So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

Submitted by Meeechigan Dan on

A short note to say thank you to all of you as I leave this site for good. I can honestly say that I have enjoyed some of the best moments on the Internet right here where the quality of discourse and the intelligence of all the material is second to none. But the snarky classlessness of this site in general and Brian in particular as it relates to Brady Hoke has asphyxiated the joy that used to accompany my daily visits here.

The thought of years of adolescent digs at a man who is the epitome of everything we have declared is special about Michigan just because his resume isn’t up to incredibly uninformed standards chills me. When I can look on the front page of a site renowned for its cerebral excellence and see an Internet tantrum taking form as “Hoke-y bits” and “healing old wounds iz gud” and “footbaw” – that is if I can get past that moronic banner and its awesome wit “We can has Hoke?” and “SRSLY?!” -  it’s time to look elsewhere.

From 30,000 feet, Brady Hoke is ten times the man of any author on this site and his unapologetic love for this university fortunately is unaffected by the sniggers of non-athletes with electronic pens who sleep in until 11:00am every day.

Have I always wanted Brady Hoke as our coach? No, of course not. I didn’t know a thing about him. By the tsunami of material about our new coach has me electric with enthusiasm, and I will be damned if I am going to rain on my own parade by clicking on a link that has lost its Michigan soul.

aawolve

January 13th, 2011 at 2:03 AM ^

maybe an indefinite leave of absence is better than retirement. One thing I'm noticing is that some posters perceive that Brian has changed somehow, but I have to disagree. This same stuff would have happened if Brian wouldn't have liked the hire after the last search. He's emotional and sometimes petty, but consistently so. Posting some high school troll's personal info on the site, throwing a bottle at someone's head at a game, yelling at clerks at the ticket counter, and going on to Maize N Brew's comments section to personally insult the author are some of his actions that come to mind. Anyway, I enjoyed your diaries, and adios.

connecticutblue

January 13th, 2011 at 12:51 AM ^

I feel like Brian has provided, and always has provided-a very strong counterpoint to the mainstream (read: Detroit) media. That's what he's doing now, providing a counterargument to what everyone else is writing. You may not agree, Brian may not even be right-but it's absolutely worth reading.

Bottom line: you're crazy to leave, and you're crazy if you don't think Brian's tone will change. Come on-seriously? Dude loves Michigan the same as we all do.

Also what is this "Brady Hoke is 10 times the man..." hyperbole? I don't even know what that means. Doubt you know the background and accomplishments of everyone on this site. I loved him today at the press conference and bball game-but he's a public figure and has a right to be scrutinized...

aaamichfan

January 13th, 2011 at 1:11 AM ^

I feel like Brian has provided, and always has provided-a very strong counterpoint to the mainstream (read: Detroit) media. That's what he's doing now, providing a counterargument to what everyone else is writing. You may not agree, Brian may not even be right-but it's absolutely worth reading.

This sums up how I feel as well. I'm just hoping his tone changes sooner rather than later.

ST3

January 13th, 2011 at 12:56 AM ^

the "Hoke-y" post was from Misopogol (sp?). I re-read some of Brian's front page stuff and it appears that he is setting up an "I told you so" post for 2-3 years from now. He expects the team to get better with Hoke because of all those returning starters and the easier schedule. When RichRod haters say I told you so, Brian can respond by saying, "so what? that's what I thought would happen." Brian appears to be really hung up on the 47-50 record and the fact that Indiana and Minnesota turned Hoke down. I think that's reasonable. I think he's starting to come around a little bit (see the PAN chart, maybe one of Brady's main resume pluses.) I think IU and Minny said no thanks to Brady because they knew if he had any kind of reasonable success he would leave them for Michigan whenever he got the opportunity. 

Regarding the cat stuff and the banner headlines, come on dude, have a sense of humor. I'm sure it will be gone in short order. If only Brady had dreads we could rework the banner as, "Hoke is a many dreaded thing." (It was something like that right? It's been awhile since the CC started.) 

wesq

January 13th, 2011 at 1:02 AM ^

I think Brian will address this in the near future but let's remember he was the poster child for defending the program when no one else in the media was.  He let on at the end of the season the constant barrage of negative emails and the negativity around the program was getting to him.  He talked about how unfair it was to the players on the team, coming from so called "Michigan fans and boosters".  

Now the tables have turned and it's hard for him to become united with the people who were the source of the negativity.  In particular I (and I sense Brian) have a huge frustration with Lloyd Carr who is the one man who could've given Rodriguez some momentum and guidance instead acted jilted that one of his guys weren't hired.  I loved Lloyd but his inaction during the last 3 years was an act of disloyalty that will never be forgotten by me.  

ggoodness56

January 13th, 2011 at 1:09 AM ^

If we all agreed on everything this blog would shut down. Brian knows what he is doing. No bathhouse male massage train would work around here. Maybe San Francisco. I have nothing to do with college football for awhile. Let's debate and learn more about Michigan from each other.

