Notre Dame fan discusses Jihad; hilarity ensues

Submitted by BiSB on

If there was ever such a thing as Double Reverse Schadenfreude, this is it:

http://www.ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=football;pid=79942;d=this

That's right, sports fans... the reason Michigan beat Notre Dame in 2009 was some extra stretching time in 2008.  Not Notre Dame's swiss cheese defense or Tate Forcier's pre-shoulder-asplosion 100% Pure Columbian Awesomeness. 

Well done, sir... way to combat that "Irish fans are dilusional and make hilarious justifications for their lack of success" meme...

CrankThatDonovan

May 25th, 2010 at 7:23 PM ^

Saying things like "I shouldn't make excuses, but..." does not give one a free pass to make excuses.  Irish fans seem to have learned quite a bit from Charlie Weis

bronxblue

May 25th, 2010 at 7:29 PM ^

To be fair, this was a post by a couple of fans on a random ND blog.  I like to think that the bulk of ND nation realizes that they lost last year because their defense was historically bad and UM played perhaps its best game of the year.  As for the argument that the extra practice somehow helped UM, I think this highlights the greatest injustice that has been perpetrated by the lack of full reporting on this issue.  We are talking about a couple of hours of additional stretching over months, not 5+ hours of practice each day or even each week.  I'm sure Charlie Weiss, in between not coaching a decent defense and taking advantage of his schematic advantage, took meticulous records of his practice times and never exceed the allotted time frame by a couple of minutes.  Same for Meyer, Saban, Carroll, etc.

BiSB

May 25th, 2010 at 7:38 PM ^

But you should hear some of the conversations I hear around here.  I seriously had to endure a 20 minute conversation a couple of weeks ago about whether ND should be disappointed if they don't reach a BCS bowl this year, and whether ND could sneak into the title game.

In re: the game last year, I STILL hear about whether Armando Allen really stepped out of bounds, and whether the piped-in rawk music gave us an unfair advantage, whether the clock should have stopped with one second left on the clock, and whether the taunting penalty was legit.  Blaming some 'cheating' is NOTHING. 

Bixler

May 25th, 2010 at 9:09 PM ^

I agree with you, I lived in Goshen, Indiana for two years.  During football season the front page headline of the South Bend Tribune was ND football on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.  I don't mean the headline of the sports section, but the top headline on page one, above the fold.  There could have been a nuclear war, but the Friday headline would be ND football.

Wallaby Court

May 25th, 2010 at 8:01 PM ^

Bronx, I made a similar comment earlier. I can't decide if I hate the FreeP or the subsequent institutions who failed to update their initial re-reports more. On one hand, we have the well-document FreeP jihads with out-of-context/manipulated quotations, one-sided reporting and apparently willful disregard of the actual NCAA rules at issue, etc. On the other hand, the 're-reporters' failed either to actually check up on the accusation or adequately restate what the actual issues were once the NCAA and Michigan started their full disclosure.

So while the FreeP created the whole over-blown mess, the other institutions apparently accepted the initial accusations prima facie or just failed to run any sort of meaningful follow-up that clarified things. What everyone was left with was lurid and overblown accusations from a hysterical FreeP. I'm somewhat convinced that some of the internal (read Michigan-fan) animus comes from sheer misunderstanding. Of course, the crazy haters will still hate, but alot of the PR nightmare would have been averted if someone, anyone, had just explained that the FreeP was wrong and explaining what actually happened.

bronxblue

May 25th, 2010 at 8:27 PM ^

I agree.  I think the problem is that most traditional media sources are still leery of blogs and similar sources when it comes to reporting stories.  They would rather regurgitate a false statement than go against the grain because it is almost better for them all to be wrong than to rely on some random dude like Brain Cook (I kid) as a source and wind up being wrong (or even just an outlier).  Plus, quoting the FreeP gives it an air of credibility and objectivity that the name MGoBlog or NDNation doesn't convey, even if the blogs have significantly more credibility and experteise.  

jsquigg

May 25th, 2010 at 10:09 PM ^

While I am sure there are reasonable ND fans out there, I have met some nice guys who are ND fans, but I never talk football much because the portion of their brain that supports ND departs from the rational part of their brain.  Trust me when I say there is ALWAYS an excuse.

aaamichfan

May 25th, 2010 at 7:38 PM ^

I'm not sure if he hates ND as much as MSU, but this NDNation thread is screaming for a "Tater" post.

FreetheFabFive

May 25th, 2010 at 8:04 PM ^

I don't think the kid that wrote that even played a game of organized sports in his life.  Practice is tedious and boring and you hardly ever "gel" during practice. 

Come to think of it, was that entire post not a double standard?  Michigan was 4-0 because they could "gel" during practice.  Yet when other teams started to "gel" Michigan was 1-7.  With all this extra time Michigan had to "gel" as a team, shouldn't they have been undefeated using his logic? 

BlueinOK

May 25th, 2010 at 8:46 PM ^

Yeah a little extra stretching time made the difference.  If Tate didn't get all that stretching in, he might not have had the arm to make the throw for the touchdown.  Oh ND fans. haha

Seth

May 26th, 2010 at 1:00 AM ^

If the extra practice time had any effect on a game versus Notre Dame, it would have been the 2008 game, not 2009. The story broke right before the 2009 season, with the initial "leaks" in the spring, so Michigan was already on its tippy toes that whole time.