The Story 2011: Mitigating William Caines
Previously: The Story 2010, 2009, 2008. Preview 2010.
It was the best time I'd ever had at a Chili's. Nothing whatsoever distinguished it from an average visit to Chili's. The beer was light American lager. The chicken was a bit dry, the cheese the usual half-step up from stuff you'd get in a great red-labeled cube. The waitress was a cheerful slab of the Midwest, and the bill was perfectly reasonable. I grinned and laughed and fought off bouts of body-encompassing tiredness.
An hour or so before I'd sat in Notre Dame Stadium as everyone else filed out. Once they were gone the next twenty minutes were filled with intermittent bursts of laughter. Those weren't enough, so I punched my friend in the arm. The punching and the laughing were good, as they forestalled a short circuit.
When the band marched out, we thought that was our cue. I grabbed one of the souvenir mugs as we exited. When I got home I crudely carved "28-24" on it with a steak knife. It's in the closet. Our walk back was half-accompanied by the band. We met a goodly chunk of my family walking the other way, exchanged excited greetings, and then went about the business of getting out of town. We got to the Chili's just as the adrenaline wore off and the stomach reasserted itself.
A few minutes before everyone filed out Denard Robinson zinged a skinny post to Roy Roundtree on third down and finished the job himself. In the first half Robinson had snuck through a crease in the line, found Patrick Omameh turning Manti Te'o into a safety-destroying weapon, and ran directly at me until he ran out of yards.
He knelt down to give thanks, and that felt inverted.
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The next morning sun poured through huge windows in Goshen, Indiana, as I collected items for that week's Video of All Varieties. I'll usually watch some but rarely all unless I'm trying to suck the marrow out of a particularly savory victory. Notre Dame 2010 was one of those. I watched Martin and Van Bergen and others talk in the tunnel afterwards. I watched the highlights, watched the presser, got to Denard, and…
So this thing you dared not hope for starts to coalesce just from the things that happen on the field, and then yesterday morning I was struck by a sense of profound gratefulness when I watched the MGoBlue video of Denard's postgame presser:
I love how he smiles all the time and wears his heart on his sleeve and goes "AHHHH" when someone mentions Roundtree blocking for him and seems about as amazed as everyone else as what he's doing. I love how he drops to one knee after he scores in a way that seems genuine in a way I couldn't comprehend until I saw it. I love that if you ask him he'll sign your forehead. I was going to let my skepticism overwhelm, to wait until it was obvious that 2010 was not going to be 2009, but I lasted two games. I'm in the tank again.
Though Denard turned out to be human (somewhat, anyway) I am still in the tank for him. This offseason a small child in New York City wrote Denard about what it means to be a leader and Denard sent a letter back with a picture:
I need this person to be successful. This is such a relief.
It's no secret I've been one discontent blogger ever since the Mississippi State game transpired. In retrospect a lot of my criticisms don't make sense. I thought Michigan should keep Rodriguez after the Ohio State game and fire him after the bowl; I ripped David Brandon for not firing Rodriguez before the bowl if he was going to do the deed. I knew Denard Robinson was the most awesome dude ever and I still assumed he'd transfer. When I interviewed people for the Tim/Tom opening I asked each of them if they disagreed with something I'd written in the past year or so and asked them to argue about it with me; seven of the ten sought tactful ways to remind me that I'd posted "We Are ND*" above the press release announcing Hoke's hire. One just said I'd embarrassed myself with my pettiness. This turned out to be less useful of a question than I'd hoped since by that point I agreed.
That discontent is an overreaction to a real thing. We're going to get the last great Rodriguez blowup in about a month when John U Bacon's Three And Out hits shelves. It's going to put an inbred culture on display. If Michigan doesn't learn from these three years they'll eventually find themselves right back where they were in 2008, obviously behind their greatest rival with nowhere to turn.
Meanwhile, the athletic department has done an about face from the open Rodriguez days back to a culture of paranoia. I kind of liked it when Rodriguez reached out in a futile attempt to win hearts and minds; now it seems we've returned to the days when the fans were tolerated at best.
