Deeper takeaways from Saturday

Submitted by Steve-a-wolverine-o on

There was a bad thing that happened on Saturday and we all should feel bad.  Interestingly, these bad things come with a deepened awareness and while they may appear to be, not all things are worthless.  It’s these times of raw emotion that allow us to learn more.  I am sure that I am not the only one that has gotten introspective recently.  What greater appreciation have you learned?

I waited for about 1 second to see that little yellow “flag” box pop up or hear the announcers mention a flag.  But no, and instead of standing there bewildered, I immediately vacated the Taco Shop at Underdogs and started walking home.  I was in Golden Gate Park.  I looked around at the other people going here and there, being happy, completely unaware!  My mind could not absorb the beautiful day for it was trapped in a painful cycle.   How is it that a game can leave us so shell shocked?

That was the second time this season I felt broken inside.  The first was actually worse, the Maryland game.  I took a nice long walk after that game but I could not enjoy the victory.  My focus was the look on Mario Ojemudia face after his injury and when he walked frustratingly off the field by himself in crutches.  Mixed with these images are the words of our passionate head coach, something like, Playing football is the best thing, coaching football is second best thing.  I realize how short our lives are and how special something like playing football must be to Harbaugh and Ojemudia.  Losing the last two-thirds of your last season of college football and your chance to prove you belong in the NFL is sad.  It is much worse than losing a football game.  I would take a hundred of That Thing That Happened to see Mario get to play another down of competitive football.

As Monday morning rolled along, I felt better.  I figured that there must have been times when the tables were turned and I remembered the 2004 game against MSU.  It was a time before DVR, or at least I didn’t have one yet.  I couldn’t watch the game.  Instead I took the NCEES FE Exam, a day long test that is the first step to becoming a licensed professional civil engineer.  Upon completing the exam early, I ran out to my car and turned on the radio and listened to the end of the fourth quarter.  Michigan made an amazing comeback to force overtime against MSU!  Then the worst, being in California, the radio broadcast switched over to USC vs Cal.  I called my dad in Ohio who is a great sports fan (besides the fact he likes OSU).  As I drove home from the exam, he gave me the play-by-play for Big Blue’s triple overtime win over Sparty that day.  He called out the offensive formations and even held the phone up to the TV for the crowd noise after the Michigan touchdowns.  But what was even greater than hearing us pull out an historic comeback was the tone in my father’s voice.  I could tell that he was incredibly flattered and honored to “call the game” for me.  His life as a football fan and as a father had intersected perfectly and he seemed so prepared for that moment.

And now I must actually go back to work.  I am looking forward to running into a colleauge of mine later today, who happens to be an MSU alum.  Anthony Bell and I have been working together for the last five years, building one of our country’s greatest transportation infrastructure projects.  Anthony is a great guy, played football for MSU, and was even drafted into the NFL.  He is proof that there are many great MSU fans.  I can already predict the encounter.  He will see me walking towards him.  He will have his typical huge smile and will start to chuckle.  I can even garuntee the first words that come out of his mouth. “Oooh man, we got so lucky.”

MGoBoard

MichiganStephen

October 20th, 2015 at 2:02 PM ^

The title reminded me of this old SNL bit:

 

This will be Harbaugh's worst team at Michigan. We'll get them next year and we could beat Ohio State this year. I'm over it and looking forward to the future.

Joined: 10/30/2010

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Chameleon Eyes

October 20th, 2015 at 2:04 PM ^

Enough is enough. I think everyone wants to be done talking about this game. I'm trying to stop getting nauseous at any mention of it

Joined: 08/20/2014

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Tater

October 20th, 2015 at 2:07 PM ^

I didn't actually read the entire post. I just came here for the "please stop" and "enough is enough" comments.  

I still wonder why people who object to a thread ever click onto it.  If I really don't like a thread, I don't bother to click.  

Joined: 08/13/2008

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TennBlue

October 20th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

that add nothing to the board end up chasing useful, informative threads to the archives.

Starting a thread with what should be a comment in some other thread is just white noise that degrades the value of the blog.

Joined: 10/12/2010

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MonkeyMan

October 20th, 2015 at 6:54 PM ^

I live in Columbus and people here can't stop laughing about it- they really don't give a shit who won at this point.

