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VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
VOLUME 116, ISSUE 12
FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR
FILM REVIEW
ELERSON SMITH
NEWS PAGE 2
CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
Assistant Professor Philip Hopper embarks on experience in Israel.
Defensive end earns second MVC Player of the Week award.
Film critic Hunter Friesen reviews “Joker.”
Rachel Bearinger drops debut album SOFIA LEGASPI
Campus Life Editor
UNI alum Rachel Bearinger released her debut album “Spirals” last month. The album features 10 tracks written by Bearinger. She described “Spirals” as a “folk-rock-jazz album,” but said it could not be labeled by one particular genre, incorporating elements of different genres all throughout. Overall, it took about a year-and-a-half to write and produce the record — although Bearinger didn’t do it alone. While her first release in 2017 (an EP titled “We Were Well”) was produced solely by Bearinger, the singer-songwriter collaborated with several people to make “Spirals” a reality. “With this project I said, ‘I want to make it as big and cool as I can, and in order to do that I need other people to play more instruments and help me with
the recording process and the mixing and the mastering and all that stuff,’” said Bearinger, who graduated last December with a degree in instrumental music education. The artist’s primary collaborator was Patrick Cunningham, who earned his music theory and com-
position degree from UNI. Cunningham acted as “a sort of producer” for the album, recording other musicians in his apartment studio and adding these elements to the Bearinger’s vocal and guitar parts. Bearinger recorded her end of the project in a studio in Minneapolis, where
she now resides. Once all recording was complete, Cunningham drove up to Minneapolis where he and Bearinger worked with recording engineer Mason Meyers, another UNI School of Music alum, to mix the tracks. Bearinger emphasized the fact that every instruCOURTESY PHOTO/Rachel Bearinger
ment heard on the album was played either by a current or past UNI student. Musicians included Clayton Ryan on bass and guitar, Kevin Boehnke on guitar and trumpet, Rishi Kolusu on trumpet and vocals, Chris Hansen on slide guitar, David Meyers on guitar, Abram Miller on tenor saxophone, Abigail Moore on violin and viola, Kelsey Chidley on cello, Jason Adriano on trombone and Andrey Floryanovich on clarinet. “I kind of see it as a time capsule preserving the way that we all sounded at this point in our lives,” Bearinger said. While the album was produced largely through collaboration, each song’s melody, chords and lyrics were purely by Bearinger. The title “Spirals” alludes to the “thought spirals” the songwriter has had over the years. See SPIRALS, page 5
Women’s golf place first at MVC Preview BRIELLE KIEWIET Sports Writer
The Panther women’s golf team notched a first place victory at the Missouri Valley Conference Preview as they near the end of their fall schedule. The Panthers carded a total of 942 in the preview held in Burlington, Iowa that spanned Sept. 23-24. Last year, the young group of golfers took second place at the MVC Championships in Chesterton, Indiana. Hungry for more success, the team worked hard in the off-season and it paid off at the preview. “Oh gosh, I’m really proud,” head coach John Bermel told Panther Sports Talk. “You know, going into the deal, we thought we were the best team, and we proved it. A couple of guys asked
me, ‘Well, you must have played really well.’ I said, ‘I think we’ve got better than that.’” The Panthers sat in first place from the beginning in Burlington where they ended day one with a team total of 621. Juniors Hannah Bermel and Emily Snelling tied for first place at the Preview with final scores of 229. Snelling missed the first tournament of the season due to injury, but still came back to tie for first. Mason City native Sydney Eaton tied for 25th place, carding a score of 241. Annika Patton tied for 42nd, with Cedar Falls native Hailey Bermel to follow, tying for 61st. Coach Bermel said the team, “is still trying to get better each week.” Burlington has hosted golfers Gene Elliot and
Mike McCoy, two of the best amateur golfers in state history, during the Iowa MidAmateur Championship.
Next year, the city will hold the MVC Championships. Up next, the Panthers will travel to Manoa, Hi.,
for the Rainbow Wahine Invitational from Oct. 28-30 to finish off their fall schedule.