In place of openness we get marketing. I am increasingly worried that Michigan is drifting towards the bread-and-circus model you see not just in pro sports but at Michigan State, Ohio State, and especially Penn State where the allegiance of the diehards is taken for granted and the fringes are courted with fireworks and rawk music. I fear the day that Brandon unleashes the fandom bread bowl upon us.
I hate that I hate parts of the stadium experience now and fear those moments will expand rapidly. Never has Notre Dame fandom looked so rational. In this environment there's a risk you disconnect from the program in small or large ways. I've talked to a lot of people for whom that's the case. I don't know—maybe it's just getting older.
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Denard overwhelms all reservations. He is pure. He grew up poor in a place infinitely far away from the manicured lawns and Whole Foods of Ann Arbor but came to Michigan because they said he could play quarterback. He says he never thought about leaving when Rodriguez was fired. Michigan is never going to recruit anyone like him ever again.
And there are so many guys like him on the team: Vincent Smith, who is 5'6" and is featured in every insider email I get as the scrappiest grittiest toughest guy the coaches love. He's from Pahokee, which may not exist in five years and will never, ever have another kid commit to Michigan. Roy Roundtree and his Donald Duck impression. Ricky Barnum, whose mom was really sick when he was a freshman and who thought about transferring but stayed. Ryan Van Bergen, who committed to Carr and stayed through Rodriguez and wondered where the alumni had been the last three years. Craig Roh, who runs up and down the stairs in Haven Hall if he gets to class early. David Molk, who drops f-bombs in press conferences that no one minds. Taylor Lewan, who has a mustache tattooed on his finger to impress the ladies. Troy Woolfolk and his werewolf alter-ego. Jordan Kovacs, student-body walk-on. Kevin Koger, twitter handle "KogerNotKroger."
Lewan, Van Bergen
There are no Pryors here. Each of these guys has endured the last three years of crap more gracefully than the university or I have and is still here, trying to set right what started going wrong a long time ago. Whatever reservations I have about the program and its direction are overwhelmed by a fierce desire to see these kids win. Rodriguez may not have been able to keep half the kids he recruited, but the ones who stuck around… man. Denard is their king.
In the course of doing this every year I look at the previous year's preview; last time around I linked to a couple of fantastic pieces. You should read Orson's again just because you should. The piece by Brian Phillips on Pele and David Foster Wallace's Federer essay, though, is relevant to our interests.
In the midst of describing one of these Federer Moments where sport allows us to transcend the limitations of our own bodies, if only vicariously, DFW circles round to the cancer-stricken nine-year-old ceremonial coin-tosser at Wimbledon, William Caines. This is going to be one long blockquote without a paragraph break. I think it's important, though:
I’ve always wondered what Wallace meant by circling back around to talk about William in the middle of what is for the most part a genuinely happy-seeming celebration of Federer. The image of the cancer-stricken child seems to have no part, that is, in the enthusiasm that motivates the essay, and yet the edge of unease it introduces brings a powerful and not unreligious strain of skepticism into the pseudo-theology of Federer. Clearly no athlete and no delight in sport can answer the “big, obvious” question about what could possibly justify a tiny child suffering a devastating physical illness. If Federer is there to reconcile us to the fact of having bodies, Wallace hints, then the reconciliation he offers has limits and outside those limits is a large and unanswerable despair. I called the awareness of this despair “not unreligious” because while it may seem like a mere challenge to belief, a sort of renegade anti-Federer atheism, the feeling that seems to follow it into the essay seems to me to have more in common with the longing for bodily mortification that is often a weird corollary of profound religious experience. That is, if we begin with a sense that something is intolerably wrong, and the power of Federer or Pelé is to make us feel that that thing is actually right (or at least tolerable), then William introduces a larger sphere of consciousness in which we realize that the reconciliation was flawed and the thing is actually wrong and intolerable after all. But that second, larger wrongness, as I read it in Wallace’s essay, and this may be unfair, because again, William is only a tiny grain of doubt within what is generally a really positive piece of writing—that second, larger wrongness doesn’t stem from an apprehension that the reconciliation Federer offers is false, it stems from an apprehension that the reconciliation Federer offers is incomplete, that it doesn’t go far enough, it doesn’t stick. It only lasts a moment, and then you’re left not knowing when God will take you up again, which is an anxiety that actually bubbles up at times in the writings of the saints. And that seems to be a condition in which a heightened consciousness of mortality, one that may well express itself as a yearning toward suffering and breakdown, is hard to escape.
