xtramelanin

March 18th, 2021 at 9:54 AM ^

IIRC he mentioned more than once that the Covid threads were terrible.  Guessing they drove him away.  It had the same effect for many of us for varying lengths of time.

Joined: 12/09/2014

MGoPoints: 15438

Gulogulo37

March 18th, 2021 at 11:10 AM ^

If Hoke had come back for another year I was going to go a year basically not watching football and see how that went. It wasn't about being a fairweather fan. Living in Korea, watching games usually suuuucks. I was tired of getting up at like 4:30 a.m. on a Sunday to watch them shit the bed. Noon games start at 1 or 2 a.m. depending on daylight savings time. I had a friend here who said he used to be a big college basketball fan and then he went a year without paying attention and never got back into it. I was planning to still read game columns and what not but be way less invested. I also wondered if I'd be more productive without it. Now I'm pretty sure I just would have found ways to waste time. If I didn't already know that, then last year cemented things. I wouldn't have learned 3 languages and read a book a day and built that gourd lamp I saw online that looked really cool.

Joined: 03/16/2010

MGoPoints: 28371

evenyoubrutus

March 18th, 2021 at 11:33 AM ^

I don't think many people realize how close we were to having this happen. The confluence of events needed, in a specific order at specific times was incredibly unlikely. Schlissel basically said that he had no intention of even evaluating the AD situation until the academic year was over in May. It took a dweeb on a sports blog (I mean that affectionately, WD, if you're reading this) to post a blurry screenshot that most people doubted (and Bando even filed a FOIA request for, which turned up nothing) and then ESPN to run with it which forced Brian's hand to verify the veracity, so to speak, of the email before Schlissel stopped the presses and eventually decided to end Brandon's relationship with the university. 

And all of that was simply to get us into a position where Harbaugh would even listen to us.

Good times.

Joined: 11/04/2008

MGoPoints: 178669

Chalky White

March 18th, 2021 at 1:24 PM ^

A friend at work asked me if I had ever seen the Lions' record the year after they made the playoffs. It turns out, since I was born they made the playoffs in consecutive years twice. 

Fast forward to the year they last went to the playoffs, the following season I decided I would make an honest effort to not watch a team that had a near 100% chance at least 7-9 or worse. It was hard at first but I got it done.

Ever since that year I have no emotion involved in any loss if I decide to watch a game. This is coming from a person who would be pissed off until the next Friday after a loss. 

Last year I did the same with Michigan football. There was too much negativity in the air Sunday through Friday for me to let it continue to Saturday. I took the year off. 

I never wanted to get to a place where I'm not watching football at all but it looks like I finally reached that point in my life. I feel like my dad where I'm kind of a fan but not really. It's a 180 from where I was a few years ago.

Joined: 03/16/2014

MGoPoints: 19161

Gulogulo37

March 18th, 2021 at 9:09 PM ^

Losses definitely don't really hurt me anymore. I wasn't as bad as you, but I can definitely remember some devastating losses when I was younger. I was already much better than that during the Hoke years, but still felt like I was too invested given how inconvenient it was. I do skip some games when they're on at awful times and against a weak team. Part of that is because I'll almost always be able to watch a full game later nowadays. Michigan also plays way more 3:30 and night games than they ever used to. That helps a lot here.

Joined: 03/16/2010

MGoPoints: 28371

mGrowOld

March 18th, 2021 at 1:39 PM ^

Mantis was one of the most, if not the most optimistic and positive posters here.

My guess is the overwhelming negativity here during last season 2-4 campaign couples with the insane Covid debates drove him away.

Which is a shame.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 214074

rob f

March 19th, 2021 at 2:32 AM ^

I'm not so sure that's why he's been missing since 5/20/20.

He posted 13 times on his last day here and 37 times over his last 5 days before going AWOL, with only one of those posts on 5/15/20 having any mention of covid.

(There's another Dr. Toboggan also registered to the board [his name is spelled slightly different], but this guy RARELY posts, just 50 posts total over the period of 2015 to 1/20/20 and not at all since then.

The two of them even had a bit of a debate within a thread a couple years ago as to who was the real Dr. Mantis T.)

I hope they're both OK.

 

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 195776