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When the script breaks

Sports are romantic. It’s why so many of us fall in love with the whole thing in the first place.

Erin Sorensen's avatar
Erin Sorensen
Dec 16, 2025
∙ Paid
Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Sports are romantic. It’s why so many of us fall in love with the whole thing in the first place.

Sports allow you to imagine the story before it happens. You map it out from start to finish, anticipating the payoff and the celebration that comes at the end. Sometimes a season cooperates exactly as you imagined it would.

Right up until the moment it doesn’t.

The truth is that even the most carefully built narratives crack. That’s the part that makes it all romantic, if not a little heartbreaking too. It’s the deal you make when you care about something that is ultimately out of your control.

Nebraska learned that lesson twice in a matter of days in two very different ways.

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