Introspection: Why am I bitter and not better?

FUCK ESPN … FUCK PENIS HEAD … FUCK THIMBEL…. FUCK petit and above all FUCK day … there you go … not that I’m bitter !!! 

Imagine how low one's self regard must be to become a 'sports journalist'.  Most of them seem to be legit douche canoes.

“I Can Feel Your Anger. It Gives You Focus, Makes You Stronger.”

there's 110+ 19-22 year olds that we all can learn from, from this past year.. 

they weren't in the talking business ,they were in the ass kicking business, and business was BOOMING! 

All of those who said negative things and tried to pull us down this season are already below us. They are pathetic pond scum. Hold your head high and know we are and will always be the 2023 Undefeated National Champions of college football.

You're not the only one. But my dislike of those folks is overshadowed now by my love and appreciation for every member of Team 144. Let the positive rise above the negative - Team 144 is your muse.

Im just bitter because since the NC win it seems nothing has gone well. JH rumors. Transfers. Lack of transfers. Pro declarations. Asterisk chatter. I wish it were possible for me to just opt out of sports until next fall when I can just watch whatever we have left next season. But alas I fear I do not have the strength of will.

Football at its best is about the triumph of character, grit, and determination over the pervasive pull of mediocrity.  For that reason, you'll always have both: champions on one hand and, on the other hand, people who try to drag those champions back to mediocrity.  There's a middle ground, too, but that also consists of those who aspire to be champions and those who find comfort with something less.  My point is that you can choose to focus on those who achieved excellence or on those who try to tear down excellence.  Make the same choice these players did, and you'll be in a much better place.

Because the situation is not resolved. We're still waiting for the NCAA to complete its investigation. You can't get any closure on the season until that happens, unfortunately. At least that's how I feel. 

I can relate to this. I know it doesn’t matter. I know fuck them all. It’s a character flaw. I want everyone to understand how wrong they were and to acknowledge the greatness of this team. Why do I care…!?

A lot of journalists in today's world are looking for clicks and not substance.  Sports and news journalists alike.  Not any true journalists anymore.  They are lazy.

It's not worth being bitter.   I was surprised at Rece Davis comments, I guess he is no different than the other baiters of clicks.  Rece sunk to Pete Finebaum level. 

I am proud of what this team has accomplished and don't pay any attention to that outside noise B.S. 

It's a great question! --and a very old one. Mental states like this can be very sticky and hard to drop. There's an old method for addressing it, however, and one that has worked incredibly well for me.

First, close your eyes and imagine the person for whom you have ill will or jealousy or some other negative feeling (e.g., imagine Rece Davis' face, but not smug Rece, just smiling and relaxed Rece).

Now quietly say to yourself, "May Rece enjoy success". See how that feels--it probably won't be easy, but do it anyway. Then say, "May that success grow," "May that success spread to others," and then allow yourself to feel some joy on their behalf, maybe a small "Yay!" or "Yippee!" or "I take joy in your success".

Repeat as needed until you find feelings of ill-will reducing. Keep in mind "success" in this context doesn't mean popularity or success in spreading shit, but it's more about success in finding fulfillment. If that's hard, keep in mind that a fulfilled and happy person is less likely to cause unnecessary harm to others, but use your own definition of success.

BTW: This won't change Rece or anybody else, other than you.

You could start by giving some people some benefit of the reasonable doubt.  I have no doubt there's a lot of cynical calculation going on, but maybe some of the backtracking has been genuine.  Even the best of us get caught up with the crowd sometimes, and some of the piling on was people getting, as you say "sucked into the vortex".

But as Michigan continued to win at least some of those people stepped back, put two and two together, and realized that whatever happened with Stalions the Wolverines didn't get all that much of an advantage from it.  All the other teams were on notice, all the other teams had time to take countermeasures, and Michigan was still winning.  A lot of Michigan's critics took notice and backed down.

There are a few people who have more to answer for and I wouldn't expect anyone to forgive them all at once -- I haven't -- Tony Petitti should have respected his own league rules, regardless of what he thought about Harbaugh.  The athletic departments at OSU and MSU weren't sucked into the vortex, they were stirring it up.  There may be a few others.  You can write your own list.

But for the rest?  Yeah, a lot of people said dumb stuff.  But at least they stopped now.  Let them go.

my advice is to grow up.

You're looking for them to say "I'm sorry."  Fair enough.

You're also basing a portion of your happiness on what other people do.  Fair enough to that too.

The problem is those are 2 incompatable things.  You can't get happiness from other people.  That's literally impossible.  For a simple reason: you can't control what other people do.

The old saying --- when you forgive, that forgiveness if a gift you give to yourself.  It's not a gift you give to other people.

The media is extremely simple.  They fawn over the champs.  Soak it in now, because this is not forever and this is also as good as it gets.

These media types and their producers are not acting in good faith and haven’t been for a long time. They do not care about anything other than clicks and ratings. Shitting on Michigan during the scandal drove the most clicks and eyes to them and their employers so they engaged.  When that got stale, they changed it up. I don’t think it’s all that complicated. 

You’re stuck on the 2nd act of the play, and forgetting how the 3rd act ends. 😅😉

We’ve become highly attuned to Schadenfreude. We derive more pleasure from seeing our enemies fail than we do from experiencing our own successes. If you’re in a bad spot with that, embrace it as your truth and then work from there. Else you’re gonna just be there in perpetuity.

It was in late 2018 or so when my old friend invited me to a Red Wings game that he got free tickets for.  We parked at a bar that my friend frequented, and we took their shuttle bus to the game and back.  Afterwards we were getting drunk, talking to the bartender about college football.  Most at this bar, including my buddy (not a big sports guy), seemed to be MSU fans.  

