ESPN Article On Rodriguez
Linky
An article by Pat Forde. It's one of his typical dread pieces. He's terribly wrong with some of the things he says, but it's ESPN.
It's mostly about the normal stuff for this coming season; erasing last year's memories, QB play, defense growing up in time.
The first half of it is frustrating to read. All he does is hate on Michigan and how much tradition there is here. Living in the past type stuff. It's not necessarily inaccurate, just frustrating to read.
I agree. It's kind of a fluff piece in a sense, and a little too dramatic. Especially the part about seeing Tressel and such.
Because the ceiling was too low and you couldn't practice SPECIAL TEAMS. I.E. Kick Returns, Punt Returns...
I've only read up to that part in the piece and already I think it's a load of dog trash.
Yeah, not because you couldn't "pass in it". Seriously? What kind of practice facility couldn't you pass in.
The comment by, I think it was the assistant AD, was sarcastic. Forde seemed to take it seriously, but it was clearly sarcastic.
Personally, I hate that every Michigan article/preview--even the short ones--seems to spend multiple paragraphs reliving the doom and gloom from last season. Obviously, some of this is inevitable ("you have to know where you've been to know where you're going" type of thing), but I feel like I've read the same article dozens of times.
Pat Forde writes that "talk we must" until Michigan's 2009 opener. Fine, but that's been hashed, re-hashed, and re-re-hashed at this point five times over.
The season cannot arrive soon enough. Maybe then we can look forward to some new talking points.
Pat Forde is a douche bag.
"One of the great charms and great problems with Michigan football is its love affair with the rearview mirror." Uhhh... Isn't Forde looking into the rearview mirror?
It annoys me to see the quotes about Tressel saying Michigan will be fine. I imagine Rich Rod (like us) has to be so angry about the 42-7 loss that these comments seem rather placating. Even when we were betting osu under Lloyd it seemed like they were all close games. I can't wait for the time when we go into the second half up by such a large amount on them and all we do in the second half is keep piling it on.
Pat Forde is literally a butt with a face.
"And they're smugly aware of it." What a jag.
We have a right to be smug, we have the best football tradition in the entirety of the sport. We Michigan fans are also clam, rational, and present in this moment, so we know that every once and awhile we become identified with the part of our ego that rages when any stone is cast against the edifice that is the Wolverines.
Although we choose not to leash or egos, at least we are aware of them.
While Forde is a jag, and the article was exaggerated, for some reason it still got me ridiculously excited for Sept 5th.
of course, this stuff is tiring and all terribly rehashed because we're UM fans, but to the casual CFB fan who only vaguely follows Michigan football, its just the right amount of fluffiness and snark.
Now to the important part...what the hell was Jamie Foxx doing at Big10 Media Days?
is starting to get real close to passing jemele (sic?) hill as the espn writer i hate the most ... and that is saying something
I, too, have a strong dislike for Jemele Hill. She is among the worst media personalities I have ever seen.
That being sad, Pat Forde is also going down that path.
and his editors know they can write some shiat about M and the whole fanbase will go into spasms, forward links, and bring hits to their web site.
3. Profit
Agreed that Forde is an ass hat. But this is just how traditional sports writing works and why most of the ESPN stuff is so stale. Plus, think of how many folks hit the link.
Reliving the doom and gloom is part of the script. That way when the team exceed expectations the story sells better (Redemption!, Phoenix from the Ashes, etc.)..and if we don't, then the Forde's of the world get to say they say it coming back in the summer even though they only rehashed crap from last season. Just makes me appreciate this place so much more.
to Lloyd's Crowe.
but I'm going to save my outrage for something I actually expect to be commendable. Forde is like most WWL writers, paid to fly at the 30,000 foot level and swoop in to write pieces that posture themselves as the gritty insights of a man in the trenches. He of course can't spend the time to know the details of every program he covers, but that doesn't prevent him from acting like he just spent the past 365 days as a fly on RR's office wall. If you were expecting anything but this kind of piece, I'll suggest you haven't spent enough time on ESPN.com (not that I would blame you).
Can we now talk about the fact that Adam Rittenburg looks like Rod, the gay Republican puppet from Avenue Q?
+1 for Avenue Q reference
FWIW: one of the Ave Q co-creators, Jeff Marx, is a Michigan alum.
When you go 3-9, people say bad things about your program. It happened to Notre Dame last year too. We'll have to just quietly suck it up right now and wait for things to turn around.
I stopped reading Forde after Henne Hart and someone else i forget who sat out the Wisconsin game in anticipation of the OSU game the next week.
Forde then wrote how terrible we are and how we dont deserve any of the hype.
The hype which had died. Completely. One game into the season. And what little was left was constricted out two games in.
MICHIGAN PROVED TO US THIS WEEK THAT THEY WERE EXACTLY WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE or whatever the dumb tagline for that story was.
I like this quote:
"in the form of Rodriguez, a complete outsider at the most inert, inbred program in America."
When my disgust with Carr was at its highest, I used to complain on a weekly basis that UM's coaching "family tree" was a reed, and that they needed some different DNA for new ideas.
I would have settled for Les Miles, because he had been away from the program long enough to learn new things, but was ecstatic when they hired RR for the very reason Forde cited.
I still think Forde is an idiot, though. He is right there on my "list" with Colin Cowherd and Skip Clueless.
You're right, Pat.
We were pretty inert in that top 25 every fucking year during Carr's tenure (except 2005.) And six top 10 finishes.
Asshat.
But Forde is an ESS EE SEE homer with a particular distaste for Michigan. Like many national writers, he never lets the facts get in the way of a good narrative arc, either.
He is, and ever will be, an asshat of the highest order.
what a bs article... the guy was reaching everywhere to try and find an angle to call Michigan antiquated and arrogant...
Oosterbaan fieldhouse ceiling IS too low...I played in there in HS and our punts and kicks were hitting the ceiling over and over..I was amazed that Michigan could practice there... but this writer feels the need to use that as propaganda about "the forward pass"...where the heck has he been since 1986, in a cave? Its not as if Michigan hasnt been...eh a pipeline to the NFL for passing QBS, have they?
geeze...
His Forde Minute Dash is original, but other than that he is a total skeezbag.
I will say that I know of a story involving Mr. Forde and a co-ed that revolves around him dropping her back off at her place late at night, grabbing her wrist and saying "now don't go telling anyone about this, I don't want it ending up on the internet".