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Sunday, 02 November 2008 22:11 |
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Our good friend Ted Fox over at Bitter Rivals has taken a fair amount of crap from the Michigan Mafia over his billboard he put up this week. You can read more about those billboards in our Hey Little Sister article.
Well.. Ted has had enough and has decided to fire back at the blubbering blue.
 Yep, I did it, paid for it and sprung it on the Michigan faithful immediately after the game......and here's why.
I have attended every MSU vs. U-M game since 1992 and have never experienced such arrogant, mean-spirited gloating as I felt last year. This premeditated, choreagraphed and orchestrated display of classlessness was led by the little runt Mike Hart.
I've heard Michigan fans say "Act like you've been there". Does that include mocking the opposing Coach by pointing to an imaginary watch like Mario Manningham did last year after catching a TD late in the game?
How about Mike Hart standing 5-yards from our sideline before last years' game and trash-talking until he was physically pulled away. That's what Coach D was referring to when he mentioned "look what they were doing before the game". I saw it first-hand and knew what he was referring to.
Did U-M fans forget when their (heavily-favored) team knelt down at mid-field after the game and openly mocked our team and fans. Then in post-game comments continued to rub our noses in a crushing defeat. Gracious? Classy? No, orchestrated and mean-spirited.
Finally, I have witnessed the unfurling of a 30-foot sign in the visitors section of Spartan Stadium glorifying the arrogance of Michigan fans in games they won in our own back yard (anyone remember the "Pardon Our Arrogance" sign?). They did it again last year and I vowed to myself that I would return the favor in spades this year.
Someone posted that they wished there was a billboard on U.S. 23 so the Michigan fans would see it every day they drove home from work. I tried to get the Whitmore Lake billboard expressly for that purpose but was turned down flat. I wanted all the U-M and Spartan fans returning from the game to see that board lit up immediately after the game. They refused to take my money because they feared the University's response. I even offered to pay them 1/2 of the weekly fee to post it for only 3 hours after the game and was turned down as well. That's the God's honest truth.
Is it gloating? You betcha. Were the billboards designed to rub it in the Michigan fans faces? Absolutely.
If you want to criticize me for being petty and vindictive, I am guilty as charged. But, if your Michigan friend tries to take some kind of moral high ground on this, please remind him that they taught us that this type of response is acceptable and expected in this rivalry.
Or have they forgotten when Jalen Rose rubbed his butt on the block "S" in the Breslin Center.
When a Michigan fan questions why we're so elated about beating a team we were favored to beat, remind him when Chris Webber stood up on the scorers table and did a victory dance after his heavily-favored team beat MSU in OT in the early 1990s.
Hey, we didn't make the rules but now that we know them it's game on.
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