If we are being very generous and very convincing, DFW-level, Brian-Phillips-level convincing, this is Denard Robinson in the Michigan zeitgeist. Something is intolerably wrong and the Denard reconciliation is incomplete and we are going to have to accept that, like the Hart reconciliation was incomplete, and just take the Denard Moments as they are—as parts of an imperfect whole. Our compensation for the things that have happened is just this, the last few words of the thesis statement of the Federer article:
…just look at him down there. Look at that.
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*[Compliance:
]
August 29th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^
Season previews a weird feeling came over me. I hope Saturday when I sit in that stadium there are no points in the game that remind me of when I sat in that stadium and watched Michigan play Utah. There will be. I doubt western will beat Alabama in a bcs bowl though to end the year. It will be fine. It will work again this time. I will sleep and smile for the first fall in five years. I just know it.
August 29th, 2011 at 11:48 AM ^
I have been having my own crisis of fandom lately and asking myself why I even give a fuck. I had a deal for four tickets to the ND game set up for slightly above face value until the guy who was selling them to me was informed by his kid that he could get well over a G for the tickets and he reneged on our verbal the day i showed up with the cash for the tkts. I was devastated. I had sold the fantasy of attending the first night game to three good friends. I had booked rooms in metro Detroit.
I proceeded to locate tickets online and saw that even singles were going for over $250 apiece, which is a prohibitive price for a wage earner supporting a family of four on a single income. I went through a bout of class hatred where I bemoaned the fate of hardcore Michigan fans who have a hard time paying the monthly cable bill being unable to attend the game while a dentist acquaintance of mine frets about being worried to fly down to Tampa in 9/11/11 after watching the M game in a box to go watch the Lions from a box. I listen to another medical professional tell me how he is going to keep his recently deceased brother's seat empty at Michigan stadium to honor him. I listen to all of these fabulously wealthy M alums tell me this, with them thinking that because I have a good job I must be making good money. I take these two and multiply them and I see a Michigan stadium full of people with six figure incomes who can afford to stay at the Campus Inn and can afford to make huge contributions to get decent tickets and don't balk at the price tag. They watch Denard throw a pick and make critques along the lines of "Jesus Christ, I can run a medical practice with offices located in three counties and keep the wheels running smoothly but this kid and his dreadlocks can't throw a pass 20 yards downfield without giving up a turnover. Put Tate in." They want Michigan to win because they want to be associated with a winner. They don't care about the kids. They don't form emotional attachments to players like we do here. Denard is just some fast kid. Their analysis of him must always include a comparison with the career trajectory of Michael Vick. As soon as he commits a mistake they would just as soon turn him out on the street, most likely much the same as they would do in their own business. I can't stand these entitled bastards (who, in turn, would say that any college athlete who tries to score some extra cash is "entitled") and I would hate for Denard or Omameh some day to look at me as one of them, some rich bastard who doesn't care one lick for them beyond wanting to pat them on the back when they have done something good for us. They probably don't know that, yes, the only reason I know who they are or care about them at all is because the play for Michigan. But due to that fact, we are brothers. We have the bond that we both went to Michigan, and I now wish them the best in everything that they do in life. I feel for them when they struggle, and I vicariously share in their joy when they succeed.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:10 PM ^
Yeah, those entitled pricks that worked their ass off to be in the top tiny percentage of their classes all the way through high school and undergrad, put themselves in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, worked 80 hour weeks for more than half a decade, got into a field with a supply shortage, continued to work 60 hours a week with people's literal lives on the line with their decisions. Screw those guys for turning a profit and getting to a comfortable point in life. They're what's wrong with UM!
