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Saturday, June 27, 2015

HARBAUGH TOPS LONG LIST OF FAMOUS DRUNKS IN MICHIGAN FOOTBALL HISTORY

The news about Jim Minick driving drunk and running his car off the road into a tree was quite appropriate, as Minick works for the University of Michigan. Wolverine athletes and coaches, most notably in football, have a long history of drinking and driving their way to a DUI.

Minick may be the latest UM football luminary to get popped for too much punch, as he was arrested, suspended, and reinstated in a three week span. But he's not the brightest light in the DUI Sky for Michigan. That distinction now belongs to Head Coach Jim Harbaugh.

Harbaugh is one of many in the Michigan Football
program to be arrested for drunkenness.

But he must be the only UM Coach with a DUI to hire
an assistant who got a DUI within months of his hire.


Gary Moeller was the all-time UM leader for Drunk and Disorderly after his famous meltdown at the Excalibur restaurant in Southfield. Hard to top the sitting Head Coach berating his wife and pushing police officers around in public during an evening out after which he was out of a job.

What about players like Daryl Stonum, who police found slumped over the steering wheel of his car while it was idling at a blinking red light. Stonum entered the legal system, in which he committed multiple acts of negligence, default, and repeated drunk driving. His suspension spanned the tenures of two different head coaches.

Don't forget Braylon Edwards, who was arrested for "Extreme DUI" just last month, his second offense as a pro player. He wasn't playing for UM at the time, so he ranks behind Stonum, who would have easily earned the rank of "Extreme" if had just done his thing south of the state line.

Everybody needs a third place winner and for recent players we will name Fitz Toussaint, a fancy-named Frenchman who enjoys his wine with dinner, lunch, and sometimes breakfast. The arresting officer said Fitzy was very nice about his arrest, which was later posted as a YouTube video. A sequel was posted showing the booking process after his arrest. A very famous drunk!

And finally, what about THIS GUY, who said the UM Football team drove-him-to-drink-and-drive by getting bullwhipped by MSU in Spartan Stadium two years ago. Nobody caught up to him last fall after the 35-11 loss by his "victors".

But we still say Harbaugh tops the list, because he is the current head coach, he was popped for DUI in his mid-30s, and he hand-picked and hired the guy who just got busted last month. Has there ever been another UM coach who both has a DUI and then hired a (questionably qualified) subordinate who then also racked up a DUI within a few short months of his hire?

Man, that Harbaugh is quick!

He hired Minick in February, and
Minick got his first UM-DUI by May.

Have we missed one of your favorite Michigan Wolverine crazy-drunk stories? Let us know, by leaving a Comment below.




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TOPLESS HARBAUGH INCIDENT REMINISCENT OF LARRY HARRISON SAGA

Do you remember Larry Harrison? Can you recall the last things he did to get in the news? We think not, that's why we're writing about him today. If a Spartan did what that Wolverine did, only a decade ago, everybody would be very familiar with the story.

But let's start with Jim Harbaugh. He publicly disrobed, going topless with plenty of folks around, only to be hailed as an over-exuberant, playful, life-loving football fanatic who exudes a boyish charm. Right?

We know that a man going topless is not illegal, but in the annals of college football history, we can't name any other major college coach who took his shirt off in public, can you? No doubt, it's a least a bit odd. And there is certainly nothing meritorious about it, especially considering the pasty-white flab shots that were transmitted across the Internet for weeks.

Our point about Harbaugh in this incident is that he did something completely weird and at least a bit anti-social, and his adoring fans in the sports media cut him yet more slack for a really questionable decision. Even in an impromptu game of "shirts-vs-skins", he had all of the authority necessary to quickly and quietly decide that his team would be the "shirts" before going forward with his fun and games. Nobody would have questioned it, and perhaps more importantly, nobody would have noticed.

Are you getting the idea that Harbaugh likes to be noticed?
He is an attention-diva.

So the sports media reports on and interprets an unprecedented and borderline anti-social body exposure incident by Harbaugh as unbridled enthusiasm for his job. Would the same behavior by Mark Dantonio draw the same media response? Hmmm.

