There’s No Crying In Football

Just when you thought Michigan had rebounded from its self-inflicted “Stairway to Heaven” curse, along comes coach Rich Rodriguez and the 3-9 egg he laid on the Ann Arbor campus last fall.

Now, “there’s a bustle” in more than a few Big Blue hedge rows.

No bowl game?  Last year marked the first time that’s happened at Michigan in 33 years.

A losing record?  You have to go back forty years to find the last time that happened at Michigan.

For those of you unfamiliar with the storied history of Wolverine football, the program has the most all-time wins (872) and highest all-time winning percentage (.740) in Division I-A history, as well as the most conference championships (42).

They also have the coolest helmets and (next to Notre Dame) the coolest fight song.  Oh, and Desmond Howard’s Heisman pose.

3-9? Yeah … Big Blue don’t play that.

Now we learn that Michigan is facing an NCAA investigation over alleged off-season workout violations, news that made Rodriguez break down and cry (literally).

Those reports also spawned a vigorous defense of the program from a friggin’ senior editor at the National Review, of all places.

At issue is the alleged lack of objectivity of the reporter/ columnist who filed the initial story – using anonymous sources, of course.  Apparently he doesn’t like Rodriguez very much, and people are questioning whether or not the Detroit Free Press should have handled its investigation differently.

We could care less about that, people.  We assume that facts, not allegations of bias, will ultimately determine what happens to Rodriguez’s program.  Well, unless of course a race card is played, in which case all bets are off …

What are we concerned about?  What role the “Stairway to Heaven” curse may have played in all of this …

After all, we have documented in painstaking detail the multiple ills that have befallen the Michigan program since its marching band played the famed Led Zeppelin song at halftime during the 2007 Rose Bowl.

Seriously, people … Appalachian State?  That sort of thing doesn’t just happen …

Given Rodriguez’s problems, is it safe to say that the curse live on?

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