North by Northwestern

Before Nebraska plays Northwestern tonight let's rewind to November 2nd, 2013. Nebraska had just beaten the Wildcats on a Hail Mary. I was a freshman student then and all my friends wanted to go back to campus, but I just had to go meet up with my dad. I met up with him at the Railyard, drank a Coke and we talked about the miracle we had just witnessed and how it was going to set that 2013 team back on the right track to win the division and earn a trip to Indy.

This probably seems peculiar. After a witnessing the first game-winning Hail Mary in Cornhuskers history, most students would probably want to go party, but I wanted to go talk about it with my dad.

Growing up, it was the single most-discussed topic around the dinner table. For all of us. My dad, mom, brother and sister. My parents held 2 seasons tickets that we would split up each year, every road game we lined our basement bar with snacks out the wazoo and we attempted to attend a road game every year.

That night it struck me that the reason I love Nebraska football isn't just because football is the greatest sport God has ever blessed humankind with. I mean, it is, but that's not the point I'm trying to make.

I realized my family is the reason why I love Nebraska football so much.

On the way back from the Railyard, downtown Lincoln was alive but the stadium was quiet. All those family memories that were glued together by Nebraska football came rushing back to me. I strolled behind the abandoned plaza behind West Stadium and wished so bad that my mom could have been there to experience that night with us.

My mom had passed way 3 years earlier in 2010 in a car accident on the way back home from the Big 12 Championship. After the accident I worried that I wouldn't be able to enjoy Nebraska football anymore. That it would bring back too many bad memories of that day.

That turned out to not be the case. Walking home from the Railyard I realized the opposite had happened. Cherishing those memories we spent as a family watching Nebraska football even though all of us are no longer here has grown my love for this sport even more.

We don't all live under the same roof anymore. My sister's married and has a family. I'm married now too. My brother lives 45 minutes away in Omaha. But tonight I'm going with my wife to my dad's house to watch the Northwestern game. I wouldn't have it any other way.

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