Thumbs Up to 'Horns Down'

I knew Texas would beat Nebraska the moment I saw a Cornhuskers fan in the stands do the "Horns down" sign for the television camera. Oh how the mighty have fallen. There was a day not too long ago when Big Red looked down on Burnt Orange in a nice, condescending, Midwestern kind of way. I remember when my father sold his company to a Nebraska-based firm in the Eighties. The boss of the new conglomerate came with us to a Longhorn game and acted a lot like he was at an Abilene Christian T-ball contest, oh so quaint it was. Now I imagine many Cornies are chocking up the Horns' latest win to dumb luck. But we know the truth: Aaron Ross created another fumble and the Huskers no longer believe.

That "Horns down" hand gesture marked the official end of an era. What I'm getting at here is that when you're that obsessed with the opponent, you're basically afraid of them. That's why College Station is rife with T-shirts disparaging poor ol' Bevo by chopping off his horns. Rivalry? Call it an inferiority complex. The low of lows came last season when the Aggies were playing Texas State before a regional television audience (and came close to losing). Fans in the stands started pulling out the, you guessed it, "Horns down" sign! Uh, guys, wrong school. But perhaps it's because Aggies read really slow and they never made it to the State part.

Oh, and Longhorn fans: let this be a lesson. Burn those "O Who?" T-shirts at once or kiss your winning ways bye bye.