Now back to Larry Harrison, by now you're wondering who the heck that guy is, right? Okay, we will tell you, with supporting links to prove we're not making this up.

Larry Harrison was a University of Michigan football player with NFL aspirations who also decided to take off some of his clothes. Okay, maybe all of his clothes. And he played a game while undressed, but his game had only one player, and the player's name was Peter. The audience was not nearly as large as Harbaugh had, and it was comprised only of college-age females who were in their own house during the show.

Please read the stories that are linked (above) to get all of the details, as we don't plan to list them all in this article. Then ask yourself, what if the football player in this story was from Michigan State, would the sports media ever let us forget about it?

Consider if a current MSU football player with NFL aspirations did the same thing as Larry Harrison. Do you really think the story would be swept under the carpet as the media did on behalf of the UM player?

Sure, there were stories and a few reports, we're not saying it was a "cover-up", but the professional sports media is required to publish those basic stories when the events happen. We're talking about the media narrative that permeates our cultural consciousness, leading most people to think things and even believe things based on "what they hear" on a regular basis. (This may sound like psycho-babble, but at least it's not complex psycho-babble. This is pretty basic stuff.)

There are currently three Spartans who are reportedly on their way to the NFL. Pick any one of those three, imagine if they pulled "a Larry Harrison" around the MSU campus, and consider the media fire-storm that would have ensued. This type of behavior goes well beyond a couple of wild pitches in batting practice, and look what the sports media did to MSU over that one.

So Harbaugh catches yet another break from the sports media, while nobody notices how totally strange he behaved that day, and the UM player who did so much more gets lost in the dusty sidelines of sports history. The sports media treatment of Michigan, especially by comparison to Michigan State, has formed a distorted public viewpoint about the two schools for decades.




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Thursday, June 25, 2015

HARBAUGH CANNOT USE THE "WE'RE TOO YOUNG" EXCUSE - - - IT'S NOW OFFICIALLY EXPIRED FOR MICHIGAN FOOTBALL

We have all been witness to the sports media romancing of Michigan Football Coach Jim Harbaugh. Ever since his hiring, sports reporters across the nation have been fawning over him, scrambling for a chance to get up close and person with their favorite man-crush. All before he has even coached a game.

What will happen this fall, during the actual football season, if things don't go just right? For example, what if Halloween comes around and UM has not clinched the national title, what then? Will the blue-and-yellow journalists accept any and all excuses from Shembechler Hall?

One excuse that is no longer available for use by the new guy is the "We're too young" claim upon which Brady Hoke built his short career in Ann Arbor. You remember those days, don't you? Every time something went wrong, Hoke and his minions claimed their team was basically nothing but true freshmen at every position, especially the offensive line. They would have had us believe that the Michigan O-Line was comprised solely of high school sophomores, despite the presence of two fifth-year senior starters last season.

We exposed the "True Lies" about the Wolverine Excuse Machine several times, including here and here. They weren't true then, and they definitely aren't true now, as Phil Steele has already proclaimed UM Football to be one of the oldest and most experienced teams in college football.

So that's one more card that can no longer be played by the Bluebloods. At least for football. They will probably continue to make such excuses about their men's basketball team, and they have a point there, but only due to their own coach. John Beilein simply does not want seniors on his teams, period. He wants them to either drop out or leave before their final season of eligibility is used up.

When we turn our attention to basketball, we will point out how many Beilein recruits end up celebrating their "Senior Night" in another team's arena. Max Bielfeldt will be the next former Wolverine to finish up elsewhere.

So as we approach football season, we can rest assured that we will not hear the whining of Wolverine Nation include excuses about "youth", as that has been de-bunked, once and for all.




