Semi OT: Russell Crowe Shares Weird / Cool Story About His M Football Pregame Speech
This is a sort of bizarre story but still very cool. On the Rich Eisen Show, Crowe shares about how his friendship with Lloyd Carr led to Crowe giving the football team a Gladiator-esque pre-game speech. He gets the year wrong as I'm assuming he's diplomatically avoiding direct reference to the start of 2007.
I will try to embed the tweet but I have followed the instructions closely and it never works fully for me, so any help appreciated and apologies in advance. It will at least be clickable.
How in the world does Maximus befriend former @UMichFootball head coach Lloyd Carr?
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) April 7, 2023
The story from Academy Award winner @russellcrowe and how he did something he never does for the Wolverines to help them crush #NotreDame:#GoBlue #Gladiator pic.twitter.com/mrlg9WuqMY
Apparently it was an effective speech since we spanked ND 38-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh3JQI3jjKc
We will see you again Notre Dame... but not yet... not yet.
38-0? I'm going to guess that the Irish were not entertained.
That was the "Jimmy Clausen for Heisman" game
If memory serves this was also the year that both teams entered 0-2 and Brian used this brief video to represent how he felt about watching the game. And - it remains hilarious 15+ years later
You forgot the click-baity "you have to wait till the end" tag. (The joke is at th end.)
True - except part of the joke was 0-2 Michigan against 0-2 Notre Dame was like 2 kittens wrestling
though our team ended up fighting itself (starting with this game) and ND sucked due to a pretty horrid offensive line
Jesus I can't believe they did Michigan Replay as recently as 2007
Watching Lloyd talk about App St and Oregon right after they happened was harrowing
The 2007 season preview episode had the Russell Crowe segment with Lloyd visiting him in Australia.
People forget that after the 0-2 start we won 8 in a row with the awesome "little brother" victory (down by 10 with 7 minutes to go) in East Lansing. If not for the Henne injury they probably beat Wisconsin and get at least a share of the Big 10 title.
We could have beaten OSU with a healthy Henne/Hart, too. Our D kept us in the game for a while but finally cracked, having no offense at all.
Lloyd won the Bobby Dodd award that year, IIRC.
The win over Florida in the Capital One Bowl showed what that team would have been capable of at full strength. And that game was closer than it should have been, since we were -4 in turnover margin but still won.
I thought for sure it would be another Michigan bowl game loss after Mike Hart had two fumbles in the red zone, but that passing spread with Henne, Manningham and Arrington was just unreal. That should've been the game plan against OSU in 2006 and we probably win that game.
The late Carr era was always a big "what if..." In the 2005 OSU game, we had so many chances to close them out (up 21-12 with all the fire power in Henne, Hart, Breaston, Manningham) and kept punting it away. Then with like 3 minutes to go let Troy Smith dink and dunk from his own 20 to score a TD with 24 seconds to go. That loss still pisses me off...
Ugh, yes, the 2005 edition of The Game. We completely crawled into a shell in the fourth quarter. And Lloyd was straight up outcoached in 2006 when OSU deployed a 5 wide receiver formation that they hadn't used all season and torched our secondary for 300+ passing yards. The second half of the Rose Bowl vs. USC that season was similarly frustrating.
There are some painful memories from the latter half of the Carr era, no doubt. But what rehabilitated Lloyd's legacy somewhat in my mind was the fact that the program totally fell off a cliff after he retired, and has only now gotten to the point where I would consider it to have fully recovered. Lloyd had his flaws (most notably a failure to adapt to a changing landscape in the second half of his tenure), but the program wasn't exactly running on auto-pilot under him, either. As we saw under Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, even minimal competence can't be taken for granted.
when OSU deployed a 5 wide receiver formation that they hadn't used all season and torched our secondary for 300+ passing yards.
I think they'd been a spread team all year (Troy Smith won the Heisman). Our problem was that we seemed to think our linebackers could cover their slots.
