1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Are you more Nebraskan or American? - June 29th, 11:25am

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Are you more Nebraskan or American? - June 29th, 11:25amAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Back to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 the ticket. Welcome back. Happy birthday, Austin Orman, folks. Reach out, find them on social media. Wish him a happy birthday. If you could and would. The question is this.

Are you more American or Nebraska? Are you America first, Nebraska first, Nebraska first? Harrison Arns. kind sir what say you I was pondering more Nebraska I like I love America don't get me wrong but like yeah I love my I love my state Nebraska I just

culturally tied to this place like I just whenever I go I've been to like other cities every time I go anywhere else like I love Nebraska for the people I don't love every part about it are you in Nebraska first or an American first Nebraska first what's the great override when it comes to rights

liberties the great override what do you mean by rights of liberty. American or Nebraska laws or American law? Nebraska law. Okay. Yeah. I'd roll. Thomas Lincoln says he says, I'm a Nebraska. Like for me, it's the culture. Like, I just, I like this place too much. I think who said that question is deep. Considering that I've never lived outside of Nebraska, I would consider myself more Nebraska than American. I've traveled and admired this

great company, but only lived in Nebraska. Our team USA all the way in any sport at any time. that leads, that is the question, is what would you root for more? A World Cup championship for USA or a national championship for Nebraska football? Which one's bigger to you? I'm selfish. Give me the Husker championship. Yeah? Yeah. So, sorry USA.

Listen, we- Sorry, USA. We got hockey. if we take soccer away from the world what are we leaving them? I'm just Bill Bennett says I'm all in on America life living through that. Listen,

Thomas Lincoln says Nebraska championship all the way. Dave, Nebraska says Nebraska National championship and it's not even a question. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is

Kansas Rudy says as a Kansas, I love Nebraska more and definitely in Nebraska's national championship. I wanted to point this out. And I did want to ask the question. I did not want to assume that. Now, 3616 says definitely American first. Okay.

Right. There's no wrong answer. There's no wrong answer, by the way, truly. You're not judging in any way. You know, lately more Nebraska. Yeah. You know, it's it, but this is why. A 35776 says definitely Natty. 247.8, America, American is a broad spectrum, but Nebraska is who we are. National championship would change the state. Go big red. That's good. Well, I mean, see, but this is, this is where the outsider.

This is where the outsider, right? Well, you're outnumbered. We'll kick you out if we disagree. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, good luck with that. Good luck with that. American in a broad spectrum that isn't the Nebraska the Nebraska Foundation built on the American Foundation first?

Yep. Right? Is there a Nebraska without America? No. See, people think about things the same way. I'm just not that dude. Like, I'm just wired. I don't know, man. It's a full thing, right?

the USA winning would feel like a fluke. The Huskers winning seems like more genuine than the way. Oh, Doug, what are we? Doug, Doug, that's hilarious. Really? He said the USA winning would feel more like a fluke. We can't even say Nebraska football national championship without laughing. We, say it with a straight face.

I fully. What was the last time we beat a ranked team? Like we're like we're we're trying to beat we're trying to beat I don't know who's bad in international soccer. I mean, well, we got Bosnia and Herzegovina coming up here. No, but I mean, they're there, they're the 30, they're in 16. So we lost Turkey. Well, but they, but they they they won their way through. Italy is not there because of Boston.

Right. So it's a thing, right? We're not Ghana out there. I know Ghana is like has some success, but like, We're better odds than them. I think we're plus 3,500 to win it. But, bro. Yeah. If you had to take money and bet which one happens first. I mean, and the fact that, quite frankly, the World Cup happens every few years. He might still go soccer.

Like to ask the question, which championship happens first and is more likely to happen, more likely to happen that the best soccer players from the United States, are probably more likely to win a World Cup than Nebraska football winning a national championship, especially in this day and age. Is that not, is that not, am I, am I, am I swinging and missing here? I want to tell you, you're wrong. You want to?

I don't have enough ammunition to make that argument. Kurtz, as Kentucky says, Nebraska in red, white, and blue. 3, 5, 7.8 says American first, but Husker National Team. And I understand, I understand that local loyalty. I do. Because it's home. It's home. Right?

But Bill and Benner says, you went real deep with that question, DP. Yeah, I mean, that was kind of the thing, right? That we have to be free in kind of how we think and stop taking the easy. the easy path and the easy thought. Sidebar and we'll read Doug's text when I get finished with this. But so I had time this weekend to binge watching things. I went through it. Of course, the Chris Everett, Martina Navratilova doc,

and again, as a sports fan, go back because it says it literally high, Oh, because it pulled one of the, I pulled one of the clips to highlight what we were talking about with Caitlin Clark in the WMBA. Because it talked about one in the grand emergence and rebirth of women's pro tennis, right? Because 50, 60 years ago, women's tennis, no, no. It was not that. So bring in Billy Jean King and the Virginia Slims as a corporate sponsor, Billy Jean, decided that that was a thing, and then it wasn't big, they weren't being paid enough to do this and pro sports and all the things. And they finally, and the Billy Jean King, Yvonne Goulogong,

