This was not a banner weekend. Both of my fantasy football teams lost, while putting up my worst point totals of the year. The Lions lost a game, perhaps the only game this year, that they should've won. The offense was anemic, but the defense had their best game, bar none, and they had the game all but won after what should've been a Minnesota incompletion to bring up 3rd and 20 late in the 4th quarter. Ultimately a horrible PI call, a horrible non-reversal of a non-fumble (that also completely ignored a helmet-to-helmet hit on Calvin Johnson) did cost them that game. Still, bad teams don't get the benefit of calls and you can't whine too much about a loss that is the result of only putting up 10 points.
Speaking of 10 points...
I'm at a loss as to what to think of Michigan right now. I understand that when you're Michigan you simply cannot lose a home game to a pretty sub-par MAC team. But they did. They lost to Toledo. So that's the new reality. We live in a world where Michigan is capable of losing to Toledo. It's depressing as hell, but the evidence is in now and the case is closed. This team is just bad. It sucks to write that. I didn't want to believe it after the comeback against Wisconsin. I wanted to believe this was a team that had bottomed out quickly and was now finding its way back up. Clearly, that's not the case. It is what it is, though.
What I won't be doing, however, is joining the thundering herd of people calling for Rodriguez's head. The guy has proven he's a good football coach, the only question is whether or not he's a good coach for Michigan. The jury's out on that. It'll continue to be out for another two years. You bring a guy like Rodriguez in and short of his setting the stadium on fire or announcing he's a Klan member, you live with the results until it's clear whether or not this is the inevitable groaning of a big ship changing course or if it's the wrong guy for the wrong job. I think it's the former, but it's gonna be awhile. In the meantime, U of M fans, coddled by decades of winning seasons and bowl appearances need to take a few deep breaths. Especially the asshats booing a bunch of college kids. As usual, M Go Blog puts it best:
Sports suck sometimes, especially when you care so much about something you control not at all. I assure you that every Michigan fan was angry on Saturday, and every one had second thoughts about this New Era thing. Some of them chose to swallow that anger, and some chose to give it to someone else. What's the adult thing to do? What would those people in hats have done in 1935?
They would have sucked it up. So suck it up, you pansies. It hurts. Act like a man about it.
I pretty much hate it when people boo their own team as a general rule. But is it me or is it happening a lot more now than it ever used to? I mean it's just a reality that bad *professional* teams get booed. I may not agree with it, but it's always been that way. But nowadays it seems like fans will boo any team at any time. A team fresh off a Super Bowl can have a bad half and home fans will start to boo. I watched Pistons fans boo Ben Wallace, who basically willed that team to an NBA championship in 2004, in his first game back to Detroit as a Chicago Bull. I've watched Lions/Packers games in which the home crowd booed Brett Favre. Brett freak'n Favre. Now, as a Lions fan, I hate Brett Favre, so I kind of enjoyed it just a little, but still, that's just crazy.
So yeah, as a fan, it's as bad a football year for me as I've ever experienced. It's a bummer, but it's still just sports. Either be a fan for your team or do the rest of the fans a favor and tune the hell out.
