Watching the Orange Bowl last night was odd. It was the first time since mid November that I legitimated cared about college football. After three straight seasons from hell, the final gun concluding the Ohio State Michigan game might as well have been aimed at my desire to write anything about college football, let alone my desire to watch it. Though I saw the conclusion of the Northwestern Auburn game, I didn't watch it all the way through. I only glanced at the Penn State LSU game. And for once my inability to focus on the screen before me had nothing to do with consuming quanities of alcohol on par with a May Day in Moscow party. I just couldn't bring myself to care that much.
It's what's happened to a lot of Michigan fans over the last few years. You just get tired. It was one thing to watch the basketball team flounder in mediocrity for years because football and hockey were so strong. In 2008-2009 Hockey and Basketball carried the load while the football team floundered. But this year... man...
So, it was hard to bring myself near a keyboard or a television screen. If I did, there was little pleasant to write about or watch. Unless you're writing Japanese folk novels or are a drunk, Irish, author living in the 1800's (Hey, three out of four!), writing about misery and unhappy outcomes for your heroes ain't a lot of fun. As a result, I, SCM and Beauford took a step back, and disappeared into our real lives for a while. Two of us landed new jobs. One of of is prepping for the hardest tests of his life. All or us are married, so the holidays did a number on each of us. (yes, we'rr married, to women. Different women. And by different I mean they are not the same person, not that they are somehow odd or have webbed feet.). And along the way some of us dealt with a familial losses as well.
Taking all of this together, blogging came to feel like more of a burden than the enjoyment it has been for over four years. Each of us has considered walking away from it permanently. Some of still may. I don't know.
That brings us to last night. While watching the Iowa Georgia Tech game last night, I found myself rooting for the Hawkeyes with a fever usually reserved for an early season Michigan game. I was cursing, yelling, holding my breath. When Clayborn sacked Nesbitt I pumped my fist like Tiger Woods does when he makes a birdie or buys the silence of hobag number 15. And, gradually, my thoughts turned to the insanity of Black Heart Gold Pants. With the exception of EDSBS or MGoBlog, there is no site I visit frequently. Though I've never met the inmates running the asylum over there, I consider OPS and Hawkeye State friends. And watching/reading their open thread for the Orange Bowl had me laughing (and cringing) all game long. Watching them orchestrate and celebrate reminded me just how much fun this little endevour is and how lucky we are to be doing it. In a way, it reinvigorated me.
So, I'm back. Maybe not on a daily basis, but certainly a couple of posts a week. Hopefully SCM and Beauford will be able to re-join the shenannigans as well.
It's a strange thing. Sometimes I find the off season to be an easier time to write than the season. During the season you are so focused on the games and the team it's easy to lose site of things and perspective. Everyone's focussed on the minuate of a simple game that really doesn't have a lot of layers below the surface in an attempt to say something profound or original. Further, and quite frankly, there are a lot of people out there with vastly surperior knowledge bases on football and how it's played than us. And I think we got a little out of our element in 2009 rying to be something we're not.
The off season, however, gives our brains time to wander. Ample time for the dick and fart jokes that make sports and life that much more enjoyable. It's a less serious time that allows us to relax and fly over the vast quantities of humor that college athletes and their handlers provide to us on a daily basis. It's a happy time. And a time ofhope for the coming season.
We'll cover some roundball. We'll look at the ice. We'll even follow the softball and baseball teams off and on. If it's a Michigan sport, we'll touch on it at some point. But for now, we're enjoying being back. Thanks for waiting up.