I've never been great at poetically soliloquy-izing, which is unfortunate since there are things in this world that fall outside the typical descriptive words/phrases/thoughts and outside the general constricts of language in general. I do what I can, but sometimes there are no words.
. . . . .
Michigan is probably going to beat Iowa tomorrow since Michigan is pretty good and Iowa is pretty terrible, meaning Michigan's seniors will have finished the home portion of their careers by winning 14 straight games at Michigan Stadium, which is to say all of them over the last two years. They'll have won literally every single home game as upperclassmen, in the process ending all the awfulness that had built up over the previous however many years; that's a hell of an accomplishment given where this program stood 22 months ago.
Those 22 months have been pretty good, yes? But until I started writing this about three minutes ago, that 14-straight-wins thing hadn't really occurred to me as a last-home-game takeaway even though that's been a byproduct of a lot of progress that the seniors deserve credit for in some unquantifiable, let's-remember-these-guys way. Realistically, barring something weird and inexplicable happening tomorrow, I won't remember the game any more than I remember any other Senior Day game (and there haven't been a lot of particularly memorable ones against teams other than Ohio State); I will remember, though, the last time Denard Robinson took the field at Michigan Stadium.
. . . . .
Every indication at this point is that the guy's basically done for the season; there's little chance he'll see the field tomorrow in any meaningful capacity. But he needs to see the field somehow, if only to give every single person in that place who's watched Michigan go from that thing to this thing over the last four years -- with Denard the only positive constant -- one more chance to stand up and applaud and say "wow" and smile that smile as he does the same.
I've missed that smile. I've missed that endzone kneeldown. I've missed watching the guy who could have (and arguably should have) left but stuck around in a system that didn't make any sense for him at a school 1,800 miles from home and became the entirety of an offense that consisted of basically "hey Denard be better than everybody plzkthx" (and he did, and lo it was good) after being the entirety of an offense that consisted of basically "hey Denard be better than everybody oh and also score lots of points because we don't have a defense plzkthx" (and he did, and lo it was good).
I need just a little more. This needs to happen.
. . . . .
There was this ...
/Shoelaces flapping in the wind ...
... and this ....
/YOU JUST BECAME A LEGEND.
... and this thing featuring a guy with an admitted fear of public speaking pouring his heart out in front of a billion cameras ...
/I lost my brother when I was 10 years old, and I pray to him before every game to give me strength.
... but probably nothing more appropriate at this devastatingly depressing moment than this, his first snap at Michigan Stadium some 1,175 days ago:
/Look at that speed! See ya!
Look at that speed ...
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