COURTESY PHOTO/UNI Athletics
PAGE 2
OCTOBER 10, 2019 |
NEWS
NORTHERNIOWAN.COM
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ELIZABETH KELSEY News Editor
VOLUME 116, ISSUE 12
UNI professor earns Fulbright to Israel ANNA ALLDREDGE Staff Writer
UNI Assistant Professor of Digital Media Philip Hopper will be embarking on his second Fulbright experience this spring after receiving the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to expand on an oral history project located in Israel. During his time there, he will collaborate with Professor Boaz LevTov of Beit Berl College by adding
family snapshots and stories to LevTov’s existing Time Tunnels project. Hopper is one of over 800 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research and/or provide expertise abroad for the 2019-2020 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. After receiving an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute in filmmaking, Hopper spent time working as a filmmaker screenwriter, producer, editor
and director for various films. Eventually, he began adjunct teaching in New York, which set in motion his passion for education. His first Fulbright scholarship overseas took place from August 2012 to June 2013, when he traveled to Al-Quds University in West Bank, Jerusalem on a “mixed teaching and research award,” according to Hopper’s website. After the year was complete, Hopper remained at Al-Quds University as a visiting professor until August 2014. In fall 2013, he began a small archive of family photographs with his students at Al-Quds, when he noticed something interesting. After publishing the site with his class, Hopper saw a spike in the page’s views. In about two weeks, the project had over 4,000 visits. “A lot of Palestinians have left their home country because of the occupation of the West Bank. There’s a diaspora. In other words, they are spread out all over the world,” said Hopper. “What happened was, students were telling their other family from South America and America and Europe. They were visiting the site to see the stories.” Upon returning to the United States in August of 2014, Hopper began
teaching at UNI. Over the past few years, Hopper has worked on a number of projects involving historical photography and digital archiving. He is actively involved in curating photographs for Fortepan Iowa, a project which collects pictures of moments in Iowa lives from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As he prepares to embark on his second Fulbright experience after five years at UNI, Hopper drew parallels between his 2013 Family Photographs archive and his upcoming collaboration on the Time Tunnel project with Professor LevTov. The project captures the oral histories of Jewish and Palestinian residents of Israel. Upon his learning of the endeavor, Hopper was excited for the potential of the project. “I thought to myself, ‘what a great starting point for a family snapshot archive,’” he said. In the spring, Hopper will be heading to Israel to do just that. “The main thing I’m going to do while I’m there is try to collect as many family snapshots and their related stories as possible,” Hopper said. His time in Israel will be spent conducting interviews, digitizing audio of people’s stories and work-
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PHILIP HOPPER/Courtesy Photo
Professor Philip Hopper has been awarded a 2020 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to Israel, where he will help to expand a family photo archive.
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ing to expand LevTov’s Time Tunnel project. According to Hopper, Beit Berl College is situated in a unique area because of the large number of Palestinians who were able to stay there after 1948, when many others were forced out. “It’s an area called the Triangle, and it includes towns that are majority population Palestinian or Israeli Palestinian,” Hopper said. The archive is meant to serve as a way to preserve the history and stories of people living in the area, as well as a tool for those wanting to use the material for research purposes. Hopper seeks to uncover the untold histories of common people. “The things that everyday photos reveal are very interesting,” Hopper said. “I think that in the past, at least, history has been written about important things and important people and important events. The reality is, that in itself is a very narrow reading of history. A broader reading of history would be the everyday - what people do on an everyday basis.” Hopper’s work, including the Family Photographs archive project he created with his 2013 students, can be found at philiprahnhopper.net.
