Dennis Dodd's Nebraska Cheap Shot - Let's Not Kid Ourselves About Media Standards

As a Husker fan, you had to know this was coming, the only question was from where. That question has been answered now, as CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd takes a shot at the latest Husker misfortunes: 

Meanwhile at Nebraska, backup tailback Quentin Castille has been kicked off the team for a violation of team rules. That news came on the same day that former tailback Thunder Collins was convicted of murder.

Some quick research showed that there was a small window there in the late 90s when Nebraska actually didn't have a future inmate at tailback. Lawrence Phillips last played in 1995. Collins arrived in 2000. Things are getting better. It took until 2009 for Castille to smoke/drink/flunk (pick one or all) his way off the team.

(I'm going to be nice and not mention that Collins and Phillips were both convicted this month, roughly within two weeks of each other. What serendipity.)

Forget that Dodd has to go back 14 years for his cheap shot  - only a flippant boob would compare Collins' murder conviction and Phillips' felony conviction with Quentin Castille getting thrown off the team because of a violation of Bo Pelini's rules. Compare this to the way Husker Mike handled the news about Collins' conviction - with the recognition that murder isn't something you joke about. 

But wait, I get it, it's okay because it's (hyuk) on Dodd's blog and that's where flippant boob things are supposed to go. In case you're wondering about the format between "blog" and "article", I'll offer an explanation just to make things clear. The "blog" is where media types like Dodd get down in the internet goo with the rest of us, sometimes taking their pot shots, while the "article" is where they get on their high horse and take shots AT us, just like Dodd did a couple of weeks ago when he got all up in the air about Clay Travis asking Tim Tebow whether or not he was saving himself for marriage. 

If you're detecting a double standard at work here, you'd be only partially right. Go a step further and realize - there's no standard for credentialed media. They get to be as dirty as they accuse bloggers of being, shower, put on their white robe and then glare down from on high as if they're guarding the gates of the kingdom against an unwashed mass of blubbery men living in their mother's basements and writing in their underwear (actually I look like Tom Selleck in the 80s, if you're someone who visualizes this stuff, eh?)

I've stayed away from criticizing sportswriters I don't care for because I see it as a no-win situation. The links only bring more traffic to their site, along with more comments and the two combine to keep them employed. I learned this lesson years ago from a friend at the Daily Nebraskan who, with his writing, pissed off the entire greek community in Lincoln. When told of how angry the fraternity boys were, he merely remarked "Great! Now more people will read my articles!" 

Nebraska media folks rarely write anything negative, whether about the Huskers or other teams. Entering into the fourth year here at Corn Nation I've concluded the reason being that most Husker fans don't really like or want that kind of writing with regards to their football coverage. Given that the regular media has to earn a living at this, it's understandable that they're driven in the direction they are.

We are not driven by the same requirements here which gives us more freedom than the regular guys. I'm not going to turn this place into some pot-shot taking free-for-all, but I'm not going to stand on the sidelines anymore either. Next time an ass like Dodd takes a lazily-written pot shot at Nebraska or Husker football, we'll have some fun with them.