The Scum of Humanity. People That Bully Kids And How It Affects The Huskers

that when we do this, we recognize that this is “sports hate” – something that should be fun for a lot of us, as long as it’s taken in the right manner, i.e., that it doesn’t get personal, stays somewhat humorous, and people don’t take it so seriously as to act in a manner of real hatred towards their fellow human beings.

In action, it would be giving shit to Iowa fans this week while you buy them a beer, respecting their athletes before, during and after the game by not getting personal on them (i.e. “your mother smells of cabbage” – not okay, “you can’t catch a ball to save your live” – i think that’s okay, honestly, but perhaps that’s worth a debate here).

If you worry about the people who can’t tell the difference between sports hate and real hate…. well, then I’d say education is the best way around that.

Case in point, I heard a lot of complaints from Husker fans who went to Madison and were upset with the “FUCK NEBRASKA” stuff that was thrown at them. I took that as a welcome to Wisconsin and generally responded with “FUCK WISCONSIN”, at which point both sides ended up laughing and making some more nasty jokes about each other. It was rare that I had any problems with the people I was dealing with.

Now you mention… “is it really necessary”?

In the end, I think we’d be better off if we approached sports from a lot more humorous angle and one of those is “sports hate”. It’s a helluva lot of fun. We’re not all built to be Tom Osborne, thank God, because this would all be boring as hell if we were.

I hope that our game threads give people a chance to blow off steam. I think we’ve done well with that here, kept a relatively decent level of humor (although we all have our moments…. okay, mostly me).

With regards to “young people” …. why is it any different from them than “old people”? Hell, as far as I’m concerned, old people have a lot worse time with this than anyone else. I believe they have a much greater tendency to scan the perimeters of their psyche (internet) purposefully looking for reasons to be offended so that they can more easily ascend to their towers and castigate humanity for its failures.

With “young people”, you can use all of this as a teaching moment if you do it right. “Old people” won’t listen. They’re too damned busy being offended by everything.

Perhaps it’s unfortunate that someone hasn’t yet invented a universal word for “sports hate”, but until then, it’s up to us to bear the responsibility of knowing the difference and teaching it to our youth. Maybe they can save the world from ourselves.

I used the word ‘hate’ because as fans, we should all know that this isn’t personal, it’s fun. We’re not out there trying to kill someone else because of a football game. We aren’t trying to rain on everyone’s parade and make their specific day miserable. We just really don’t like their team, and for the 3 hours or so of gametime, we’re going to make sure that we can do everything we can to make sure they lose.

However, that does not mean that as humans we really ‘hate’ them. As much as we talk about loathing Iowa, I think they handle sports hate pretty well. Most true Iowa fans I’ve met are fairly rational (a little defensive and borderline paranoid) and they do a lot of philanthropic work outside of the sports world. They can hate Nebraska and their football team, but underlying that is the reality that we can all get back to real life after the game, grab a few drinks, and move on.

I agree with Jon in saying that using the extremes like this helps not just raise readers (as you imply) but also makes the asinine assumption that sports matters beyond sports. The reason I enjoy SB Nation blogs is that most writers are so extreme in their point of view that we are satirizing ourselves. When BHGP had their ‘hate week’ of Purdue, it was funny because a) it’s Purdue, and they don’t have a huge history and b) hate is manufactured… contrived. Almost every reader I know doesn’t really hate anyone at Michigan, PSU, Iowa, OSU, or even Texas, but we get fired up because it’s part of the experience. It’s similar to saying, “I hate you.” after someone plays a joke on you. That person knows you don’t really hate them, you know the same, and it helps you move on.

So yeah, I understand the argument, but these articles are all to be taken with a gigantic handful of salt. We’re here to have fun. In sports, it’s nice to know you’re hated. It’s almost a sign of respect. (just ask the Yankees, they love it)

As for social media bullying? That’s just stupid. Those are fans that take this way too far. This is a game. It’s a fun game, but it’s a game. If these athletes get these tweets and messages, they should block those people from following them. As Husker fans, we have a responsibility to support the team, not make their lives miserable. I’ll be throwing some messages in support out this week.