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OPINION
GABRIELLE LEITNER Executive Editor
OCTOBER 10, 2019 |
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PAGE 3
New political ideology is needed MOHAMMED RAWWAS
Opinion Columnist
The standard liberal dogma suggests that the barrier to combating climate change is the fact that conservatives in the U.S., and especially Republican politicians, do not acknowledge the scientific fact that climate change is occurring and is caused by human activity. We are constantly being told that we just need to listen to the scientists and that conservatives’ denial of the truth is what is stopping us from acting on climate change. Seems fair enough: acknowledging anthropogenic climate change is certainly a necessary precondition to combating it; however, it is most certainly not sufficient. Let us imagine that conservatives in the U.S. were to acknowledge the reality of the situation facing us: who is to say that they would reach the same policy conclusions (e.g. the Green New Deal)? Just witness the short-circuit that occurs when the racist, proto-fascist, standard conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro acknowledges the fact that climate change might be happening, and might be caused by humans, in a 2017 incoherent rambling billed as a “lecture.” He states that even if this is the case, no action need be
NORTHERNIOWAN.COM
taken because people living in low-lying areas that will be affected by rising sea levels could just move and sell their underwater homes! What we see here is ideology at work: because Shapiro is not a liberal, he surely must be opposed to anything and everything that liberals support, so he has to draw some sort of distinction to differentiate himself from that which he is not. Even though his statement has no logical coherency, he must hold it, because otherwise the cognitive dissonance would be too much “if ‘the left’ is right about this, then what else could they be right about?” But this is only the most innocuous example. Take next the mass shootings at Christchurch and El Paso. Both shooters were self-declared “eco-fascists” that were worried about “overpopulation” and both shooters were partially motivated by overpopulation concerns to carry out the shooting (obviously, this is secondary to their racism). They have done what the liberals have been clamoring for: they have acknowledged that humans are causing climate change, and they are even willing to act to combat it! Yet this is clearly not the result that liberals want. But here is the fatal flaw in the liberal line of “accept the facts:” there are no facts that
exist outside of ideology. Even if conservatives were to whole-heartedly “accept the science,” that would not make them allies in the fight against climate change. Instead, we would birth a resurgence in neo-Malthusian ideology and eco-fascism. Think of all the horrific policies that could be enacted under the name of “combating climate change”: eugenics, forced sterilization, cullings, reconcentration of power and increased authoritarianism, not to mention an increase in mass shootings as the situation worsens. The threat of climate change is not limited to the threat of climate change itself: as the situation worsens, people will become more and more desperate, and their reactions will depend on the ideology being posited. Another exemplary case of there being no “objective” “neutral” fact that exists outside of ideology: the Washington Post runs a “fact-checking” apparatus that claims to be just that: objective, neutral fact-checking. Yet, they gave Bernie Sanders “three pinocchios” for stating that six people own as much wealth as the bottom 50% of the population, because, although they acknowledged that the numbers were correct, they were “not especially meaningful.” They also gave Sanders three pinocchios for
fundamentalism of the evangelical Right? Social and political harmony could be achieved if only people gave up on their dogmatic and irrational beliefs in a transcendent deity and, instead, believed in the cold rationality of late capitalism. Such easy solutions, however, are always suspicious. There are certain quotes by Jesus from the New Testament that should make not only left liberal atheists uneasy but also the hardline evangelicals who
proselytize the good Word in the name of discrimination and xenophobia. For example: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughterin-law against her mother-inlaw…” (Matthew 10:34-9). This is just one of many passages in which the traditional picture of Jesus as the olive-branch-wielding pacifier is flipped on its head. What we are presented with here is the image of a Jesus who is violent, not peaceful: a Jesus who seeks to incite disorder and upheaval, rather than creating the harmonious society left liberals and conservatives both like to envision. One should be very attentive to the targets of such violence, though. In these passages, Jesus is not saying we should actually hate or kill our parents or family. His message is much more politically explosive: we should hate the inherently exploitative and unequal power relations that dominate our social and political existences, and our violence should be directed at destroying those
VOLUME 116, ISSUE 12
PEXELS
Opinion Columnist Mohammed Rawwas argues that new political ideology is needed to enact change.
