I had a business trip to our corporate HQ in Dallas this week with several Michigan fans / grads. While I was there, I had another few interesting conversations that I thought might be interesting to the group.
When I got to DTW airport, a met colleague of mine (a VP) in the gate (Michigan Tech grad, but huge Michigan fan... and generally a really smart, good dude). He basically immediately comes at me that all the MSU players anywhere near the incident, the MSU staff, and coach Tucker should all be fired. He started bring up the "cultural issues" at MSU. I went back at him and said that this is the 3rd issue in 7 games and Harbaugh has taken zero responsibility, the cultural issues are in Ann Arbor... you know the drill. He of course didn't buy it, but he did back off and actually apologized a bit later. We were totally cool the rest of the trip.
I had a meeting later with two other guys that I do not know that well in the Dalas office and we found out through the discussion that one was a Illinois grad and the other (another VP) was an Indiana grad. They said something about having an "all Big Ten group" which included a Michigan grad. I made the comment "I am an MSU grad, so I am not happy with your Michigan grad this week, but at least I haven't taken a swing at anyone." (I thought that was funny... anyway). The Illinois grad said, "yeah, that was really bad, but what was that Michigan kids doing in the tunnel?" I replied "I am not sure, but this is the third incident or near-incident with players in the last 7 games. Harbaugh insists that it is the other teams' fault" The Indiana grad replied "Harbaugh is an idiot." I thought that it was interesting to get the perspective of other Big Ten fans who are just passively monitoring the story.
When I got to DTW airport, a met colleague of mine (a VP) in the gate (Michigan Tech grad, but huge Michigan fan... and generally a really smart, good dude). He basically immediately comes at me that all the MSU players anywhere near the incident, the MSU staff, and coach Tucker should all be fired. He started bring up the "cultural issues" at MSU. I went back at him and said that this is the 3rd issue in 7 games and Harbaugh has taken zero responsibility, the cultural issues are in Ann Arbor... you know the drill. He of course didn't buy it, but he did back off and actually apologized a bit later. We were totally cool the rest of the trip.
I had a meeting later with two other guys that I do not know that well in the Dalas office and we found out through the discussion that one was a Illinois grad and the other (another VP) was an Indiana grad. They said something about having an "all Big Ten group" which included a Michigan grad. I made the comment "I am an MSU grad, so I am not happy with your Michigan grad this week, but at least I haven't taken a swing at anyone." (I thought that was funny... anyway). The Illinois grad said, "yeah, that was really bad, but what was that Michigan kids doing in the tunnel?" I replied "I am not sure, but this is the third incident or near-incident with players in the last 7 games. Harbaugh insists that it is the other teams' fault" The Indiana grad replied "Harbaugh is an idiot." I thought that it was interesting to get the perspective of other Big Ten fans who are just passively monitoring the story.
