Juan Salinas IIFri, November 28, 2025 at 11:15 AM UTC·9 min readNebraska football players running onto the field at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — Every home game, Memorial Stadium becomes Nebraska’s third-largest city for roughly three hours, as it will Friday against Iowa.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNebraska football and sports are as close to religion as the Cornhusker State’s people will allow. The university’s 85,000-seat stadium has sold out every home game since 1962, feeding more than $1 million in economic impact into the state every weekend the Huskers play at home.
Volleyball engenders similar levels of devotion, selling out the 10,000-seat Bob Devaney Sports Center and packing local restaurants and bars. But those two sports are hardly alone, as other Nebraska athletes know.
More than 92,000 fans crowded into Memorial Stadium for “Volleyball Day,” setting a new world record for attendance at a women’s athletic event. Aug. 30, 2023. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)Playing for the Huskers also has its advantages in state politics. Several Nebraska athletics alums have run for political office, ranging from school and university boards to Congress and the Governor’s Mansion.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe house’s current occupant, Gov. Jim Pillen, is a former University of Nebraska defensive back, a former NU regent and a hog producer. But he is perhaps best known for recovering a game-sealing fumble against Oklahoma in 1978.
His first campaign for governor ran a biographical advertisement in 2022 recalling that moment in scarlet and cream. Nebraska earned an Orange Bowl berth with the win and shared the Big Eight football title with the Sooners.
“And Beat Oklahoma,” Pillen said in the political ad. “I mean … lead the nation in job creation.”
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Cornhusker Marching Band plays in Memorial Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)Not all Big Red political candidates succeed, University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professor Kevin Smith said, but playing for the Huskers gives them some “goodwill” at a time when public skepticism and cynicism reign.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“We’re living in an era where expertise is mistrusted fairly extensively,” Smith said.
The value of celebrity in politics isn’t new.
Long before President Donald Trump revived belief in its power, there was former President Ronald Reagan, a movie star. Another west-coast movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined Reagan in serving as California’s governor.
Even traditional politicians seek celebrity endorsements to reach different pockets of people in the hopes of boosting voter turnout. One recent example: Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign touted endorsements from Beyoncé, Leonardo DiCaprio and Taylor Swift, to name a few. Harris won Nebraska’s Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District. Trump won statewide.
The Nebraska capitol from Memorial Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)In Nebraska, the Huskers are local celebrities. And the list of current, past and potential candidates with ties to NU athletics is long.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFormer State Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha, a Republican candidate in Nebraska’s 2nd District for the U.S. House, was a backup quarterback for Nebraska from 1999 to 2003.
Preston Love Jr., a defensive end in the early 1960s who was part of Nebraska’s Magnificent Eight, ran for the U.S. Senate twice in the past five years. The Democrat was the state’s first African-American U.S. Senate nominee of a major political party.
Jim McFarland, a tight end in the 1960s, served in the officially nonpartisan Legislature in 1986 and ran for governor in 1998 as a Democrat but lost in the primary.
Hall of Fame college football coach Tom Osborne served three terms in the U.S. House representing the state’s rural 3rd district and lost a competitive GOP primary bid for governor in 2006 to an incumbent, Dave Heineman.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementPillen, who still calls Osborne “coach,” played for the Huskers from 1975 to 1978. Trump endorsed Pillen for reelection on Tuesday, and the president mentioned Pillen’s NU playing days in the endorsement.
Tom Osborne Field at the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)Nebraska volleyball middle blocker Rebekah Allick was in a political ad for a successful ballot initiative that banned abortions after the first trimester in the state constitution, with exceptions for the life of the mother, rape, and incest. The ad also featured five Nebraska softball players, including pitcher Jordy Bahl.
“Out-of-state activists are pushing a radical amendment, Initiative 439,” Allick said in the ad.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAllick, who is in her senior year at UNL, also attended the signing ceremony for State Sen. Kathleen Kauth’s bill that requires all student-athletes competing in public K-12 or college sports to play on teams that match their sex at birth.
Former student-athletes Payton McNabb, a former high school volleyball player from North Carolina, and Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer, attended.