August 29th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^
Class warfare in Michigan football fandom. So b/c someone is rich they couldn't possibly care about the players. The sweeping generalizations you make about wealthy season ticket holders is alarming. I think you underestimate the amount of wealth on this website. People go to Michigan games b/c they are fans and want their Alma mater to win. The whole 'I'm a better fan than them b/c they have money and only want to be associated with winners' is really dumb.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:30 PM ^
an ass. Rich,poor or regular there are plenty of aholes to go around. The guy should have at least let you know before you showed up cash in hand.
A text saying," Hey angry working stiff, you need to come up with lot more moola or at least your car if want the tix. Later," would have sufficed as well. /s
August 29th, 2011 at 12:33 PM ^
Actual funny story. My uncle had two tickets to an early 90s Michigan - ND game, which had high hype levels (I forgot what year, but both teams were highly ranked). Some dude traded a Fiat-convertible to him for the pair of tickets. Though, the car wasn't in great shape and broke down on the highway like 3 yrs later (my uncle just took off the plates and left it there). So you can actually get a car for gameday tickets.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:42 PM ^
Ohio or still in Michigan??
August 29th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
The stupid thing is that when he offered them to me I should have just bought them. I stalled for a few days rounding up the guys and confirming that I could get 4 (was not a problem!), then I collected cash from two of the guys and bought the other two with my own money. Had I gone to the bank and got the $$ right away I would not have given him a week to think about it. At the time he seemed pretty excited to unload them at a small premium. He did not even seem to be aware that it wa the 1st night game ever. I guess I had informational asymmetry going for me at the time, but it quickly dissipated.
August 29th, 2011 at 6:45 PM ^
Gotta make plays.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:34 PM ^
"I went through am apparently still in the midst of a bout of class hatred."
Seriously, though, I can sympathize quite a bit with your perspective. I don't have any money, come from a family with no money, and find it hard not to resent people who have money acting like it entitles them to be dicks. I'm not from Michigan and have never been able to make it for a home game. There simply hasn't been a time in which I could justify (no matter how much I love the team) the cost of tickets+gas+lodging in order to get to a game, so when I hear fans booing on TV I want to scream at every prick in the crowd that doesn't appreciate the fact that they can be at the game.
But if you look past the emotional level, it's clear that arguing from the fact that people have money to the conclusion that they only see people as objects that exist solely for their pleasure is nonsense.
August 29th, 2011 at 1:18 PM ^
because you waited to buy them (you should have bought them right away, you could have always sold them for a hefty profit later) and got screwed you're questioning your fandom?
What is the real point you are trying to make?
August 29th, 2011 at 1:24 PM ^
Rich guys trying to charge me going rate for the tickets = Bad
Me trying to take advantage of a guy who doesn't know what the tickets are worth = Good
August 29th, 2011 at 1:50 PM ^
I wasn't trying to take advantage of the guy. He casually mentioned over the course of a few beers that he had season tickets that he was willing to sell at face (yes, he is wealthy) and that the only one that wasn't for sale was OSU. I was not really aware that the tickets were so expensive until I tried to locate replacements. Although i was surprised that he was willing to part with the tickets at a nominal increase above face ($100/each) considering the historical import of the game at hand, it's not like I was conning the man. What upsets me is that the University sets a price for tickets that is already quite high (and already represents a barrier to a great many people being able to afford attending games). In the secondary market these prices are pushed up to the point that they are effectively priced out of the range of lower to medium income people (at least for people who have to pay children's medical bills, pre-school tuition, property taxes, buy groceries, etc. with very little left over).
When I was told that I could buy the tickets I was overjoyed. Spending $100 on a ticket is quite a splurge for me. In prior years I had resigned myself to attending MAC games or whatever else I could afford. I was honestly so happy that I was going to be there, and that I was going to be able to bring 3 friends with me. That is gone now, but my asshole dentist's onboxious wife will be in attendance.
August 29th, 2011 at 2:31 PM ^
is way below market price, especially considering the wait list for season tickets is years long. So, I'd say the University and Athletic Department are doing us all a favor by keeping prices low.
Also, don't make this about rich and poor and don't start on who should and should not be attending games, because that debate could go on forever and is incredibly pointless.
