While sports media outlets in the heartland were abuzz wondering where Bubba Starling would land, Nebraska head football coach Bo Pelini apparently kept the distractions to a minimum for his players as they started practice this summer. That’s good because, in the end, Starling signed with the Kansas City Royals for $7.5 million and won’t play into the Cornhuskers’ future either way.
When asked whether or not it was an issue, Brian Rosenthal at the Lincoln Star Journal reports that players denied it was even a problem. “‘Not at all,’ said Kyler Reed. The Husker junior tight end said Pelini brought up the Starling situation to the team at the beginning of fall camp, but since then he hasn’t heard anyone mention it. ‘While we’ve been in camp it really hasn’t been brought up.… It’s out of our hands so we don’t worry about it.’”
The response is a bit surprising since Starling was at least working alongside Nebraska players in off-season workouts on campus. He pulled back when the clock ticked closer after his family decided not to allow Starling to officially practice until the MLB signing deadline that came last night, but he would have developed some level of friendships with the team — persons who would have certainly been privy to Starling’s scenario.
Yet both Starling and Nebraska football now move on, with others assuming the relationship was deeper than what it really was in the first place. That’s the common scenario when Scott Boras is involved.