I’m changing my answer from my earlier mailbag, in which I mentioned what moment made me deeply hate Ohio State.
I do think that 42-41 started the hatred, but that was a general vibe. It lit a fire in my gut that I didn’t know was there. There was a deep cut in the essence of my being that didn’t quite heal up, but nothing specifically about 2013 that I could point to as making the hatred fester.
Two years later, in Ann Arbor, Ohio State fans were pieces of shit to my mom.
My mom is a special person. She’s always been incredibly proud of me, somehow especially at times I don’t deserve it. She hated Ann Arbor at first, when I decided I wanted to go to school in Michigan, but she supported me all the same.
Over time – and through football – she learned to love the place I did. At least once a year, sometimes more if she was picking me up before Thanksgiving, my family would come up for a football game. Slowly, the environment of the Big House and the team (good or bad) warmed her up to the place. She hadn’t seen anything like gameday in Ann Arbor, not at then-Ralph Wilson Stadium and certainly not at the University at Buffalo’s paltry offering. My mom tells people to this day that Michigan Stadium makes Bills Mafia look small.
My senior year, she decided to put her money where her mouth was. She decided she would buy a pair of season tickets for us to have far beyond my time in Ann Arbor. I don’t remember why I didn’t commit to whatever season ticket deal alums could get, but I went with it. In her first year, her seats were in the upper bowl, dangerously close to the opposing team’s ticket block.
In 2015, she wanted to come to The Game. She drove me back to Michigan after Thanksgiving (the same route every time – five hours through the States instead of four hours through Canada, because she’s stubborn) and we were planning how we’d configure our seats. I had a student ticket, so my mom sat alone. We figured we could meet eventually, whether I snuck her in the student section, or I went to her.
We also, admittedly, made our meetup plan if The Game got out of hand for Michigan. (It was 2015. It certainly did.)
The time came. Based on the few text messages we could exchange in the Big House, we decided we’d had enough. Instead of getting to leave, though, my mom ended up stranded in her seat, surrounded by Ohio State fans who decided my mom wasn’t going anywhere.
The way she recalls it — and if you want to call my mom dishonest, I’d like to have some words with you — upsets me to this day. She got up and asked to leave. She even said, “excuse me.” The row of about seven to eight Ohio State fans didn’t just ignore her, she recalled. “They just said I wasn’t leaving.”
Very cool behavior!
My mom isn’t intimidating. It’s not like she was talking shit. So imagine some random lady, sitting alone, asking you if she can get out of her seat… and you actively tell her no. That’s freak behavior, vile to the very core. Apparently, being a Buckeye means you bully random strangers who have no one there to defend them.
Though I wish I’d known what my mom was walking into, they could have been much worse. The incident is small peanuts. She’s since changed our ticket location to be in a less hostile area of Michigan Stadium. She’s a forgiving woman and has gotten over it.
I haven’t.
I tell this story, of a minor moment that incited irrational hatred, because I’m aware that I’m not much of an in-the-mud poster. I don’t really dive into the dregs, even on our own forums, instead preferring to keep it breezy.
It’s not that I don’t care; I care a great deal, actually. It’s more that I know who Ohio State fans are. I’ve known since the day they treated my mom like shit in a stadium that isn’t theirs.
Let’s face it – Ohio State fans know Michigan fans well. My comrade in posting but enemy on the site, Frank, conspired with D.J. to stick a knife in the smugness of the Michigan fanbase. He compared a cowardly war general to the ethos of the fandom:
There’s nothing a Michigan Man loves than bowing to authority. Whether it’s the HOA, police, or lawyers—they love nothing more than an ‘official’ stamp of approval.
[…]
Because that’s truly what makes a Michigan Man, more than anything else: a sense of arrogance that can fill up rolls of newspapers. A sense of entitlement that academics, wealth, and preparation mean you deserve victories because your plans are oh so perfect.
Michigan fans can’t beat these allegations. No one is a bigger critic of Michigan’s smug fan culture than me. I can’t help but notice when prominent voices in the blogosphere make highbrow jokes that are meant to be chortled at while you smoke out of an old-timey tobacco pipe. Oh, cool, it’s been over two years since Ohio State has technically defeated Michigan. Good jokes, guys!
Still, a little arrogance never hurt anyone.
Not in pretentiousness or the pearl clutching. I could use far less of the fanbase feeling like it’s a Notary Public Convention. In being overly haughty and seemingly mature, Michigan fans’ digs feel juvenile. But maybe the best way to get under Ohio State fans’ skin isn’t to force jokes about 42-27 or pretend to be some arbiter of morality. It’s to ignore whatever mudslinging bullshit is happening in the pit.
In time, without anyone to bully, they’ll eat themselves alive.
Again from Frank, this is just as instructive about the Ohio State poster’s mindset:
Ohio State? Ohio State is the guy who risks getting kicked out because you have a bit of a drinking problem. Not overly capable of dressing up and uncaring if said clothes get covered in mud. A tendency to speak bluntly (if we’re being charitable). Successful in business? Not really. Preparation? Sometimes, sometimes not.
They’re trying to lure us in. They cherry pick stats and watch five minutes of game action and post incendiary shit to piss us off. Buckeye fans bait us into being so, so annoying, and in that way we let them win. It’s why I’ve taken an alternate approach of shutting the fuck up and watching them untether themselves from football reality. I live a more peaceful life unbothered by bullshit.
They crave attention. I know the score.
Don’t get me wrong; I love what we’ve built here. I’ve broken internet bread with my Ohio State nemeses, talking about luxury items and ball in the same breath. I know the people here aren’t the same ones that barricaded my mom in her seat. But in my time observing the boards and letting the Buckeyes get their licks in, I’ve come to realize that the best thing to do is, when it comes to the rivalry, let them all keep whining.
At the first sign of discontent, Buckeye fans are at each other’s throats. They melt down in a way that’s better than anything I could possibly drum up. It’s not that I don’t have the juice for the rivalry – of course I do! – but they’re doing my work for me. I watch from the gallery and let them bitch their way into being a more insufferable fanbase than ours. The core of OSU fandom is somehow more reviled than epic bacon 42-27 posters and war dads with trust funds, and they did this all themselves.
Michigan fans, I’m not saying not to post today. (Please, keep engaging, for the sake of the site.) Just know that, deep down, the best way to piss Ohio State diehards off is to let them post themselves into a coma. Even if they try making fun of my mom, it won’t faze me much. They don’t get under your skin when you remember that insecure and sad people eat each other alive.
Let them bitch until they only have cannibalism left.