Nebraska Football: Bad idea bill would hold Matt Rhule responsible for fan behavior

Whether talking about Nebraska football, basketball, or other college or pro teams, there are always going to be a game here or there where fans of their favorite team are acting a bit out of the ordinary. There are even times when the officials hold coaches and players accountable for that behavior with penalties and delays of the game. But a new bill that is currently sitting in the Oregon House of Representatives would go one step further and make it state law that a team’s coach and/ or athletic director be punished for fan behavior.

House Bill 2472 isn’t messing around because it forces schools to create a “transparent complaint process” with a reporting system for those who reach out to the school to “make complaints about student, coach or spectator behavior.” Specifically, the behavior that could be complained about would be “engage in the use of derogatory or inappropriate names, insults, verbal assaults, profanity or ridicule in violation of equity-focused policies,” according to The Oregonian.

If this bill passed in Oregon and was adopted by other state legislatures, such as in Lincoln, Nebraska football coaches and athletic directors could lose access to state grants, state scholarship money and support from the State Patrol if they fail to enact and enforce policies that address such language.

The bill in Oregon stems from a situation at an Oregon-BYU game where a group of Ducks students started a rather offensive anti-Mormon chant aimed at the Cougars. While officially such as Oregon Kate Brown, Ducks’ head coach Dan Lanning and Athletic Director Rob Mullens came out and issued strong rebukes of those fans, it appears the Oregon legislature wants to go a few steps further.

While the intent behind the bill makes some sense, it also very clearly has some rather obvious flaws including the chance to abuse any sort of reporting mechanism set up. Imagine if the same kind of law passed here and say, Iowa fans decided to riddle the Nebraska football reporting system with complaints after a loss. Or, let’s say there were Husker fans’ behavior that was beyond the pale. Penalizing Matt Rhule, Trev Alberts or others associated with the university for what fans did in the middle of a game seems a bit too much of an overreaction. It also feels like a solution looking for a problem considering what happened in Oregon is both not widespread and when it does happen tends to be addressed quickly.

The intent of HB2472 is admirable. But Nebraska football fans better hope no one in this legislature decides it’s a good idea.