needs moar usage
Keep the UM fanbase from heading Eastbound and Down
God this weekend has sucked when it comes to trying to carry coherent discussions on the internets. I mean sucked. Sweaters and socks on your birthday when all you asked for was the Tyrannosaurus Dino Rider sucked.
During one of my daily harassments to Brian I brought up the uphill battle "real" bloggers may face with informing the masses against the "lolz" bloggers. By this I mean that, for every blogger, professional or not, that takes their authenticity and reliability seriously, I feel like there's five who seek to put out the most half-assed material possible for the sole interest of proving how bad rival teams are. The recent profile of Tennessee blogs that still cannot get over the Heisman issue and come up with every conspiracy available is but the tip of the iceberg.
It's relevance has come out too clearly as of late. While message boards exploded with the latest "RR steals children from their parents, Barwis puts them in a hole and demands they put the lotion on their skin" accusations, all of that crap from the past comes up. RR shredded the only documents available. The Barwis Files MUST have included similar proof. Argh.
The only solution is to remain coherent and possibly stay out of opinion battles and between the lines of "linkable information only." I'm already kind of embarrassed at some of the stuff going up by UM fans/alum and had to even hold back from doing similar. It's incredibly frustrating and while Brian has done an incredible job of vindicating any faith some of us may have in the likelihood of this being shoddy journalism, it also makes it so much more appealing to go out there and knock some sense into people. Fight the urge to return fire with fire, though. Please.
In my opinion, writing the Press will do nothing. The odds the paper will look at it seriously and not file it under "fanatic knee-jerk hate" is minimal. Threatening to cancel your subscription? Either do it or shut up. It looks like sour grapes and, frankly, if there is stuff there that the press knows that has yet to be refuted, we should applaud the effort because integrity should be the goal - not that the Press should bury anything negative. The same should go for posting material incendiary to other fan bases or the Freep. Make them look like shit by finding holes in the article, not in how much of a nozzle the writers are.
The title is derived from my main point: within one of the waning episodes of Season One of Eastbound and Down, Kenny Powers falls into an argument that, as it progresses, makes him look worse as he looks for a way to escape it without acknowledging fault. To continue to just vent angrily while this issue goes for or against UM can only lead to both sides coming to this:
"I ACTUALLY FEEL REALLY BAD NOW; IT'S JUST THAT, *I'M KENNY POWERS!* AND I HAVE A REAL HARD TIME EXPRESSING MY EMOTIONS BUT I'M NOT GOING TO STOP YELLING BECAUSE THAT WOULD MEAN I LOST THE FIGHT!!"
I'll get off the soap box now but it would be nice to see the fanbase rally to simply use the internet, logic and research to shoot these accusations to shit instead of being the fanbase who yelled the loudest.
During one of my daily harassments to Brian I brought up the uphill battle "real" bloggers may face with informing the masses against the "lolz" bloggers. By this I mean that, for every blogger, professional or not, that takes their authenticity and reliability seriously, I feel like there's five who seek to put out the most half-assed material possible for the sole interest of proving how bad rival teams are. The recent profile of Tennessee blogs that still cannot get over the Heisman issue and come up with every conspiracy available is but the tip of the iceberg.
It's relevance has come out too clearly as of late. While message boards exploded with the latest "RR steals children from their parents, Barwis puts them in a hole and demands they put the lotion on their skin" accusations, all of that crap from the past comes up. RR shredded the only documents available. The Barwis Files MUST have included similar proof. Argh.
The only solution is to remain coherent and possibly stay out of opinion battles and between the lines of "linkable information only." I'm already kind of embarrassed at some of the stuff going up by UM fans/alum and had to even hold back from doing similar. It's incredibly frustrating and while Brian has done an incredible job of vindicating any faith some of us may have in the likelihood of this being shoddy journalism, it also makes it so much more appealing to go out there and knock some sense into people. Fight the urge to return fire with fire, though. Please.
