Our Colors Don't Mix (republished from earlier note)

One reason I wanted to avoid a headline like "Sparty sucks", or "Michigan State Eats Cock" is because crass is not a decent substitute for clever. Clever is a Michigan thing.

Michigan State exists because not everyone who can't get into Michigan wants to live for 5 years in Mt Pleasant or Big Rapids.

My friends who have been cheering for State should remember that they are not Spartans. They are Wolverines. Wolverines do not cheer for Spartans.

Mark Dantonio (State football coach) was actually quite clear on this point. He was quite adamant that no Spartan would root for Michigan to beat OSU last November, even though a Michigan upset would potentially send MSU to the Rose Bowl.

This is also that same coach who decided to ridicule Mike Hart's height after Hart concluded a 4-year, 711 yard career sweep of the Spartans. I know this because I immortalized it on the t-shirt I was wearing tonight while rooting against State.

This is the same school who responded to a season hockey sweep by goonery, and beating the hell out of Steve Kampfer while he lay face down and unconscious on the ice. The State News defended the incident by claiming a Michigan starter shouldn't have been playing in the final minutes of a game with a 2-goal lead.

Many warmy and fuzzy soft news pieces are gushing over the home-court favorite Spartans, and the meaning and identity of this team to the State of Michigan. Bullshit! Is Sparty what we really need to represent the State of Michigan and city of Detroit? Sparty is the goddamn problem!

In a city with a crumbling school system and violent crime, to we really need to idolize an athletic program ripe with early draft defectors (Taylor, Randolph, Brown, Peterson, Cleaves et al.) and trigger-happy holsterless pistoleers (See: Plaxico Burress)?

Should we expect the combination of expansive Detroit urban home abandonment and a student body with a history for arson to result in anything beneficial, win or lose?

While Michigan's auto rival states in the South gloat over Detroit's fall, should we emulate a program that gloats in this year's downturn of the Michigan football program? (http://blog.mlive.com/ganggreen/2008/10/dantonios_moment_of_silence_co.html)

I don't mean to be apocalyptic, and I am not particularly religious. But you reap what you sow, be careful what calf you put on a golden pedestal, etc. etc. Of my friends, Michigan alum aplenty, we should be mindful that Detroit (and the state of Michigan) can still succeed IN SPITE OF the values represented by Michigan State.

So let me remind you of the meaning of rivalry, loyalty, and thoroughness. 1) If I wanted to cheer for Michigan State, I would have applied there.2) I am a Wolverine, and I do not cheer for Spartans. 3) I do not want the Spartans to succeed, in either the name of the State or the Big Ten, because the Spartans lack class and values.