I’ve never met a bigger Michigan football fan than my dad. The minute I moved back to Chicago he insisted that we buy seasons tickets to Michigan football. Meaning every Saturday this fall he wakes me up around 5:30am, goes out and decorates his car with the Michigan magnets and flags, and loads up the tailgate gear for another weekend of traveling to see the Maize and Blue.
With the Michigan fight song on loop he’ll smile with glee rattling off some random stats along the way. Who plays better against the run, what the opposing team’s strengths are, etc. He even knows all the latest gossip about them and their opponents too. Did you know that Jeff Smoker sold crack? How about that Garret Rivas burned down his house over the summer lighting off firecrackers?
Where does he get this stuff? The media. Every night my dad spends hours reading and posting on Michigan football internet boards, and then falls asleep to the sports talk radio blaring. The next morning he'll either wake up and watch College Gameday or last weeks game on TiVo. It doesn’t matter if he’s seen either of these already multiple times. He’s convinced that he’ll find something new every time he sees it.
He also plays the two schools he’s about to see on NCAA football the night before. And by play I mean he has the computer play each other as he watches the game. It’s actually quite amusing watching him do this, because he treats it like a real game. He’ll stomp his feet when Michigan makes a turnover, or curse at the refs when he feels they made a bad call.
The thing that flusters my dad the most though is if I have prior engagements that gets in the way of his football schedule. He was not happy when I told him that I had to miss the Notre Dame vs. Michigan game this year in order to be the best man in a wedding. His response was, “Don’t they realize that’s the weekend of Michigan vs. Notre Dame? How could they schedule a wedding then? If you decline I’m sure they’ll understand.” He analyzed this for days on end too. “Let’s see the wedding is on Friday. Maybe if you high tailed it out of Northern Michigan after the reception you could make on time?”
Sadly he ended up scheduling himself for work that weekend after he finally came to terms that I couldn't go. He did end up finding some use for our tickets though. He ended up trading them to our neighbors in exchange for tickets to next years game at Notre Dame.
Let’s just hope I can go.
As for this year, here’s his current football schedule planned for us. Any away games he plans on scalping tickets the day of.
Sept. 24 Michigan at Wisconsin
Oct. 1st Michigan at Michigan State *watch at Duffys, MI bar in Chicago
Side Note: He hates going to Lansing. I guess the MSU students razzed him a bit too much last time we were out there
Oct. 8th Michigan vs. Minnesota
Oct. 15th Michigan vs. Penn State
Oct. 22nd Michigan at Iowa
Oct. 29th Michigan at Northwestern
Nov. 5th He plans on going to Indiana to watch either Purdue, ND, or Indiana play that weekend
Nov. 12th Michigan vs. Indiana
Nov. 19th Michigan vs. Ohio State
If you’re in the area for any of these games give me a call. My dad purchased an oversized party tent, collapsible picnic table, and dualing weber grills in preparation for his weekly “tailgate party to end all tailgates.” He’ll have tons of bud light, his favorite beer, and plenty of brats to go around. You’ll even make his year if you can tell him something about Michigan football that he doesn’t already know. Last week somebody mentioned a 4th string quarterback that he’s never heard of. He’s been talking about him ever since.