his statement that 500,000 people file for medical bankruptcy annually, despite the fact that the expert they consulted for the piece said that the statement was accurate, or even an under-estimate. These “fact-checks,” ironically, disprove the very premise upon which they are based. By claiming that Sanders is lying despite acknowledging that he is “objectively” correct in his assertion, simply because his statements fall into a different ideological framework than that of the author, the factcheck itself disproves the very possibility of a fact check as such. There are no facts that exist outside of ideology. So, where does that leave us? Well, we must recognize that the right will never be
convinced to act in moral ways. We cannot talk our way out of climate change. Even if they were to acknowledge reality, their policy prescriptions would themselves be another disaster on our hands. Which leaves us with only one choice: take power. Rather than rallying around “science” or “truth,” we need a clear political and moral agenda: leftism. And we should reject the underlying bipartisan logic structuring the idea that we just need to convince conservatives of anthropogenic climate change, at which point we can then work with them to combat it. The reality is that conservatives will never be helpful: they simply need to be defeated electorally so that we can enact out vision of the
relations. If Jesus is a political figure, then, and if we are going to be good Christians, we must take this message seriously. The patriarchal relations that Jesus was railing against are the same relations of domination that sustain contemporary capitalism. We still suffer from the same oppressive family relationship and, at a more political level, we have simply exchanged the imperial Roman empire and its authoritarian character for our own American empire. It is perversely ironic that the same place Jesus was heroically proselytizing against the Roman empire is today the site of the Palestinian fight against Israeli domination. This is precisely what Alain Badiou meant when he said that, observing the (lack of) historical progress of western civilization, “We are still Neolithic.” So, what are we to do with this message of violence? Our first target should be the left liberal atheists who demand we renounce any politics based in theology. As soon as we renounce any transcendent belief in a greater Good and
demand that people shed their ideological attachments, we surrender ourselves to the logic of market-based identity politics. I am certain that Jesus, the man who believed in the illegitimacy of private property, would scoff at the idea of inequality being sustained no matter who occupies the seat of power. If it is the egalitarian image of Jesus that motivates people to fight for the Good instead of the spitting image of Karl Marx or Michelle Foucault, so be it! Our second target is, of course, the Right who distorts and manipulates the Gospel for their own filthy purposes. The worn out saying ‘what would Jesus do?’ should be applied most forcefully to those people who claim to defend the legacy of Christianity most vehemently. Jesus was no friend of Roman nationalism, and he would see Western exceptionalism no more favorably. As Paul said, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Is this not the communist Idea par excellence?
Observing Jesus as a political figure CALEB STEKL
Opinion Columnist
Christianity gets a bad rep these days, especially among left liberals who think that any religiosity whatsoever is inherently oppressive, anti-feminist and most definitely patriarchal. Having a god is the ultimate recipe for disaster, both politically and socially. Does not the history of Christianity confirm this, from genocidal and racist crusades to the contemporary
PEXELS
Opinion Columnist Caleb Stekl poses the question of why people should view Jesus as a political figure.
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CAMPUS LIFE OCTOBER 10, 2019 |
FILM REVIEW
NORTHERNIOWAN.COM
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SOFIA LEGASPI
Campus Life Editor
VOLUME 116, ISSUE 12
‘Joker’ clowns around with message HUNTER FRIESEN Film Critic
After the catastrophic failure of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) that had yet to produce a quality film, Warner Bros switched its game plan in favor of establishing single characters rather than a whole cinematic universe. The first of this new character-driven model is “Joker,” Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of how one man can go so far down the rabbit hole. The story follows Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man placed on this earth “to spread joy and laughter.” The downtrodden citizens of Gotham have got it bad right now, but Arthur seems to have it the worst. He’s a social outcast with mental health issues that cause uncontrollable fits of laughter, and he lives with his mother in a disgusting apartment. With the world getting crazier by the day, Arthur’s attempts to keep sane become more and more futile, leading him to the point of no return. Directing: 3/5 Directed by Todd Phillips, “Joker” supplants itself into its grungy setting of 1980s Gotham (very much modeled after New York City), complete with overflowing garbage and “super rats.” The swooping cinematography by Lawrence Sher highlights the grimy claustrophobia, and the unrelenting score by Hildur Guðnadóttir never allows for a moment of levity. You’re fully immersed within the cesspool that the city has become. Besides brilliantly setting the scene, the technicals also lend their hand to the creation of suspenseful and terrifying sequences of shocking violence. These acts are incredibly tough to watch — even more so when you