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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

SPORTS MEDIA LOVE AFFAIR WITH JIM HARBAUGH KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES


(originally published on 5-21-15)

We talk a lot about the discrepancy between REALITY and ILLUSION that is propagated daily by the local sports media in favor of the University of Michigan. In fact, that's the main reason why this web site exists, to bridge the information gap that serves to prop-up the image of UM. If the sports media were fair and balanced and impartial when covering their beloved Wolverines, we would have little reason to contribute our material for your review.

The National Sports Media often climbs right on the Michigan Bandwagon and starts blowing the horn for yellow-and-blue. This week, the Michigan Mainstream Media Machine (M-4) took to the Internet once again, proudly proclaiming that Jim Harbaugh is the #6 Coach in college football.

Hold on, now, Harbaugh hasn't coached a college game in more than four years. He's never had more than three winning seasons in a row as a college coach, and only one winning season in his last four years as a college coach. How does he make it on such a list?

The only explanation is that his "credentials" include professional coaching in the NFL. Yet there are no other NFL coaches on this recently published list. No Belichick, no Carroll, not even a Harbaugh named "John". So it must be that NFL credentials can't get great coaches on this list, unless......unless......unless their name is Jim Harbaugh and they proudly wear Khakis while tweeting love letters to the girlfriends of high school athletes.

What's next, a list showing Tom Brady 
as the #6 "college quarterback"?




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Monday, June 22, 2015

"THE JIM HARBAUGH SHOW": PLAYING DAILY IN ANN ARBOR, ADMISSION BY "FREE PASS"


(originally published on 5-14-15)

It finally had to come down to something like this, offering an eighth-grader a scholarship to play at Michigan. Jim Harbaugh has done just about everything else in the last four months, so why not get down and dirty and desperate?

Surprising? Not if you've been paying attention. After all, Harbaugh has already secured his title as "Coach Clown" of the off-season, by doing things like:


What's next, SKY-WRITING?

Seems like just about the only things that Harbaugh has NOT done since being hired by Michigan is to coach his team in a winning game or bring in a big recruiting class, the two things he was actually hired to do. Is it possible that all of his shenanigans are meant to cover-up for the fact that he really hasn't done much of anything at UM yet?

It's almost like Harbaugh was issued a "free pass"
immediately upon being hired.

That "free pass" has been renewed several times already.

Others in the sports media have noticed this and reported on it, but the overall effect has been to maintain all of the luster amidst all of the bluster of the Emperor who is wearing no clothes. The Detroit News wrote about it, and so did NBC Sports, but their story-lines came out BEFORE SIGNING DAY, almost as if the "free pass" they were reporting on was actually given to Harbaugh as part of their report.

This is the same guy who produced a four-year record of 29-21 at Stanford, a program that was struggling before his arrival. Not bad, nothing to be ashamed of there. But in the first four years of the Mark Dantonio Era, Michigan State put up a 33-19 record after years of program-wide frustration. Those are very similar performance records, but the disparate treatment of the two coaches by the UM-loving sports media has been hard to stomach for many of us.

It must be that Harbaugh has been out-performing his predecessors, right? He must have turned the corner after Hoke and Rodriguez, and the media has responded with the frenzy of Kardashian-style adulation. Right?

Here's a comparison of the first recruiting classes of each of those UM coaches, all of which were "partial years" as they were all hired between the end of a season and National Signing Day:

  • Rich Rodriguez was hired on 12-17-07. His first class of 24 recruits was ranked #10 by Rivals (2008) 
  • Brady Hoke was hired on 1-11-11. His first class of 20 recruits was ranked #21 by Rivals (2011)
  • Jim Harbaugh was hired on 12-30-14. His first class of 14 recruits was ranked #49 by Rivals (2015)

All three coaches took over within a 25-day time-frame of each other in different seasons. Compared to Hoke and Rodriguez, Harbaugh signed fewer recruits and scored a lower class-ranking.

So why all the fuss about this guy?






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Sunday, June 21, 2015

HARBAUGH TO STAR IN TELEVISION REALITY SHOW THIS SUMMER ON EVERY U.S. CHANNEL


(originally published on 4-1-15)

What ever happened to Jim Harbaugh? That was who Michigan hired to coach football next year, wasn't it? Seems like the guy showed up for his intro press conference, then he just seemed to disappear into the bowels of Shembechler Hall. It was like he rolled his sleeves up and just got right down to work, and you never heard or saw from him again, right?

