At 7:48 p.m. Sunday, I found myself answering a phone call that knocked the wind out of me. My best friend of three years, a football team member, could barely get out this one, seemingly simple sentence; ‘Amanda, they cut the team.’ I’m a journalism major, and we do pride ourselves on our commitment to presenting the facts as accurately as possible. Now, I guess the most accurate description of Jonathan Robinson Jeune would simply be, ‘student looking for a new university to attend.’ I’m sure 60 of his fellow teammates ‘- some of whom may be unable to afford Northeastern or refuse to prematurely kill their dreams of playing college football during the entirety of their time in school ‘- will do the same thing.

I enrolled at Northeastern as an avid sports fan. I prided myself on four years of varsity sports involvement in high school and loved supporting my peers in their various athletic outings. Nothing was more exciting than walking onto my high school’s volleyball court, filled with parents, students and teachers cheering for us. I was so excited to go to my first football game to support several of my friends as they took on their rival. When I finally made it to my first Husky football game, however, I thought I had walked into the twilight zone. I’m from Delaware, and we are by no means a big football state. We’re actually big in lacrosse, but I promise you every high school ‘- private, public, and parochial ‘- in the state had a better stadium than Northeastern.

I’ve heard some talk of the good old days, from seniors who signed at Northeastern with dreams of playing for a coach that would lead them to championships and winning seasons, like the 2002 season. In a time before Rocky Hager and Peter Roby, the football team was a force to be reckoned with. Jokes about winning seasons weren’t just jabs sometimes made by in The News’ editorial page. Since I have been at Northeastern, I have watched the team win two games my freshman year, one game my sophomore year and three games this year. Since Hager was hired in 2004, the team has not had one winning season. Not one. Instead of firing the man after consistently leading his team to five straight years of losses, you decide to let them flounder and remain uninspired by a coach and most of his staff. As far as any outsider can see, you simply allowed Rocky to stay here and coach those boys to their graves. How can you cut a team who is doing well? You can’t. It’s far easier to cut a team who is uninspired and consistently winless. Leave a man in charge, making what I would guess to be a six-figure salary, who’s constantly leading his men straight to a loss. I am definitely looking to go into the wrong field. I should be looking to be a coach at Northeastern, where wins don’t help you keep your job. Evidently, losses do.

I’m well aware that you told the team that whatever scholarship they had signed for this year would continue during the rest of their time at Northeastern. That’s a very upstanding thing for Northeastern to do: Promise the men four years of playing time when they sign at Northeastern, push aside rumors of cutting the program, let them play the whole season without any idea that it may be their last in Boston, talk about morning workout routines for January and February, and then pull them together for a 15-minute meeting to coldly say, ‘Hey, sorry kids, it’s done.’ Ironically, I just received my letter from one member of the team, asking for donations to the team. Seems like Northeastern wasted more of our tuition dollars sending out letters with no purpose for a now-defunct team. I also watched as countless members of the team that you just cut changed their Facebook statuses to statements like, ‘Real hard times. Last year in Boston,’ ‘wanted to walk away, but instead it got taken away from me.’ I hope Northeastern has fully prepared to accept that their incoming freshmen classes will most likely be smaller in size. I can’t say that I know one college aged man or woman who wants to attend a school with no football team. That will help add to Northeastern losing money, when the head of the school made a cool $737,863 in 2007-08. What will be the point of a Homecoming week? Will it be a week for sororities and fraternities to celebrate their brother and sisterhoods? Sounds like another huge waste of money.

I’m 5 feet, 8 inches and weigh 140 pounds. Tonight, I held a sobbing 230-pound football player outside of the Boston Police building on Tremont Street. I wish I could have been at the meeting where you told 60 men that not one of them would ever walk onto Parsons Field again wearing his numbers. That they would have to tell their parents and friends over Thanksgiving break that they would most likely not be able to return to school here in the fall. More importantly, I wish I could have seen you break 60 grown men’s hearts. I saw one of these hearts break, and I can say that my heart broke with his. I will probably no longer have my best friend here, calling me to tell me that the team just won its last game, and that it did it for the seniors. I will no longer be able to spend my Saturday afternoon at Parsons cheering on my friends as they try so hard to get the wins that they so desperately wanted. I will no longer be able to look out onto the field and cheer for No. 52. Most importantly, I will not be able to watch the team that I spent my rainy Saturdays with celebrate their wins or watch them grow into the football team they should have been. I guess having members of the team play on the practice squad for the St. Louis Rams and others who get invited to attend the NFL Draft Combine isn’t enough to show potential in a program these days. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, sir; I think I know 60 men who will not.

‘- Amanda Farrell Johnson is a sophomore journalism major.