Tribune News Service
An infamous movie villain is given an terrifyingly realistic origin story in Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” released on Oct. 4. Starring Joaquin Phoenix with supporting actors Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz and Frances Conroy, the film received a 69 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
factor in Phoenix’s no-holdsbarred performance. Phillips very blatantly takes some influence (that’s the polite way of saying it) from Martin Scorsese’s great works of “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy.” The structure of the story and a few key scenes look and feel ripped right out of those classics. While Scorsese is the master to take after, the whole thing here feels like a self-indulgent exercise by Phillips to make himself out to be a real auteur and not just the guy who made “The Hangover” trilogy. There’s an aura of artiness that is coated on to imitate the feeling of thematic depth while offering little substance under the surface. Writing: 2/5 Despite being about the most famous comic book villain of all time, “Joker”
doesn’t follow the usual narrative track. There are some winks and nods that keep it connected to the Batman universe, but the story is solely focused on our central character and his mad descent. Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver stray away from the previous model that never allowed for comic book movies to address societal issues. They plunge headfirst into dissecting the issues of mental health and class warfare. The pair deserve some praise for their efforts, but these attempts at making statements are handled with too little originality and nuance. Throughout the film, the only message that sticks out is that society and people are terrible, capable of bringing us down despite our best efforts. It’s a grand statement, but one that’s so over-simplistic and devoid of depth that it
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ends up meaning nothing. It’s merely a statement of fact that everyone has figured out throughout their life and seen in better movies before. Acting: 4/5 Taking over the role following the character’s worst rendition by Jared Leto in “Suicide Squad,” Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant and downright terrifying as the clown prince of crime. From his maniacal laugh, contorted body movements and rubbery facial expressions, Phoenix commands each scene and elevates some of the film’s follies. It reminds one of his equally brilliant performance as Freddy Quell in “The Master,” only this time, the crazy dial has been turned up to the max. You can never look away from him as he fills the entire frame. And you also never want to look
away as he keeps you on the edge of your seat. In the reverse role from what he played in “The King of Comedy,” Robert De Niro does solid work as the comic insulting late-night show host. It’s a role tailor-made for De Niro as he can poke fun and unintentionally spur Gotham’s societal struggles. Overall: 3/5 Loud and abrasive, “Joker” is a film that makes a lot of noise, but doesn’t say much of anything. But even with its mixed message falling flat, “Joker” still deserves praise for its boldness to go where others daren’t. Plus, it’s leagues better than anything the DCEU has and will ever offer, so there is some hope that DC characters will soon get their proper time in the spotlight.
PAGE 5 SOFIA LEGASPI
Campus Life Editor
CAMPUS LIFE OCTOBER 10, 2019 |
NORTHERNIOWAN.COM
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VOLUME 116, ISSUE 12
‘Pronoun’ explores identity, relationships COLBY WEBER Staff Writer
Preparing a play in one month would be a difficult task for most directors. In addition to this challenge, UNI student Ernest Toutant III decided that his first play in the director’s role would be one tackling the issues of transgenderism and social justice. These ideas and topics were balanced by Toutant and his colleagues as they rehearsed for the play “Pronoun” by Evan Placey. “The play is centered around a transgender man named Dean,” said Toutant, a fifth-year physics education major. “Overall, the play is almost like a dramedy. There are some funny parts, and it’s a rom-com. But it’s like a romcom with a twist, because it really delves into the trans experience.” “Pronoun” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11 and Saturday, Oct. 12 in the Interpreter’s Theatre within Lang Hall. Admission to the show is free and open to the public. “Pronoun” dives into what it means to be a man and the trans experience. According to Toutant, it addresses the underlying dysphoria that people have when they are transgender. While there are depictions of hardships and hopelessness in the play, Toutant said its meaning is open to interpretation. This is due to
SPIRALS
continued from page 1
“Because my personality — I get kind of fixated on things, and I tend to just think about the same things over and over and over again,” she said. “So that’s kind of where that theme comes from. And I think it weaves its way throughout all the songs in a lot of different ways.” Some of Bearinger’s favorite tracks include “Live with Love,” “Forgive Yourself ” and “Mrs. T,” written to celebrate the life of her aging grandmother. Although Alzheimer’s has deteriorated her grandmother’s ability to retain memories, Bearinger said that music has endured. “What was really beautiful is that when we get to see her — my family’s all musical — we sing songs with her,” she said. “She still remembers a bunch of songs that she’s learned throughout her life.” One lyric in “Mrs. T” says, “And when it’s springtime in the Rockies, you can bet that she’ll be there,” a reference to one of her grandmother’s favorite songs from