Well, good news for those who don't get enough regular coverage of King James of Ann Arbor. He'll soon be showing up on your home television screens as star of a Reality-TV series debuting this summer season, called "All Harbaugh, All the Time"It will appear every night on every major network during all of prime-time. Each channel will carry a different camera-angle selected from the more than one-hundred that will be put to use during production of the show.

For example, you might watch the various networks listed below to view the camera-angle listed with it:
CBS: Camera #5, Jim's living room sofa
ABC: Camera #12, Jim's toaster and kitchen sink
NBC: Camera #26, Jim's large mirror collection
FOX: Camera #41, Jim's "Hall of Bo"
CNN: Camera #73, Jim's ex-wife's car interior
A&E: Camera #112, Jim's toothbrush-cam
Several episodes have already been shot and produced for the endless series of daily shows about to sweep across America like a vast wave of locusts grinding up the Great Plains. Among them:

  • Episode #10, "Jim Brushes His Teeth"
  • Episode #14, "Coach Jim Gets the Hiccups"
  • Episode #19, "Lord James Files His Nails"
  • Episode #23, "The Great One Empties the Trash"
  • Episode #26, "Le Harboni Shops for Fruit"
  • Episode #29, "The Most Revered One Makes a Phone Call"
  • Episode #33, "Drive Time - Jimmy Tools Around Town"
  • Episode #38, "High School Girls and Harbaugh"
  • Episode #41, "Bwana, Jim: Coach Gets a Haircut"
  • Episode #47, "Do You Want Your Quarter Back?"

Harbaugh has had little comment on the upcoming series, cooped-up as he is in his small corner office, keeping mostly to himself since the day he was hired by UM. When asked to remark on the show, Harbaugh said, "Hey, are you going to get out a camera and take a picture of me or something? Are you? 'Cause if you're not, I can go looking for somebody with a camera, you know? So come on, take the picture, will you?"

The beloved new hire sports an undefeated record at UM, with a team that is un-tied and un-scored-upon as well. He is expected to remain undefeated for several months to come, which should, in turn, gradually raise Michigan's national ranking.




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Saturday, June 20, 2015

HARBAUGH TO OPEN SEASON WITH A SPLASH


(originally published on 4-1-15)

While some Michigan fans are drowning their basketball sorrows in a pool of self-pity, others are getting ready for the upcoming football season. Or, as many of them call it, "Harbaugh Season".

Turns out the new UM Head Coach has big plans to kickoff the first of his several seasons at the helm of the Wolverines. New Athletic Director Buddy Hackett has planned a big debut for his favorite unicorn.

Jimmy Harbaugh will put on a show to remember on opening day 2015. The pre-game festivities will begin with a fly-over Michigan Stadium by the United States Air Force. Harbaugh will be on the third of the three planes, all of which will perform loop-de-loops immediately over the stadium. At the apex of the third loop-de-loop, Harbs will be jettisoned into the air while wearing a yellow cape, but without a parachute. Once airborne, the Great Harboni will do the following:

  • On the way down, he will begin flying under his super powers. He will circle the stadium at 500 feet high, singing the Michigan Pep Song in five different octaves as he soars above the frothing throngs below.
  • He will then leave the local airspace and enter outer space in a tight circle around the planet, using the trick taught to him by his cousin, Superman, flying faster than the speed of light in order to go backwards in time. He will come out of his orbit in the year 1986, when he was the UM quarterback and his idol, Glenn Shembechler, was the coach. Harbaugh will land on the Michigan sideline, present his hat to the coach for a signature, then fly back to the present day with the autographed hat in hand.
  • The Flying Flamboni will then land on the 50-yard-line, waving the hat to thunderous applause from the victory-starved masses. He will perform a series of high-altitude cartwheels down both hash-marks on the field, while simultaneously juggling five footballs.
  • After throwing each football 75 yards into a milk bucket, he will single-handedly construct from scratch an in-ground swimming pool in less than one minute. During this time, his image will be nothing but a blur to the human eye. When he re-appears, he will be dancing on the surface of the water to the "Spirit of Liberty March", the song that was converted into the UM Pep Song a century ago. He will then de-construct the pool and restore the field to its original condition before re-appearing for the national anthem.
  • Harbaugh will conclude his pre-game show by singing the national anthem in 12 different languages, alternating languages with each word of the song. The 12 languages are to represent the 12 bowl-game defeats accomplished by his hero, the man who fired Ernie Harwell.

