Should the "Greatest Fans In College Football" Signs Be Removed From Memorial Stadium?

I think you have misunderstood the concept of the “sign”
The fans are not declaring themselves the "greatest’
this is a result of the players present and past – coaches -present and past commenting on NU fans and in particular Devaney’s comments about NU fans.
To take it “down” – which is about as silly as can be -( because obviously no one is going to spend the money to remove it.), Would be to disrespect everyone who has coached and played at NU
And since when do we care what ESPN writes or says about us.
Are we that shallow that a comment from ESPN has us running scared of our tradition and history –
OHHH the outside world doesn’t like the sign – let’s take it down.

Take down the signs? Are you kidding me? What’s next, change the words to our fight song because we’re bragging our girls are the fairest and our boys are the squarest? I think the girls in Maine might be fairer and the boys in Wisconsin eat a lot of cheese so they might be a tad bit squarer. Ahh, the arrogance of us to think we are fair and square! Get real people, quit bowing down to society, who gives a flying crap what Pat Forde thinks! It’s time Nebraska get a chip on its shoulder and stop walking around like we don’t deserve to be where we are. Let everyone else gun to be what we are and quit trying to act like Saints!

If this is all you have to worry about, your life must be sad and pathetic.

Plus, don’t the visiting team’s fans pass through the same frickin’ doors?

I say you take them down if we as husker fans and the university decide not go by what a sports writer with nothing better to write about. Im not to worried what Pat forde has to say. If the university decides to then so be it but Pat Forde needs to just to write about something to keep his job this part off the college football season

In fact, this is exactly like your son getting you a “worlds greatest dad” shirt. To the best of my knowledge, a bunch of fans didn’t get together and put up those signs. The University put up those signs as a tribute to the fans.

Any teacher, coach or even business manager can tell you the power of expectations. You won’t achieve any higher than you set your sites. Taking down the “greatest Fans” signs and resigning ourselves to being “pretty good” fans or “OK” fans is pathetic. Let every young, new and aspiring Husker fan be reminded of the legacy and traditions when they walk through the gate. Pride is not arrogance..

The red foam hand on the corn nation emblem at the top of the page should be removed? It seems awfully presumptuous, and might be offensive, to openly declare ourselves “#1” when clearly that can not always be the case. Come on people, get a life. The “greatest fans” signs are a non-issue.

I believe it serves as a reminder for all who passes through just how we should act as fans not only towards the opponent but to our fellow Husker fans as well.

We are human you know.

You’re completely right – the Red Out and aiming at Texas was a mistake. Nebraska is bigger than that. NU is about winning national championships which means all games are important.

But I disagree about the signs and I think it’s a matter of perspective. Those signs were put up by the University and the team to honor their fans, not by the fans themselves.

I look at it as the Univ of Neb and more so Husker Athletics telling the fans they appreciate us. Kind of like a player thanking the fans after a game. It doesn’t bother me that its up there and it wouldn’t bother me if it wasn’t.

Let’s talk about this a second and think real hard. What is your assumption of this statement, “Through these gates pass the Greatest Fan in College Football?” Your assumption by insinuation of this article is that they are referring to JUST Nebraska fans. On any given college football Saturday, or whatever day it is…there are fans supporting both teams who pass through these gates, not just Nebraska fans. It just so happens that most of them ARE from Nebraska at ANY GIVEN TIME (or all of them when it’s the Red-White game, but I digress…) ;^)

So what if we hold a grudge against Texas and want to beat the ever-living daylights out of them??? WE"RE HUMAN just like everyone else. Don’t let the world, media, and every Cornhusker-hater out there get to us. Ever since Nebraska’s first and second national championships, we have proclaimed ourselves as the best. With index fingers points skyward, we’ve chanted, “We’re Number One! We’re Number One!” Every foam finger out there has been copied based upon our attribution and citiation. Since day one of being number one, we have had a target on our back and people have admitted to us their jealousy. They have been haters. It’s become Us and Them. They have made their remarks about us being Cornshuckers and other negative ententes. They just don’t plain like us. We have had to fight for any bit of respect we could.

So when Texas seems to have our goat, we oblige with a “Just wait til you come to town”. We knee-jerk and cow-tow to the head-waggling and jawwing by national media that we have crossed some sort of line. Horse hockey!!!! We should not even be reacting conservatively about decorum to their reactions. They’re putting us right where they want to and we should not bowing to anybody or making changes by omitting “Beat Texas!”

I say, Beat Texas and Beat the rest! Go! Big! Red!

The fans did not put up the signs. The University did to honor the fans.
Just as it honors players, coaches, and various team accomplishments in, on, and around the stadium. We should take pride in that and do our best to live up to the expectation.

I do see the point of how this is perceived by others. However, taking down the signs will not change others’ perceptions of NU fans.

I’ll also say almost all universities will claim their fans are the greatest fans. The simple fact is, there are no "greatest fans". Just as in life, one doesn’t win some title for having good character.

As I said, we should take pride in the statement and do our best to live up to the expectation.

lets take down the huge banner on memorial stadium that declares our national championships too… and while we’re at i think the statues need to go, and the Husker Power signs in the weightroom? yea def arrogant…

(in case you couldnt smell the sarcasm):

those signs declare an overwhelming truth and are a matter pride, taking them down would be a HUGE mistake.

First off, I’d like some of you to travel to watch the Cornhuskers play. Go grab a seat in Folsom Field or down in Happy Valley at Beaver Stadium. Try and watch your NU football team play a game in an opposing stadium, then you may have a better appreciation for Saturday’s in Lincoln.

