Fantastic account of joining the cult of Michigan Football (paywalled)

Cults are great, they give purpose and meaning to those that are lost. I hope to lead one someday (with my 12 wives of course). 

OMG! The tailgate mentioned is my friend's! The Michigan shortbread is what my wife makes every week! This is fantastic

Gift link to the article to read for free!

Fuck the Kool aid though. At least this week

Not sure becoming a Michigan sports fan would be my choice to improve mental health. 

Here's a non-paywalled version.
 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/opinion/michigan-football-rose-bowl.html?mwgrp=c-mbar&smid=url-share

edit: oops, didn't see someone else did this already. Oh well, it's a good article, you can read it twice!

She’s coming out of her cage and she’s been doing just fine.

I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader. 
 

Creed Bratton

Free nyt access for AADL library cardholders

https://aadl.org/nytimes

Great read. And welcome to the “family”

One surprising reality of the Big House magic is that there are so many people in one place that cellphones don’t work — the infrastructure can’t handle the density of users. There is no way to experience the two to three hours together except by paying attention and participating. There is no way to get lost in a horrifying social media feed or internet rabbit hole.

Soooo many people are lost in their phones when out in public.  It’s just crazy to see - wonderful that this writer now understands how much of life can be missed if you don’t look up.

favorite line:  Coach Harbaugh gloriously has resting wolverine face.

Harbaugh has “resting wolverine face.” That was awesome.  She’ll be at the RB Alumni tailgate, can’t wait to say hi!

That was an excellent read.

What a great read.  Thank you for posting it and for the gift link.  

Excellent read! Pete Thamel could learn from her. 

I woke up with a sprained toe, four bruises, no ability to talk, a sunburn and a spiritual awakening.

Walking out into the Big House does have a religious feel, like a Mecca Pilgrimage or a Papal  Mass.

What further galvanizes this beautiful 'cult' is the pervasive animus directed at us. There is an almost universal hatred for Michigan faithful by all other college football fan bases. Add the blatant NCAA and Big Ten hypocrisy. Harbaugh buys a cheeseburger and it's a Level 1 violation, yet kids get Lamboughinis with no consequence. Connor Stalions breaks an antiquated rule to leverage a legal practice and, without investigation, the Big Ten suspends Harbaugh for the 3 most important games of the year, yet OSU may have feloniously hacked the Catapult system and an eyebrow doesn't get raised.

Yet here we are, despite all the attacks and allegations, within palatable grasp of the NCAA's highest prize. Michigan vs Everybody!

She says too, she reads this blog!  Welcome sister to this blissful congregation. You joined the cult at a beautiful time.

You put into words so eloquently sensibilities I didn't realizes I had.

HNY to my fellow devotees! In a little more than a week, lets all be speaking in tongues.

Coach Harbaugh gloriously has resting wolverine face.

Nice. That should be on a t-shirt.

My parents met as students at Michigan, so I was a fan the moment I was born. I'll never forget my first time at Michigan Stadium. I grew up in Okemos and had gone to a few Spartan games with friends the year before we started getting season tickets (I was already firmly into the M/MSU rivalry, back when it was more fun) and I remember seeing Michigan Stadium as we approached and thinking it was so much smaller than Spartan stadium with its big upper decks, and for a few minutes feeling kind of disappointed. Not for long though. My Dad had timed it so that we hung out right outside our section for a few minutes until the players took the field and we entered just as the crowd roared as the players touched the banner. What a sight it was! As I stepped in and saw the entire bowl and the crowd going crazy, I was awestruck and will never forget that moment. The whole experience really, it was an all day thing, every trip to Ann Arbor involved Blimpy Burgers, pre-game tailgating or a stop at my Dad's and his friend's fraternities, often a post game stop as well where I would play football on the lawn with other boys. Everything about Ann Arbor, the game, the environment, the stadium, was just a paradise to me growing up.

Fast forward a few years and I got to start going to some games with my older sister who was a student. Being 16 in the student section offered an entirely new facet to the whole experience that I took full advantage of, so now game day was also a party that went late into the night and ended with me crashing on someone's couch in South Quad. Sublime.

A few years later I got to go to my first game as a freshman at M and that was possibly the best one of all. I lived in Alice Lloyd and had tons of friends from out of state that had never been to a Michigan game before and I got to be a little bit of a guide (convinced a few that might not have gotten season tickets to do so) and watch them all go through a process similar to the one the writer describes in the article. Most of them were hooked after the first game. Now, something like ~37 years later, meeting a bunch of them in Pasadena to see the Rose Bowl. I also had the good fortune to have my younger brother visit me and to provide him and a few of his friends the student section treatment and late night party experience before he became an M student a few years later. 

There really is nothing like it anywhere. There is a Difference. 

Somehow, I have evolved from a person with no relationship to football to a devoted fan who now spends her free time watching Jim Harbaugh news conferences and reading GoBlue blogs.

Reading blogs? Show yourself, Jaime.

"Somehow, I have evolved from a person with no relationship to football to a devoted fan who now spends her free time watching Jim Harbaugh news conferences and reading GoBlue blogs."

Jaime, if you are reading this, thank you very much!!!

And has others have commented, this is wonderful:

"Coach Harbaugh gloriously has resting wolverine face."

Thanks for sharing!