VIEWPOINT / LETTERS : There’s Nothing Like a Good Argument to End Another Season

Maybe someone in a position of power will soon do something to stop the lunacy that for years has prevented a college football playoff game between the two top teams in the country. Maybe then we wouldn’t have to listen to the knuckleheads (in the media and the general public) who say that unresolved controversies such as the one this year are actually “good for college football.”

JOHN STOCKER

Tustin

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In his younger years, Gene Wojciechowski must have been ticketed for speeding while crossing Nebraska on Interstate 80. His weekly coverage of Cornhusker football again this year suggests he never got over the incident.

In this week’s story, he says he wants to kiss and make up, yet at the same time he feeds us his flawed logic about Penn State really deserving a share of the national title, an opinion that the people who really understand college football--the two polls--disagree with by a margin of 5 to 1.

At the end of his story, Gene offered us his “extended hand in the spirit of friendship.” On behalf of ‘Husker fans everywhere, I too am extending my hand to him, with a digital message. Because this is a family newspaper, let’s just say it means Nebraska is No. 1.

BILL STRATEMAN

Laguna Beach

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As an alumnus of the University of Nebraska School of Law, allow me to try once again to prove to the jury that the Cornhuskers are not No. 1.

--The Orange Bowl really wasn’t a home game for Miami.

--Nebraska didn’t suffer from any quarterback controversy during the game.

--There wasn’t too much pressure not to lose an eighth consecutive bowl game.

--The Cornhuskers won only one more game than Penn State.

Yeah, I think I have this case in the bag.

DOUGLAS F. FAGAN

Ontario

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How about them “Midwest’s most prolific whiners” now, Gene?

DAN HYSLOP

Venice

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What’s wrong with society? Watch Florida football and bear witness to trash-talking, taunting, cheap shots and hot-dogging. Where is the respect for the other guy?

Witness good sportsmanship as portrayed by teams coached by Tom Osborne, Joe Paterno and Rich Brooks. What a difference!

JACK WILEY

Downey

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As impressed as I was with USC’s rout of Texas Tech, I was more impressed by their decision not to turn their uniforms into mobile Mobil billboards. It’s good to see a team wear the uniform the way it was meant to be worn.

RICHARD A. FOND

Los Angeles

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To Keyshawn Johnson:

I realize it must be a tough decision for you to either stay in school and get a degree or get out early and make money sooner.

Keyshawn, the medial collateral in your knee is only one-quarter-inch thick, easy to tear and difficult to fix.

My vote is this: Stay in school and get a degree. You’re only one hard tackle away from being an ex-football player.

MATTHEW BERNSTEIN, M.D.

Los Angeles

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Kudos to the geniuses at IBM and other corporations in recent years for coming up with the inspired idea of attaching their company names to national traditions, such as the IBM OS/2 Fiesta Bowl. This practice adds such tremendous value to our national heritage.

More companies should be given the opportunity to claim their pieces of Americana. How about the Maybelline Ultra Lash Academy Awards? The Revlon Emmys? The possibilities are endless. Surely companies ought to be allowed the rights to even something like the 1996 presidential election. The Wal Mart Discount Decision ’96 could be a truly grand occasion in American history.

MICHAEL J. TANNER

San Bernardino

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Compassion for an inept opponent is a noble sentiment, but the 102,247 who paid good money to watch one of the two best teams in the country deserved better than the light scrimmage that Penn State staged for their entertainment in the Rose Bowl.

As soon as Ki-Jana Carter ripped through Oregon’s tissue-paper defense, the game became little more than touch football. Joe Paterno obviously decided to let Danny O’Neil keep throwing and completing those dangerous sideline passes, any dozen of which could have been picked off and run back by an alert high school defensive back.

Tongue-in-cheek Times reports notwithstanding, it could easily have been 75-0 if Paterno had let his horses gallop. O’Neil’s passing records should have an asterisk saying “courtesy of Joe Paterno” if future fans are to know how it really happened.

CHUCK QUEENAN

Los Angeles