I know I should just stick to reveling in the post-win buzz that has yet to start to wear off 48+ hours later and ignore UM-side commentary about Saturday's game. But I really can't let this pass without a response.
Now I get the in-game/postgame emotional liveblog nature of the post. Brian is the leader (and best!) in the field of that particular genre. He encountered some idiots who were MSU fans. They behaved like idiots. It sucked. Totally.
I do, however, have a problem with the hyperbolic generalizations regarding the Spartan fan base. By Brian's math, there were at least 20 MSU "Juggalos" (context is here for those as oblivious to horrorcore jargon as I am) in Michigan Stadium corresponding to my wife and me--and another 50 for the five entirely civil MSU fans seated adjacent to us. I didn't see them (I counted one obnoxious MSU fan within earshot--and "within earshot" was a very large area once MSU went up three scores), but perhaps those 70 Juggalos were all at tailgates elsewhere in Ann Arbor. Or perhaps, Brian doth extrapolate too much.
The fan bases of major college athletic programs are very, very big. Very, very big groups of people have idiots in them. Examples: The Michigan fan who sat behind us at Spartan Stadium last year and yelled obscenities about 6 inches from a female acquaintance's ear as Forcier et al. mounted their fourth quarter comeback. Or the Michigan fan of the complete stranger variety at the pregame tailgate I attended Saturday who initiated an attempt at shaming me about being an MSU fan before eventually admitting that he himself was a graduate of Grand Valley State University (or attendee, at least; I forget). I wasn't in attendance at the 2007 MSU-UM game, so I have no personal experiences to share from what I'm told was very rich source material for obnoxious UM fan behavior.
Brian lumps in with the Juggalos the group of MSU fans who draped a "little brother"-themed banner over the edge of the stadium after the game and then takes a leap to this statement:
That's why Mike Hart's comment cut to the quick so much that three years later it's still the first, last, and only thing on the Juggalo mind.
(He fails to note it's apparently the first, last, and only thing on Mike Hart's mind, as well.)
The implication is that using the little brother thing to talk trash after a win is a sign of the famous Sparty inferiority complex. (By this line of thinking, the fact I'm responding to the post is probably a sign of the same. I tell you, it's a tough little psychological construction to escape from.) Here's the thing: When you personally engage in the sale of t-shirts that say "Bow Down, Little Brother" on them, you shouldn't be so shocked when that arrogant little phrase gets thrown back in your face when the sibling relationship doesn't play out to purported form.
Speaking of arrogance: Brian has been a great friend to this site, but I can do without him "feeling bad . . . for the guys at The Only Colors." We certainly don't feel bad, because we feel no more responsible for the behavior of the morons Brian and Tim encountered in Ann Arbor, or whatever inanity the Enlightened Spartan has posted lately, than reasonable Michigan fans should feel for the behavior of the assorted awful Wolverine fans we've met over the years, or the stupid and obnoxious things written on the internet by those people.
We take the good with the bad, like all fans do. Through thick and thin (more thick of late, eh?), we're Spartans--and we wouldn't trade that allegiance for any other.