There are pleanty of fans in your situation who skimp and save, year after year, to afford season tickets and they are just as obnoxioius as your asshole dentist and his wife. In fact, those obnoxious fans are more obnoxious, because they spend such a high % of their income on season tickets that they absolutely DEMAND excellence and nothing less than a National Championship every year, and anything less is completely unacceptable and the coach should be fired.
If you want to go to games and cancel out the obnoxious fans, start saving like the rest of us and buy season tickets or pay the overpriced aftermarket fees. If you can't afford season tickets, start your yearly ($100/yr) donation to the Victors Club and gain access to early ticket sales.
August 29th, 2011 at 2:56 PM ^
That was a useful post. I was under the impression that the required donation to the Victors club was much higher. Thanks. It is something I plan on doing when my wife goes back to work next year.
August 29th, 2011 at 11:58 AM ^
I largely agree with the sentment about Brandon--he's done a lot more important things right than he's done wrong. He's also been smart enough to float trial balloons on issues before going forward with a position on things--call that a good politician or a good marketer who is listening to his cutomer. I've written him emails on various things and he's always responded back--sometimes in detail, sometimes with a short answer, but always with a thank you. The guy's not blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to what makes Michigan tick and what the fans respond to during game days.
Will he makes mistakes? Sure--I'm not crazy about the heritage uniforms for the Notre Dame game, but when it comes to uniforms in all sports, I'm sort of a traditionalist. I also feel you don't mess witha good thing, be it Yankee pinstripes or the Dallas Cowboy star or the Michigan helmet and home uniforms. But the die is cast and we'll see if they're a hit or a flop--and Brandon will learn from the experience.
Because I live in the DC area, I may attend one Michigan game a year. When it comes to athletic events, my main focus is what's on the field and the core traditions that come with attending a football game at Michigan Stadium. As long as the band takes the field, the team runs under the "Go Blue" banner, we sing "The Victors" when Michigan scores and they keep advertising out of the stadium, the rest of the things we complain about are really just gingerbread. In the end, the most important marketing tool for Michigan is a winning football team--without that, the rest quickly becomes background noise.
If the football and men's basketball teams get back to national prominence, the Brandon's legacy will be more than secure in the eyes of most fans. But what will be equally important involves what he's doing now in terms of the bricks and mortar and facilities that are going to be around for decades. Add in how he manages Michigan's athletic department and budget and you'll have a better measure of what his impact will be on the program.
One last thing--there will be another Denard Robinson wearing a Michigan uniform. If the history of Michigan football is any teacher, the lesson there is that we'll see another exceptional player and personality wearing the maize-and-blue that'll captivate us and college football fandom in general. So don't despair--the best is yet to come.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:01 PM ^
But I think Brian handled 90% of what I wanted to hit. We're all guilty of being hypocritical about our fandom because fandom isn't a rational exercise. This is what makes it great and maddening all in the same broad stroke. The larger issue is that our own irrationality does not mesh well with other fans irrationality, meaning that there is inevitably a friction within any group of fans. The best we can hope for is to remember why we came to this place in the first place.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^
my comment here isn't about the article as i don't really have an opinion on it one way or the other it is what it is. i just can't fathom the two comments by people that said they hate the football program and are just rooting for the players. i just can't understand that mentality. no matter what you think about what happened to coach rodriguez how could you say that you hate the football program but post on here and still act like a fan. i don't know if that comes from a lack of knowledge of the history of mcihigan football and just being young or what. it's unfathomable to me.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^
You're witnessing the evolution of the Rich Rod fanboi.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:18 PM ^
Boys and Girls,
I live in Ohio, a place I was obviously banished due to work requirements after having lived my life in Michigan and specifically being in A2 from 1976-1998 from my undergraduate days through the birth of my two kids. If you live in Ohio, you understand what it means to be in enemy territory and that people will always be giving you crap for where you went to college and for whom you root for on fall Saturdays.
You have to be prepared for smart ass remarks, bald faced abuse, and general non-acceptance of you as a sane human being because you have the sheer audacity to live in Ohio and root for that team up north. It is an experience every Michigan fan and every Michigan man wanna be should have. It will teach you to treasure these boys who play for our school, and it will teach you to honor them as your brothers. See, they chose to come and be Michigan men and represent this great University on the football field. Let's respect them for that choice, and root for them to be successful.
