Letter to fans from Jim Hackett
Link for larger image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRnSxwsWwAA_um_.png:large
October 18th, 2015 at 2:25 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 1:25 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 1:26 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 1:26 PM ^
Hear, hear!
Some people need to grow up and as Harbaugh put it, " steel our spine."
Toughen up play even better next game, on to the next, crush Minnesota in 2 weeks and bring the Jug back home!
October 18th, 2015 at 1:27 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 1:28 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 1:32 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 4:44 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^
I love sports - as a hobby. But the older I get, the more I hate being around sports fans. So many of them have a really warped perspective of what matters in life, and it leads to absurd bullshit like people harassing players.
Obviously, not all fans are like this. But I wish I could say it's a "small minority." It's far too many of us.
I can forgive some 10 year old kid that lives and breathes football for overreacting. Kids have no perspective. We adults should all know better. It's a game. We love it, but it's a game.
October 18th, 2015 at 1:55 PM ^
actually last night was a good reminder for me. I've been too wrapped up in football, picking apart analytics and just trying to get through the week to the actual game. Not exercising enough, not eating well, not pursuing other interests. I imagine that the most churlish fans are the ones with very little else going for them in their lives, and this did not use to be the case with me. (Except, as you said, when I was a kid. I cried when the Colorado thing happened.)
Once the play last night happened, I sort of re-realized that all predictability can be wiped away by pure luck. So many things the coaching staff and players can control and yet flukes happen. And I'm a million times more removed -- what happened on the field has pretty much zero to do with me. A good reminder that Saturday football with the greatest program in history is one of life's great bonuses. If it instead becomes a cause of ulcers and bitterness, that's on me 100%.
October 18th, 2015 at 2:30 PM ^
but it is a tiny minority of the fan base. They're vocal and revel in how instant communication technology allows them the gain attention with no risk. They've always existed but a couple of decades ago they'd have had to pull that in person or at least with full attribution.
Every fan base has these as clowns, our precentage is just smaller.
October 18th, 2015 at 1:31 PM ^
Blake had nothing to do with our team not getting a first down on the 3 plays before he
went out on the field. First down = run out the clock and win
October 18th, 2015 at 1:37 PM ^
Yes, of course there were a lot of other things that could have happened to avoid a loss. Maybe Peppers actually breaks a return. Maybe their fullback drops that wide open pass.
Saying it's not Blake's fault and it was actually 'x' player's or coach's fault simply redistributes the blame. You're not saying it's wrong to be petulant and hateful toward a team that played its guts out, you're just saying we're hating the wrong person or people. Just as petulant.
October 18th, 2015 at 1:48 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 1:52 PM ^
They played well enough to win the game. In my mind, still, they had it won. i don't understand what you get out of blaming Hill or whomever.
October 18th, 2015 at 9:05 PM ^
Sunny and crisp fall air. With Hackett and Harbaugh, the program is in great hands. Games like this bring out the worst in people -- sore winners and sore losers. It was just a few weeks ago I re-read the sad story of William Dennison Clark. I hope Blake feels the family support that defines the program. For now, a bye is a godsend. I've been taking football way too seriously lately. I'm happy for a friend of mine, a diehard MSU fan and alum who's suffered way more than I have and actually likes his team much more than he hates Michigan. Pretty sure I can ignore the other Sparties' jarheaded comments at work, begging for my approval. No sports radio, it's all cliched swill and post hoc quasi-reasoning. Go outside, take a deep breath, move forward.
October 18th, 2015 at 1:33 PM ^
As most of us on this blog, I would never even imagine sending anything hateful to these kids. Yes, these are kids. When I woke up for the millionth time last night, seeing the play over and over again in my head, (like many of us did) what hurt the most was thinking about how the players must feel. If I hurt this bad, I can't imagine how they're feeling. Anyone that would send hateful letters, emails, posts to these kids are NOT fans (just a-holes).
October 18th, 2015 at 1:39 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 18th, 2015 at 1:44 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 2:36 PM ^
Just did. His e-mail address is in the Department website.
October 18th, 2015 at 1:48 PM ^
This might be unpopular, but I don't see the point of a letter like this. It's not going to dissuade the people who attacked O'Neill, so the result is really just a press release on how terrible some fans are and how it reflects poorly on everyone else. Why not just ignore the idiots?
October 18th, 2015 at 1:57 PM ^
So, you're asserting that if your own child were the recipient of death threats and other abusive behavior at his school, your message to the school administrators would be to ignore it.
October 18th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^
Issuing a public statement to hundreds of thousands of people doesn't actually do anything except magnify an already-embarassing issue and give an even louder voice to the morons.
It's fine. I'm not ripping on Hackett. I just personally feel like these letters do a bit more harm than good.
