Nebraska Football: Training table tweet brings out worst in fans

A recent tweet about the Huskers’ training table went viral for all the wrong reasons. That tweet, which blamed the Nebraska football team for something that was apparently not its fault got quite a bit of backlash online. That backlash took a rather ugly turn.

Social media is always a double-edged sword. Sites like Twitter (X?) help the Nebraska football team, the Nebraska volleyball team, and every squad in between get their message out. It can also lead to the torches and pitchforks crowd to rise up with alarming regularity.

On Monday morning, former Nebraska volleyball player tweeted out a picture of a couple of current volleyball players standing and looking dejected as she claimed that the Huskers’ training table was closed and that only Nebraska football players were allowed to eat breakfast.

If that hadn’t caused enough of a buzz, her hashtags, which included #losingrecord, almost certainly would have gotten a few people more than a little upset. But when KLKN’s Lauren Michelson tweeted that Stivrins’ post, which was eventually deleted, was also inaccurate things took a real turn.

Michelson explained that the training table is often shut down this time of year. Not just to Nebraska volleyball. But also for Nebraska football. The reporter also made it clear that this was explained to teams.

“Teams regularly cater meals specifically for their student-athletes using their own budget funding,” she added. “Especially during times when the training table is closed.”

Nebraska football fans go off the rails

It’s not clear why Stivrins lashed out the way she did. However, the response from Nebraska football fans was way, way over the top. The prevailing response was a level of sexism that was both beyond ridiculous and deeply weird, considering the Nebraska volleyball team is quite popular in the state.

“So basically the women were just doing what women do best,” wrote one particularly disgusting excuse for a fan. Sadly that person’s tweet got 38 likes at the time of writing.

“So basically they crashed the football teams paid for meals that their budget likely paid for, to take a photo shoot and say they aren’t important etc etc etc… got it,” wrote another despicable user.

Luckily, not everyone who saw the reaction to the tweet was ok with it. One Nebraska football fan and prominent writer, Dave Feit fired off some sarcasm aimed at those fans who decided to let the ugliest side of them out.

Former Nebraska football star, Rob Zatechka was good humored about the whole thing, calling Nebraska volleyball the “flagship program” of the university and asking if Stivrins was really wrong when she took her shot.

https://twitter.com/DocTalkSports/status/1683524801250611202?s=20

KLIN Sports Director Kaleb Henry made a crack about the misogynistic and sexist fans who flooded social media on Monday with a rather subtle jab.

While there were plenty of Nebraska football fans who handled the situation with humor and wanted to figure out why things went where they did, others certainly didn’t.

The tweet, while ill-advised as possible, sparked a reaction all Nebraska football fans should be ashamed of by quite a few people. It might be time for a little reflection on that.