‘Concern trolling’ of Nebraska football’s Dylan Raiola shows dark side of stardom

Several things are true about Dylan Raiola at once. He's leading a resurgence of excitement around the Nebraska football program. There was at least talk that he began his Heisman campaign in earnest on Saturday night. He's a true freshman. He's a big fan of Patrick Mahomes.

One of these things is not like the other; for some reason, it has caused a problem with supposed adults around the internet. I say supposed adults because the thing that has "adults" taking shots at a 19-year-old freshman quarterback is that he's patterned his pregame rituals after Kansas City Chiefs star, Patrick Mahomes.

Yes, in fact, the Nebraska football star has copied Mahomes. Some believe he's copied his hair style and even the way he walks. There's some definite hero worship going on from Raiola towards Mahomes.

Again, Raiola is a teenager who also happened to train and spend time with Mahomes during a couple of offseasons. If you were a 19-year-old who got to hang out with a multi-time MVP and multi-time Super Bowl champ, wouldn't you emulate your hero?

Nebraska football star quarterback under fire for pre-game warmups

While Raiola and the rest of the Huskers were beating down the Northern Iowa Panthers, all sorts of Twitter accounts - including former NFL star Antonio Bryant's oddly enough - were taking potshots at the quarterback over a clip of him getting ready for the game.

What isn't clear from Diante Lee's take is why he finds it so important that his Dylan's family members tell him "it's time to grow up." The Nerbraska Cornhuskers star's antics aren't hampering his play, clearly.

Nor are they getting in the way of NU winning every game it's played so far this season in convincing fashion.

This apparent Sports Illustrated writer for some reason finds Raiola jumping in a way that's similar to Mahomes "sickening." I can only imagine Mr. Samuels is the very definition of soft in his every day life.

The fact of the matter, as demonstrated by this account, is that not everyone needs to voice every opinion that occurs to you. Especially when you're just taking shots for no reason at all. If you "love" Dylan as a player, what is calling him weird helping? And more importantly, yet again, what is he hurting doing this.

I know what the rebuttal to this argument is. He's a college football player who, thanks to NIL is getting paid quite a bit of money to do it.

He's also (legally) an adult. That last argument obviously ignores the fact that being an "adult" in this instance is about sending people to war, not a statement on his emotional maturity level.

My rejoinder to those arguments is simply this. He's 19 years old. If Antonio Bryant, who is 43 years old, can't be more mature than taking personal jabs at someone nearly a quarter of a century younger than him, why does Dylan Raiola need to stop doing something he believes helps him play better.

Or maybe his Mahomes-like pre-game prep and haircut and whatever else he does that people think is similar to the Chiefs quarterback is just fun for him.

The bottom line is the only people it bothers are people that are going out of their way to be bothered. Of course, they's also going out of their way to try and bother the Nebraska football team's star quarterback.

Welcome to the big time Dylan. This is, unfortunately, part of it.