Once the bartender discovered I was a Michigan fan and knew football, we sat there for too long that night as I argued with him about Harbaugh, so long that I often have wondered if my friend really got pissed at me because he didn't call me for a while. "Harbaugh will never beat OSU", he said.  Among many other things.  I said, "If JT had been marked short, you couldn't say that, so you are crazy".  "Just wait, their day will come soon", I said.  Etc.   

He was so smug and sure of himself, I will never forget it.  I have wondered several times in the last 3 years if he regrets being such an asshole to me and the other people he spouted his crap to, since he was obviously proven wrong.  I'm sure he stewed about the game on Monday.

I don't think he regrets it.  But he and my friend both know.  And I know.  And that's good enough for me.

You’re paying attention to people who are paid to do exactly one thing: get your attention.

Media addiction is definitely a thing, and I wish people would take it more seriously.

Whoever green lit Stallions and his stupidity should go as well.  

You’re correct to feel this way, same as I do.  They’re all a bunch of cowards only looking for clicks and views to stroke their own ego.

Bet.

Man I just don't care. I watch the games and enjoy them. That's all anyone should do. 

The joy is the knowledge, forever, that they are filthy whores pushing a narrative for the "kool kids".

Fine, henceforth anything they say is Freep/Valenti/Rosenberg level and forever will be. They showed their red ass and now they can wallow in repudiation. Any time someone mentions them they get the "cheater whore" category in response. My money's with the UM fanbase on ethics and intelligence and memory.

Let All Naysayers Know!

I don't really mind reporters reporting the news. I don't remember every sentence from every article. I'm sure some annoyed me. I know that some headlines were misleading that were really in bad faith. We never really knew what happened with the allegation that Thamel disregarded a source about the OSU/Purdue/Rutgers sign stealing ring; perhaps if we had details of that I might never forgive him.

Rece Davis made some jokes, who cares. It is greatly accepted that Connor Stalions cheated (other than on this board) and therefore cheating was happening at Michigan, so "cheaters and best" gets nothing more than an eye roll from me.

Not much can be done about people like Finebaum and Stephen A. Professional trolls that somehow got a big platform.

My anger is reserved for Petitti and the many, many coaches and athletic directors in our conference who know better and still anonymously ripped Michigan in the media so that reporters would let it be known that 13 other schools (well maybe not Iowa) believed the only reason Michigan beat Nebraska this year is because of sign stealing. They are not forgiven.

Sword of Damocles' or waiting for the other shoe to drop?  The NCAA and the Big 10 have no rational reason to go after Michigan and yet they did/do.  That "no rational reason" still exists.  They are not done with Michigan, yet. 

Is it really about paying the players?  That issue isn't going away so why take it out Jim Harbaugh?  Forgive them.  They know not what they do.

It’s fine to be bitter. Those assholes controlled the narrative in order to get clicks and for a less mentally strong team it could have derailed their season. Just because we survived doesn’t mean what they did was right. Letting them off the hook only emboldens them to continue to craft narratives that benefit their news organization. 
 

But I’m not letting the bitterness in any way damper the enjoyment of what Michigan accomplished. 

Michigan vs Nobody.

All competitors and haters have been vanquished.

Onward to next year and Team 145.

I will still hold onto some bitterness in the terms of knowing and remembering who the jackasses are and not giving them so much as another view or click again. I won’t contribute a dime to what these people make.

But nearly one week later, I sit back and think about this season, all the wonderful players and coaches, all the beautiful hardware, the memories they gave my daughter and me that will last a lifetime. 
 

And one of the best parts of all this? Think about OSU and MSU fans right now. They couldn’t be more bummed out if they tried. Michigan won the biggest prize in college athletics, and there isn’t a damn thing they can do about it but cope and seethe :)

I had to click on your thread because I didn’t have a clue of what you could be bitter about. One of the blessings of not being on social media, I guess, and not watching Talking Heads talk sports. Not the literal Talking Heads, because I would love to hear them, talk sports. 
 

I actually rejoice in the bitterness on the other side of the coin. Let them cry, I say! Let them call us cheaters! I revel in that shit

C’mon get happy.

We got ‘em, Dirk.

Make it  Lake Superior for all of them. But don’t even think about them. There names don’t need to be said or thought about. Wear your national championship gear with pride. 

My advice is to detach yourself from the sports media. Watch the games, yes, but why are you watching the talking heads anyway? Most of them aren't that interesting and many of them are downright awful.

I'd add that many people--particularly in the media, but you find them everywhere--like to jump on a bandwagon. There was definitely an anti-Michigan Signgate bandwagon, and nobody who jumped on really thought about the issue.

I'd add that the media thrives on engagement, and all the nonsense about sign stealing definitely drove engagement. Nonetheless, anybody who thinks that sign stealing played a role in any of Michigan's victories after the initial report came out is an idiot.

I think it's a little difficult to put it behind us, when it's not really behind us.

We still have rival fan bases trying to stoke the story. We still have an investigation. We have a coach who has surpassed Bo currently employed, and we may not be able to retain him because of this.

I'm not as angry about it as you, but I'm not in forgive and forget territory either, people still want to weaponize the story against us, and they really don't give a shit if Connor Stalions was a rogue guy providing little competitive advantage.

Same goes for Wojo and Angelique…

wont ever read them again…

I've never been so let down as I was with Nicole. She just got so full of herself.Also Rece Davis was somebody I respected but no more. It's very difficult to get some resolution with these two especially. Two too late. Not who I thought they were.

No, sorry can’t help.  You are correct to feel this way.