|
|
Speaking |
|
October 11, 2010 Time gives us many thing, but perhaps most importantly, perspective. There was a time, namely the first 21 years of my life, where Saturday would have ruined my weekend. Perhaps it is cynicism, or just the fact that I’ve now covered sports as a job for six years now, but deep depression, sorrow and loss was not what I felt as I saw Michigan State beat my Michigan Wolverines for the third (!) time in my four years here in Ann Arbor. Nobody could have asked for better conditions. It was an unseasonably warm fall Michigan day, the sun was shining brightly and both teams entered the game undefeated. The game of course, did not go as planned. There was no dramatic finish, no great seesaw battle, and roughly 100,000 of the 113,000 that showed up to the newer bigger Big House left disappointed. The loss is just one loss in a long season of 12 regular season games. There’s nothing etched into stone that says Michigan’s season will spiral downwards, and nothing that promises Michigan State a trip to Pasadena for the first time since 1987. Walking back with friends after a post-game tailgate, the mood was, as expected, sour. But what was remarkable was how negative the negativity was. Michigan football faces tremendous expectations every year. Literally anything less than a Big Ten Championship is failure. Players say it, coaches say it, and most importantly, fans say it. As a Michigan fan scarred by Appalachian State’s defeat of a national championship contender (my first game as a student, yay!) and a 3-9 season among other small tragedies, I have begun to ask myself, are our high expectations crushing the teams we love so much? Michigan is still a 5-1 football team, but the reaction in Ann Arbor has been apocalyptic. Parties were cancelled due to the “somber mood,” and what parties did go on Saturday night featured heated arguments over whether or not the season was a failure. A failure? The team is 5-1! I certainly understand that Michigan fans now believe disaster around every corner; that’s to be expected with the struggles the program has had the past four years. But even when times are good, Michigan fans have been negative of late. Beat UCONN handily? Well UCONN probably isn’t as good as everyone thought. Beat Notre Dame? New coach, new system, that’s a gimme win the skeptics said. I don’t really know what to say about what happened Saturday, and I apologize if these thoughts seem incoherent and rambling. But watching starting Michigan right tackle Perry Dorrenstein walk home after the game Saturday, I saw a man crushed. Not physically, but by the lofty and perhaps unrealistic expectations we have heaped upon Michigan teams the past few seasons. I think high expectations are great, and I don’t want my fellow Michigan fans to revise them downwards. But the more Michigan struggles, and the more toxic the mood in Ann Arbor, I begin to wonder, has our unhealthy obsession with Michigan football caused some of this misery? Does anyone really win when win or lose, we are all critical of our team? (c) 2010 Novi
Information Network |
|
|
|
|
