Athletes, coaches from other sports send Michigan Football off
This is outstanding.
Fans, coaches and athletes on other Michigan teams all lined up in Glick Field House and held a surprise send-off for the team. I'll call it The Victors Send-Off.
In the bottom left picture, Carol Hutchins appears to be hugging Greg Mattison.
Beilein and Berenson were there.
Fans line up to send off Michigan's football team at Schembechler pic.twitter.com/goo5AH0zhK
— Claire Bryan (@claireab320) October 3, 2014
Reactions from players:
Omg much luv MAC (Michigan athletic community)
— #H1TP (@GreatGlasby) October 3, 2014
Love the support from everyone! #goblue
— jake butt (@JBooty_88) October 3, 2014October 3rd, 2014 at 2:59 PM ^
I don't get you. You definitely want Brandon ousted. And Hoke as well I suspect...Based on what you and others have written on the blog I wouldn't be surprised if you accused Brandon of staging this send off as well...
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
Nobody gets WD. He's an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in Michigan bedsheets wrapped in a bacon-wrapped onion ring.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
would you honestly be surprised if you found out that someone in the AD's office organized this? i wouldn't be.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
Who cares?
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:26 PM ^
Good for them. I want Brandon to be replaced. Im not going to kick him when he does something good for the kids.
October 3rd, 2014 at 4:08 PM ^
Wait, why would it be bad if the AD office organized this? I mean, Brandon's the first guy in the first picture--I'm guessing he had a hand in it. Isn't that a good thing?
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:24 PM ^
Is WD supposed to pretend this didn't happen because he may not like Brandon?
He said above he doesn't care who orchestrated the send-off because it was a good idea nad good for the players. Michigan fans really try hard to make things negative as much as possible.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:01 PM ^
The players and coaches deserve our support. It's just the AD who doesn't. It's not any of the coaches' faults that they took jobs where they were either underqualified, required to be a David Brandon sock puppet, or both.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:09 PM ^
You definitely can be blamed for taking a job you are not qualified for.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:01 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:10 PM ^
You sound like my grandpa.
You don't have to play volunteer PR Stasi for the athletic department, dude. As long as people stay away from personally attacking players, critical analysis (and really just generally posts that aren't "ZOMG AMAZING GO BLUE THIS IS MICHIGAN <3 <3 <3") is fine.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^
Support the TEAM you say? What do you think would have happened if Brandon sent out an e-mail to the entire student body announcing a send off for the football team? A thousand people would have showed up to send the players off, that's what. The vast, vast majority of fans love the players and the hard work representing the university they put in, and would be glad for the opportunity to show it. And the students would love Brandon for doing something like that!
But instead Brandon, seperates the entire athletic department from the fans and only invites other athletes. He's basically hiding behind the student athletes here and fostering an environment where saying "see, only other student-atheltes and the athletic department stand behind you". It's part of the whole freaking problem with Brandon! Once again exluding fans and creating an 'us vs them' mentality against the UM community.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:18 PM ^
Brandon's lack of empathy for the alum/fans/seasonticketholders/students is a straight bummer. By pushing this false internal narrative that the former are all out to get the student-athletes and he's protecting them? Ugh.
I fucking love Michigan athletics. I watch all UM-related things on BTN, and even pop in for non-revenue games when I'm in town. What I don't do? Enjoy Brandon crapping all over me and telling me it's just chocolate rain.
October 3rd, 2014 at 4:50 PM ^
Those same fans that you want invited to this are the same fans that chanted Harbaugh during the fire Brandon rally. How does he know if he invited the whole student body a protest wouldn't start up?
October 4th, 2014 at 2:09 AM ^
Fuck off
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:41 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
Wow, Red's jacket isn't hideous. And it's Adidas! Football should requisition these immediately. Sorry to get all Wesley Morris...
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
This is a really nice gesture, and I'm sure a lot of fans would also have gone if it was open to the public.
On a related note, it's getting really frustrating to hear all the "this is only about the 2-3 record" and "you're not supporting the players" BS. The record may have given people less patience with Hoke, but the Dave Brandon issues are separate and far more significant. The focus in the fanbase shifted from Hoke to Brandon very quickly after Saturday, but not enough people seem to understand the full context. If someone is suggesting the record is part of the cause of frustration with Hoke, okay. If they're suggesting it's the root cause of all this unrest, they're completely clueless.
