The weather in Nebraska during the summer is great. The grass is green, the golf courses are long and sprawling and the pools are open from town to shining town.
However, unless you are a very avid golfer and don’t mind getting a sunburn every day at the pool, you are in the majority of Nebraskans that do one thing and one thing only.
Count down.
This specific countdown is at about 3 months, 3 days and give or take 4-5 hours.
That of course is until kickoff of the first Nebraska football game of the 2009-10 season. When Memorial Stadium is empty, so is Nebraska.
Don’t get me wrong, people still live in the state–if you can call waking up every day to go to a job that you may or may not like in a state that has no attractions whatsoever outside of a football season that is not here yet “living.”
When USC isn’t playing football, Los Angeles has the Lakers. When Florida isn’t winning a national championship, they have the Orlando Magic, Disney World and the beach.
Even when lowly Vanderbilt of the SEC isn’t playing football, people in Nashville have the Grand Ole Opry.
In Nebraska…there’s no back up. It’s football, or no football–and no it’s not a question.
Nebraska can be compared to a bipolar bear, instead of hibernating in the winter, the Big Red faithful hibernate in the summer across the vast stretch of land that is as flat as your dinner table.
Instead of oceans, Nebraska brings small lakes and rivers that should be more considered streams.
Instead of 6 Flags, the Husker state considers Wal-Mart more of an attraction than anything. There are honest attempts at waterparks in cities like Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island, but that’s all they are–attempts.
So while every other state has a solid back up plan for the offseason of college football, Nebraskans will continue to sit and stay focused on their mental countdown to the kickoff against Florida Atlantic.
And just in case you were wondering, it’s now at:
3 months, 3 days and more towards 4 hours and 30 minutes now.
Not like I was keeping track though.
I kind of thought as the Midwest being that way and now you have totally reinforced it.