STW P. Brabbs

January 13th, 2011 at 1:15 AM ^

Agreed that the banner is some kind of fifth-rate knockoff of a Daily Show intro, and that Brian has generally lost his shit entirely about  Brady Hoke and the coaching search.  I think dude loved the Rodriguez era and its promise really hard, and he wasn't professional enough to pull the pieces together during the strain of the coaching search.  More broadly, I think that Brian has serious trouble giving credence to notions such as toughness, competitive fire, etc., fixated as he is upon quantifiable data.  (Data is good, and a fair number of cliches have been exploded thanks to this blog's erstwhile engineery feel, but I think there's more emotion and subjectivity to winning football games than Brian tends to acknowledge.)  Anyway, that's a story for another day. 

Not only does the banner speak to content on the front page that's generally dovetailing with the pure dreck that's been on the MGoBoard lately, it's just not funny at all.  Really fucking lame, Cook - I hope you were drinking when you cooked it up.

chitownmaize

January 13th, 2011 at 3:08 PM ^

Exactly. this appears to have become way way too personal with Brian. I get surprised when I see people lose their objectivity and get really emotional and unstable about a damn football team.

Guys like Brian, jmblue, tom hagen, they catch me off guard, when they do their 180 act in such an unstable overly emotional manner.

OMG!!! Michigan football is doing something I don't like. Gag me with a spoon already:)

BlueDragon

January 13th, 2011 at 1:16 AM ^

I'm going to miss you Meechigan Dan.  Before I joined, you were one of my favorite guys to read (okay, not 100% of the time but you were up there).  MGo's going to be a little colder and emptier without you.  If you change your mind, you're always welcome back here.

swamyblue

January 13th, 2011 at 1:33 AM ^

It's been one day...

Hoke will receive full support.  You know this.  Know who your friends are brethren!

I love this site because this is the very place where passionate fans can come and drop some knowledge, neg bomb the stupidity, and despite huge 'disagreeables' (Hokey Talk) most of us respect one another at the end of the day.  I mean come'on, have you scoped out any of the other fan sites?  Hopeless!  (well, the one's with the hot cheerleaders and women athletes are nice...pics only please!)

If you fill the need to step away from the blog for a few no biggie.  Just remember where you came from and the countless days of good humor, excellent diaries, and great peeps this site represents. 

And who provided that environment for you? His name is Brian.

Lutha

January 13th, 2011 at 2:52 AM ^

Yeah, the same thought had also crossed my mind, but then I decided I want to be around for the parade when FuMan Blue gets back into positive territory.  A comeback for the ages!!

2plankr

January 13th, 2011 at 2:41 AM ^

It just seems to me like the rules have changed.

When former players (not random yahoos on the tubes) said negative things about rr, the response was:

"None of this helps. Dave Brandon is an adult and won't be swayed by talk radio, so all speaking out like that does is provide another PR hit against the program. It's juvenile. Suck it up and wait until this year is over.'

http://mgoblog.com/content/unverified-voracity-cowers-your-enormous-bra…

and i dont like undermining any future hoke success with stuff like "A completely average coach should be able to take 20 returning starters on a 7-6 team that sees the schedule ease considerably and get to 9-3".  Sounds a LOT like the same crap we used to hear about rr that was so soundly lambasted in this space

UMAmaizinBlue

January 13th, 2011 at 2:41 AM ^

We all just get along?

I also would have gone with "Why can't we be friends?" but I want really feeling it.

Seriously though, this too shall pass, and I hope you'll be back M. Dan. Enjoy the vacation.

MIdocHI

January 13th, 2011 at 3:06 AM ^

This site is the best for up-to-date information on Michigan sports and all other sports.  The great thing is that you have thousands of users reading information on the web and post relevant information.  It is the best site to get breaking news.  Also, the time and effort people put in to diaries, photoshops, etc. is unbelievable.  The research for some of these things take hours.  I am always amazed at the effort that people expend to put out quality content for no other gain than peer applause, and I thank you for that.

With that said, I do think that the general tone has become more negative.  The losing is very frustrating because we are the winningest football progam.  Additionally, electronic written communication can not have the subtle body language cues that lessen the blow of harsh words.  That is why people use emoticons and "/s" and other conventions to decrease the harshness. This is a great site, and all contributors are useful-even those who post poorly as they remind us of the stark contrast to the many great ones here. 

