Eat It, Mary!
Jesus saves, but not today.
Let me go a little off topic today.
I've been aware of Michigan football from early in my childhood, but I became completely cognizant of Michigan football during the 1986 season. I have recollections of watching certain games, from seasons prior to that, but it was the 1986 season in which my understanding of the game of football, my idolization of the players on that team, the anticipation for upcoming games, an understanding of what it meant to have high expectations, the frustration of national championship aspirations derailed by an inexplicable loss to an inferior opponent (Minnesota), a classic UM/OSU match-up, and a crushing Rose Bowl loss, all synthesized into what became a lifelong dedication to Michigan football. Since that season, I have followed the outcome of every game in which Michigan played, watched almost every game that was televised, through my adolescent years, kept a scrapbook of Michigan newspaper clippings, and between the years of 1996 – 2003 attended every home game (save for Baylor in ’97), several road games, and three bowl games, the pinnacle of course being the 1998 Rose Bowl in which Michigan won the national championship.
The constant through all of those games has been a legacy of Michigan winning. Close games, lop-sided games, important games, rivalry games, ugly games, exciting games, but always winning more than they lose. So much winning in fact, that in the years in which there are just 7, 8, or 9 wins, it doesn’t seem like enough. To the Michigan fandom, so spoiled by all that success, those types of seasons are looked upon as disappointments. Peoples, whose jobs simply consist of talking or writing about winning (but who have no actual bearing on the winning of the games), point fingers, lay blame and pontificate on what should be done to rectify those 8 or 9-win years as so they become seasons with 10, 11, or 12 wins. Then they say that other programs—the Ohio States, USCs, and Notre Dames—have passed Michigan by, in terms of success and stature; such is the way of the world of big-time college football.
Well, Michigan, its players and coaches, made an announcement yesterday about how they were going to define their own success this season, in the form of a resounding victory over their much-hated rival Notre Dame. As a lifelong Michigan fan, I can say that yesterday’s win was one of the most enjoyable victories I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. And for right now that's enough.
Indisputable Video Evidence.
I've been aware of Michigan football from early in my childhood, but I became completely cognizant of Michigan football during the 1986 season. I have recollections of watching certain games, from seasons prior to that, but it was the 1986 season in which my understanding of the game of football, my idolization of the players on that team, the anticipation for upcoming games, an understanding of what it meant to have high expectations, the frustration of national championship aspirations derailed by an inexplicable loss to an inferior opponent (Minnesota), a classic UM/OSU match-up, and a crushing Rose Bowl loss, all synthesized into what became a lifelong dedication to Michigan football. Since that season, I have followed the outcome of every game in which Michigan played, watched almost every game that was televised, through my adolescent years, kept a scrapbook of Michigan newspaper clippings, and between the years of 1996 – 2003 attended every home game (save for Baylor in ’97), several road games, and three bowl games, the pinnacle of course being the 1998 Rose Bowl in which Michigan won the national championship.
The constant through all of those games has been a legacy of Michigan winning. Close games, lop-sided games, important games, rivalry games, ugly games, exciting games, but always winning more than they lose. So much winning in fact, that in the years in which there are just 7, 8, or 9 wins, it doesn’t seem like enough. To the Michigan fandom, so spoiled by all that success, those types of seasons are looked upon as disappointments. Peoples, whose jobs simply consist of talking or writing about winning (but who have no actual bearing on the winning of the games), point fingers, lay blame and pontificate on what should be done to rectify those 8 or 9-win years as so they become seasons with 10, 11, or 12 wins. Then they say that other programs—the Ohio States, USCs, and Notre Dames—have passed Michigan by, in terms of success and stature; such is the way of the world of big-time college football.
Well, Michigan, its players and coaches, made an announcement yesterday about how they were going to define their own success this season, in the form of a resounding victory over their much-hated rival Notre Dame. As a lifelong Michigan fan, I can say that yesterday’s win was one of the most enjoyable victories I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. And for right now that's enough.
Indisputable Video Evidence.
Further reading.