Michigan officials have confirmed that King James will be wearing his trademark "khakis", the brand-name pant worn by tens of millions of men in this country. His coronation ceremony, originally performed in a private setting the day after Brady Hoke was fired, will be re-enacted at half-time of the home-opener.





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Friday, June 19, 2015

JIM HARBAUGH TO BE GRANTED AN AUDIENCE WITH THE POPE

(originally published on 3-6-15)

Michigan Football Coach Jim Harbaugh has been on a whirlwind tour since taking the job two months ago. He's running a 24/7 schedule, busy with eating breakfast, putting on his pants, promising recruits they can wear their favorite number, and now, performing miracles on the highway. It's that most recent act of wonderment that has Harbs in line to meet with the Spiritual King of the Western World.

Seems that most UM folks have realized that Coach Jimmy is a step or two beyond the rest of the human race, so why not make a move to have him recognized for it? Michigan Athletic Director Buddy Hackett has arranged to get his main man to the holy chambers in a bid to achieve "sainthood" for the Wolverine's latest son-of-God athletic character.

That's right, Harbaugh is headed for the top, and when he gets the Big Guy's blessing, he will henceforth be known as "Saint James of Ann Arbor". (Or at least that moniker will become official, as many around that town have already been using it since last Fall.)

So how do you become a Saint? Surely it's not easy, but it's actually not as hard as you may think, especially for a supernatural hero such as Harbaugh. Here's what he has to do:

  1. First step is to have a Bishop investigate his life to determine if he is truly a "servant of God". The Detroit Sports Media has already anointed him accordingly, so the actual Bishop-guy is not necessary. Harbaugh passes on to the next step.
  2. Next, the applicant must have lived "heroic virtues" during his life. Since Harbaugh played for Bo Shembechler, and since Shemp was 5-12 in post-season bowl games, that makes Harbaugh a hero (again, to the Detroit Sports Media). This earns Harby the title of "Venerable", and he moves to the third level of consideration.
  3. The third criteria requires the successful applicant to have performed a "Miracle". Since Jimbo let the Minnesota Vikings come back against his Chicago Bears by over-ruling the play-call from Mike Ditka and throwing an interception to spark a 21-point comeback in the fourth-quarter, he qualifies. (That was surely a "miracle" win by the Vikes.)
  4. The fourth and final step for Harbaugh to become a Saint is to perform a second "Miracle" after beatification. When he reaches this point in the process, he must merely refer to the team from Columbus as "Ohio STATE" and he will be eligible for canonization. For it would surely be a miracle for any Ann Arbor official to refer the Buckeyes by their actual team name, rather than just the name of the state in which they are located.

So cut the Lord of Football some slack if he doesn't return your phone calls promptly. After all, he might be busy pouring juice on his Wheaties, or zipping up his favorite Khakis, or making out with strange women on the freeway, or even working with a quarterback from another team who was penalized more than once as a college player and has no remaining eligibility. That's important stuff for a man who has been sanctified by so many!




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Thursday, June 18, 2015

EXAMINING THE "EXPERT COACH": JIM HARBAUGH AT STANFORD, 2010 SEASON

We have heard a lot of noise about how Harbaugh is "1 of the 3 best football coaches at any level." That is typically followed by noise about his successes at Stanford, especially in games versus USC.

