Day 28: 1464 days and counting

The best part of this one was that we were not expected to win.

Stuff I found on the internet. 

• Another excellent piece by Ramzy
• Here's a fun fact. Only people born before The Game in 1909 can say that TTUN has a winning record against the Buckeyes in their lifetime.

Day 24: Where I talk about an awful day in Buckeye football history

2006 was a magical year for Ohio State football. We were undefeated and number one in the country. Michigan was number two and The Game was an epic, super hyped, event. they called The Game of the Century. To be fair, the century was only 6 years old at the time so it didn't have a lot of competition.

We won and were headed to the BCS championship game to face Florida, who had been low ranked early in the season and snuck in at the last minute with a coach by the name of Urban Meyer. Does any of this ring a bell?

Florida was little regarded and Buckeye nation, and the rest of the regular nation, were as certain as certain could be of an Ohio State blowout. Troy Smith won the Heisman and that sealed it. We were the champions. All we had to do was show up. 

We received the opening kick and Teddy Ginn ran it back for a TD. I swear I said this aloud, "The rout is on."

We all know what happened next. 41-14 was the final score and it wasn't even that close. Urban could have put up 60. I had to leave the house at halftime and just try to start breathing again. I watched the second half in vain hopes of a miracle but none was coming. 

I was devastated, inconsolable. How? How? I spent the next two years searching for clues as to how that happened. I read everything I could read. I asked people. I listened. There were hints of locker room troubles but those went away. In the end there was only one answer. Ohio State came for a coronation; Florida came to play. 

But the longer term effect it had on me was that I no longer invest myself in the outcomes as I once did. There's football and there are things that are important. Which is why Saturday's loss to Michigan State didn't hurt that much. This was supposed to be another coronation season. After last year we were only supposed to be better. The dynasty is rolling. Right. I've been there before. 

There are times when I wish I'd gone to a college where the games are nice diversions on a Saturday afternoon, where losing isn't the end of the world, and where winning is sometimes a surprise. Where a few thousand people shuffle to the stadium on a crisp fall day, take in a sporting event, and then get on with the business of being college students.

But then I'd have probably have just wished I'd gone to Ohio State

Day 22: The Only Game That Matters

Here we are, fresh off a disappointing but well earned loss to the Spartans, and now we must marshal our team and fanbase to bring the energy we'll need to beat TTUN (That Team Up North). Before yesterday I had already said to my friends and family that the confluence of circumstances would make this game very losable. Here is my list: at Michigan, new coach, new coach is good, we've owned them for the past several years, Michigan is hungry like we were last year, we're not hungry like we were last year. So despite having superior talent and one of the best college football coaches of all time, I felt we had a good shot at losing.

Now I feel differently. Now I feel like losing is almost a certainty. Everything MSU did against us defensively, Michigan will do better. And they will run. And their passing is better.

I'm a little bit happy that Ezekial Elliot called out the coaching and the offense. Normally I think they need to keep that stuff in the locker room but maybe this will be the catalyst they need to get their shit together. Maybe if they put together all of the things they should have been doing all season into one glorious game they will win. I don't even care today about the bowl game. Only one thing matters.

And it matters a lot.

Day 21: The day the bubble burst

It was only a matter of time. The Buckeyes have been winning ugly for a while now and it caught up to them. I don't know what's going on in Columbus, but something doesn't feel right and it hasn't all season. It was masked by the winning, and forgiven in the afterglow of the national championship. And it was downplayed because we believed it would all come together, despite no evidence that it could.

In 1998 we had the number one team in the country and Michigan State came in for a 3:30 game that ended in the dark, and they upset us. It cost us a national championship that year and the loss was devastating and is still among the worst losses in program history. Today didn't feel like that, even though it should have. It felt like we finally got our due, like we finally had to give our pound of flesh for all the success.

And now we keep our eyes and ears open for the snippets of quotes and the rogue tweets and the insider whispers for clues to how this could have happened. And we may never truly know. All that's left is to beat Michigan. I hope they get their shit together and do just that, or it will be a long, long off season.

Blogapalooza Day 2: May as Well Get This Over With

The Browns.

Yes, I'm going there. This will probably be my only Browns post and now is as a good a time as any, coming off a terrible loss yesterday to Arizona. (I was going to link something there about the game but it's all so pathetic that I'll let you look on your own should you need a reason to get really bummed).

I didn't grow up a Browns fan. I was raised in Toledo and though I was a Detroit Tiger fan, I never took to the Lions. My dad was a Browns fan but for some reason I liked the Vikings. I think it happened because one year they were on TV two or three times (back then there were only one or two games on TV on a given Sunday) and they had the Purple People Eaters defense. I thought that was cool.

But upon moving to Cleveland I gradually shifted to being a Browns fan, which was easy enough because in the '80's they were watchable, Even when they broke your heart they did it with style.

Maybe when they left town we shouldn't have wanted so badly for them to come back. Maybe we should have let the NFL give us a make-up franchise a few years later and name it something else, like the Rockers or the Perch. The Cleveland Perch. I like the sound of that.