In my opinion, writing the Press will do nothing. The odds the paper will look at it seriously and not file it under "fanatic knee-jerk hate" is minimal. Threatening to cancel your subscription? Either do it or shut up. It looks like sour grapes and, frankly, if there is stuff there that the press knows that has yet to be refuted, we should applaud the effort because integrity should be the goal - not that the Press should bury anything negative. The same should go for posting material incendiary to other fan bases or the Freep. Make them look like shit by finding holes in the article, not in how much of a nozzle the writers are.
The title is derived from my main point: within one of the waning episodes of Season One of Eastbound and Down, Kenny Powers falls into an argument that, as it progresses, makes him look worse as he looks for a way to escape it without acknowledging fault. To continue to just vent angrily while this issue goes for or against UM can only lead to both sides coming to this:
"I ACTUALLY FEEL REALLY BAD NOW; IT'S JUST THAT, *I'M KENNY POWERS!* AND I HAVE A REAL HARD TIME EXPRESSING MY EMOTIONS BUT I'M NOT GOING TO STOP YELLING BECAUSE THAT WOULD MEAN I LOST THE FIGHT!!"
I'll get off the soap box now but it would be nice to see the fanbase rally to simply use the internet, logic and research to shoot these accusations to shit instead of being the fanbase who yelled the loudest.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:37 PM | 
I mostly agree with you on
I mostly agree with you on
August 31st, 2009 at 6:01 PM |
Why would you NOT be Eastbound and Down?
Why would you NOT be Eastbound and Down?
You sir are disrespecting the memory of the great Jerry Reed!
If lovin' Smokey and the Bandit is bad, then color me evil with the blackest of harts.
Seriously though, good post.
"So I come out of Ohio Stadium after we beat the Buckeyes, and right there on the hood of my friend's car, some one took a dump, in the shape of an 'O'. no shit. Oh, sorry, bad pun."
August 31st, 2009 at 6:09 PM |
You're right
You're right
At this point, not a whole can be done except to debunk the article and wait for the inevitable investigation. The author(s) are doing a pretty good job of showing just how much effort and research they put into the expose; they're refusing to answer direct questions and/or using the 'silent' treatment (Snyder v Brian). It's only a matter of time before someone in the MSM shoots some holes into the Freep's boat. And, given the amount of data out there that shows other D-1 programs doing the EXACT same thing, I expect this whole thing to fall apart.
What's really sad is the fact that you're guilty and must prove yourself innocent just because the MSM says so. Everyone knows what types of methods the MSM uses to conjure up subscriptions and sell papers. Yet, everyone always falls for it. Until someone is actually held accountable for being wrong, this crap will continue to happen.
What would be great is for the NCAA to investigate, find nothing out-of-line and then proclaim that the authors are liars, miscreants and scumbags. That'd put an end to this $hit once and for all. But, we all know that won't happen.
Nobody home...
I mostly agree with you on this one. As infuriating as all of this may be, we have to come to the realization that it is completely out of our hands. In reality, it is out of everyone's hands. What's done is done. I believe that all of these allegations are truly BS and that nothing major will come out of it. But that will not stop this from being an issue that is brought up both by the media and opposing fans for the foreseeable future. Just like we have had to deal with the fallout of losing to App State over that past couple of years, we will too have to deal with all of this.
One of the most unfortunate things I have seen over the past couple of days is Michigan "fans" on ESPN and other mass media sites who have begun to turn on RR and the program as a whole. That hurts me the most out of all of this, and those are the individuals (more than anyone else) that I wish I could unleash my fury on. As a fan base we need to rally together at a time like this, not the opposite. As Michigan fans we hold ourselves to a higher standard and we need to continue that trend now. Nothing we can say or do will change what happens as a result of this over the next couple of years. But I for one know that nothing will change how I feel about the Maize and Blue.
After two days of near depression, I woke up this morning with a renewed excitement for the upcoming season. I am anxious to see the boys out there on the field and to begin putting some of this behind us. No more speculation or retaliation. Lets just play a game. And for those of you out there looking for a release for all the anger over this fiasco, use it to make you root harder than ever for the team we all love so much!
Those Who Stay...