Well, the facts of the matter are Harbaugh only had 2 winning seasons out of 4 at Stanford and only 1 of those seasons could be called remarkable.

  • 2007:   4-8 (no bowl)
  • 2008:   5-7 (no bowl)
  • 2009:   8-5 (lost Sun Bowl)
  • 2010: 12-1 (won Orange Bowl)


That is a 29-21-0 (.580) record with a 1-1 bowl record. So, let's look at the Stanford 2010 season under Harbaugh's "expert" coaching.

  • Stanford's 13 opponents played 162 games that season with a whopping .518 aggregate season record (84-78-0) .
  • OOC opponents had a season aggregate of 21-27-0 (.437).
  • Including the bowl opponent, the OOC aggregate season record goes to 32-30-0 (.516).

Conference opponents had a whopping season aggregate of 52-48-0 (.520):

  • 5 of the 13 opponents had losing records that season (Washington St. 2-10, Wake Forest 3-9, UCLA 4-8, California 5-7, Oregon St. 5-7).
  • 1 team (Arizona St.) went .500.
  • 1 of the teams with a winning record (6-5) was Cal. St.-Sacramento, a I-AA team.
  • 2 teams went 7-6 (Washington, Arizona)
  • 2 teams went 8-5, including the vaunted USC, and Notre Dame.
  • 2 teams had 10 or more wins.
  • Oregon (12-1, Pac-12 Champions) walloped Stanford 52-31.
  • This leaves the only noteworthy win for the Cardinal in 2010 - a 40-12 win over Virginia Tech (11-3) in the Orange Bowl.


Yes, indeed, Harbaugh is qualified to follow in the footsteps of the Legendary Bo Schembechler, who put up similar results against equally inept opponents, but could not win the big one. Neither has Harbaugh.



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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

JIM HARBAUGH NAMED B1G CONFERENCE "COACH-OF-THE-MONTH" FOR JANUARY


(originally published on 2-10-15)


Michigan Football Coach Jim Harbaugh has made a great impression since his hiring six weeks ago, although he didn't exactly "hit a home run" on National Signing Day last week. But now he gets a more important distinction, as the B1G Conference has named him "Coach-of-the-Month" for January 2015.

The conference cited several key criteria for the award, not the least of which was Harbaugh's undefeated record on the field. Among the other reasons for the honor:


Critics have suggested that Harbaugh really shouldn't be getting any such awards, at least not until he actually coaches his team to a victory on the field. But university officials point out that no such criteria for honor is necessary at Michigan, because just being at UM is an honor in itself. Athletic Director Buddy Hackett points out that Harbaugh recruited himself to be the head coach, and he said that action alone is worth an award by Wolverine standards.

Others in the Michigan Athletic Department have previously been given awards for similar "performances". Quarterbacks Tate Forcier, Denard Robinson, and Devin Gardner all received the coveted "September Heisman Award" in past seasons, and basketball player Mitch McGary received the "Injured Starter" trophy even though he almost never started any game at UM. Former player Desmond Howard also earned the right to "eat crow" in recent years, without ever playing a game. And former Coach Brady Hoke was consistently awarded the title of "Our Lord God" before getting crucified by an angry UM mob as last season ended.

Harbaugh is expected to accept the award sometime next week, in-between eating cereal, putting on his pants, and sending out tweets to mock other team's players.


(SATIRE)

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Tuesday, June 16, 2015

JIM HARBAUGH HAS BEEN ISSUED A "FREE PASS"


(originally published on 2-3-15, one day before NLI Signing Day)

The moment that Jim Harbaugh was hired as Head Football Coach at the University of Michigan, he was proclaimed the SAVIOR of UM, well on his way to GOD-LIKE status. An invisible countdown-clock began the inevitable march towards National Letter-of-Intent "Signing Day". Expectations of another mythical "recruiting championship" were stoked and blazing.

After the initial frenzy of Harbaugh-Love began to simmer down, reports began to flow in regarding The King's every move. He wears Khakis, he eats cereal with fruit juice, he once attacked Jim Kelly, and so forth. All of the Blue Faithful were counting on a big victory for Michigan on February 4.

