Crowd sourcing: How Harbaugh should accept trophy from Petitti

Submitted by 805wolverine on November 28th, 2023 at 11:23 AM

I've seen some scattered ideas about what Harbaugh should do when accepting the trophy from Petitti this Saturday, but haven't seen a thread on it.

Of course there have been a lot of suggestions that Harbaugh should essentially give him a middle finger, which I understand, but I prefer a slightly more magnanimous approach:

(Putting his arm around an obviously uncomfortable Petitti) "Thank you commissioner.  We know we're not the team you wanted to be handing this trophy to, but we'd like to thank you for being a big part of our success these past few weeks. I won't say we couldn't have done it without you, because we still would have, but we appreciate a little more fuel to the fire. I'd like to personally invite you to come to Ann Arbor and be there when we formally add our Big Ten record 45th conference championship trophy to Schembechler Hall."

Other ideas for Coach Harbaugh?

 

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s1105615

November 28th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^

Absolutely.

 

every UM fan in attendance (including me) should be booing vociferously if/when Tony tries to say anything.

My personal hope is that the team ignores the trophy presentation and just goes to the locker room while Petitti has no one to give the trophy to.  It would serve two purposes:

 1.  UM isn’t satisfied with winning the B1G this year (I personally am, but that’s beside the point).

2.  UM gets to thumb their nose directly to the commissioner and the conference as a whole for the way this was handled over the last month.

I don’t expect UM and Harbaugh to be this obvious, but it would be well deserved.

Joined: 03/01/2014

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sdogg1m

November 28th, 2023 at 11:25 AM ^

Manuel Ward should accept the trophy and state the following:

Congrats to our Michigan Football team on winning the Big 10 (looks at Petittie) despite your best efforts to sabotage our season.

I have never wished this but we look forward to the day that you are fired as Big 10 commissioner.

Now get off our stage.

(Turns to Harbaugh)

We want to congratulate Coach Moore, the staff, and the players on enduring adversity and winning this championship but we know who our head coach is.

You are the one who has hired our staff and assembled this team. Congratulations on winning this championship coach.  We appreciate and thank you.

(Looks to fans and yells)

GO BLUE!!!

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Perkis-Size Me

November 28th, 2023 at 12:23 PM ^

I said this in another thread yesterday, but Pettiti can't afford not to show up. He will be branded as weak, as a coward, and he will lose a lot of respect amongst the other commissioners, amongst TV executives, and the general public at large. 

I bet there would even be those in the Big Ten, folks who supported his decision to suspend Harbaugh, that would question this decision. 

If he shows up, yes, he will get booed, and Michigan fans will never let him forget this. But you take your medicine for the 15-20 minutes you're out on the field, leave, and then within a few days, the media cycle starts over and no one outside of Michigan fandom remembers, or cares enough to remember. 

If you don't show up, then this is the kind of thing that defines your legacy and your reputation. Not just as a commissioner but as a man. You really want your kids going to school and having everyone tell them that your dad is a coward who hides from his problems? 

If he's too cowardly to go out on that stage, look Harbaugh in the eye and hand him the trophy, then Pettiti has no business being the commissioner of the Big Ten. 

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MGlobules

November 28th, 2023 at 12:34 PM ^

Yeah, the 'everyone hates me but I'm a good-natured son of a b*tch' playbook dictates that you turn out and take your medicine. And I expect he will.

I like the OP's suggestion, and think we might get something like it from Jim. Something cordial, with a laughing gleam of steel in the old eye!

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charblue.

November 28th, 2023 at 12:45 PM ^

Petitti is a pimp. He could have never outfought Santa. But until Saturday, I didn't know what kind of coward this Haverford College grad truly is. He didn't show up in Ann Arbor for the biggest showdown meeting in the history of the rivalry of The Game. Had the game been in Columbus, he would have been there happily celebrating the Buckeye conspiracy. 

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mfan_in_ohio

November 28th, 2023 at 3:17 PM ^

Do other commissioners have respect for Pettiti? I would think that Greg Sankey, for one, looks at his handling of this situation as weak and amateruish. Pettiti forgot that part of his job is to look out for the interests of ALL of his conference members, including Michigan, and instead let himself get rolled by a click-driven media and a bunch of bitter coaches. 

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FauxMo

November 28th, 2023 at 12:27 PM ^

Personally, I think they should do a bit where Petitti says, "And the winner of the Big Ten Championship is..." At that point, Ryan Day runs up on stage, assuming he won (3rd basers deserve to win, after all). At that point, there is an uncomfortable silence, and then Day starts his acceptance speech. A few sentences in, Harbaugh slowly walks up on stage, and Petitti gently and then more forcefully starts to pull the trophy away from Day, eventually handing it to Harbaugh. Harbaugh says, "well, that was awkward," as Gene Smith and several security guards lead Day away. 

I doubt Day would go for this, but it would be an excellent bit... 

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Macenblu

November 28th, 2023 at 11:32 AM ^

Harbaugh has shown time and again that he wants the praise to be extolled upon the players and not himself.  We should fully expect that to continue.

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FrankX

November 28th, 2023 at 11:33 AM ^

Get Masks made up with Coach Harbaugh's best grin for everyone, staff, players, coaches, the waterboys for ceremony.  When the announcer calls coach to get the trophy, the players step forward and yells "I AM HARBAUGH!!" for a good long time.

Joined: 11/03/2012

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AlbanyBlue

November 28th, 2023 at 11:33 AM ^

First of all, there's very little chance Petitti hands Jim the trophy. As others have said, he'll have Griffin or someone else do it.

Anyway, firm handshake, smile, but the long, burning stare, holding the handshake for an uncomfortable amount of time.

But first, beat Iowa. Convincingly.

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JR3410

November 28th, 2023 at 11:34 AM ^

Tony should take a page out of espn's book and start making up "death threats" like they did for Thamel.  This is going to be an all time embarrassing scene.

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PopeLando

November 28th, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^

Announce the contract extension while Petitti is traveling.

Other than that…don’t burn the bridges in public. A perfunctory handshake, accept the trophy, and then talk about how much you love the team and how much you appreciated Iowa’s competitiveness.

Like it or not, we still have to operate within the B1G structure, and if Petitti is willing to stick his neck out to punish Michigan without evidence…imagine if he feels slighted in public. So much of behind-the-scenes business boils down to “fuck that guy”

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