Just Like the Rest of You Insufferable Swine

Just Like the Rest of You Insufferable Swine

Saturday morning I got up and watched the Fulham/Tottenham game on Fox Soccer Channel, which turned out to be an exciting match that featured the great play of Clint Dempsey, who probably is the best American player at the moment. Instead of staying home to watch the Man U/Sunderland match, a game I had special interest in, I put on a Michigan tee-shirt and walked down to a pub that was showing the game on the Big 10 Network. I went to watch a sure blowout, more out of obligation than desire.

Sitting at the bar watching the telecast was torturous. The Big 10 Network currently is only on Direct TV, and as we found out, they didn't lock down many advertisers for the debut game in their inaugural season. Did this speed the game up? No. There were as many commercial breaks as if the game were on ABC. Over-and-over, A pickup rolls down the street with an Illinois flag in the back. Over-and-over, a garage door with the Ohio State Logo painted on goes up. Over-and-over, the close-up shot of the guy spray-painting white parking space lines into his lawn. Over-and-over, Big-10 pride fest during the TV timeouts in the game that hurt the reputation of the Big 10 more than any in the history of the conference.

Fuck my cock. Now what? I'm flying back to watch them play against Oregon, and who knows, maybe they will play well, maybe they will play worse. I don't expect much of the season after the pathetic field goal attempts and the horrible defensive coverage I saw last week, but I can't say I'm confident in anything with this team at this point. It's just so weird. I'm just as disappointed as I was after the last loss the program took, against USC in January. Was it as devastating as it was losing to Ohio State? Not to me, but I cannot figure out why. One thing it definitely was is the most embarrassing single defeat in the history of any sports team I have ever supported. And really, this humbling loss couldn't have happened to a more arrogant community.

Every program goes through some rough years. Ohio State finished a season about ten years ago ineligible for a bowl game. USC had five seasons without a winning record in the 1990's. Notre Dame has been horrible for fifteen years or more now. Oklahoma went five straight years in the mid nineties without a winning season. When Michigan won the national championship in 1997, Texas finished 4-7. Not since before Bo took over has Michigan had a truly awful season. It's about time we got something to really be ashamed of. If we can just move on and have a good season, I'm not going to continue dwelling on this peculiar result. It's a freaky loss that I'll always remember, for sure, but it's just one loss.