Days after the Fresno State game, athletic director Tom Osborne abruptly ended the contract, to “make it clear that the athletic department has no position, either pro or con” regarding the proposed pipeline. Whether TransCanada “sponsored” or “advertised,” the visceral reaction to the highlight video is what’s most telling. Keystone XL brought out the worst in Husker fans — a palpable inhospitality that even the Oklahoma Sooners don’t elicit. It’s more than just potential environmental disaster, in the form of contaminated groundwater, that has folks united. Many also worry that the pipeline will someday be repurposed to pump the Ogallala Aquifer’s water out of the state. This is a laughable scenario, until one realizes that for most ranchers and farmers drought is a more tangible fear than leaking oil.
Like me, my dad can’t remember our fans ever booing an opposing team, let alone highlights of our own players. My parents have never advertised their political leanings either. But today they have a Stop the Pipeline sign defiantly placed in their front yard.
Because the proposed pipeline will cross an international boundary, all permits for the project will have to be approved by the US State Department. As I write this, none of us knows if Alberta crude will someday be pumped through the Nebraska Sandhills, near where I grew up. And I don’t know if it should or shouldn’t. What I do know is that Nebraskans view Canadians differently than they did a short while ago. Today my living in Canada raises eyebrows at Barrymore’s. Today, in Memorial Stadium, Husker fans boo.
