As a person coming up on eight years of sobriety from an addiction, I think about redemption often. Over the last several years, opportunities for redemption -- or the lack of them -- have been major cultural flash points. What does it mean to own a mistake? How do we understand what harm we caused? How do we create opportunities for amends, and separate them from the demands for absolution? How do we monitor our behavior to ensure that we don't create harm again? How do we reintegrate people who have caused harm back into society rather than leaving them in a heap by the side of the road?

 

We've seen people get pulled from their jobs for the harm they caused, and we've seen that reflected on the football field. You fumble, and you've likely forfeited your next carry. Unsportsmanlike conduct is usually going to get you benched, at least for a play or two. Trust is gained in drops, but lost in buckets. 

 

Tonight's game featured at least four mini-stories where the coaches gave players opportunities to redeem themselves. Perhaps the most poignant, to me, was seeing Chris Evans punch it in (and in Chris Evans fashion, no less) after coming back from the academic malfeasance, admitting his mistake, earning his way back onto the team, into the lineup and onto the field. He was given another chance.

 

The game offered up three other real-time instances of redemption. First, Ben Mason got the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that killed all of the momentum of the first drive and put the team in 3rd and very long. But on the very next drive, he was on the receiving end of the much-ballyhooed FB pass for an impressively acrobatic TD. He got another chance. 

 

Then Blake Corum, the wunderkind freshman that got the ball rolling offensively, literally got the ball rolling on a kick return, fumbling it away and being extremely fortunate that Michael Barrett bailed him out. But on the next series, he gets his number called and busts off a chunk play. He got another chance. 

 

Finally, Erick All dropped a slam-dunk TD on a superbly designed play by Josh Gattis, but gave him the ball on the little arc pass and he nearly scores. He got another chance. 

 

These were deeply satisfying to me, not just because Michigan football is my favorite pastime, but because in a small way they showed the power of second opportunities. We won't always be so fortunate to get them. But if we do, we can make the most of them by trying to understand our past mistakes with humility. Stories of ruin make for good copy, but stories of redemption make for good connections. 

 

Go Blue!