Took a long time to cure that thinking . . .
Let's not forget the AD, who knew that Carr was aging and having some health issues of his own, that totally failed to perform any sort of serious succession planning for the head coaching position in their marquee sport.
Heck, you think they'd know how lucky they were to have Carr around to step in as interim and grow into the head coaching spot when Moeller was prematurely removed for his behavior.
OP - I’ve also struggled with the embed feature. It’s the icon circled in maize below. Not sure what went awry for you, but copy and paste the url from twitter, YouTube, etc. into the box that pops up when you click the media embed icon.
Thank you!
Macgyver,
so helpful! Thank you!
also, username checks out.
I can't believe I had never heard about this before. What a great story and video.
“I need you big bunny.” Awesome.
It was a short speech... “At my signal, unleash hell.”
Russel Crowe in The insider is one of the best performances of all time.
Good that Carr gets some props here, for he generally hasn't in these parts..
"What we do in this life echoes an eternity!"
"in" eternity
Ok, I know how to embed a tweet but that doesn't help me to understand how Russel Crowe addressing the football team in the locker room can be any sort of off-topic.
Michigan players to crowd: "Are you not entertained???"
This is so unbelievably cool. I love Russell Crowe!
As Gladiator, is and will be my most favorite movie of all time, this is an amazing post. Thanks, OP
Yes, thanks for posting OP.
I remember how they met. Lloyd had the team watch a movie together: “Cinderella Man”. Meant to inspire the team, it’s a story about the incredible perseverance of James Braddock, played by Russell Crowe. Crowe found out about it and reached out to Lloyd.
Yes, I have seen Lloyd tell the Cinderella Man story. Didn't know this part from Crowe which is very cool.
Yep, Lloyd told the story on the 2007 Michigan Replay season preview.
BTW, Carr saying App State might be the fastest team we ever play is yikes. I remember reading in "Three and Out" that he was not happy with Bill Martin for scheduling that game in the first place.
That theme music gives me chills from so many post-game Sundays.
Was in Traverse City and to watch the game had to go to the only bar showing it nearby. Got dropped off and it was almost all UM fans. Highs and lows and dejection. Knew they were dangerous but...The place cleared out quickly postgame and I stayed to finish my beer sitting next to the only App State grad there (a Masters from there he said). He kept his composure the whole time and didn't seem so surprised and said how good they had been for a few years.
Walked home in UM gear to many honking Sparties that didn't know what was coming. Was in Ft. Myers surrounded by many over confident Florida fans to watch Lloyd finally unleash the hounds. Poor Urban. How does he sign his checks without correctly spelling his last name?
A beautiful mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Coach Carr goaded Crowe up to the podium for the post game interview, and one of the media asked him if he though Mike Hart or Shawn Crable would make the best addition to his rugby club back in Sydney. Crowe replied, "I want Jake!"
Rough September, but that was a great moment.
Love this. It is in no way OT.
Excellent story. Thanks for sharing.
So damn cool. I’m glad Rich didn’t tell him what Lloyd’s grandson is about to do.
I know nothing about CJ Carr and don't blame him for wanting to do something outside of his family's shadow at Michigan. ...but Notre Dame?! He might as well be playing at OSU or MSU.
I guess Michigan doesn't play ND till 2033 so at least there is that. (What a crime it is that we're not playing ND every year. The ND and OSU games were great bookends to the season.)
The Michigan Replay segment is awesome too .... Carr at his best and holy cow, I had forgotten how many outstanding players there were on that team. Unsurprising that they ripped ND but how in the hell.... aw, nevermind.
great team but couldn't stop a well executed spread whether by App State or Oregon (what a beating that was)....but could hammer Tim Tebow as a send off for Lloyd
I’m sure he pointed over to the ND sideline at one point and told the Michigan players “the time for honoring themselves will soon be at an end.”
What a game against Notredumbs that was! Led to my avatar image.