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Kenny Bell Solves Nebraska's License Plate Debacle

By Husker Mike

On Tuesday morning, Governor Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) unveiled Nebraska's new license plate design to the public.

And it was immediately met with much ridicule. Besides the bland design and Michigan color scheme, there was something, well, off about the depiction of the Sower, which sits on top of Nebraska's State Capitol in Lincoln.  Jeff Koterba, the Omaha World-Herald's cartoonist, has used the Sower in dozens of editorial cartoons over the years, describes it this way:

The image of the Sower on the license plate seems to me to be distorted, as though the elegant form I have studied over the years from every angle has been squished down and stretched sideways.

And can I tell you? From my visit to take in the Sower up close and personal? Lawrie’s creation, for all its sowing of seeds, is quite chaste.

Instead of the graceful statue created by Lee Lawrie — who also created Atlas in New York’s Rockefeller Center — this new version looks more like … an ape.

And how about those arms? I’m all for weightlifting and Husker football but, by comparison, those biceps are as thick as legs.

And then, of course, there’s the issue of how the Sower is, um, holding his bag of seeds. It doesn’t take a cartoonist to see that in the original, the positioning of the Sower’s left hand looks nothing like the one that will now grace our automobiles for years to come — it’s angled down, not up and outward as is shown on the license plate.

Comedy Central's Chris Hardwick described it as a "muscular Quaker jerking off on the cupcake" on his @midnight show.

The font isn't the only thing that's wrong with Nebraska's new license plate design. ►Watch the full episode: http://on.cc.com/1UoFkzZ

Posted by @midnight on Friday, March 25, 2016

Enter former Nebraska wide receiver Kenny Bell into the discussion...and a most helpful solution. Use Rex Burkhead instead!

Of course, some people have suggested that Kenny himself would be better.

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