Nebraska moms buckle chinstraps for ‘Tackle My Son’ event

“He just thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen,” Kim said.

But Quinton the competitor kicked in. The starting Nebraska cornerback’s mom had come for the “Tackle My Son” event, and Quinton wanted to make sure she scored a series of 10s from Husker coaches judging her form. You have to do this right, mom!

“I’m really going to hit you,” Kim told him “I’m really going to tackle you!”

That’s right mom! That’s what I want!

“You know your mom!” Kim said. “This is what we do, son! Be ready!”

The tape, posted in a five-minute video to social media on May 1, proves Kim did just that.

So did many other moms who came to bond with their sons — and each other — one day before Nebraska’s spring game. Kim estimated 80 moms, grandmothers, aunts and loved ones attended the event organized by Julie Rhule, wife of coach Matt Rhule.

“It was her brainchild,” said Matt, who’d spent the last three years with the Carolina Panthers in the NFL, where moms of players weren’t around as much. “With us coming back to college, she wanted to make sure there was a family feel, so creating a mom’s event was part of that. As Julie says, ‘Matt, I know you and the dads think you all have it figured out, but moms rule the world.’”

Indeed they do. They can tackle, too.

“Same foot, same shoulder, run your feet,” Laura Hutmacher said. Her son, Nash, is a defensive tackle for the Huskers. Nash was a champion high school wrestler, too, and for years in the Hutmacher kitchen, he’d come by his mom and try a wrestling move on her. She was well-versed over the years in those. Tackling was a little new. Especially with pads.

So Nebraska had defensive coordinator Tony White and linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek put moms through a tutorial on “block destruction” — that is, shedding the blocker between a tackler and ball carrier — and the act of tackling itself.

“We never talk about the head,” Dvoracek said during the tutorial. “We keep the head out of it the whole time … the concussions, the injuries, all those things are not safe, and it’s also not a powerful position to use our face and our head.”

The moms learned more than that. Good tacklers have their thumbs up and their elbows tucked in. They use their feet to get in good position. And, yes, they hit. All those components come together in a split second.

Their sons have to do it in helmets and pads, too.

“We put the shoulder pads on and we’re shoulder-checking each other without even meaning to — because we were so much wider than we’re used to being,” Hutmacher said. “They’re big.”

“You can tell they were not made for females,” Newsome said, laughing. And the helmets, she said, were heavy.

“And then one mom was trying to put her football helmet on and she said, ‘Does this go any bigger?’ Hutmacher added. “Because they’re snug!”

It was a full, fun day with food, friends and even a little volunteer work, as moms helped pack kits for Julie’s new nonprofit organization, Reading Rhulz, which supplies schools and students with reading materials.

“It’s what everyone’s craving for — connection,” Matt Rhule said. “Post-COVID, I think all of us just want to be around each other, have connections.”

Moms got to see their son’s lockers, take pictures together in the locker room, and then see their sons as they headed over to the Hawks Championship Center where Nebraska had set up a welcome arch, bleachers for the players, a table for judges, a blocking sled and the tackling pad. An announcer in a black suit called out each mom’s name in alphabetical order. Julie got into the action, too, tackling her husband.

“I was the only non-son to get tackled,” Matt Rhule said.

First, mom had to “destroy” a block on the sled by pushing a player-shaped pad up in the air. Next, they got to tackle their son with a roughly 10-yard head start.

“I took Nash a little bit by surprise,” Hutmacher said. “He told me I had a pretty good hit.”

Some moms went for a slower form tackle. Jacob Hood’s mom delivered a fierce forearm shiver to her 6-8, 345-pound son that sent him backward. One mom gave her son a hug.

Kim stayed true to her word. She delivered a terrific hit, leaping off her left foot, leading with her left shoulder, and keeping her head out of the tackle. The tackle drew noise from the crowd. Quinton was laughing as he went down, but he clearly approved, smacking Kim’s helmet six times.

“Just to be able to share a little bit of what he does,” Kim said, “it was exciting.”