LINCOLN, Neb. -- Tom Banderas has lived the Nebraska football dream as a player. For four years, hes lived it as a dad.Tom was a rugged tight end with sneaky good hands -- a glorified guard, he calls himself -- for Tom Osborne-coached teams from 1985-87 that were fixtures in the top 10.His son, Josh, never wanted to go anywhere but Nebraska, and now hes winding down his senior season playing some of the best football of any linebacker the 17th-ranked Cornhuskers have had in recent years.Tom, a longtime Lincoln insurance agent, shows up at practice at least once a week, usually on Tuesdays. Afterward he and Josh, still in practice gear, meet on the field to discuss football and life.I love it, Josh said. Having him around, its always good to have family close. A lot of other guys dont get that. For Thanksgiving I get to go home. Other guys are from eight hours away. I love him coming down and talking, and he gets to learn a little about whats going on and get the inside, which I know he likes.When Josh started playing flag football in grade school, Tom instilled in him that putting on the Husker helmet is an honor thats earned through hard work, and lots of it. Josh never took his eye off the prize, developing into a four-star recruit at Southwest High in Lincoln .Tom and Amy Banderas celebrated senior day with Josh last Saturday and then watched him make nine tackles against Maryland. Josh will start his 30th game when Nebraska closes the regular season at Iowa on Friday, and he said hes never forgotten what his dad told him.The way I put it, Tom said, is that 60 percent of that crowd in the stadium, whether 80 years old or 5 years old, would give two toes on their left foot to go down there and play a single play, Tom said. Thats the responsibility you have to those 92,000 fans, to give 250 percent on every single play. Thats your responsibility, take it or leave it.Josh has taken it and run with it. He was voted a captain in August, and his 80 tackles lead the team. Hes averaged 10.2 tackles a game from his middle linebackers spot since Oct. 15, the best six-game stretch by a Nebraska defender since Lavonte David averaged 11.5 in 2011.With 219 career tackles, hes in position to crack the top 15 at Nebraska if he keeps playing, as coach Mike Riley says, like an all-star.Hes really emerged even more this year as a real leader, and then his preparation is just about perfect, Riley said. Hes made not only tackles but really decisive kind of defining-type tackles.Josh credits his defensive linemen and fellow linebackers for keeping blockers off him, allowing him make all those stops. He said his confidence has never been higher.As a freshman he was forced to play right away because the Huskers were thin at his position. He said he wasnt ready. Even as a sophomore he struggled, which caused anxiety because he knew coach Bo Pelini had him on a short leash. He would look over his shoulder because if he made a mistake, he would go to the bench. He considered transferring.I look back, and I didnt like playing football, he said. I wasnt playing confident. I was playing scared. If I would have redshirted, that would have benefited me. That would have been good to get a year under my belt, learn the system and get a little stronger.His turning point came at the end of his sophomore season, the 2014 Holiday Bowl against USC. Pelini had been fired about three weeks earlier, and the assistants stayed on to coach the bowl game. Josh made a career-high 14 tackles.It was kind of like, `Im going to play, and I dont care. This is the last game of the season. Maybe this is going to start a new phase for me, he said. So I went out and played football like I did in high school. That flipped things.So did the hiring of Riley and linebackers coach Trent Bray. Josh wouldnt criticize how he was handled by the previous staff. He said he meshes better with the style and system of the current staff. But Tom said the importance of the coaching change cant be overstated.It was a resurrection, in a way, for his career, Tom said.Nebraska was a model of stability when Tom came to Lincoln from Oak Grove, Missouri. He appeared in 28 games and got as much joy from knocking down defensive ends in Osbornes triple-option offense as he did from catching passes. Toms time to shine came whenever quarterback Steve Taylor caught opposing defenses loading up to stop the run and saw him running wide open. Tom caught 16 passes in his career, 10 for touchdowns. In 1987, he was second in the Big Eight with six TD receptions.So who had the better career, Tom or Josh?I defer to the boy on that, Tom said, laughing.With Joshs college career two or three games from being over, Riley wonders what Tom will do come January.I just see a picture of a dad, a former player, all that, really enjoying watching his son, Riley said. We talked about it the