I don’t know if you noticed, but HuskerMax is putting out excerpts of Paul Koch’s books No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy Of An Era. The books consist of two volumes of over 1,500 pages of interviews with 100 players, coaches, media personalities and athletic department employees from the Tom Osborne teams that went 60-3 over the course of five seasons in the 90s. I reviewed Paul’s books back in 2013.

There is a crapload of information in the books. I remember that Paul had sent me a copy of some of his chapters before he published, wondering what I thought. I thought he could stand to edit the interviews. He chose not to, but wanted to leave them in rough form. The books are huge, but like I said, there is a ton of information in them about those teams, probably a lot of stuff that no one talks about.

Anatomy of an Era: David Seizys Part 2 » March 18, 2018

Q: Any locker room guys that really stand out from those days as far as leadership?

DS: Trev (Alberts) was, and Kevin Raemakers was, and (John) Parrella. They were awesome guys there that literally were huge, figuratively were huge in their leadership. And you know, I’ve heard horror stories of hazing in the Callahan era and even the Solich era, but in our time it was flat out, ‘we were a family, that didn’t happen.’ But as far as leaders, those were three huge leaders right there.

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Patrick clipped the story below last week, but I wanted to mention it anyway.

It is an interesting counter to the “My son isn’t going to play football” that we hear from parents, whether they are former football players or not. Here we have a football coach trying to use the sport as a support mechanism for young men so they don’t end up straying down the wrong path. You could try to make the argument that other sports could fill that void were football to go away, but you’d mostly be wrong - other sports simply don’t provide the numbers required to play football.

The media has established the narrative that if you play football you will experience head trauma and if you do that, you will end up with CTE, lose your mind and commit suicide. The media is damned good at FUD - fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s how they make a living.

I wasn’t worried about sports when I raised my children. Cars, on the other hand, terrified me. They still do. When your daughter is telling you about how pissed off she got when a driver cut her off when she was doing 90 on the freeway is not the best time to realize that you forgot to teach her about wear bars on her car tires and what a blowout can do to a car at 90 mph. You should have done that earlier.

Nobody expects their child to grow up and become a drug addict, sell drugs, or commit suicide. If sports can provide a support mechanism for keeping kids away from that stuff, then isn’t that more important than the possibility that they MIGHT have brain problems later in their lives, especially when the risk of that happening is minor compared to all the other problems they might face?

Suicides, Drug Addiction and High School Football

She checked over her shoulder to see if anyone was listening. There was an urgency in her whisper as she said: “I lost my son last month. He hung himself from a tree in our yard and shot himself in the head. I cut him down myself, with my own hands. So many suicides.”

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News

HuskerOnline.com - Homegrown Huskers Stoltenberg, Stille setting tone as team leaders
Regardless of who you ask, nearly every response for who have been NU’s top player leaders this offseason has included senior nose tackle Mick Stoltenberg and redshirt sophomore defensive end Ben Stille.

Huskers Visit Oral Roberts For Two Games - Nebraska Huskers
The Nebraska baseball team (11-8) hits the road this week for Tulsa, Okla., to face Oral Roberts (11-6) for a pair of games at J.L. Johnson Stadium.

I’ve never been more convinced Michigan is winning the national title - Maize n Brew
Good things are happening in Ann Arbor as the chips fall where they may.

Michigan Two Games Away From Champions of the West - BT Powerhouse
At roughly 10pm E.T. Thursday night, 10 hours from the beginning of the NCAA Tournament, Montana raced out to a 10-0 lead against Michigan. The Wolverines looked like they didn’t want any part of...

2018 NCAA Tournament Weekend Wrap-Up - Team Speed Kills
The SEC entered the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament with eight teams. Four days later, the conference now boasts just two. Such is life in this wacky and wild event, but it was certainly one of the crueler fates that the conference could’ve suffered.

2018 Big Ten Position Preview: Tight Ends - Off Tackle Empire
The NFL is drafting the best, so let’s check out the rest!

Izzo Is Out Of Magic - Off Tackle Empire

For the second time in three years, a championship-caliber Spartan team ends its season in the tournament’s first weekend, and Tom Izzo’s on-court legacy should begin to shift accordingly.

Michigan State fans are NOT happy with Tom Izzo’s performance.

Roundball recap: Here we are again... - The Only Colors
The MSU basketball shop gets closed up in the first weekend. Again.

2018 NFL mock draft: Baker Mayfield might be the Jets’ best option for a QB - SBNation.com
Following a blockbuster trade by the New York Jets, signal callers are a hotter commodity than ever

March Madness’ opening weekend was absolutely bonkers. These were the moments that made it special. - SBNation.com
From UMBC to Jordan Poole to Loyola, the opening weekend of the 2018 NCAA tournament was terrific.

Minnesota Gopher Baseball wins series over #9 TCU Horned Frogs - The Daily Gopher
Gopher baseball with a huge series win over ranked Horned Frogs

Purdue Basketball: Who Are The Texas Tech Red Raiders? - Hammer and Rails
A brief history of the Texas Tech Red Raiders Basketball Program.

Then There’s This

Uber’s self-driving car showed no signs of slowing before fatal crash, police say - The Verge

The Uber self-driving car was traveling at a speed of 40 mph when it struck a 49-year-old woman in Arizona Sunday night, and did not show significant signs of slowing down, police said today.

Apparently the woman was not in a cross walk. Gee, humans don’t always follow the rules - imagine that.

Two things about this:

• My impression of Uber is that they are a terribly run company that would have no problem with sex trafficking if they could make a few more dollars off it.
• Driverless cars are no where near ready to be considered safe nor usable. We seem to overplay where we’re at when it comes to technology, especially when there’s a buck to be made.