TOM BROKAW: Booed by fans at the Oklahoma-Nebraska football game. More here.
UPDATE: Reader Gerald Hanner from Papillon, Nebraska emails: “Word around here is that the folks in Norman were not very good hosts to anyone last Saturday. Still, it’s interesting to note that there is someone more hated in Norman than Nebraska.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Brad Dempster sends this:
As a longtime reader and a lifetime Oklahoma Football supporter, I have to chime in regarding the Tom Brokaw booing incident. I was there, and frankly, was a little embarrassed about the incident. However, this business about Oklahoma not being good hosts in general is pure bitterness.
I won’t go into the “bad host” stuff, other than to say all that was a simple combination of a few bad fans and a frustrated NU squad. And when a fully-geared football player assaults a student, knocking out several teeth and putting the guy in the hospital, it would be hard to justify that from NU’s end. Anyway, all of that is not representative of what normally happens in Norman.
But the Brokaw deal was not related to all of that. The instantaneous response came from a clear majority of the fans. It was also uncharacteristic for this crowd. Usually when quests are introduced, the crowd either claps politely, or pretty much ignores the whole thing. They are there to watch football, and it is a serious football crowd. When they showed Brokaw’s picture on the big screen, it got a resounding negative response. I suspect it would have been the same response had it been at Oklahoma State, most of the schools in Texas, or anywhere else in this area of the country.
My point? This is not Philly, where they eagerly boo Santa Claus and Snoopy just for sport. A response like this is in Norman, OK, should be a clear message to its intended target. I think Brokaw is merely guilty by association.
The big media black eye is carried by all of its personalities, and here in “Red America”, it doesn’t look like people won’t be so quick to overlook the election cycle shenanigans, at least in the short term.
Indeed.