Back to Earth

It's been a rough couple of weeks for me as a sports fan. My Cleveland Indians woes are well-documented and the Browns still haven't beaten a team outside the NFC North. This is all to be expected, but my usual balm for Cleveland sports woes is Michigan football. Not to be over-the-top here, but no team in my life has ever been consistently so much fun to root for as Michigan's football team.

And now, the Wolverines have three losses. It's October. This is totally inconceivable.

It feels like an out-of-body experience. It really does.

I think Michigan fans everywhere are going to begin to appreciate a little bit more what we've seen in the past 10 years. Two four-loss campaigns were somewhat redeemed by ruining Ohio State's undefeated season each year. The next year Michigan quit fucking around and won a national title of its own.

Since then, Michigan's won the Big Ten four more times, gone to two Rose Bowls and hasn't made its fans suffer the indignity of watching them in December even once.

Let's be honest, we've been spoiled.

But I don't think Michigan fans would trade the 10-plus seasons of the Lloyd Carr era with the past decade of any other program, save maybe Southern California. That's fine, but I'm happy with the way things worked out because Michigan won a national title while I was a student there. Meanwhile, the Trojans were busy being hot garbage for most of the 1990s. (Oh, how quickly we forget the Age of Sultan McCullough.) Don't underestimate the value of winning a title while you're a student. I'm not sure I'd trade that one for three national titles down the road.

That said, it's clear that Michigan fans are probably going to be dealing with the kind of painful issues that literally every other set of fans has had to confront in the past 10 years. It's payback time in the Big Ten, and teams that have been living under the Wolverines' thumb for years and years are lining up to get their licks in. Already Minnesota and Wisconsin, two teams which never once got one over on the Wolverines during my time at Michigan, have won this year. This is like Bart Simpson getting outwitted by Uter and that nerdy kid with the glasses and nasal voice. It sucks and it shouldn't happen, but you have to think that it won't last long.

One of the best things about rooting for Michigan is that they've been an incredibly resilient team. They've got games left at Iowa, and home against Penn State and Ohio State. They might not be favored in a single one of those, but I'll be shocked if they lose more than one. Of course, at this point, I'm not taking Ralph Wiggum or Martin Prince for granted either so anything could happen. To say the least, it will be interesting.