I think it is fine to criticize the coaches or the athletic director, and remember when we used to think Bo had a head of granite when he refused to modernize our team and start throwing the ball back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. I can still see the 1985 loss to Iowa where we tried to pound the ball and play defense instead of turning Harbaugh loose. As I once had the priviledge of telling Les Miles way back then, I knew every play we were going to call on offense before it happened and his response was, "Yes, and they still can't stop us, isn't it great!".
However, as long as a player gives his best and stays out of too much trouble, we owe him that brother loyalty and a few chances to redeem himself even if he does a few stupid things along the way. Let he who is without foolishness in his college days cast the first stone! It sure will not be me!
Win or lose, Big Ten championship or also ran bowl game, this is my school and these are my brothers and I root hard for them and rejoice when they are successful and weep a bit inside when they suffer the slings and arrows of misfortune. That is how Michigan men are supposed to feel about their school.....
August 29th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^
Well said. It is bad enough having to go to Cleveland once or twice a year and deal with relatives who are OSU fans and alums. I could live with the give and take over the years, but the last few years have been brutal. Can't imagine living there right now.
You going to any games this year? Send me an e-mail.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:33 PM ^
I hate that I hate parts of the stadium experience now and fear those moments will expand rapidly. Never has Notre Dame fandom looked so rational. In this environment there's a risk you disconnect from the program in small or large ways. I've talked to a lot of people for whom that's the case. I don't know—maybe it's just getting older.
Yes, you are just getting older. You've just gotten married. What you do every day is increasingly tied to how much money you can make from it rather than how you really would prefer to spend your time. Who knows? Maybe you will even have kids someday and you take them to Michigan Stadium where they will insist on having their pictures taken with the big, fluffy dancing Block M.
Change is inevitable. While you will always be a diehard Michigan fan, it will never be quite the same or, sadly, as all important or all consuming as it was when you were a student. But, that's ok*, and to some degree, it sets us apart (in a good way) from some of the more fanatical fanbases in the South (including OSU). Truth be told, there are many more important things in life than Michigan football or whether they play a little bit of rawk music in the Big House. Treasure the memories, but embrace the change. Michigan football (and all that surrounds it) has evolved significantly over the past 130 years and has done so quite admirably. I trust that the powers that be generally know what they are doing and have the best interests of Michigan football and the University at heart. In the vast majority of instances, they get it right.
* Just don't ever become one of those "down in front" people, ok?
August 29th, 2011 at 12:34 PM ^
[Denard] "Michigan is never going to recruit anyone like him ever again."
Maybe the saddest truth in the whole post. I wonder how many games it will be before "fans" are crying out for Michigan to upgrade to modern football again??? Surely, it won't be until Denard leaves, but count on it....it's coming.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:36 PM ^
Dear Leader offers up his version of: "I'm sorry, I may have been wrong etc.but we shall see with our inbred deliverance" and he still gets shredded. I think my irony meter is off the scale right now.
The only things that matters now are when does Brian's WMU preview post? Wednesday or Thursday? Will the games have LiveBlog? And/or will the UFR's start with the offense or defense next week? Oh and does the Boss still write TWIS? Screw anything else.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:40 PM ^
Like hearing a really good song, this post puts a bounce in my step and stirs my fan-soul.
August 29th, 2011 at 12:50 PM ^
If I'm getting teary-eyed reading an existenstialist article about Denard Robinson role in my life and MIchigan's zeitgeist.
August 29th, 2011 at 3:54 PM ^
I tried to follow the DFW parts but I'm afraid all I got from it was a headache.
"Whatever reservations I have about the program and its direction are overwhelmed by a fierce desire to see these kids win." Describes me perfectly since Bo retired.
I think a few of you need to lighten up on the posters who are rooting for the players. They don't "hate" the program and you're completely missing the point.
August 29th, 2011 at 4:30 PM ^
Make me choose between the Dominos bread bowl and the "throwback" jerseys and I'll take the three-cheese.
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