Brian, you don't owe us anything but thank you for the update.  I'm sorry to hear about issues in your family and hopefully you all will be able to make the decisions that work best for everyone.  Whatever level of involvement you want to have with this site you built should be on your terms, and I wish you the best this year and beyond.

So, just like the CM Punk promo, we all get free ice cream, right?

Get well, Brian. Glad to have you here even if it's different than before.

Thanks Brian. This feels oddly emotional to put out there, but this blog has been a lone constant in my life since about 2008. I remember first hearing about this site from a college professor ("I heard you're a Michigan fan - have you heard of MGoBlog? The quality of writing and analysis is unlike anything I've read before!"), and getting hooked during a summer internship where I had almost no work to do, but needed to make myself look busy in front of a computer.

I could write more, but a heartfelt thank you is certainly warranted. You don't owe me, or anyone else here, anything. If you find that leaving MGoBlog altogether is best for you, you should do that. Maybe MGoBlog falls apart in that case, or maybe Seth, Alex, and others keep it going. Either way, you're all smart and capable people and will find a next chapter.

All the best.

I wish you the best, Brian.  

Having been through a divorce with small children involved, I found my way to the other side.  Good luck navigating your way, however it turns out.

We've missed you, but do what you need to do to make your future better.

Love you Brian

In many ways, it's a luxury to be able to get your head out of sports, especially when times are bad.  You haven't had that luxury.  So, thank you.  I can't count how many times your one of your columns or something you've said in a podcast, has helped me feel better about Michigan sports.

I'm glad to see your byline again, Brian, and I'm glad you're figuring out the things you need to figure out. Hope you start to feel better and that things start to break your way, my man

I am so very saddened to hear about the troubles in your life, Brian.

It's okay to not be okay.  I think I speak for everyone here when I say that I hope you and your family can find a way forward.  While obviously no one planned on things getting this way, it's a problem that you now have to solve and certainly not an easy one.  But although I don't know you personally and wouldn't even begin to offer advice on how to do so, I've seen enough on the blog to know that you have intelligence and self-awareness in spades, and that's as good a starting point as any.

We're all with you Brian.

Thanks for all you do Brian. Michigan football is just a game played by teenagers. Glad your reassessing and putting it in perspective.  It’s supposed to be fun. 

Thank you for sharing this and good luck with everything outside this site.

Are we getting the OSU UFR or not?

Kidding, good luck Brian.

Get well brotha 

even with all the losses to osu, all the coaching changes, and all the personal life issues, we still had some pretty good times over the last 17 years. we’ll be here for better or worse whenever (if ever) you come back

God bless, man and thanks for the years of mgoblogging. I'm in a precarious mental state myself so I almost couldn't bear to read this closely and I'm going to watch those vids another time. I was really excited to hear you on the podcast today, you sounded great. But take care man.

I feel for you Brian.....I truly do!  It just seems that most artists have an anchor inside them that rears it's ugly head at some point, no matter how successful the artist is.  You will overcome Brian, and odds are you'll appreciate these low points as a point of reference once you're back on top!  Best of luck to you man, you are truly loved my many!

It sounds like your mental health took a turn for the worse in 2020.  Had it been the opposite, I think that you would be the exception, and not the rule.  2020 was a brutal year for humanity.  We all went inside our homes and wore coverings over our face and treated all other human beings as if they are a biohazard.  I'd be suspicious of anyone coming out of the other side of that not feeling a lot worse.  And then, to top if off, the football team was a pile of shit last year on par with first year RichRod.  That one escape that we all desperately needed was not only missing, but it exacerbated an already ugly situation.  If you went directly from a summer of politics and Covid rage into two months of shitty football rage, then you are probably exhuasted from it.  

It has been 18 years now since our last win over a ranked OSU.  18 years of anger, denial, bargaining, and depression.  I am still waiting for the sweet release of acceptance, but it does not come.  I wish that I could quit Michigan football and find a new passion in life to take it's place, but it's much harder than it sounds.  The sport has its emotional hooks into me in a way that I did not know was possible.  I have found that turning off the TV does not help.  Instead of fuming watching a shitty team play football, I fume in between checking the score on the internet.  

This weekend, another terrible season of Michigan football is going to start.  I am fully prepared to watch a shittily coached team piss away gads of talent en route to a 4-8 season.  Yet no matter how much I know it's coming, I'm still going to be royally pissed as it unfolds.  What a miserable state to be in.  I wish that I could surgically remove whatever part of the brain my love for Michigan football resides in.  For 15 years and running it has been a one side, toxic relationship.

Brian.

All I can say is that I love you man.  For real.

EDIT:

I'll add that I know Brian from my undergrad years.  We were both part of ComCo - he was writer and I was a performer.  Brian was one of those unicorns who was highly proficient on both right and left side of the brain.

So Brian, if you are listening, I hope you find your peace in writing.  You are so good at it and brings so much joy/emotion to others. 

Good luck, Brian.  I had a feeling something was going on - sorry to hear that it went so deep.  We will all be here, regardless of how and where you land.

I've been reading this site since my freshman year in 2008 and been an active poster since my senior year. MGoBlog has been one of the few things that has felt like "home" since graduating. Can't thank you enough for the community you've built here, Brian. 17 years is a long time. Here's to you and your journey towards a newfound peace.

Stay strong Brian.  You're not alone and never will be.

