Farewell, Justin Boren

Submitted by Section 1 on

This Saturday marks the end of the Justin Boren / Michigan / OSU saga.  Justin's last game in Columbus, his last meeting with Michigan, his last Big Ten game.

What a long, strange trip it's been with Justin.

It is, in my mind, the worst-reported and most underreported story in the history of Michigan football.  Here was a kid, a really good player and the son of one of Bo's boys, who left suddenly, inexplicably, and on his way out, was party to the strangest press release in modern memory.

It was the "famliy values" meme; which gave rise to a couple of years' worth of weird, unfounded and increasingly strange presumptions and rumors about the Rich Rodriguez football program.  All of them false.  Justin was not a lazy kid or a lazy football player.  Justin did not leave Michigan because he didn't want to run.  It wasn't about "scheme."  To think, as some did, that it was about abusive language in Rodriguez practices; that's a joke.  Mike Boren is the biggest goddamned fucking hardass in Pickerington, and Justin once recounted how his dad yelled at him so fiercely at halftimes of his high school games, he thought "somebody might call the cops."

In fact, the real weirdness was sourced in the Boren family, and the simple story behind Justin's departure from Michigan was his parents' rage when they learned that Justin's younger brother Zach was not getting a sholarship offer from Michigan.  Mike and Hope Boren yanked Justin out of school, within days of their learining that Zach was not getting a Michigan scholarship.  The story is old now, and despite the fact that no reporters ever seemed to want to touch it, the "famliy values" knock on Rich Rodriguez was inevitably defeated by the truth and the balm of time.

But as Justin's collegiate career and the story of his unprecedented transfer from Michigan to Ohio State comes to a close, it is sort of funny to have a look at this Cleveland Plain Dealer article from a year ago, giving a charming little snapshot of "Boren family values."  What a psycho-crew.

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2009/08/nasty_offensive_lineman_justin.html

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MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 24th, 2010 at 11:36 PM ^

You know what?  I wouldn't have a word to say about Boren if all he did was transfer to Ohio State.  His family happens to be in Columbus - I can dig that.  The rivalry is the rivalry but if he wanted to leave Michigan to be closer to his family, I can't ever blame anyone for putting their own actual family over everything else.  I'd still see him as a Buckeye the same way I see all Buckeyes - nothing more, nothing less.  No special treatment either way because he used to wear a Michigan uniform.

But fuck him for leaving the way he did, with parting shots as he walked out the door, designed to cast Rodriguez in as negative a light as possible, without actually accusing him of anything, and therefore never having to defend any accusations.  You got a complaint, man up to it and own it.  You don't, then fine, give the usual one-liner about "making the best decision for me and my family" and leave it at that.  For that, Boren's the biggest douchebag in football.  Pure lack of class.  Pure, 100% shithead, and may he choke on a bag of dicks while having a 12-foot pole jammed up his ass.  If anyone can tell which end that is.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 41586

dakotapalm

November 25th, 2010 at 1:40 AM ^

He's a jackass. Justin was a 20 year old man who should be responsible for his own decisions, not go to some school and then spout lies because his daddy isn't happy. If he wants to be considered a real man, act like a real man, make decisions for yourself, and especially do not spout lies about a man of character as you leave.

 

Jackass.

Joined: 07/15/2008

MGoPoints: 2395

pdxwolve

November 25th, 2010 at 1:55 AM ^

What the hell does the term family values really mean. 

Is that you put the family above all else?

What if your family is littered with assholes? What are your values then?

I always found the term humorous because it is so ambiguous. 

Joined: 08/17/2009

MGoPoints: 3166

uferfan1

November 25th, 2010 at 2:38 AM ^

Judas came back the fall after he left, by invite to a party with ex-roomates. He was either stupid enough or ass-bag enough to come in his Suckeye colors. HE WAS ASKED TO VACATE THE PREMISES. His mouth ran like  a sick ducks butt and lost all credibility. Should have been thankful he was released to go there most make transfers leave conference.

Joined: 10/25/2009

MGoPoints: 346

BlueVoix

November 25th, 2010 at 3:33 AM ^

Justin is a whining, masturbating-under-the-sheets, crying ass.  Living near him for one semester, it was clear that he never grew out of his comfort zone and never acclimated to the team.  Maybe, maybe I'll buy that he left because his brother (whom I met, decked out in Michigan gear) didn't get a scholarship offer.  But mostly, I think it's because he never made friends, never fit in, and saw an easy out when Rodriguez took over.

He should hope his NFL career works out.  He won't be as successful as Mike and he won't have a Michigan degree to back him up.  In this day and age, staying in Columbus forever is not a wise choice.

Joined: 06/25/2009

MGoPoints: 5576

TorontoBlue

November 25th, 2010 at 9:45 AM ^

Somebody re-post the pic of Justin & his girlfriend dressed (unflatteringly) as Rich & Rita Rod for Halloween after he transferred.  Kid's a doosh and a traitor and I hope Martin & Company are targeting him and his little bro for some Wolverine nastiness on Saturday.

GO BLUE!

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 956

Section 1

November 25th, 2010 at 10:17 AM ^

 

Actually, the picture is what it is; Justin, at a Columbus Halloween party.  Gal-pal dressed as a Playboy bunny.  Apart from Justin getting one last wearing out of all of the Michigan gear he'd be throwing away (the now-obsolete red wristband was a nice touch; the Carr-era Nike shirt was an error), the real hate-shot is aimed at Rita Rodriguez.  [Rita = some kind of professional slut.]  Charming.  It's them family values, all over again.

But what I love about this picture, and what I have always loved about this picture, is that what we see is clearly a guy who absolutely doesn't give two shits for what anybody back in Ann Arbor thinks, least of all his former (albeit for a matter of a just a few weeks) coach and the Michigan program.

And yet, if indeed Justin was one of the guys interviewed by Mike Rosenberg for the infamous front page Free Press hit-job on Michigan and Rodriguez, we were supposed to believe that anonymity was given to those interview subjects because they "feared retaliation from coaches..."

I can't tell -- is that "fear of retaliation" that Justin is showing in that photo?  Or is it the Bud Light?

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 16535

HokeHogan

November 25th, 2010 at 9:47 AM ^

Quote from his dad. " im not going to have two kids at different schools thats ridiculous" what a tool. Just shows the entitlement these borens think that they are owed.

Joined: 01/10/2009

MGoPoints: 1328

Ernis

November 25th, 2010 at 9:52 AM ^

To Justin Boren:

Man of the country's shame! Boren! Thy kind

Have written thus thy epitaph. And yet

I grieve for thee, and wish I could forget

The traitor, when your story comes to mind,

And love the patriot. I am not resigned

To thy bad destiny of fame. I'd let

Thy name quite pass from the world's book

And set

All memory of thee aside to find

A friendly shelter 'neath oblivion's wave.

I weep that men -- like me -- can fall so low;

And yet thou wast not all unworthy, though

Thy baser call thee base, and the world praise.

Still, spirit of the dead, I cannot brave

Thy presence to me! Go thy restless ways!

 

-- thanks to Bill Wilkinson for the original

Joined: 09/23/2008

MGoPoints: 11441

Poster Nutbag

November 26th, 2010 at 12:26 AM ^

I don't boo people generally in college football, but this is one asshole I plan on booing Saturday when I'm at the game rooting the Wolverines onto victory!!!

So long and don't let the door hit you in your ass!

 

GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 1104