Virginia Wade, that era of women's tennis stars helped build it. And they fought during difficult times. I mean, again, the Bobby Riggs, Billy Jean King thing had to happen. But then the game, the game needed a kick. It needed a star. It needed something that America could rally behind. It needed something, right? It was one thing to have Australian and British best in the world, but it would mean more. Billy Jean King, of course, was Billy Jean King. But you needed a star. Enter Chris Everett. And Chris Everett came in and started winning and started winning and changed the game and went from, And they talked about, you know, magazine cover. And through all the players who would help build this thing,

now you've got the pretty blonde girl, right, America's darling, on every cover and now getting Lipton T sponsorships and airline sponsorships and car rental sponsorships when the people who were already there who built it weren't being acknowledged that way. They weren't getting those deals. And so it says, and it's every tennis player, Pam Shriver, they're all talking about, yeah, we didn't like the new girl coming in

and getting, making all the money. She made more in endorsement money than we made on the tour. And so it was the point, I shared that over social media just to go, yeah. Pretty similar. Yeah, well, I said, it's not like there's a history. There's not a history or evidence that when the new star comes in, jealousy and envy and you get you go through the hazing we could talk about micro jordan being freezed out in the all-star game lanzo ball even got it when he was supposed to be the big

you know big baller brand patrick beverly checked him first game the real freeze out right it happened in every space christian laytoner on the on the dream team uh and how he was treated one because they didn't think he belonged to um they think he got too much too soon again you have 12 of the best greatest players of all time and christian latner was put on posters even uh the Cavs. Do you ever listen to the Cavs locker room interview when they're talking about LeBron James? Oh, listen, if he thinks he can come in here. Oh, my goodness. Well, just wait.

Well, they thought about, I mean, that was the thing, right? They thought about it. And Jordan was the exception to the rule inside his team because he said, I'm just coming in from day one to practice and I'm kicking everybody's tail. And you'll just have to get in line. And that's what he did. But not everybody could do. Larry Bird went through it. I mean, again, went through and they said, oh, if he was, if he was a black guy, he wouldn't be getting credit.

Well, because the new blonde, blue-eyed storyteller, right, people ran to. And it made sense, and nobody's saying that you're wrong in rooting for that person. But it's no different than how people run to Serena and Venus. There's no difference in why people run to Tiger. And you went through and you understood. Some of the people went through because of talent. Some went because, quite frankly, he helped identify them. And it was necessary.

So in that space, we talk about what we choose. Yes, America is an identity. Then the regional aspect culturally. And then the sport has its own person. That the identity, if you said college volleyball seven years ago, you would not have said Nebraska. You would have said beach volleyball, and that's what the focus would have been.

You wouldn't have known the last five volleyball champions. And you also didn't have a pro volleyball league or love volleyball to drive the thing, right? I go back to women's volleyball where Flo Green and Flo Hymond and Debbie Green drew attraction to it. And they could never beat Cuba in China. And it was brutal, but they won a bronze and it was kind of cool. and so people start to follow it, and then Title IX kicks in so that you can build the opportunity. But that's a part of what sports is,

is that often it's a mirror and a vehicle for having conversations about who we are as people. And if you tell me that Nebraska's are Nebraska's first over Americans first, I'm not mad at it. It just helps me understand what I'm dealing with and who I'm dealing with. And you're not wrong. You're not wrong.

I would like to say to you that in my heart, and again, my conversation about America versus local is different than yours. Small town kid. Locals always in my heart. See, you went in a place that I wasn't going. Culturally, it means different things to different people. What America does is it allows everybody to meet in the same place.

It allows all of us to meet in the same place for the same reasons, right? Color doesn't matter. Religion doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. America allows us to just go, you know what? I'm in. We don't even know the ethnic backgrounds of the players who are wearing American jerseys. We just know that they're representing us. All of it. And we don't care. Dream team, we go through and you can say, does this look like America? They're all Americans. Whether it looks like America or not, in your belief system, hey, it may not. Then you can, you can, say Nebraska. Does Nebraska football represent everybody in the state? And the answer would be yes. Then I would say, which is why I asked the question, if it's two doors or two buildings, right? One building on the marquee, it says USA World Cup championship. The other door says Memorial Stadium, and it says Nebraska National Football Championship. I fully understand. understand here where the line is drawn. I fully understand that.

And you just have to point and go, I understand that. I didn't even have to agree with it. Right. I don't. I'm the same way, right? I understand that for this state, a national football championship would drive the state and change the state. because it means you, what it means is,

it means you had to fix a whole lot of things. You had to fix a whole lot of things. In order for a national championship to come to Nebraska for football again, you had to fix, it's the New York Knicks winning a championship in 71, 72, and then it taking until 2026 to fix

and outlast bad leadership and bad decisions and bad management and bad players. and all those things, that's how long it took. And we're kind of in the cycle that it may take 50 years from 71, from Rogers, Taggy, and Glover,

rather than Frost and... Riley. Fraser, right? Oh, yeah. Right, that era. But that means when you win like this, what it means is that U.S. World Cup has figured out a whole bunch of,

bunch of things to even be in the conversation. And they're in the conversation. Then Nebraska has to figure out a whole lot of things in a short period of time just to be in the conversation. The fairer question would be which one's closer, World Cup winning the cup. Remember, they're in the 16th. What's more likely? USA soccer being in the top eight in the world or in a number?

Nebraska football being top eight in the country. And it still asks the question, which one's big? Number eight in the world for World Cup, for all of us, for number eight in the country, with the state being one of the top eight, and that's how the state would look at it, right? We're one of the top eight states, right? We do football better than 92% of the country.

Is that kind of what the number would be? Yeah, I think of it. How many things do you have to fix for that to happen? And how cool would that be? But that's why we talk. That's why we talk about it. That's why we talk about it. We'll close out what I wanted to get you set up for a character.