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carriker_adamBW

April 10, 2017
 

“America’s Team”?

Welcome, everybody, to the Carriker Chronicles! The people's show, where I'm bringing you the pulse of Husker Nation. Now you should know -- I don't take those words "the people's show" or "the pulse of Husker Nation" lightly and here's the reason I say that: it's cuz about three weeks ago, Mike Riley made some statements and he called Nebraska "America's Team." And basically he was talking about recruiting guys from all over America. Not just the football team, but the athletic department. He was talking about how that makes us diverse, how that makes us "America's Team." He also said the Dallas Cowboys are NOT America's Team -- which hey, thumbs up buddy, I agree with ya on that part. Now if you want to check out the whole article -- a couple three weeks ago, not a big article but written by Randy York on March 15th.

Now the reason I bring this up is because I pride myself on being honest and keeping it real. This is my show, I can say what I want to say. Now I wanted to address those comments at the time, but I didn't. There's several things going on, there's spring football. A ton of stuff to talk about! And it just kinda -- as time went on I kept talking about other things (and) "I'm like now it's too late." You know it got a little too dated. But anybody who knows me knows I'm not afraid to pull back something or talk about anything. Heck, I'm that guy when people hit me up about the National Anthem protest at the Northwestern game, first thing I did was talk about that anthem protest. So, you people want it, you people gonna get it! Otherwise, I love being able to talk about what I want to talk about on this show. And just so you know, I still get messages to this day about the anthem protest video! Some people are just sooo wonderful!

But, a couple things happened last week that reminded me of these comments, and I'll tell ya what they were. Johnny Rodgers -- Husker legend, Heisman Trophy winner, he was talking about Nebraska recruiting into California. He goes "Honestly, I'm down with Nebraska's Calibraska train. But getting California kids to come to Nebraska is like pulling teeth." Then he goes on to reference the snow, the cold weather, things of that nature. One could argue Mike Riley's a pretty good dentist at this point because he's gotten a lot of California kids to come here but I think what Johnny is saying is that the true way to build up and bring back the championships to Nebraska football? Because doing it with Nebraska kids whose dream was to play for the Huskers is probably a better way to do it than bringing in all these out of state kids whether it be from California or elsewhere simply because it may not mean as much to them. It may not resonate as much as more of these local kids.

Now one could argue "Adam, you grew up in the state of Washington!" You make a phenomenal point. I was born in Hastings, when I was three my Dad's job took him up there. Now I was by a small town, hard-working Nebraska farm boy who grew up in Giltner, Nebraska, so I everything was Nebraska Football for me. So it varies from person to person.

Now here's the other thing that happened: I had a conversation on HuskerMax BBC forum with "Husker Hotsauce." And my show got brought up and I said people really seemed to enjoy it. And, he responded said "Not just as far as Nebraska related content. That of course is the point. But I swear Adam, this is the best sportscast out there. I love ESPN for what they've done for years. But some of their shows are just a bunch of screaming and yelling. But you bring actual events and discussion. Great gig! Keep it going as long as possible and keep the corporate B.S. out of it. It's your show, not theirs. I said I really appreciate this, I'm glad you enjoy it cuz I certainly love doing it. The show just continues to grow in so many ways but one thing that will always remain important to me is that it will always be the CARRIKER CHRONICLES. In other words, I have the freedom to say whatever I want -- within reason -- and the only people with veto power are the fans. Hence why I like to call it the people's show, the pulse of Husker Nation, and my wife -- who always keeps me in line. I said "I've been fortunate enough to go on shows like Fox Business, Fox News, ESPN, the NFL Network and so on. There's a reason I choose to do this show instead. Who knows what may or may not develop in the future for the Chronicles or where that my take myself and everyone who watches and supports it. But if it's not my show/the people's show, then it won't be on. Go Big Red and always remember to throw the bones." He follows that up by saying "Hell, if you start selling T-shirts, I am in for one, two, I'll buy one for my son as well."

Hey, if the people want T-shirts, we'll get 'em for ya! But we'll see about that. I will say this: we are trying to connect with a charity and foundation right now. I'm a big believer in giving back so we'll see what happens there. And here's a cool side note: and all this is leading to something. The Carriker Chronicles, to this point has been viewed by almost 1.2 million people! To be exact, 1,127,500 people and counting! So thank you for all those people out there who enjoy the show, who share the show, who talk about the show cuz I certainly love doing the show. But here's why I'm going through all this rigmarole: First of all to say THANK YOU. And to let you know if you don't already know, if you're a new viewer, what this show is about. One of the reasons I didn't talk about this topic right off the top is other things kept popping up. But my reaction to Nebraska being America's Team as quoted by Mike Riley, wasn't 1000% positive. Now I try to be as unbiased as I can -- but it wasn't 1000% positive. It wasn't 1000% negative.