Also, EVERYONE is still rooting for these kids to succeed. That's completely unrelated to the long list of legitimate complaints people have with Brandon.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
It is the root cause. It's not even questionable that it's the root cause.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
Classy move...
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
It is reinforcing the insular society of athletes at the university. How hard would it have been to invite the rest of the student body to participate if they chose to? Seeing as the students have yet to turn on the actual athletes, there should have been no harm in including them in this. Just make sure Brandon isn't there, and the kids would have behaved and self-policed themselves.
Also, I really hope this continues, and not just for football. All of the teams on campus deserve this sort of support. If this is a "tradition" that Brandon is trying to create, I'm all for it growing and becoming something that happens a lot.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:14 PM ^
It's very tone deaf to have athletes and coaches supporting other athletes and coaches? WTF are you talking about? Some of you people are absolutely insufferable. This is probably the least controversial thing imaginable, and some of you still complain about it. You have fans chanting "Fire Brandon," booing the team constantly, and talking about boycotting the games, and you're upset because they weren't included in the send off. Unbelievable.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:20 PM ^
The poster has an excellent point. No where has anyone been holding rallies to get rid of players. The students would love an oppotunity to show support for the players that don't require them to ATM machines. It would have been amazing. And if Brandon was worried about it being an anti-Brandon rally, he could have not shown up for the send off. His job as an AD is to create the best enviornment for the atheltic program. But instead students and fans were excluded and Brandon was there to take selfies with athletes. It just exacerbates the actual problems and contributes to fan apathy as the fans don't feel part of the community.
October 3rd, 2014 at 4:53 PM ^
What about the Harbough chants at the rally? Can Hoke not be there either?
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:25 PM ^
It is tone deaf to the complaints of the students about how the athletic department treats them. I think the sentiment behind this is great, as I posted. The students have been very clear that they aren't booing the team. The students have been very clear that they respect and admire the athletes.
The students keep showing up to support the team, but they do not support the coaches or the atheltic department as a whole. Give the students a chance to show the team that they support them, and I bet you would be pleasantly surprised at how it comes off.
There was no good reason to not invite the students, unless the AD was worried about them turning it into another #FIREBRANDON rally. While I understand him being concerned about that, it shoudln't trump his concern for building the trust between the students and the student-athletes. He just got done saying, in an interview, that he knew he needed to connect the two better than has been done. This would have been an extremely easy way to do that. I would wage that if you went out and asked 100 students with season tickets if they would have liked to have been involved in this, that 90% would have said yes.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:33 PM ^
Oh I see. So unless the students are invited to every single event they might theoretically enjoy, Brandon is conspiring to turn the athletes against the fans in order to help him save his job? Is that it, or should I tilt the tin foil hat a little to the left? Have you even considered the possibility that maybe students weren't invited because of logistical problems, because it would have been extremely last minute, because of security concerns, because of the small nature of the venue, etc? Nope, it must be an evil ploy.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^
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October 3rd, 2014 at 3:51 PM ^
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October 3rd, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
The image Brandon needs to repair is with the fans. Brandon needs to work on making the fanbase feel actually appreciated, and not just robots. Lowering ticket prices would be something to mend this relationship. But excluding the fans and only inviting the athletic department to a big send off is the exact opposite of this. He does not, presumably, need to drum up support from the athletes that already like him. It just seems to foster an us vs. them mentality to me. But that's just my opinion of course.
October 3rd, 2014 at 4:32 PM ^
Brandon could make the rest of the games free for the rest of the year and someone would find a way to spin it as self-serving/us-against-them. While Brandon may have some of those characteristics, this event does not seem like one of them. That is... unless you have an ax to grind and have an abundance of confirmation bias.
The best thing that could happen here is that the fans follow suit with the athletes and join in on the support. This is not about the fans, no matter how hard some try to convince themselves it is.
---
See... the above perspective is just as valid as your own. But, whichever 'black and white' side you decide to choose is the most telling. At this point, the "I support the athletes and not the coaches/AD" is becoming harder to believe as an honest sentiment.
October 3rd, 2014 at 10:21 PM ^
..Thank you -jermrs- for your last couple of posts - well stated!
