Saturday, In the Park...

You'd Think It Was the...18th of November?

Or Step 1 in Notre Dame's march to the National Championship.

And here's the unfortunate part. Normally I'd never ever ever use the words "root for" and "U of Michigan" in the same sentence unless they were followed by the words "swallowed by an earthquake-induced sink hole", but today is a day that will forever go down in infamy for Fleece & Flog's main administrator.

I have to utter the words go blue.

The place I once claimed to forever to remain nameless on this blog will now occupy a huge place for three hours on the pro side of my cheering equation. You see, as I've mentioned before, U of M beating Ohio State (pretty handily in my estimation) is Step 1 of the "getting by with a little help from their friends" part of an ND National Championship. And as I type, U of M and OSU are tied 7-7 at the start of the 2nd quarter in Columbus.

Florida has already won today, running up the score on West Carolina, 62-0, and Arkansas is in a close game with Mississippi State, leading 21-14 in the 3rd quarter.

But the game that occupies everyone's attention is the game challenging my own allegiances. Go Blue.

An update of the U of M/ OSU game has OSU leading 14-7 with Chad Henne getting flagged for intentional grounding. What the fuck, blue? The grumbling will increase as the game goes along especially since it's so against my nature to root for U of M. It's like a Hatfield inviting a McCoy to Thanksgiving dinner together and not poisoning his cranberry sauce, or maybe a Palestinian inviting a Jew to brunch without slipping a little pork into his falafel.

And, yet, fate may have already intervened in this game. The face of U of M football -- actually the face of U of M anything -- Bo Schembechler died on Friday. Is it possible that the team may have it's thoughts elsewhere? Invited by U of M coach Lloyd Carr to speak to the team on Thursday, Schembechler's last public appearance was to the team. How can the blow of his death not be on the minds of Henne, running back Mike Hart and the rest of the Wolverines? The last thing they needed was the distraction of his death.

And a distraction it may be indeed. An update on the game has OSU flying 91 yards on only four plays for a 21-7 lead over the Dead Schembechlers (no, not the very recently disbanded punk band of same name). And an 10 yard sack of Chad Henne has Michigan reeling again. Go Blue?

But Notre Dame needs a U of M comeback, and there is plenty of time. A flu bug has me wrapped in layers of sweat shirts and pants with a cup of Thera-Flu steaming next to me on my desk, or I 'd be hootin' and hollerin' at my buddy -- and Michigan fan -- Zilla's house. Of course I'd be getting teased to no end for switching allegiances on this game as happened the only other time I rooted for Michigan (a similar situation some years back where ND needed U of M to beat OSU to get a National Championship shot). From time to time, my ND friends will call me traitor, and my U of M friends will say, "C'mon, Jimmy, gimme just one Go Blue, you closet Wolverine." Well, here it is, guys. Go Blue!

Go, Fight , Win!
GO, FIGHT, WIN!
GO BLUE!
GO BLUE!
GO BLUE!

And Step 1 in the Notre Dame National Championship march will be complete.

Oh, the agony of saying go blue. Maybe I'll fake laryngitis the rest of the day so I don't have to hear myself say it.

(Update: It's 2:45 AM and on top of the flu bug, I'm now afflicted by a bout of insomnia. Of course it could be the pseudoephedrine coursing thru my veins after quite a few drinks of flu/ cold medicine -- shoulda took NyQuil I guess -- but I'm here to say that the day's events have not proceeded exactly as I had hoped. Most likely, following the close win by Ohio State University over the subject of this post, Notre Dame will be playing in a non-championship BCS game come January, and my ego will wallow in the knowledge that I rooted most of the day for a loser which is somewhat ironic cuz I already knew the Wolverines were just that. For shame, James. For shame. )