Former Michigan Player Intros
I'm watching Sunday Night Football, and as most people know all of the starters for each team have an opportunity to introduce themselves and listed their alma mater. I have noticed that several of Michigan's former players list their high school or another school instead of Michigan. David Harris did this a couple weeks ago, and Mario Manningham/Jason Avant did it again tonight. However, I noticed that David Baas mentioned Michigan in his intro.
Is there some sort of hidden meaning to this that I'm missing? I know a lot of these guys have been in the league long enough that they've probably had a bunch of chances at this, and maybe they have already given credit to UM, and are just changing it up.
Just wondering if anybody is noticing this, and if there is some kind of explanation.
[Also, I tried to search for this on the site, but must be doing something wrong since I don't get any results on my searches... If anyone has an answer for that, I would appreciate it. Thanks]
November 20th, 2011 at 9:03 PM ^
It's because these players all hate Michigan, and clearly want to disassociate themselves from the program.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:07 PM ^
November 20th, 2011 at 9:11 PM ^
Your first post ever and you do it with a broken sarcasm meter.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:42 PM ^
November 21st, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
I wish I could give my high school or little league team a shout when I start work in the morning.
"What's up Benedictine Ravens!"
November 22nd, 2011 at 5:42 AM ^
Right before I get in the shower.. "y'all know THE Pioneer pioneers"
November 20th, 2011 at 9:07 PM ^
I just started a thread on this (right after you apparently, so I assume it will be taken down momentarily) and I totally agree that the number of M players doing this seems disproportionately high? I would have figured that since these guys wanted rr gone, they would be happy to say our schools name with Hoke at the helm.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:09 PM ^
During the RR era, it was easy to say that they were players that didn't support RR's program. However, with all of the support for Hoke from former players (some of who played when Hoke was an assistant coach), I would be surprised if they are still unhappy with the direction the program is headed or how things are currently being handled...
November 20th, 2011 at 9:11 PM ^
Has always done this. Who cares Brady, woodley, Woodson, long are always representing!! Anyways Brady and Woodson is all the PR we need!
November 20th, 2011 at 9:19 PM ^
November 20th, 2011 at 9:44 PM ^
i've actually seen brady eschew michigan as well. i can understand wanting to throw back to your hs, but why not just say both then? asomugha gave credit to both tonight.
November 21st, 2011 at 7:15 AM ^
I've seen Woodson simply scoff and say, "You know," for his intro.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:13 PM ^
do I call you Mich, or Mr. Tits? (ala GM).
November 20th, 2011 at 9:17 PM ^
Mr. Tits was my father...
November 20th, 2011 at 9:26 PM ^
Great that they are honoring their high school, but their college program put them in the pros, no direct jumps from HS. The old guard is back, you can stop the protest.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:28 PM ^
just a fun thing to do. No big deal.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:33 PM ^
I don't get what's so "fun" about saying the name of your high school instead of the name of your college or university. And, if there is something so fun about doing this, why are the vast, vast majority of the other players not doing it?
November 20th, 2011 at 9:28 PM ^
They also didn't jump straight from junior high to Michigan.
November 20th, 2011 at 10:14 PM ^
The old guard is back, you can stop the protest.Maybe this means that they weren't protesting RR to begin with by doing this and everyone was just oversensitive every time anyone said anything that could be remotely interpreted as anti-RR.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:28 PM ^
November 20th, 2011 at 9:32 PM ^
I don't care if lots of NFL players do it.
This is Michigan, FERGODSAKES.
And it's Ohio Week.
They should rep their set.
/seriously.
November 20th, 2011 at 10:13 PM ^
Especially this week. Don't know why former players do that, but wtf can you do...
November 20th, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^
Actually, I've always wondered if they do these the week of, or before the season and use the same recording. The reason I would think they're done well in advance is b/c the Troy Polamalu one is so distinct and sounds the same every time. Although maybe thats just the way he does it every time.
November 20th, 2011 at 11:39 PM ^
I'm pretty sure you're right. Most of them haven't seemed to change in years, and I wouldn't be surprised if for players still on the same team these are a year or more old. Why reshoot everyone on a team when you could just do the couple of players who weren't there the last time the team played Sunday Night...
As for conspiracy theorizing, I think it's pretty clear that in recent years there were disproportionate numbers of Michigan players shouting out their high school. Yes, everyone does it, but I'd be willing to bet there was a significant difference compared to the average school. Yes, players have a right to should out their high school, but I still find it disrespectful and attribute it to frustration with the program/RR at the time. I haven't heard any other explanations that make sense.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:55 PM ^
I mentioned this in another thread, I'm a little baffled by this too...
November 20th, 2011 at 9:58 PM ^
even the thought of anybody putting jason avant's character into question just blows my mind. he always came across as totally classy, nice, and well-spoken. he's still one of my all-time favorite michigan players. i'm sure that none of these guys mean it as any disrespect at all.
November 20th, 2011 at 10:12 PM ^
I think this clearly means that former players aren't supporting Hoke, and if he doesn't win games it will be their fault. /s
I don't know why people think this is such a big deal. I didn't care when Braylon pulled the Lloyd Carr one, and I don't care about this. Maybe they think their high schools need the press more than Michigan b/c Michigan is having a good season.
November 20th, 2011 at 10:18 PM ^
Tacopants would rep Michigan every time
November 20th, 2011 at 10:51 PM ^
They probably don't want people relate to RR.
November 20th, 2011 at 10:54 PM ^
it's stupid and needs to end. dave brandon needs to send out a memo.
the absolute worst, imo, was braylon edwards' "lloyd carr's michigan" during the rr era. ryan van bergen said it best wrt that bunch.
November 20th, 2011 at 11:34 PM ^
My favorite remains Woodson's intro a few years back when all he said was "Charles Woodson, you know the school."
November 21st, 2011 at 6:39 AM ^
I still get shit for that: "Mr. Woodson to 'ya'll -- you know the school." I think it was before the Raiders-Patriots snow play-off game that propelled Brady to superstardom. My phone immediately exploded with friends dogging me for Woodson's (and my) "Michigan arrogance."
November 20th, 2011 at 11:43 PM ^
I don't get why it matters so much. You guys sound like a bunch of Ohio fans..."if you were born in Ohio you need to be an OSU fan/go to OSU"
All of these guys didn't have the best experience at Michigan. And maybe they want to rep their high school or be different or whatever the case.
Why does it have to be disrespect to Michigan...I've always seen it as respect to whatever high school they went to over disrespect to Michigan. I bet those high school students LOVE IT. I can't be mad at that one bit. No one said you have to say your college. No one said if you don't say you're college, it's disrespectful.
I dunno, I feel like a lot of you make it a bigger deal than it is...it's a player intro. At the end of the day...who cares?
November 21st, 2011 at 12:25 AM ^
I dunno, my best friends are still the guys I went to high school with. I bet a lot of these guy's best buddies/teammates/childhood friends get a huge kick out of it.
A few of my friends who went on to play college sports all say that high school sports was way more fun, was actually the last time they had REAL fun playing.
November 21st, 2011 at 2:31 AM ^
This question was asked to Marcus Ray via Twitter earlier this season....he posted this link to a story from ESPN about Ty Law. Check out the white box entitled Ty & Michigan...
http://espn.go.com/page2/s/questions/tylaw.html
GO BLUE
BEAT OHIO
November 21st, 2011 at 7:26 AM ^
Amani Toomer has also had problems with Lloyd, and not feeling acknowledged or appreciated by him.