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People at the time criticized the Husker athletes for participating. Audrey Horn, a Planned Parenthood volunteer, told CBS affiliate KMTV that “Husker athletes are like celebrities. So [Protect Women and Children] are leveraging that name recognition, team recognition for their political goals.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAllick, speaking with the Examiner, said her experience with politics hasn’t been “great,” but said it’s more about her “faith,” adding that many student-athletes are scared to be political or speak on controversial topics because of the fear of losing sponsorships, popularity and even friendships.
“I have been told like ‘you shouldn’t use your platform,” Allick said. “‘You should just stick to talking about sports.’ But I’m a Christian. I’m a daughter. I’m a sister way before I was an athlete.”
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Huskers student-athletes Rebekah Allick (volleyball) and Jordy Bahl (softball) at the signing of a bill to require student-athletes wishing to play in competitive sports in Nebraska to play on teams matching their sex at birth. June 4, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)Axiom Strategies Nebraska State Director Daniel Bass, who was directly involved in the ad, said the athletes appearing in the ad were motivated by their passion for the issue.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I can’t speak to their future plans, but they’d certainly have a bright future in public service,” Bass said.
Part of the increasing value of celebrity in politics ties to the rise of populism. It has emerged as a driving force in today’s politics, as some voters have lost faith in institutions and seek alternatives.
“Nebraskans have a great affinity for sports, and who’s a part of it … sometimes it can be really good [or it] can be a kick in the shins,” Pillen told the Examiner. “Just depends.”
Pillen and nearly every member of Nebraska’s all-GOP congressional delegation attend most Husker games, as do many members of the Legislature. Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., used to sell Runzas during Husker games.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementRegular attendees include Republican U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, House Republicans Mike Flood, Don Bacon and Adrian Smith. Political candidates, including nonpartisan former Omaha labor leader Dan Osborn has tailgated near the stadium. State Sen. Jason Prokop of Lincoln, a season ticketholder, says he rarely misses a game.
Nebraska mascot Herbie interacts with fans at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)UNL and other NU campuses provide access to a limited number of athletics event tickets to legislators as part of the university’s outreach as a state-funded institution, a connection that grows in value as state budgets get tighter. Athletics at UNL is self-funding, a rarity in modern college athletics.
Smith, the UNL professor, said a career in sports can only take people so far, as former players will eventually be judged by how they govern rather than their playing days, because politics is a “different ball game.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Just because you’re good at one [sports], doesn’t mean that you’re going to be good at the other [politics],” Smith said.
Lindstrom, while in the Legislature, helped pass legislation that phased out taxes on Social Security income and pushed bills aimed at reducing income tax rates. He faced criticism for some of his votes, including on the death penalty and how to pay for road construction.
Lindstrom told the Examiner he doesn’t know if he would be in state politics had he not played Nebraska’s football.
“There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that people don’t see with football and politics,” Lindstrom said.
Fireworks after a Nebraska Football game at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)Playing for NU helped Lindstrom prepare for interviews, stump speeches and debates, he said. He compared it to training in the off-season. Running for office takes discipline, he said, and campaigning takes a lot of teamwork — skills that he learned while playing football.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementDuring his bid for governor in 2022, Lindstrom ran a TV ad that emphasized his “teamwork” as a Nebraska football player. It said he would bring “a new generation of leadership” to the state. He lost to Pillen, a fellow Husker alum.
Then and now, Lindstrom said he tried to avoid using his football experience as a selling point, because it could also be a negative, and he has government experience. He pushed back against his staff, who wanted to air a campaign ad for governor about him playing for the Huskers, saying it had been 22 years” since he played.
Smith, the UNL political science professor, said celebrity helps cut through a moment in politics when people distrust politicians.
Nebraska Republican gubernatorial candidates, from left, Charles Herbster, Brett Lindstrom and Jim Pillen, at a 2022 candidate forum in Lincoln. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)Smith said the ways in which many people get their information also plays a role. Social media, for instance, has displaced much of traditional media for many.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAs Sasse discussed during his most recent Senate campaign, people started treating party and political loyalty like their love of sports teams and religious affiliation, as non-negotiable loyalty tests that define how people interact with one another.
Said Smith: “We’re living in a highly polarized environment where people are increasingly taking politics as a core part of their identity.”
This time around, Lindstrom plans to focus on his experience as a former state lawmaker, not his days playing for the Cornhuskers, in his bid to be the 2nd District GOP nominee against Omaha City Councilman Brinker Harding. But people remember.
“We did it [for governor],” Lindstrom said. “Never again.”
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