We saw reports of Harbaugh criss-crossing the country, offering to poach every highly-ranked verbally-committed player from every program in the land. It was believed that getting a call from The New Elvis was tantamount to seeing Ed McMahon on your doorstep with an oversized check in hand. To be visited by The Great One was like getting an audience with the Pope. A UM offer was considered to be blue gold.

But here we are, less than 24 hours from the grand event, and the Lord of Ann Arbor has openly received only three verbal commitments, including one from a 3-star player who "flipped" from Connecticut. He's also seen his staff given the bum rush while on the recruiting trail, and watched while another recruit seemed to flip-out after the UM pitch, wavering wildly between schools on public media.

So where does that leave Jim Harbaugh today? We got our answer when we saw articles popping up in the last 48 hours that are pre-absolving the Great God of Football, just in case the massive gold-rush to Wolverine Country doesn't actually get started just quite yet.

In other words, he's great if he does well,
and he's still great if he doesn't do well.

This is truly "The Michigan Difference".  The rest of us have to actually do great things to be considered great, but where UM is concerned, they like to think of themselves as great, either way. No further evidence is needed beyond that one letter of the alphabet. This is the same syndrome that has projected a halo over John Beilein's head as his team struggles to avoid the N.I.T.

Perhaps Harbaugh hits the mother-lode on Wednesday, but you can see that he is now covered if he doesn't. The national sports media has tilted the landscape of public perception to protect their hero from harm in the event he doesn't actually perform like a hero.

Jim Harbaugh has been given a "free pass",
as he is no longer expected to perform like a deity
in order to be viewed as one.


By the way, did you notice that Mark Dantonio often wears Khakis, too?


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- - - BREAKING NEWS - - - THIS JUST IN - - - 




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Monday, June 15, 2015

ONE FINAL BIT OF STUFF ABOUT HARBAUGH


(originally published on 1-8-15)

We all get the picture of Mark Dantonio as a "family man", with a wife and kids that matter to him. He's been married for 24 years to his one and only wife. Upon being named Michigan State Head Football Coach, he mentioned his children's affinity to green-and-white*, developed while he worked as an assistant at MSU, as a reason for coming back to East Lansing permanently.

The flashy new guy down in Ann Arbor is just a little bit different than Dantonio. Jim Harbaugh was a carousing playboy during his NFL years, once asking a team staffer to track down the phone number of a lingerie model whose picture he had just circled in a catalog. Towards the end of his playing days, he got married.

Then he got divorced. Then he got married to a woman who is 15 years younger than him. (Since he was over age 31 at the time, it was not illegal to do so.) He reportedly met his current wife in the parking lot of a chinese restaurant. In all, he has six offspring by two different wives. He is apparently leaving one of his "families" behind to take the Michigan job.

This post is a personal observation
comparing Harbaugh to Dantonio,
it's not about playing careers or coaching styles.

Make of it what you want.

(I have my own "take on it",
but for this article, I'll leave it at that.)




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*Page 30 of the link: "We still lay on Spartan blankets at home. We have a lot of things from Michigan State that are just cherished as part of our past." -Mark Dantonio in 2006

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Sunday, June 14, 2015

EVEN MORE STUFF ABOUT JIM HARBAUGH


(originally published on 1-7-15)
PART EIGHT
Everybody seems to believe that Jim Harbaugh is a "player's coach", and that he was run out of San Francisco by the team owners, while his players all loved him. Not so fast my friends!

The truth is that Harbaugh created a toxic locker room in which he, the head coach, was public enemy number one. His player's hatred of him was despite a winning record on the field:


Maybe some of his players liked him because he let them go nuts off the field and do anything they wanted, illegal or not, as long as they helped him win games. After all, "player accountability issues" were cited by the 49ers owners as a reason for letting Harbaugh out of his contract a year early.