October 18th, 2015 at 3:07 PM ^
They say what is right even when it is obvious. Confirming what is right, with authority, is never a bad idea. Some pieces of the fan base are obviously unclear on the concept of how to deal with a loss like this with dignity. Ignoring this reality is not leadership.
October 18th, 2015 at 1:49 PM ^
I absolutely love this man. As terrible as this loss was, I am giddy with optimism for the future. Our day is coming, soon
October 18th, 2015 at 1:49 PM ^
This letter is unnecessary as most of the Twitter bashers are not students. This letter really is a mistake because more gas does not need to be thrown on the fire today.
October 18th, 2015 at 1:54 PM ^
and you know this how?
October 18th, 2015 at 2:11 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 18th, 2015 at 3:05 PM ^
those Sparties previously had a high opinion of the Michigan fanbase, and Hackett's letter shattered their reality. Come on...
October 18th, 2015 at 7:51 PM ^
are young and no not neccesarily students but they can't be ruled out. I don't work for the fbi as a profiler but older people are not the type to go on twitter and say something that hurtful. Like myself , my wife made my twitter account I never even use it .
October 18th, 2015 at 1:53 PM ^
Hell yes. Thanks Mr. Hackett for a totally appropriate response. You are truly the right man for the job.
October 18th, 2015 at 1:53 PM ^
who sent those tweets, I'd be in favor of suspending, if not expelling, any UM student that sent messages that could even be construed as a death threat or invitation to suicide. If the definition of hate speech has any meaning, athletes are as deserving of consideration as anybody else is on campus.
October 18th, 2015 at 3:03 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 3:16 PM ^
Don,
Twitter user @jaaake_f1 .....is one
Twitter user @TheEricTaylor1
Is there any way to determine the identity of these pathetic twits?
October 18th, 2015 at 3:23 PM ^
The second one is obviously Jake, but the other two should somehow be publicly identified.
Perhaps we should commence a campaign to shower their Twitter accounts with our concerns.
October 18th, 2015 at 2:11 PM ^
I hate that this letter had to be written. Nobody feels worse about what happened than the punter. Yes, we all can mumble to ourselves, FUCK, just catch it and kick it away. But to go on social media and attack somebody for a total fluke screw up that was a 1 in 1000 type play is absurd.
Anybody that does that is not worthy of being part of this fanbase. Show class and respect to the alumni, tradition and great players and coaches that have been a part of this university and grow the fuck up and realize sometimes shitty things happen to our favorite teams. It's called life.
If you write hurtful messages to this player who is already hurting enough, you are a shitty, scumbag human being and we don't want you as part of our fanbase.
GET OUT!
October 18th, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 18th, 2015 at 2:32 PM ^
Before you do something, you should ask yourself, "Would an asshole do this?". If the answer is yes then do not do this thing.
Pretty simple but apparently some of our fans haven't figured this out.
October 18th, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^
bSand 2053 said it perfectly right to the point , I was totally destroyed yesterday just like everyone else , but did not think of one individual at all. Just depression
Go Blue .
October 18th, 2015 at 2:42 PM ^
Like evenyou's...dad, I am a Walmart wolverine. I like Wal-Mart! Great bargain's. I do have 3 brothers who went to U of M and a son who was on Lloyd Carl's team in 2000. I have been a wolverine fan long time ago and a season ticket holder for almost 20 years. No insult will stop me for rooting for my favorite team. Oh , an like evenyou's dad I have a 90's graduate degree. No bragging, just the facts. Go Blue!
October 18th, 2015 at 2:45 PM ^
Sorry, I meant to say 90 hrs. Graduate degree.
October 18th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^
michigan fans can be very brutal. they always have been. they some times are a bunch of cry babies. i am a michigan fan and makes me a little mad that they would attack a person after a tough game.
October 18th, 2015 at 2:55 PM ^
Nicely put by Hackett, and like others, I am actually very disappointed that such a letter needs to be written at all. I realize that Michigan fans are a highly engaged, passionate group, but like anything else, when those same traits - traits often useful in fandom - are creating a situation where your perspective is becoming warped by that fandom, it is time for those people to sit back and consider what it means to be not just a fan, but a constructively contributing human being.
October 18th, 2015 at 3:13 PM ^
Agree with the comment that those who posted these things won't see Hacketts letter, and wouldn't care if they did. If we had won in similar fashion, MSU's punter would have gotten just as many hateful messages if not more, and some would have been from the same people. Internet tough guys who get satisfaction from being hateful are an unfortunate fact of life.
October 18th, 2015 at 3:31 PM ^
Continues to impress.
October 18th, 2015 at 4:08 PM ^
October 18th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^
I hope you are right. I never played football, but I am worried for those young men who worked so hard and played so well in that game.
October 18th, 2015 at 4:48 PM ^
Shouldn't have to send letters like that. That's embarrassing as a fan and alum.