Thanks to all Michigan fans and readers of this site for all the support this year. Best wishes to you and yours and look forward to some quality stuff in 2009. I’ve already got some solid interviews/stories lined up for January and expect more of the same coverage of history via eBay Watch. Cheers and let’s hope I’m drinking posting from somewhere warm this time next year in anticipation of our game.
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Big Ten Bloggers, Feed
I recently joined the collective Big Ten Bloggers and added a feed listing recent posts by my conference comrades on my left sidebar and a new set of BTB links just below the feed on the left. Check out some of my prestigious colleagues in the Big Ten nerdosphere: Illinois The Quad Paint the Town Orange Indiana Hoosier Report Iowa Black Heart Gold Pants Michigan MGoBlog MVictors Varsity Blue Michigan Sports Center iBlog for Cookies Maize’n’Brew Maize & Blue Nation Maize’n’Brew UM Hoops Michigan State Enlightened Spartan Ground Zero EL Sparty MSU Spartans Weblog Minnesota Daily Gopher From the Barn Buck Bravo Gopher Football Northwestern Lake The Posts Ohio State Around the Oval Buckeye Battle Cry Eleven Warriors Men of Scarlet & Gray Buckeye Blog Penn State Block Shoes Diary Happy Hour Valley Nittany White Out Run Up the Score Nittany Line No Name on my Jersey Zombie Nation Purdue Boiled Sports Off The Tracks Wisconsin
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Want a Michigan football website?
You can still own the website domain, images and content on UMICHFOOTBALL.com for $499, here’s the auction (with free shipping!).
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Scott Shafer’s Contractual Silence
Mark Snyder’s recent blog post in the Detroit Free Press caused a little bit of a dust up over the terms of Scott Shafer’s resignation as defensive coordinator. Here’s some from the post titled ‘Departed defensive coordinator sworn to not rip Michigan’: Shafer parted ways with Michigan by “mutual agreement” a week before the school announced the change in the letter from athletic director Bill Martin, but there were conditions. It said Shafer could not publicly release the terms of his agreement, and he also agreed “that I will not issue any statements to the media or in a public or similar setting which demean or disparage the University of Michigan, the football program, or any of their employees, in any way.” It’s implied here that Shafer would “rip” Michigan if he could, but contractually, he can’t. I don’t know if that’s what Snyder wanted to convey or whether a headline writer took some liberties, but either way it comes off as if Michigan is trying to silence a potentially loose cannon in the form of a disgruntled former defensive coordinator. While we don’t know what Shafer would say right now if could, certainly there was a misalignment with Rodriguez or he’d still be there. The question is whether Michigan went out of its way to write some special language…
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Rod Marinelli Fired
Along with the entire 0-16 Detroit Lions coaching staff except wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson and running backs coach Sam Gash. Take: I’m one of the few that would have been fine with keeping Coach Marinelli around another season to resurrect this crew. Marinelli had these guys playing hard (for the most part) long after the season was ruined. But I understand that if you want a major overhaul, which is needed, that after the GM you should probably start with the coach. If they want to nab a solid name, they’ll certainly have the incentive that a) things can only get better, and b) there’s a boat load of draft picks in a few months to start rebuilding. So, add Marinelli to another Lions coach who bites the dust in the Millen era. [display_podcast] .
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Chris Webber stole one of Charles Barkley’s shoes
Check this out from Sports Illustrated this week [12/29/08 issue]. On the Dan Patrick ‘Just My Type‘ page, Chris Webber talks about his time on the practice squad for the 1992 Olympic Dream Team while he was at Michigan. IT’S NICE to know that even stars get nervous around their idols. Before the 1992 Olympics, Chris Webber was one of the players on a practice squad that provided opposition for the Dream Team. He shared a limo from the airport in Barcelona with Larry Bird. “I was shaking, calling him Mr. Bird,” Webber said. “He was very nice. It was a 10-minute car ride. I said, ‘It was nice meeting you.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you can grab my bag.'” Webber left with more than just memories: “I got autographs, I stole socks out of their bags, I took everything, even jockstraps. I took one of Charles Barkley’s shoes. I was just a kid in a wonderland.” That’s good stuff (as long as we’re way outside the statutory limit) and you can’t blame him for grabbing everything in sight. I remember reading about C-Webb working out with the team but I didn’t know he actually traveled to Spain. And how big of a pisser is Bird? I wonder if it was just a little reminder to Webber not to get…
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Dierdorf dons Michigan ring on CBS?
If you caught the pregame for the New England vs. Buffalo game on CBS today you may have noticed a shiny blue ring on color man Dan Dierdorf’s finger. Here it is: My first thought wondered if this was a 1969 Michigan Big Ten championship ring for the former All-American offensive tackle. After a few Google searches I couldn’t find an example of a ’69 ring. Certainly if the ring had a stone it’d be blue, but that doesn’t exactly narrow it down. The other obvious choice would be a Pro Football Hall of Fame ring which very possible, here are a couple examples: I’m guessing it is either his HOF ring as a player as the 2008 recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. And no, I really don’t care that much what a dude is wearing on his finger but give me a break man, the Lions are about to go 0-16 and there isn’t a lot of M pre-bowl hype to discuss.
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Another One Bites the Dust!?
Bobby Layne Go Detroit Lions! For your pregame, enjoy a little bit of James ‘Spiderman’ Allen and company dropping their version of Another One Bites the Dust: [display_podcast] Get it done today in Green Bay
