures, comments, general trolling behavior is common with those types, but even then it’s not personal against an individual, but usually a sign that those particular supporters have gotten under their skin. That’s part of the game, and not a signal that you need to threaten or abuse the player as a person. - Try to recognize what’s going on. It’s hard to stop and think when you have the perfect flaming comeback to stop a rival in their tracks, but that’s the beauty of social media—most of the time you can think before you hit that “Send” button. Taking a minute to read your response, and what you’re responding to, will go a long way to avoiding a spiraling toxic scenario.
Think about what your goal is when responding to something. Are you defending your club or yourself? Are you trying to banter or hurt? Did you read what was said correctly? Are they trying to draw you down into the toxic muck (or are you trying to draw them down?)
A little critical thinking and patience will go a long way toward getting this right. A little introspection here doesn’t hurt either.
You won’t ever completely avoid toxic fandom. You may not even be able to completely avoid toxic behavior yourself on occasion, even when trying to use techniques. Emotional capital is hard to manage and react to. You also won’t get all the trolls of social media. Some people exist to get a response out of people.
However, I hope the tips help at least a little bit. At the end of this all, sports should be a relaxing escape shared with those who have something in common—the love of the sport. If it’s not fun, why do we put ourselves through it? The better we are as supporters, the more the games we love will grow, and the more we will be able to share that love with those around us.
Even with Nebraska fans.
Ranting Blue Penguin Media 