Taking the signs down = insane! The signs are a tribute to fans that show up in any weather, for worse or better. We stand and applaud the winning team, even if it’s not our own. The “greatest” and don’t forget “most knowledgeable” fans were monikers given to us by others, nothing about it self imposed. So, just like your Greatest Dad t-shirt, we will wear that title with pride and even go as far as to start believing it ourselves.

If you don’t like the signs or don’t believe you are a part of the greatest fanbase in athletics, don’t look at them! How hard is that? As for me, I AM THE GREATEST FAN IN THE WORLD, and that signs reminds me of that every time I catch an NU home game. THANK YOU.

… that were even discussing the removal of those signs based on what someone from Missouri wrote!

 The sign are for the fans from the university and the team, if there that misunderstood simply add, “We Thank You” at the bottom.

Enough said!

It’s not like the signs were put there by the fans themselves, they were put there by the University, to let the fans know, that they are the greatest in the world… And their actions demonstrate that every single game.

This is the same tactic used in politics by those who want to control and manipulate the perception. People are accused of not being conservative enough, liberal enough, Christen enough, patriotic enough and so on if you don’t live up to their subjective and judgmental measuring stick. They want us to think we have something to prove. If we don’t act like great fans they call us hypocrites, if we are great fans and acknowledge it so they call us arrogant, their is no winning this argument with someone who is determined to see it from the vantage point of tearing you down from all angles.

The only thing that matters is our own expectations of ourselves. If we set the bar high, then let us do our best to fulfill those dreams.

The sign doesn’t say “the greatest team in the nation” it says “the greatest fans in the nation.” The difference is that the Nebraska program loves its fans and the fans love the program. It’s like me telling my girlfriend that she’s the best girlfriend in the world. The thing that needs to happen is that Nebraska fans need to quit fucking boasting about how great of fans they are and do like everyone else does and talk about football intelligently and insist to everyone that the Huskers are the greatest PROGRAM in the country! Then it’s not narcissistic and weird.

What’s the matter with you people! This is 2010, don’t you know that it is no longer politically correct to be the best? We don’t want our oppossing fans, especially the guy from KState and the ruling party from Texas, to think that we are better than them. Of all the nerve, “Beat Texas”? We should let them win the game because they are the king of the Big 12. In fact, Nebraska should blow every Big 12 game this year as an apology for leaving the conference with only Texas, Oklahoma, and the eight dwarfs. Besides, Nebraskans are just a bunch of hicks, not sophisicated and cosmopolitan like them folks from Kansas who have better things to do during the off season than think about their great football teams. So I say we should bow our heads and sink to the level of all the fans in Columbia, Manhattan, Boulder and the other Big 12 venues and start throwing urine bombs, blaspheming children and roughing up old ladies. We don’t want them to think we are better than them.

Here’s the problem, fans have always conveniently refered to their team as “we” for the longest time…like they are intimately involved with the team, I do it all the time. BUT, the truth is, fans need to separate themselves from their sports teams in situations like these. “We” didn’t hang the signs above the gates, the UNIVERSITY did. The UNIVERSITY hung them in honor of the fans who have patronized the university for 100+ years.

Think of it this way, say 100,000 people are big fans of Target. They buy EVERYTHING from Target and make Target a giant success. One day, Target puts up a sign over the front doors that say, “Through these doors pass the greatest shoppers.” If you were one of those customers, would you “complain” because “we” (Target) is stating something that your actions should show? I would guess that you would be thrilled that Target recognizes your patronage to their store.

It’s the same thing with sports. You are a patron of the product they are selling. You are not part of the product. The University posted those signs above the gates as a tribute and a thank you to the patrons / fans of Nebraska football.

Leave the signs up. They aren’t meant as a “look at us, WE’RE the best” put up by the fans….NO…quite the opposite, they’re meant as a “look at our customers, THEY’RE the best” put up by a business.

As a Buckeye fan who has only attained to the lower order in the Buckeye Cult (which means that a plurality of my t-shirts have the Block O, own a hat, a sweat-shirt and have not yet learned to reflexively respond to the OH call…unfortunately I can’t yet bring myself to say IO in places like Church during the service, Funerals, Intensive Care wards of Hospitals but hopes that proudly waving the flag in my new home of Dallas Texas will allow me to rise to the next level) I suggest you keep the signs.

We in the Big 10 know the sign means that UNL is proud of its fans. We understand how the English language works and that it allows for figurative statements.

You’ll eventually see TBDBITL in reference to tOSU marching band. That doesn’t mean they are literally the best band ever, it just means they are acknowledged as being very very very good and we are proud of them.

There are drunkards in every fan base; don’t let the fools define the fan base.

I’ll enjoy rooting for you all this year from deep in the heart of Whiney Orange.
Be sure to pass on any tips for when tOSU plays that team from Norman in 2016-17.

But we are the GREATEST FANS.

Pat Forde criticizing us is like the French criticizing the US. Pffft!

   This isn’t just a “self-declaration”, fans from other schools have agreed. I currently live in Orlando, FL and attend a few UCF games every year (wearing one of my ‘Husker shirts to every one of them). Following UCF’s visit to Lincoln, I ran into athletic director Steve Sloan at a game. He saw my shirt and told me how great the fans were on the teams visit. Other schools that have made the trip have echoed this feeling. Self boasting? Maybe as little, but we’re not the only ones saying it.
   After being stuck with more than my fill of SEC and ACC games and seeing those fans, I don’t care what others think.

If we’re purging Steve Pederson changes I’d love to get rid of the new mascots while we’re at it. If we can’t get rid of that awful Li’l Red the least we could do is go back to the old Herbie Husker. The new one has no charm or character, it just looks like a random Nebraska fan in a red hat. It’s just not a proper Herbie if he’s not a fat hick.

/oldmanmuttering