I’ll never buy in when people say, “It’s just a game.”
It’s notsuch moments in sports are checkpoints in our lives.
You think back through the journey, not just this season but all the seasons that came before it.
I remember the first Michigan football game my dad ever took me to.
It was the season opener in 2003.
Twenty years later, it happened.
The Michigan Wolverines are national champions.
It was a season unlike any other.
With a Jim Harbaugh coached team, that’s par for the course.
It wasn’t always pretty but nothing worth fighting for ever is.
It’s a funny thing.
This moment is about something much bigger than just one person or team.
If there’s one word to describe the Michigan football fan base, it’s passionate.
All the losses to Ohio State.
The Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke years.
So many close calls in the Harbaugh era.
It’s easy to run from those bad memories in a moment like this.
It was worth it.
I don’t know what the legacy of this team will be.
It was just perfect.
That’s the word that comes to mind.
They were an oddity.
True, true perfection is a rare oddity in sports, but this team achieved it.
The only sadness I felt last night was knowing that wed never watch this team go to work again.
Well never get this group on a football field at the same time.
Some of these men couldve gone pro after last season ended.
They chose to stay.
As this program will tell you, theres something to be said about those who stay.
Sports can provide us with a level of catharsis that nothing else can provide us with.
Either you get it, or you don’t.
I looked forward to Saturdays this year more than any other year in the past.
I love this team.
I like the players on this team.
This year, everyone who wore the winged helmet contributed to something no fan will ever forget.
They should be unbelievably proud; I know I’m proud of them.
I always will be.
I just hope that every Michigan fan was present for these moments.
I hope you enjoyed every step of this.
I hope your eager eyes were opened when destiny called.
This time, it was Michigan’s turn.
The older you get, the more cynical you become.
Some people never lose that childlike wonder, but most people do.
One of the things that always brought the kid out of me was Michigan football.
Even in the worst moments, there was an environment.
There was an atmosphere.
There was that eight-year-old kid going to his first game with his dad.
And I’m just one schmuck.
Every fan has their own story.
Every fan remembers when they first sang “The Victors.”
There were a lot of ups, and there were a lot of downs.
But we’d do it all again.
We’d play it back the same way just to experience this.