But I want to get into it a little bit now. Because to me, when I first heard it, it sounded like a little bit of a fairy tale. Alright? And the reason for that is, I don't know that a whole lot of other people would buy it. Now every team I've been on since high school has people from Africa, South America, Europe, Germany, Asia, Australia. From the Redskins to the Rams, to Nebraska. And a lot of teams could claim being America's team, but that's the case. So I don't know that I would go based off that. I love that as a recruiting moniker, because a lot of people say there's challenges to recruiting Lincoln, Nebraska. And there is, let's be honest. But let's be honest, we won a whole lot of National Championships with a whole lot of talented guys so it can't be that hard! So I love it telling everyone from all across the nation "Hey, come here, this is a great place. I don't care what other people may or may not say." So I love it as far as using it as a recruiting tool. I think that's phenomenal. I think the biggest issue we're going to have and some of the arguments we may get in return is the fact that when I think of a team that's America's Team, I think of a team that's constantly winning championships, playing for championships, competitive on a consistent basis at the highest level. Maybe not every year, year in and year out. You're going to have ebbs and flows. Nebraska's had some recent struggles with championships and not winning them, and certain games not going our way. Hey, I never won a championship when I was there! And frankly, it still pisses me off to this day! So I'd like to thank you for bringing that up! Just kidding ...

But it does make me made. But the fact is, lemme go back to recruiting. How do we become America's Team? Start with recruiting. I believe we build from the inside out. And I've said this before. Nebraska kids -- there should never be a 4 or 5 star kid who gets out of the state of Nebraska as a high school recruit and if there is, there needs to be a coaches meeting IMMEDIATELY as to why this happened. This should NEVER happen. And then you go to the 500-mile radius around Lincoln and the state of Nebraska. I've heard so much about it. You go to those kids and then you branch out. You go to California, Texas, Florida. You go get the top athletes from across the country. But you start out with those Nebraska boys, whose dreams growing up are to play for the Huskers, because it means so much more to them. They're going to work that much harder. There's going to be intangibles that reverberate throughout the locker room because of that. You start with those kids and then whatever you have leftover you fill them with that great national talent because we CAN get it HERE. Now as far as winning the championships. If you go just straight off of championships, heck you could go with the New England Patriots! They've won a lot of championships lately!

Now half the people who are tuning into this show just got really pissed off at me. Lemme make ya happy. My argument against the Patriots despite their championships and their greatness is the cheating and the scandals and all that, so now the people who are happy with me are pissed, and the people who were pissed are now happy. Welcome to having a show! That's why I love doing this, I can be open, I can be honest, I can be real. I don't have to hide anything. So to me, it starts with recruiting. It starts with Nebraska boys, extending out nationally, then it continues with earning respect. Not necessarily being liked. People aren't going to LIKE us if we start winning championships again! Everyone in the state of Washington where I grew up, they hated us! That's why I like doing this show. I can talk and people wanna hear what I say and why should they want to hear it? We stomped a mud hole in the Huskies in '97 and people don't want to hear that! I loved it, I talked about it!

But anyways, we don't have to be liked. I don't give a care about being liked. I don't give two cents to a cockatoo's rear end about being liked BUT we need to earn that respect and once we've earned it, people need to give us that respect but it starts with recruiting, continues with being competitive on the field and it continues with competing for championships and winning championships.

So, are we currently America's Team? He fairy tales come true. Guess what? My lifelong dream of playing for the Huskers came true. I wanted to play for the Huskers, not necessarily the NFL. I got offered from WWE. That's not necessarily my dream! My dream was to play for Nebraska and now I get the awesome opportunity to talk about Husker Football the rest of my life on this great show!

So those are my thoughts. Can we be America's team? Yeah, we've had a lot of success in the past. I think we can be. Some people might fight it, doesn't matter. If we start producing, we can be. Do I think we will be? Hey, that's going to be fun to watch. And it starts this spring.

Now, Wednesday I have former Husker fullback Andy Janovich on the show, talking all things Husker Football, all things Andy Janovich. Tune in Wednesday. Fast Friday, I give you the things to look for the next day in the spring game, and then Saturday I'm going to give my gut reaction to the spring game.

So until Wednesday, share and like the Carriker Chronicles! I love doing this gig too much! Go Big Red, and always remember to Throw the Bones!

 

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