the evolution of transgender issues since the play’s creation in 2014 and the nature of the staging itself: open-ended scenes are present during many of the main character’s internal monologues. “One of the biggest challenges was that the script overall was a very tough script,” Toutant said. “There are a lot of lines that interrupt one another, especially interrupting yourself midway through the lines. It can get a little tricky technical-wise, especially when you’re acting.” In addition to the challenge of acting, the mental health of the actors within the show was another aspect that had to be considered. Although they had encountered occasional scheduling issues, Toutant believed that the play preparations have gone smoothly, although he wished they could have had a couple more weeks to prepare. Even with the limited time available to prepare the production, there were still many parts of it that Toutant enjoyed. Working on the show was draining and emotional for everyone involved, but he still believes that the messages contained within it are powerful. “My favorite part is a speech that the main character does at his school,” Toutant said. “The speech is very powerful in the sense that he rebels against his school and says what he
literally wants to say instead of hiding behind the mask of what people try to say to show tolerance. It’s about how tolerance isn’t enough; I want to be loved or hated. I think it’s one of the more powerful parts of the show. It’s personally my favorite monologue of the show. I did a lot of chorus work in high school, and all of
the 1920s. “So I kind of wanted to celebrate just all the good things about her and have a positive memory of her that isn’t quite so much just how she is at this point in her life,” Bearinger said. The last song on the album, titled “Brazil,” is another one of Bearinger’s favorites, referring to a trip she took with the Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra in 2018. “All of the lyrics were taken from the travel journal while we were there, and part of the melody was taken from what I heard a street musician playing while we were walking around in downtown Panamá City,” she said. Although she grew up in a musical family, Bearinger did not immediately know she wanted to pursue music. At first, she wanted to be a writer, then a doctor; then she decided to go to school for music teaching. It wasn’t until college that she began writing songs of her own. “It was just such a cathartic and gratifying process, and also very scary to be vulnerable like that,” she said. “But the reception to the
first few songs that I wrote was just so positive, and I was like, ‘Wow, I love doing this, and I don’t think I want to stop any time soon.” On top of working on her music, since graduating, Bearinger has been working as an associate digital producer for “Performance Today” at Minnesota Public Radio, where she manages their social media presence. She also teaches private piano, guitar and trumpet lessons and does substitute teaching on occasion. “I’m constantly busy; there’s never enough time in the day for everything,” she said. “But I like to be busy.” After a rest from the lengthy and involved process of producing “Spirals,” including a two-week Kickstarter campaign, Bearinger said she will definitely start writing again in the near future. In the meantime, she plans to continue playing more shows and meeting people in the Minneapolis music scene. “Spirals” is available on most online music streaming platforms. Physical copies can be ordered at rachelbearinger.bandcamp.com/ album/spirals.
Courtesy Photo
The UNI Interpreters Theatre will present Evan Placey’s “Pronoun” on Friday, Oct. 11 and Saturday, Oct. 12.
the student council and chorus scenes are great. I’m just a sucker for that interpretive stuff.” Once the audience leaves the theatre, Toutant hopes that they are more aware of the issues that transgender people
are facing. He feels that many people don’t acknowledge their existence. By presenting their struggles in the form of this play, he wants people to think about the issues and themes that are present within the production.
COURTESY PHOTO/Rachel Bearinger
UNI alum Rachel Bearinger released her debut album on Sept. 20. She collaborated with several past and current UNI students on the project.
PAGE 6
SPORTS
COMMENTARY
OCTOBER 10, 2019 |
NORTHERNIOWAN.COM
JACOB POTTER Sports Editor
|
VOLUME 116, ISSUE 12
Panthers represented well in the NFL JACOB POTTER
Sports Editor
UNI has always been represented with excellence in the NFL headlined by the former Cedar Falls Hy-Vee employee-turned-Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner, 1995 Defensive Player of the Year Bryce Paup and 2016 Pro Bowl running back David Johnson. “All I wanted, for a long, time was just give me a chance,” Warner said in a 2016 UNI Athletics press conference. “If you put a football in my hand and let me legitimately compete against everyone else […] It’s fun that UNI is starting to get on the map.” The former Cedar Rapids Regis High School quarterback was in the same position as every athlete that has passed through UNI with big dreams, and in 2016, the NFL Hall of Famer returned to campus to share his story. “Knowing that there’s so many kids that are in a position that I was in 25 years ago […] they’re wondering how you get from there to where I’m at,” Warner said. “It’s an amazing opportunity for me to share my story [...] because I have a weird story. I got a crazy story and I took a lot of turns. I think that’s the beauty in it [...] I think I’ve got a great story that can really touch a lot of people.”
