By: Chantel Jennings
Daily Sports Editor
Published July 5th, 2009
In the Wolverines last home game of the season, only 40,000 total fans made it to halftime — with the student section only about 20 percent full.
- Max Collins/Daily
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We go to the “Harvard of the West,” but we can’t figure out how to layer clothing? We put on Ugg Boots during welcome week but forget them when its freezing outside? We can paint our chests and turn men’s shirts into dresses but it’s a useless show of school spirit if we only stay for a quarter.
Didn’t Bo say, “Those who stay will be champions?” Sorry Bo: We, as fans, have failed you. We, as fans, have failed the team.
That's one thing diehard NASCAR fans will never compromise. Their cholesterol? Sure. Their refinement? You bet. But their loyalty? Not a chance.
During one interview I asked a man, “So, win or lose, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is your guy, right?”
He looked at me, petrified, and questioned why I was asking about gay rights. Decades of being a NASCAR fan had deteriorated his hearing to the point that "guy, right" sounded like "gay rights."
But later, he agreed — win or lose, he would support Earnhardt. And it was pretty clear partial deafness didn't phase his staunch fandom. If anything, it made the sound of the cars on the track more therapeutic.
You can’t say as much for Michigan. After a single losing season, some fans have already begun to doubt Rich Rodriguez and the Wolverines.
Last April, an article appeared in USA Today that said "The Wolverines must improve dramatically in Rodriguez's second season, or one of the nation's biggest fanbases will become restless" (Michigan — Team Notes, 04/28/2009).
A losing record shouldn’t make us restless. It should make us hungry.
The fervor of NASCAR fans opened my eyes to what the Big House could be if we step away from our acceptance of what we have been and look to what we could be.
Sept. 5 is coming faster than you think. Our offseason is slowly dwindling into preseason, and what have you done to prepare?
Do you really think Michigan football fans bleed maize and blue?
I haven't seen so much as a paper cut recently.