I have been a reader for a while, but usually don't post.  Last night was the exception as I was at full throttle from being full of sushi, sake and beer.  Recently, I have felt the need to post to combat the negativity.  M-Wolverine has been leading the charge for positivity for Hoke, and I think we should all thank him.  Watch the Hoke presser.  The man has charisma.  You cannot manufacture or buy that.  He looks people in the eye.  He is genuine.  He knows his limitations and will hire great people to make up for those. Football is a game of emotion.  Data can be wrong. The data by Mathlete and others had us winning all but 2 games this season with a too close to call bowl game.  Well, we know how that worked out.  Believe in Hoke.  Cheer for Michigan.  Go Blue.

TenaciousGrizz

January 13th, 2011 at 6:51 AM ^

Long time listener/admirer; first (second-ish) time poster.

Look past the (kitten) jokes and snark on the banner (which have always, in one form or another, been a part of this blog) and you'll find legitimate, adult, good-faith arguments staring you in face on the front page regarding Brady Hoke, etc. 

Fans (yes, even the non-athletic types) are allowed to be something short of ebullient over this hire, at least for the moment.  If the mere exposure to a contrary point of view is stealing your joy, fine, but understand that the moron/child here isn't Brian.  It's you: the guy throwing ad hominem on his way out the door. 

Brady Hoke may turn out to be ten times the man of any author on this site, but I'll bet Brady Hoke knows how to take a (kitten) joke without having a fit.  The only person throwing an interent tantrum here is you.  Grow up.

Seth

January 13th, 2011 at 8:32 AM ^

Waitaminute, this from the guy whose blogs include:

and

?

I reference those not to mock you but to point out that I thought you were one of the guys who got it.

Seriously, you are one of the posters who if you're unhappy, I seriously question what we're doing. And I spent much of the morning before work today doing just that. Still, I don't think there's anything wrong with MGoBlog's coverage and tone of the Brady Hoke hire. Irreverence is part of the show here.

I work in mainstream media during the day, and understand the reasons behind the conscious decisions to do things that annoy the piss out of guys like me and Brian (and yourself). In the case of a new coaching hire, the unstated rule is huge positivity, even if unwarranted, because the fans are trying to make up their minds. It's the same reason political parties fall all over themselves to show love for the guy/gal tagged to be that party's next presidential candidate, even after an ugly battle to get there.

People don't just come to media to learn; as often or more they're seeking confirmation of their biases, and satisfaction of the experiencing self. As gratification in reading media has shifted more and more toward the "instant" instead of the long-term memory, media itself has shifted to become more about temporary gratification than informance, which is a long-term gratification structure. In other words, you're looking for an ice cream cone, not an ice cream maker.

This is humanity when it comes to most complex concepts:

Now say your job is to get as many readers as possible. Why in the world would you market toward the people in the white?

It has been the goal of this blog to buck that trend, and use irreverence as the sugar. My use of a mock German accent in saying "iz gud, yes?" isn't just childishness, but a calculated demonstration of casualness to keep the tone of the piece light. The point of my "Hoke-y" piece was to demonstrate the greatest plus about Hoke: that he is someone the Michigan fraternity will rally around, and also demonstrate the all-too-predictable reactions from around the country. What we won't do is present an opinion not based in factual evidence. At times, it's not as gratifying as mainstream's party line, but it's the blog's raison d'etre and not going to change.

Since when did MGoBlog's tone have to be mainstream, Dan? The single most valuable thing about this site's editorial code is that it's not re-tread. Sports journalism has become such that the new NCAA FB videogames literally generate those articles. There is no lazy redundancy here -- themes are deep and metaphors fresh and the information is the kind that takes work to put together. And when there's a catastrophe -- like a coaching search in mid-January that ends with a gamble hire we could have had any day -- it gets cats.

Bodogblog

January 13th, 2011 at 8:54 AM ^

But to Brian/MGoBlog?  Those don't usually work out very well.  Not really ever (unless the guy burned down your house or something, which, in that case, it's probably the right choice)

EDIT: you're a valuable poster who should take a few days, as Brian will, and let things settle

ccdevi

January 13th, 2011 at 9:46 AM ^

posts have I seen over the years?  Rivals, Scout probably all the way back to Sandeep's board.  Long a follower of the blog, I've only recently starting perusing the board.

I don't know whats worse the whiny farewell posts or the posts in support.  Are you kidding me?  If you want to call it day because you dont like reading people who have viewpoints that you don't like, fine, disappear, but these self righteous goodbyes to see how many people will miss you...gimme a break..its the stuff of 6 year olds.

And whats with all the grief for Brian.  I've long been a follower of this blog because he was one of the only voices out there that could do anything but support the status quo.  While the Rivals and Scout board's were shouting down dissent, and the Balas' and the Beaver's were getting their ban on, this guy told it like he saw it and in my opinion mostly like it was.  I assumed a board on such a blog would be filled with similar spirits, but from my admittedly short time here that does not seem to be the case.

Brian has an opinion and I for one hope he continues to express it however he sees fit and hopefully he'll continue to do it in a way that sometimes clever or funny and usually interesting.