October 3rd, 2014 at 10:37 PM ^
..all of this hullabaloo has got me out of sorts!
October 3rd, 2014 at 4:21 PM ^
I like you, Baloo
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:32 PM ^
There are plenty of functions for the athletic department that the general public is not invited to. Outrage over this idea is so clearly driven by the Brandon narrative this board has now latched onto.
October 3rd, 2014 at 6:04 PM ^
In the midst of this particular firestorm, why wouldn't the student body be invited? They don't have to go into the building, but to tell them when the team is leaving and ask them to come out and show their support would do nothing but raise goodwill. Excluding them only reinforces the notion that the student-athletes are seperate from the student body at large. Why would anyone think that is a good idea?
October 4th, 2014 at 2:12 AM ^
"Why would anyone think that is a good idea?" Because they're not angry, paranoid assholes?
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:11 PM ^
Yeah, that would have ended really well. Those are the same people booing the team from the stands and holding rallys to fire their AD.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:04 PM ^
Great for the players and I hope it picks them up. I just don't like the message it is sending to the rest of the teams. This is telling them that the only ones that support them are the ones in the building when nothing could be further than the truth. The fans love these kids and really do appreciate the hard work they are putting in. We just believe that they deserve better leaders. The AD doesn't want that message in his department though. The fans are a distraction that are a necessary evil. It's only the people that are on South Campus that matter and everyone else can shut up.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:04 PM ^
Good for them.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
Players deserve all the support we can give them. (So I'm against any game boycott. Message need to be clearly focused on Brandon.)
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^
The message has been focused on Brandon(petition and rally was against him, not Hoke). To me, it looks like he's using this to turn the athletes against the fans.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:18 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:39 PM ^
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October 3rd, 2014 at 3:46 PM ^
UM athletes and coaches seem to be unified in their public statements about his passion and value to UM athletics. It certainly seems genuine (see JB's opening, unsolicited comments) At this point, I think social media and the fans themselves have more to do with the athletes perceptions of them than DB.
EDIT: I personally think he's made egregious mistakes starting Monday...and other mistakes before then...I won't be sad to see him go (coaches and players seem like they will be), but there is a toxic environment in A2 right now and the fans are one of the factions that add to that unhealthy mix.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^
Let's play tough and get the WIN.
The Team, The Team, The Team
GO BLUE!
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:16 PM ^
But from the pictures in this post it looks like Coach Mattison walked right past Brandon to give Coach Hutchinson I big hug, while Brandon stood by akwardly patting him on the back...
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:31 PM ^
Those that think this is totally positive -- you're right. This is great. I hope the FB team got a boost from the energy it provided them. Lord knows they could use it.
Those that are complaining about it -- or like me, not necessarily intending to complain about it but identifying what rubs them the wrong way -- I don't think are saying it's a "bad" thing. It's just that it further cements what I guess has already become obvious: Dave Brandon views his job solely as supporting the student-athletes (good), a few big-time donors (Ok, fine), and no one else (students, alum, regular season-ticket holders) (Bummer). A further bummer when you see student-athletes sounding off with the same "us against them" mentality; as if criticism of Brandon is criticism of them.
That this thread seems to have elicited those criticisms is only because it'll be hard to comment on anything Dave Brandon-related for the next few weeks without seeing those fault lines.
But yeah; the send off was great. I'll bet you $1 if Brandon showed a touch of empathy to regular season ticketholders (rather than dismissive, "find another team to root for" attitude -- and yes, I've seen these emails elsewhere, dating back to 2010), he could fill Michigan Stadium with a send-off for the squad.
Oh well. Go Blue.
October 3rd, 2014 at 6:08 PM ^
I am obviously in the camp of people who believe Brandon did this as a self-serving attempt to make himself look good, and to get the athletes and coaches on his side.
However, I understand why people think that this is ONLY a good thing in support of the team. I would love to believe that this was only done show the team that they aren't on their own, and that people support them.
However, it is creating a narrative that the fans and students are actively rooting against the team. I don't know a single person who is doing that. I know a lot of people who booed, I know a lot of people who wrote in to the AD & President, and I know a lot of people who want Dave Brandon gone yesterday. None of them feel that the team is at fault for any of what is going on.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:36 PM ^