Before I saw this post I was going to make a joke that you had sold the site to Seth. Now that seems... callous. I'm sorry you're going through a tough time. I understand. I used to love Michigan football, now I frankly dread it. I was debating whether to even watch it anymore, but of course I decided I'd watch the first game and see how it went. I can't imagine trying to make my living watching and talking about Michigan Football as you have done for the past 17 years -- it hasn't gone well.

I used to have a scale for my wife to monitor my mood, it went Maize (Ecstatic), Blue (Happy), White (Neutral), Green (Unhappy), Red (Apoplectic). The scale was broken after 2016 OSU and was never seen again. Now I'm shooting for a nice simple white all the time. I need a football novicaine (sp?). I'm tired of watching to see who gets the honor of playing Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State.  

Anyway, I hope you get whatever you need to help you through this. 

Thanks for sharing, Brian, and letting us know you're working through a tough time.  Most of us have been through deep lows in life, some like me, more than once.

All the best to you.

Go Blue 

Good luck Brian. This blog has meant more and probably done more for us Michigan football fans than the actual school itself has. 

So glad to hear this voice again. We're all just trying to lay the bricks and make them stay in place as best we can. Sometimes you get hit by an anvil. Breathe. Rebuild. Write. Take walks.

Oh btw, I was only pretending to read the UFRs this whole time. I was actually just flipping through to click on videos of our most successful plays and then read the +/- summaries and the takeaways. 

Brian, thank you for what you have built here. I hope you find peace and happiness in whatever this next phase of your life brings.

I haven’t read the other comments so this is probably repetitive but I don’t care.

I’ve really, really, really missed your presence and writing.  Seems an odd thing to say about a stranger but your content has been just as much a part of my last ten years as any musical artist.

You are talented and you are human.  Thank you for sharing something you didn’t have to share.  I think it will help many of us progress toward being more honest and courageous.

I hope this thread breaks the record for most comments ever.  You deserve to know there are many of us out here who care about you and your family.

Admire your courage to let us all know so much about what's going on with you. As many have said, you don't owe us that, but we do owe you our support. Confident in saying, however you want it, you got it.

Michigan may have brought us down, in different ways and to varying degrees, but it brings us together too. We are all chuffed just to hear from you and to have you back in whatever way at all, whenever. All the best to you, sir and see you around! 

Brian, that’s a courageous, heartfelt, and very personal piece of writing.  You’ve built a fantastic thing here.

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I was worried something happened to one of your kids. I'm glad it wasn't the kids. 

I feel like it's hard to decide what to say to you in this situation because you are so much more important to us than we are to you. Perhaps you would like this conceit from Leonard Cohen: try in your way to be free.

Good luck figuring out what you want to do.

Be well.  My condolences for the relationship going awry.  Take care of yourself and the children, man.  Maybe some sports in the cracks to fill in between life will help a bit but don't force it anymore.

Brian—I didn't want to speculate online, but I'd figured that marital issues were at least partially involved. In a way I'm relieved—I sure as hell didn't want it to involve serious health issues for anybody in your family. Marriages can be repaired and rebuilt, and even if they aren't, kids can do fine if the parties involved are determined that caring for them is paramount.

Stepping back from the maw is the wise decision. Take care of your kids, your relationship with your wife, and yourself. MGoBlog and Michigan sports are not the most important thing in life, nor should they be.

Brian-

Take care of yourself, and your family, as best you can. 

I had other words, other thoughts, but really, that's it.  

Thanks for everything, Brian.

Take care of yourself, take care of yourself, take care of yourself.

None of this matters anywhere near as much. I've been really going through a mental health disaster for at least ten years that might finally be turning a corner, but it's only possible because I stopped doing what I thought I was required to. It was great hearing you on the podcast and reading this column this morning. But if those turn into perfunctory obligations again, take another step back. You've created a remarkable thing that, to your enormous credit, can continue regardless of your level of participation.

And Juwan will be back so soon.

Nice to hear from you, Brian. Looking forward to having you in the community in any capacity. Keep working on yourself, friend.

I hear you Brian. I wish I had something better to say, but you're not alone. The last 6 months have been probably the hardest of my entire life. There were times I was completely broken as well, and when one thing got better another got worse, and I was broken again in a new way. I'm still feeling a bit broken, I'm not even quite sure why tbh, but all that to say you're not alone. 

Thanks Brian. I've been reading this site for a long time and I'm in awe of your ability to put out the emotionally revealing content you have. Building the time consuming work of the UFRs on top of the time consuming work of crafting words, sentences and paragraphs that are good is almost inconceivable, and I write for a living. 

Hope you get to take time away and find places in your life that are centered in joy.

Very much appreciate you writing this piece, Brian. I'm sure it was a difficult thing to do but please know that the readers of this site truly appreciate your talents and what you have built for this community. MgoBlog MATTERS.

I hope the personal issues you are dealing with work out for you and your family in the end and, personally, I will appreciate any writing you contribute to the site in the future. 

Take care of yourself and Go Blue!  

Brian,

It may seem hard to believe, but you’ve made a difference in a lot of peoples lives. For many of us, this isn’t just football coverage. It’s community. It’s being understood, feeling safe.

2020 has been a dark time. And yet here we stand..

I will be thinking about you and wishing you well, Brian. As others have mentioned, we feel like we know you, through your writing.

And we know that you are a man of honor, deserving of peace, satisfaction, and harmony in all his affairs.

Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait for the next chapter.

Maybe this fall we can just make this a USMNT blog instead?  That'd probably help.
 

I'm sure others have said this better than me, but the only way I've survived all of this football sturm & drang is coming here to get your take, Brian.  Thank you and please take care of yourself and your family.