other day when we were walking out, that the hard part for Toms going to be Joshs graduating. Hes just going to have to come down and watch the other guys practice.As it turns out, theres another Banderas, Anthony, and he would love to live the Nebraska football dream, too. Anthony just finished his junior season at Southwest High. Hes an outside linebacker whos getting looks from Kansas State and, yes, Nebraska.Tom said Anthony will show whether he has what it takes to play for the Huskers during his senior season. Meanwhile, Tom is soaking up these last few weeks of the season with Josh, who as a toddler would bumble around the house in his dads old helmet while wearing a Nebraska jersey and football pants.Thats thousands of kids in this great state of Nebraska, Tom said. But how neat is it that he was able to go ahead and earn that right to go do what I did?---More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org Johnny Bower Jersey . Having already announced that the race will start May 9 with three stages in Northern Ireland and Ireland and finish in Trieste on June 1, the rest of the route was unveiled Monday. Zach Hyman Jersey . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. http://www.authenticnhlshopmapleleafs.com/authentic-timothy-liljegre-maple-leafs-jersey/ . 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LOS ANGELES -- From the morning when the first tailgaters arrived to the evening and a game-winning drive, the Rams gave Los Angeles fans that old NFL feeling back.There was no Deacon or Dickerson, and the old familiar blue and yellow were replaced with St. Louis gold, navy and white, but the horns on the helmets were the same, and so was the name: Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to welcome home to the LA Coliseum, YOUR Los Angeles Rams! the announcer shouted, bringing a roar the local crowd hasnt been able to let loose since 1994.Even an opening kickoff return for a touchdown by the Dallas Cowboys Lucky Whitehead in Saturdays preseason opener for both teams couldnt kill the mood, and many late-arriving LA fans missed that anyway.The Rams first touchdown in their new-old town, a 14-yard run by Benny Cunningham, brought another huge roar from the crowd of 89,140, as though it finally made the move official.It was a great feeling, Cunningham said.The game-winning drive, capped by a touchdown pass from Sean Mannion to Aaron Green, gave the Rams a 28-24 victory and the crowd an even bigger charge.Celebrating a new era of NFL football in Los Angeles, we deserve it! yelled Rachel Barbosa, 40, tailgating outside the Coliseum, where the unmistakable smell of sausages and beer marking an NFL game day hung in the air.Her tailgate-party partner Rose Gonzalez turned 41 on Saturday and the old-school Rams fan couldnt believe she was getting such a sweet gift.Wouldnt want to spend my birthday any other way, Gonzalez said.Rams jerseys from all eras of the team filled the streets and parks around the Coliseum, the Rams traditional home, though the gates and snack stands still bear the red and gold of the permanent tenant, USC. The Rams will play here while their permanent home is built in nearby Inglewoodd.ddddddddddddLA fans also had to face the other side of the NFL experience, which they hadnt missed as much: Weekend traffic that felt like weekday rush hour, sky-high parking prices, and shouting matches with hardcore Cowboy fans.And the citys new Expo Line light rail train that stops at the Coliseum was as packed and sweaty as a subway train bound for Yankee Stadium.But nearly everyone took it all in stride, and smiles abounded.There might have been no one happier than Douglas Aziz.I moved here from Toronto in 1994 because I was a Rams fan, said Aziz, who wore an old-school Deacon Jones No. 75 jersey with his long white hair.That was the year they left. He had a gleam in his eye and an ear-to-ear grin at the thought of finally seeing his own team in his hometown 22 year later.Its incredible, he said.Aziz came to the game with his two young-adult sons, Cameron and Colin. Cameron has been a longtime NFL fan, but is now a newly adopted Rams fan and holder of many season tickets.I got eight! he said, and he plans to hold on to them for decades to come. He sold the five he wasnt using for this game for a total of $800, he said.For a preseason game! he said in disbelief.For other fans it was a return to old traditions.Russel Nadel and his wife came to Rams games in the Coliseum in the 1970s, and to the teams games in Anaheim in the 80s and early 90s.Weve been going to San Diego for games, to see the Chargers, because it was the best we could do, he said.But they never became more than lukewarm Chargers fans.Today, they were overjoyed to give their full affection to a team again.Its a special day, he said.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '