Brady Hoke unifies Michigan family
I'd say only a month too late. They had to wait for all the haters to go into hiding post-Sugar Bowl. If Hoke had a losing season, haters would be out in full force. Winning unifies. There was a great article before the season that had said Hoke was a nice guy that knew how to deal with people, but if he lost, he'd be a nice guy without a job.
I am all in favor of carefully identifying "the haters."
In Angelique's story, she quotes Andy Mignery as saying that the Rodriguez-era detractors were exaggerated in number. Mignery may be right. But if, as he suggests, the detractors pose a real problem to the program, and if it is so important for the program to be unified, then why was so little done, to identify and isolate those detractors when it counted?
That's always been my question for guys like Andy Mignery. Where were the football players, his teammates, from his era, to stand up for Rodriguez? There were some, to be sure. Maybe a lot. I remember the courage and the decency of guys like Rick Leach and the guys who led the rally for Coach Rodriguez at the Michigan Theatre. In the Rodriguez-hating press, they were ridiculed for their effort. What does Mignery say about that? Was Mignery at the Michigan Theatre that night?
It's the easiest thing in the world for guys like Mignery to say now, We are all together, and everything is great, the way it should be. It is a very different matter, when the chips were/are down.
I would just call them "cockroaches" like Rodriguez did and leave it like that. Maybe even add bandwagons fans to the list. They know who they are and what they are. I feel no need to ID anyone.
Most people only care about winning. As we saw down in Columbus it does not matter if you are cheating as long as you are winning. I do not have anything personal against Hoke. He seems to be a good guy. But the fact quoting RVB where were all those players before? I do not accept that it was a few vocal cockroaches. It really bothers me because "Michigan Men" were supposed to be different and the Michigan program was different. Yet Michigan Men are not much different from the rest of the humanity. We hate and loathe what is different from us and what we do not understand.
If Rich Rod were a Sunni living in a Shitte neighborhood or a Muslim in Serbia, or a black african in Dafur he would have been dumped on the same way. He was not a better or worse man then any other. All that can be said was he was different. And because he was different he was hated. As far as I am concerned the Michigan Men behaved little better then middle school cliques.
Welcome to the rest of humanity Michigan Men.
<blockquote> If Rich Rod were a Sunni living in a Shitte neighborhood or a Muslim in Serbia, or a black african in Dafur he would have been dumped on the same way. </blockquote>
I don't think you quite understand the gravity of the people in those situations. Things would have been different had he not gone 3-9 his first season. That's really what it comes down to. He had a few open mouth insert foot moments and he lost a lot of games. Hoke's seat would be kind of hot had he gone 3-9 as well despite his ability to win people over.
ETA: why are my block quotes not working?
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