Since Cleveland fans love misery only slightly less than they do their Browns, one fan/blogger did something amazing and a little masochistic. He ranked every Browns loss since 1999, the year they gave us back the Browns.

As you might expect, blow-out losses to teams who were very good, like the 2007 Patriots, ranked very low on the list. Last second losses and losses teams they really should have beaten rank higher. The top ten is littered with losses in ways that were unimagined by the inventors of the game, ways that only the Browns could accomplish.

You know, I can't even say I recommend the list, because it's sad. Just sad. But I think maybe it's something that needs to be experienced, passed on, like an oral history of an indigenous people.

Okay, so I've done my obligatory Browns post for NaBloPoMo. Unless, of course, they manage to out-do themselves in some way, which is probably even odds.

On National Championships and Cell Phones

1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002, 2014

These are the years that Ohio State can lay claim to a National Championship. Savvy fans know that 1961 and 1970 were not consensus years and some do not count them. I don't think my dad did.

Every championship until last night happened during his lifetime.

In 1942 as a ten year old I'm not sure he was very much into it, what with WWII and surviving the Depression and all. And college football was a minor diversion. In 1942 sports was baseball, and everything else was something to do until baseball season.

Dad was a student at OSU in 1954 and 1957. There is probably nothing like being a student during a national championship year. I got close to seeing that first hand in 1979 but we lost in the Rose Bowl.

In 2002 we were 1200 miles apart but spent a lot of time on the phone and the IM (remember instant messaging?). He never saw another football game.

He would have been so damned happy this year, beating Alabama then winning it all. The only thing that would have made him happier was if we could have beaten Notre Dame to win it.

Several years ago I wrote a piece following a win over Michigan. It was during the Cooper years when a win over Michigan was a precious thing. If you don't feel like clicking over, I'll say that it featured an attempt by me to call my dad from the game, because he couldn't be there. It was a chance to be together for a special moment, and while we couldn't really hear each other due to the noise, we were connected.

I thought about this last night as Urban Meyer raged at an official near the end of the game when he couldn't understand why the clock had stopped. He reminded me of Woody, and Woody reminded me of my dad. My dad would take that as a compliment. In some version of things he and Woody were watching the game together and my dad couldn't wait to tell me about it.

My cell service doesn't go that far so I guess it'll have to wait.  Meanwhile, let's see how many more times we can make him and Woody happy.

It's Michigan Week

I realize that there are some loyal readers who are fans of That Team Up North, (and I promise I charge you the same $10 monthly fee that I charge everyone else),   But this is the week where I am compelled by the fine print on my Ohio State diploma to take every opportunity to bust your chops. So I will be posting various items in the spirit of the Greatest Rivalry in Sports.

There was this Ohio State fan who liked to amuse himself by swerving his car toward any Michigan fan he saw, then missing them at the last second. One day, while driving along, he saw a priest and, thinking he would do a good deed, pulled over to assist.

 "Where are you going Father?" 

"I'm going to give mass at St. Francis Church, about 2 miles down the road."
"Climb in, Father! I'll give you a lift!" And he climbed into the back seat.  

As they continued on, the driver saw a Michigan fan walking down the road, wearing a maize and blue "M" and instinctively swerved as if to hit him, then swerved away at the last instant. Except this time he heard a loud 'thump' as he passed. Worried, he checked his mirrors but saw nothing, then remembered the priest in the back seat.

"Sorry Father, I almost hit that Michigan fan." 

"That's okay," the priest said, "I got him with the door." 



Thanks for reading.

It's not easy being a pariah

I love Saturdays in the fall. Ohio State football. Go Bucks! But today is what they call a 'bye' week, which, to borrow from The Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

bye¹

bī/

noun

noun: bye; plural noun: byes; noun: by

1.

the transfer of a competitor directly to the next round of a competition in the absence of an assigned opponent.

2. Golf -- one or more holes remaining unplayed after the match has been decided.

Nowhere does it mean a week off. A week off is called an open week. I am, it turns out, among an overwhelming minority who understands this and tries to stand his ground. But I know it's no use. We have already lost when The Worldwide Leader can't even get it right and has no motivation to do so. It's like this is a piece of terminology that sounds all official and when you say it it makes you sound like an insider. People will never stop saying it because it's cool and easy.

Still, I sometimes correct people, much to their annoyance. I am the snotty, elitist grammar police that everybody wants to beat up.

Unwitting victim: "The Buckeyes have a bye this week.
Me: "Really, they're in a tournament?"
UV: "What?"
Me: "Are they playing in a tournament?"
UV: "No, they're not playing at all.:
Me: "Oh, you mean they have an open week."
UV: "That's what I said."
Me: 'You said 'bye' when you really meant 'open. You see, 'bye' means the transfer of a competitor directly to--"
UV: "Whatever, dude, get a life."

See?

(The first three links are awesome BTW.)