Joined: 10/13/2013

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Blue in Yarmouth

October 20th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

but has this blog all of a sudden turned into Dear Abby or what? It's clear that every UM fan has shared in the gutwrenching feelings that go along with such a loss but do we really have to share those feelings? On the internet no less?? A millions different threads worth no less??? Good grief, enough already. Lets save this sort of stuff for our shrinks where it belongs. 

Joined: 02/18/2009

MGoPoints: 6527

LJ

October 20th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

I actually enjoyed reading this, for one.  It's always good to have a reminder that it's just a game, that not every fan in the opposing fanbase is the spawn of satan himself, etc.  Perspective.

Joined: 07/05/2008

MGoPoints: 18306

ijohnb

October 20th, 2015 at 2:14 PM ^

have different Michigan State co-workers than I do.  The one that I work with sent me a link to the play on You Tube and asked me if I liked having "two daddies."

I mumbled something stupid under my breath about Harbaugh and how they would pay and then went to my office and ate the worst Cold Cut Trio of my life.

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 69986

mgobleu

October 20th, 2015 at 3:13 PM ^

(who is a known idiot) made a comment about how it was certainly a "God thing". Most likely because she's a state fan and certainly THE MOST righteous of us all.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 38428

ijohnb

October 20th, 2015 at 3:22 PM ^

I have to agree that there was some kind of divine intervention that went down on Saturday.  There was a "fate" type feel to it.  Bad things just kept happening, Michigan would recover, strap it back on, but anomolies just kept occuring.  Michigan made it so difficult that God had to pull out the big dog to put us down for good with no opportunity to respond.  I have to believe it was but one piece to a bigger picture, though, and we just can't see the whole puzzle yet.

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 69986

Amaizing Blue

October 20th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^

I'm paying off a bet by wearing a Spartans tie to work today.  As we usually have a pretty professional environment, my colleagues were surprised when one asked me about the tie and I dropped an F bomb in describing it.  They laughed, but were surprised.

 

Some are posting long rambling thoughts-I enjoyed this one, not so much some of the others.  Others are avoiding anything that might mention the play.  Others are reading everything possible about it because they want to understand the chain of events.  

 

It's a Michigan blog, man-and this is an unprecedented loss made exponentially worse by who we lost to.  If BYU had done this-well, Mormons and all that.  I don't begrudge anyone posting, or not posting, or replying, or negging-we're all trying to do whatever we can to move on.  

 

I personally was basically catatonic the rest of Saturday night, and started feeling better Sunday only because I saw how Harbaugh was dealing with it, and knowing how much worse he had to feel than I did.  Better days ahead, today is better than yesterday, tomorrow will be better than today.  But...damn, did that suck. 

Joined: 12/02/2013

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ijohnb

October 20th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^

truth to this.  Hasn't been easy.  I think my biggest mistake was not "believing" until the very moment when the play occurred.  I was down playing our chances to others and to myself the entire week until we took that clock down to 11 and called the timeout.  I said to myself "we are going to win this thing" about one minute before the punt and then bam.  The series of events resulted in as close to sports related PTSD as I have experienced.  I wish I had just bought in all week and then I think I would have just been really, really mad.

Joined: 09/21/2009

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Jeff94

October 20th, 2015 at 2:17 PM ^

We had them beat in year one of the Harbaugh era while their 1st round NFL QB had a great game. They will never again have that type of advantage against a Harbaugh coached Michigan team. 

Joined: 10/20/2015

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brewandbluesaturdays

October 20th, 2015 at 2:19 PM ^

Excuse me but... Eff this... Introspective and all that. I'm tired of these posts. The more we post stuff like this, the longer the grieving process will continue. It was truly horrible and the worst feeling I've ever had after a football game. Worse than App State and worse than Colorado. I have truly hated people talking to me about it the last couple days and truly hated the chest thumping bros at the gym yesterday when I just wanted to play basketball and forget. To hell with that game... I fully intend on being pissed about it until the day of reckoning comes next year.



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StephenRKass

October 20th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^

I liked this post. Sad but great to be reminded of Ojemudia, and what is really important. That is to say, it is a game, just a game. Yesterday, I told my wife what the final play was. She was kind of incredulous that I wasted her time. To her, it is just a game. And between my son's games, Michigan games, other games, and NFL games, she just doesn't care. Which really is fine. It's important to me, to my son, to most of you, but on a global scale, it is a game. This post gets at that.