But it wasn't only in the NFL that players didn't necessarily warm-up to Harbaugh. At least one former Stanford player is now an Ohio State fan:


Even with the knowledge that Harbaugh was on the horizon, at least two current players on the Michigan Football roster have announced plans to transfer. Maybe the new guy isn't all he's cracked up to be?




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Saturday, June 13, 2015

SOME MORE STUFF ABOUT JIM HARBAUGH


(originally published on 1-7-15)
Part Seven
Jim Harbaugh returns to Michigan with a reputation as a "winner", and by now, every true-blue UM fan has his team records memorized. They can tell you all about San Diego and San Francisco and Stanford. But what about Harbaugh's record at the University of Michigan?

His four years in Ann Arbor yielded an overall winning record, as did anybody who played under Bo Shembechler. After all, Coach Glenn only had one non-winning year, with a 6-6 finish in 1984. That year was unusual, with a lot of injuries, and a starting quarterback named Jim Harbaugh.

Wait, what's that you say? Harbaugh was QB for Shembechler's worst team at Michigan? That's absolutely correct. The Wolverines were 6-6 in 1984 with a come-from-ahead bowl game loss.

Hold on, did you just say that "Captain Comeback" lost a game in which his team held a half-time lead? That's absolutely correct. Michigan led Brigham Young 15-13 at the half, only to lose, 22-15.

Harbaugh's record as a player at UM also included three bowl-game losses in four tries. And yes, he lost to Michigan State.

So there still seems to be "more to the story" about Harbaugh than what UM officials are talking about, and perhaps much more than the Michigan Mainstream Media Machine is letting on.




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Friday, June 12, 2015

HARBAUGH BEATS "OHIO" FOR FOOTBALL RECRUIT KIANTE ENIS

Jim Harbaugh is definitely "The Man", isn't he? Okay, a little pasty-white for his topless photos, but overall, he is a true miracle worker. He has elevated his alma mater from a 5-7 season to national champion contender, even after losing his right-hand-man to a drunk-driving charge.

Now, the Gridiron God is taken everything a step farther, by securing the verbal commitment of Kiante Enis. Some may scoff at the offer list of Enis, but Wolverine fans are exuberant over the recruiting victory, since Harbaugh stole Enis from the clutches of arch-rival "Ohio".

By "Ohio", we actually mean "Ohio".
Not "Ohio State".


Brady Hoke returned to Ann Arbor with a new name for the Ohio State Buckeyes, consistently referring to the school in Columbus by the name of the school in Athens. But did Hoke ever actually beat "Ohio" head-to-head on the recruiting trail? Probably not, and that's just more proof that Jim Harbaugh is everything a football deity should be.



HARBAUGH GOES HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH "OHIO"



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Thursday, June 11, 2015

DID YOU HEAR THIS STUFF ABOUT JIM HARBAUGH?


(originally published on 1-6-15)

Part Six
How old were you the last time you got into a fight? When was the last time you confronted somebody to punch them out because they called you a name? For most of us, probably Middle School, for some of us, perhaps High School. In the case of competitive athletes, this might crop up once in awhile at the College level.

We can all agree that when somebody calls you a name, you can answer back with the old "sticks and stones" saying, or you could walk away, or you could get a lawyer if you think you have a case. But you probably don't lash out into fisticuffs over name-calling, not once you're all grown-up.

Or maybe unless you're Jim Harbaugh? He confronted a name-caller with punches and man-wrestling at the tender age of 34. And the man he attacked was Jim Kelly, while he was working his television job covering pro football after his retirement.

Wait, what, you're saying? You didn't hear about this in the big presser last week in Ann Arbor? You can find out about it in this online list, or from these sources:



The physical evidence of the assault was the broken punching-hand of Harbaugh. And by the way, he wants you to think that he actually connected with Kelly, but not according to Kelly:


When people refer to the newly anointed savior as "Captain Crazy" or "Head-Case Harbaugh" or other similar names, this is one of the examples of why is described as such. There are reasons why Michigan didn't hire Harbaugh in the past.

The inmates are now running the asylum
down in Shembechler hall.




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