The fact that Warner went undrafted makes his story more relatable to UNI athletes. Warner’s legacy lives on as several Panthers have followed in his footsteps of making it to the NFL. Aside from Johnson, Xavier Williams is playing nearby with his hometown Kansas City Chiefs, Daurice Fountain is with the Indianapolis Colts, L.J. Fort was recently picked up by the Baltimore Ravens and Deiondre’ Hall played for the Philadelphia Eagles last season. Head coach Mark Farley is proud of what former Panthers like Johnson are doing off the field as well as on the gridiron. “What Phoenix found out about David Johnson is that he’s more than a football player,” Farley said. “He is completely involved with the community, he is completely involved with the kids and he’s a great ambassador to your school and your professional team.” Johnson just opened his fourth “David’s Locker,” which are recreation centers for children in hospitals to play video games and use other electronics like iPads, according to arizonasports.com. Johnson, who now has two children of his own, started the Johnson Family’s Mission31 Foundation, which provides opportunities, sup-
port and resources to seriously ill children and their families. The former Panthers’ impact in the community is matched by his productivity on the field. After getting off to a good start with 82 yards in the Cardinal’s season opener, Johnson put together a 91-yard rushing attack in Arizona’s most recent game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Farley does his best to keep track of all the Panthers in the NFL. “I keep track of where they’re at,” Farley said. “The one I kind of kept track of more recently is L.J. Fort because I saw that he got released by Philadelphia [Eagles], and I’m more concerned that they’re on the teams than what they’re doing within stats.” Farley’s hope was relieved when Fort was signed by a team with a familiar color scheme in the Baltimore Ravens. “Only right that I’m back in the Purple & Gold,” Fort said in a recent Twitter post. “Then I just found out that the Eagles are first in their league and that’s D [Deiondre’] Hall,” Farley said. The former Panther defensive back was with the Eagles last season, but is looking for a new team this season. Hall recently worked out for the Colts with the possibility of
COURTESY PHOTO/UNI Athletics
joining fellow Panther Daurice Fountain. The Blue Springs, Mo., native put together a strong senior season at UNI with six interceptions and 82 tackles. “You know David Johnson’s success last year I think allows a guy like Deiondre’ to go into a [training] camp, and then go, ‘Okay, let’s keep our eye on this guy because we know good players have come from this program,’” Warner said. Another player to come out of UNI is Xavier Williams, who was coached up by Panther defensive line coach and former four-time Pro Bowler Bryce Paup. Farley and the coaching staff watch out for what the former Panther is doing for his hometown team. “Then I found out that the Chiefs got beat the other day [by the Colts], which is Xavier [Williams],” Farley said. “So, I try to keep track
of them, but I just kind of get it sporadically early in the morning.” The 6-foot-2, 309-pound defensive tackle racked up 93 tackles and eight sacks in his senior season at UNI, but went undrafted, much like Kurt Warner, in the 2015 NFL Draft that saw David Johnson get selected by the Arizona Cardinals. Soon after the draft, Williams joined the fellow Panther Johnson when the Cardinals signed him as an undrafted free agent. In 2018, the Kansas City native realized the opportunity to play for his hometown team, and currently contributes to the Chiefs in their effort to make it back to the AFC Championship. Panther football players have done it all, from Super Bowls and Pro Bowls to currently representing UNI in the NFL and doing impactful work in the community that will last a lifetime.
FOOTBALL
Defensive end earns second MVC Player of the Week JACOB POTTER
Sports Editor
Junior defensive end Elerson Smith is becoming a force to be reckoned with after tying his 2018 sack total of 7.5 sacks through the first five games this season. The Minneapolis native earned his second Missouri Valley Football Conference Player of the Week award after racking up 2.5 sacks and three tackles for loss in a 21-14 win against Youngstown State last week. Smith was first awarded the honor after a threesack performance against Idaho State. The 6-foot-7, 245-pound defensive end now leads the FCS in sacks, but his humble nature and work ethic that got him to this point shined through. “There’s always something that you can work on,” Smith said. “Like today, I was getting very frustrated with myself just trying to figure out my run fits. Just never being satisfied.” Bryce Paup, defensive line coach and 1995 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, also preaches always striving to get better in a
piece of advice given to Smith. “Just recently, when I won the Missouri Valley Player of the Week [award], he was like, ‘Alright, now that things are going your way, remember what got you there,’” Smith GABRIELLE LEITNER/Northern Iowan
said. “‘That’s hard work, that’s focusing on the little things and doing things the right way.’” Smith feels that the biggest difference from last season to now is the increased opportunity that he’s getting along with
building strength in the offseason. “I feel a lot stronger than last season as well,” Smith said. “Thats a huge factor, and I just feel a lot more comfortable with the play calls.” Head coach Mark Farley has been impressed with what he’s seen from Smith this season. “Elerson is a very good football player,” Farley said. “He’s kind of grown into that body. I mean he’s always been a big man, but he’s really expanded his game and the more physical strength he gets the better pass rusher and defensive linemen he is for us. In previous years, he was probably just a pass rusher, but now he’s become a whole defensive end for us.” Farley also speaks to Smith’s work in the weight room and what makes him a unique among the other players. “When you put him in the weight room, you know, he doesn’t look like a guy that’s going to go in there and outlift [Jared] Brinkman, but there are some lifts that he is that strong because he just has the
leverage,” Farley said. “He just knows how to put it all together […] his coordination and timing of leveraging people is really what makes him a different kind of player.” The former Minneapolis South High School all-state player grew up a Vikings fan, and learns from Minnesota’s defensive linemen, as well as those from NFC North rivals. “Some guys I really like to watch are Khalil Mack (Chicago Bears) obviously,” Smith said. “He’s the best defensive end in the nation [...] Danielle Hunter from the Vikings is one guy that I really like to watch because we have similar builds and he does play somewhat similar.” Smith learns from current NFL players and former fourtime Pro Bowl player Bryce Paup to continuously strive to get better. Smith also appreciates being able to play the game that he loves. “To be able to make plays like that with my teammates; I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for it,” Smith said.