Regarding those who are sick and tired of these posts:  why do you click? And if you click, and can see pretty quickly that it isn't what you're looking for, why do you read? Why do you go to the end to post "tl;dr?" You want it to stop? What do you want to be on the board right now? Analysis? Recruiting? Minnesota? Wife day? What beer you're drinking right now? Well, I can guarantee that all of those things will be posted at some point this week. And if you can't wait, well go ahead and post them now. If you're in Ann Arbor, go watch some other UofM team, in an Olympic sport, and report on it.

For crying out loud, quit bitching and moaning and whining and complaining. If it isn't to your liking, go to the Detroit News, or the Freep, or Maize and Brew, or Touch the Banner, or Bleacher Report, or Mlive, or mgoblue, or start your own blog. I love MGoBlog, I trust that the mods and the proprieters will take down offensive and ridiculously inappropriate or irrelevant posts.

Get off my lawn.

Joined: 07/15/2008

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brewandbluesaturdays

October 20th, 2015 at 2:27 PM ^

StephenRKass - I agree with your sentiment. As somone who hates this post however, I disagree. I honestly clicked to read some sort of deep take away. Not someones emo feelings about the game. I think it's a given that everyone here feels terrible for Mario. But we don't need thread aftrer thread, explaining the feels and why we shouldn't be as bummed as we are. Just let us move on to recruiting, or UV. 

Your Lawn... I'm still on it.

Joined: 01/23/2009

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mGrowOld

October 20th, 2015 at 3:12 PM ^

Enough with the emo "i haz a sad" posts about feelings.  The ending of the sucked and we all hated it but jesus - time to  move on already.  I actually dont mind the actual analysis threads on the game but the ones like this one that just read like a stream of consciousness, albeit a sad stream of consciousness, are getting old IMO.  We get it and we agree - the ending blew and we ALL wish it wend differently.

Usually I agree with StephenR and on this one I don't.  Yes I know we dont have to read anything but like brewandblue, I thought there would be actual content behind the thread title.

 

Joined: 10/04/2010

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StephenRKass

October 20th, 2015 at 4:09 PM ^

Upon reflection, mGrowOld is at least partially correct, and I am at least partially wrong.

While I did like the post, and didn't mind the emo and touchy feelyness of what was written, it was there under at least a partially misleading header. When I read "Deeper Takeaways," I was expecting analysis. I was expecting to see something about what we can expect from Rudock going forward. What we should see from the OL, or the RB, or special teams. How this game has an impact and is relevant to the rest of the season. While the OP could argue that the "deeper takeaway" is that other things are more important, that's a stretch.

Now, if the post was entitled, "Reflections on how I felt about the meaning of life after the game last Saturday" or "My feelings on what is really important after last week's game" or "EMO: nothing really matters to me" or "Two things I felt after last Saturday's game," it would have been ok. Then people who want to move on, don't care about feelings, don't care about emo, can move on.

False pretenses are a pain in the rear. Yes, I hate whiners and complainers and naysayers. Yes, I don't mind people sharing their love for M football, and how they felt and how they feel and why this is cosmically important. But thread titles are important. If I don't have time for someone to ruminate about IMPORTANT THINGS, I can skip right past to the latest info on 5 star recruits.

I stand corrected.

Joined: 07/15/2008

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Jack Hammer

October 20th, 2015 at 2:22 PM ^

As I read the post I couldn't help but start narrating in my head with the same tone and inflection as the voice over from Wonder Years.  Which lead me to find out that Daniel Stern was that voice.  I didn't recognize the name.  So then looking at Stern's body of work discovered, that in addition to narrating Kevin's voice in Wonder Years, he played two of my favorite characters:  in Rookie of the Year - the goofy teammate who swallowed his chew & one of the two burglars in Home Alone.  I'm smarter today about Daniel Stern and took a nice walk down memory lane.  Thanks, OP!

Joined: 11/25/2014

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ijohnb

October 20th, 2015 at 2:31 PM ^

head, I always get that narration confused with Richard Dreyfuss doing the Stand By Me voiceover.

Oh man, the Wonder Years Finale.  You want emo you got it.  Straight feels.

Joined: 09/21/2009

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