Kenny Bell's TweetStorm Generates A Lot of Anger - And a Reversal of Boyd Epley's Plans

Former Nebraska wide receiver Kenny Bell launched a Tweet-storm against the Nebraska athletic department Wednesday afternoon.  (For those not familiar with the term, a "Tweet-storm" is a series of tweets where someone has something lengthy to say that it can't fit into one 140-character posting on Twitter.)  The aftermath wasn't terribly pretty, as a lot of people took "hot takes" to an entirely new level in trying to defend Bell or people at the athletic department that they thought were wronged.

For those of you that missed it:

Today i found out anybody that trained in the weight room in the past 10 years has been removed from the walls. @Huskers no love for alum???

— Kenny Bell (@AFRO_THUNDER80) April 6, 2016

That hurts. Was told that because "we didnt train right" our records in the weight room at our Alma Mater are removed? Ouch.

— Kenny Bell (@AFRO_THUNDER80) April 6, 2016

Forgettin the old regime I understand, let's move forward. But guys that gave 5 years to the program? @Ameerguapo deserves to b in that room

— Kenny Bell (@AFRO_THUNDER80) April 6, 2016

I am not complaining, and i am not angry. I am genuinely saddened. I love that program and the guys that are apart of it. Disappointed.

— Kenny Bell (@AFRO_THUNDER80) April 6, 2016

This next one cleared Mike Riley and his staff (though many people who really should know better decided to ignore it for whatever reason.)

This has NOTHING to do with the football staff. That kind of decision comes from the 3rd floor, the Administration level.

— Kenny Bell (@AFRO_THUNDER80) April 6, 2016

Some took that as a shot at Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst, which brought out his defenders in full force.

90% ?!?! Goodness, i probably should never come to Nebraska again. U changed my whole world boss, appreciate you ✊🏾 https://t.co/ZLSdtCNPMF

— Kenny Bell (@AFRO_THUNDER80) April 7, 2016

And so it went on...and on...and on. One astute Twitter user found a story from last year where Boyd Epley stated his plans:

Epley said he’s resetting school records in athletic testing and starting over for a standard benchmark.

But now that it's happened, the fallout was clear. And it wasn't just Kenny Bell feeling that way:

@AFRO_THUNDER80 I feel you bro... My record is gone as well and I'm a current player. Worked so hard to get it all taken away.

— Sam Foltz (@samfoltz27) April 6, 2016

History is so easily forgotten theses days... Well ignored rather.

— Ameer Abdullah (@Ameerguapo) April 6, 2016

Many Husker fans were upset with Bell because he took it public on Twitter instead of contacting someone at the athletic department first. Bell says he tried that...but got no response.

I did. If they'll take us off a wall for records, you think they'd casually take our phone calls? https://t.co/y6m8NPtPhp

— Kenny Bell (@AFRO_THUNDER80) April 6, 2016

And sure enough, the response was loud enough that someone inside of One Memorial Stadium took notice, and the newly implemented offending policy was history.

Response from the Nebraska athletic department pic.twitter.com/3ek3hrg2bU

— Unsportsmanlike 1620 (@USC1620) April 6, 2016

Specifically:

All records will be restored and displayed, regardless of testing procedure, as we want to recognize all of our record holders regardless of the timing and testing system.

Which is good news, in the end. But couldn't someone have responded to the concerns of Bell (which were clearly shared by other current and former players) before this blew up on Twitter?  A lot of awful (and erroneous) things were posted online Wednesday afternoon (and evening, it appears) - many of which won't be corrected.

Which makes this another black eye for the so-called "Greatest Fans in College Football" - can we please take those signs down now?  Because frankly, we're toxic.