Chris Christie would say"shut up" Wolverine Complainers

  As Chris Christie would say,” shut up,” Wolverine complainers

There was terrific news in Ann Arbor on Saturday. The University President Mark Schlissel, interim A.D. Jimmy Hackett, Coach Brady Hoke and the University of Michigan Wolverines all won. Maybe more importantly, it was a win for the current students as well as the alumni. In a perfect world, some of the controversy surrounding Michigan football would die down. However, in today’s world, the” boo “birds are perched just waiting to pounce on any opportunity to criticize.

Corrective criticism is one thing and can be appropriate. However, for many, criticism (whether it be politics, sports, entertainment, etc.), has more to do with displeasure of self. At times criticism seems more like hate, anger and /or irrational prejudice and that suggests to me that the expression is likely based on unconscious dynamics. In other words, an individual’s unhappiness of self gets projected and displaced on some person, thing, or object.

It’s so easy to find fault in someone else, especially because being perfect, or perfection hardly exists in reality. And, in sports, we see so much imperfection, mistakes -dropping the ball, overthrowing the receiver, jumping off sides, etc. Even though the players practice and practice that doesn’t result in the elimination of mistakes. Practice might not make it perfect, but hopefully it can reduce the number of errors. When that special moment or perfection happens, it is beautiful to watch as in a touchdown run or the quarterback throwing a touchdown pass. But in a 60 minute football game, how often do we see perfection?

In essence, we live in a world of criticism as there are so many unhappy people. And, the social media technology makes it too easy for these individuals. Perfection does happen but maybe not often enough, since we are all human and make mistakes. I know I have made mistakes (Mike Keller, Thom Darden, and Jim Betts told me about their chapters In Bo’s Warriors) and likely you have as well. So when you put together 11 men on offense and 11 men on defense, they’re going to be mistakes. And the team that makes fewer mistakes often wins.

Hopefully, the imperfect President Schlissel, Jimmy Hackett and his advisers will minimize mistakes and find one terrific athletic director. Time will tell.

 Go Blue!