Dear football gods. My name is Sean Ostruszka and I am a lowly sports reporter at Northern Illinois University.

I was just wondering if you could help us out next Tuesday, when Toledo comes to Huskie Stadium.

You see, the last time NIU beat Toledo, I was only 4 years old, the Berlin Wall was about to be reduced to mere rubble and the first Bush was in office.

So I was hoping, if it’s not too much to ask, that maybe you could help the Huskies beat the team that has made them look like a high school B team for more than a decade.

This is it. This is the year when anything is possible. The Red Sox won the World Series, America didn’t win the gold in basketball and you sport gods gave Tiger Woods the golf game of George Bush.

Fifteen years ago, you walked NIU’s sidelines here in DeKalb and behold, the Huskies won 39-27 on their way to a 9-2 season.

Wait. 9-2. If the Huskies win out this season, they again would be 9-2. Coincidence?

Another coincidence may be that two days after NIU beat Toledo back in ‘89, the Berlin Wall was torn down. Fifteen years to the day of the crumbling of the wall, NIU plays Toledo.

It’s a sign. Isn’t it? I mean, it may be a stretch connecting communism and NIU football, but it’s worth a shot if it will make you help us.

Football gods, if there was ever a time to bestow your powers on the team from DeKalb, next Tuesday would be it.

Haven’t you tormented them enough? Last season against Toledo, you humiliated them on ESPN2 as they were down by as much as 21 – by halftime.

Halftime. The least you could have done was make it a close game – but no.

But hey. No big deal. It’s in the past. Everything can be forgiven with a win on Tuesday. Ten straight losses to that purple team from Ohio, the loss on ESPN2 last season – it will all be forgotten as long as Toledo goes home 5-1 in conference play.

So please just this once, bounce the ball towards the red and black next week. I know you are busy trying to figure out the BCS formula. And after Tuesday, you can go back to helping Oklahoma and USC. But on Tuesday, at 7:05 p.m., try and make it out to the NIU game. And maybe wear a little red while you’re at it.

Or if nothing else, can you at least give the Toledo bus driver the wrong directions?