SIERRA STEEN Managing Editor
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FUN & GAMES OCTOBER 10, 2019 |
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SUDOKU TWO
COLORING TIME!
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26 Robby the Robot, e.g. 32 Miss. neighbor 33 High school stat 34 Loewe’s lyricist 37 Dog pack leader 40 One or more 42 Spanish “I love you” 43 Get by 45 Article in Die Zeit 47 Up to, briefly 48 Backyard cooker 52 N, E, S or W 54 Golf teacher 55 Portuguese saint 56 UPS driver’s assignment 58 Not one to pass up a porterhouse 64 King of Siam’s Broadway dance partner 65 Tentative “It’s a date” ... or a hint to the starts of 17 Ocular arch-shaping 17-, 26-, and 48-Across Across 66 The Stones’ Jagger 1 How headless chickens cosmetic 19 Like Felix Unger, e.g. 67 One-eighty may run 68 Distort, as rules 20 Forbidden regions 5 Argo and Titanic 69 Throbbing pain 10 Email asking for 21 Mom’s brother 70 Pro bono promise 22 __ Lanka money, perhaps 71 Boats like Noah’s 23 1/60 of an hr. 14 Pedi partner 15 “A Confederacy of 25 “The cow is of the Dunces” author John bovine __; / One end is Down moo, the other, milk”: 1 Last word before digKennedy __ ging in? Ogden Nash 16 Gyro bread
2 BLT condiment 3 10 C-notes 4 Put the __ on: squelch 5 Attic function 6 Sewing machine inventor Elias 7 Corn Belt state 8 Outmoded TV type 9 __ symbol 10 Wing measurement 11 Where Reds play 12 In the least 13 2018 Best Actor Rami __ 18 Hard to find, to Caesar 21 Like some expectations 24 Feeling poorly 26 Palindromic address 27 “Enchanted” film title girl 28 Naval officer on a cereal box 29 Beer initialism 30 “I’m on it!” 31 “We __ Farmers”: insurance slogan 35 Pianist Gilels 36 Winning streak 38 “Yeah, right!” 39 With jaw dropped 41 Affirmative vote 44 Do something human?
46 Stephen King’s kid lit counterpart 49 Awaken 50 Sometimes it’s unmitigated 51 Self-moving vacuum 52 Certain queen’s bailiwick 53 Greek column type 57 Word before part or heart 59 Sufficient, in texts 60 “Back forty” unit 61 Swerve 62 Kindle technology 63 Gps. of drinks 65 “The lowest form of humor—when you don’t think of it first”: Oscar Levant
Puzzle answers on page 8
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VOLUME 116, ISSUE 12
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October 6 - 12 is National Newspaper Week. This is the 79th year that the annual observance has been held. I would like to take a moment to give a thank you to all of the Northern Iowan staff- to our editors, writers, photographers, desk assistants, managers, and board members, the paper would not be able to function (or exist) without you all. To our readers, I also thank you. By supporting our paper, you have given our staff many opportunities and reasons to thrive, to continue hunting for the news that the public deserves to hear, and to value the importance of journalism. Finally, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all for making my job so amazing to be a part of. -Your friendly local Managing Editor