Let's Get Denarded Denard Robinson (who as a Florida commit would've been... only slightly less evil) is an immensely talented football player. In fact, there's little disputing (unless you're an ESPN Heisman expert! A-hurr!) that two weeks into the season, there's essentially no single other individual in even the same arena of stupid awesomeness that he's presently posting up in. This is obviously frightening and troubling for a variety of reasons, most notably that he is the quarterback at the University of Michigan and also that he is the quarterback at the University of Michigan. In order to reduce unnecessary alcohol intake and better our slumber for the roughly the next 3 months, may we hang our hats on the following:
- Despite the fact that his 885 total yards of offense through two games means he's outgained the entire Wisconsin, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, and Indiana teams (as well as USC, Florida State, Boise State, Texas, Miami (of Florida), LSU, Penn State, Florida, and Georgia nationally), the most rudimentary of logic would dictate there is absolutely no way this level of play can keep up without regression to the mean.
- The matter of fact that he's been carrying the ball nearly 30 times a game and already gotten knocked out one of Michigan's first two games on a vicious blow certainly can't help his ability to stay durable.
- The fact that this exists and per the natural order can only end in flames.
- That discussions like this are occurring somewhere, anywhere.
- The MGoInfinite Kittens Theorem which states that over a long enough time line involving Michigan football, there will be an event so catastrophic that MGoBlog will be reduced to little more than profiles of small, adorable cats.
Litigating Is Winning ...Or so the University would have you believe. The Consumer Law & Privacy Blog looks into a particularly fascinating (and troubling) tale of legal bullying that hits awfully close to home:
A Wisconsin company, which also has a web site called Badger Illustrated and as well as a magazine about the Wisconsin Badgers, created a web site called “Buckeye Illustrated” and announced plans to publish a “Buckeye Gameday” magazine and on “Ohio State Buckeye ebook,” all featuring lavish coverage of Ohio State’s popular sports teams and containing extensive advertising. Instead of welcoming this additional coverage as a form of homage, and considering how a second set of web sites and magazines could intensify public interest and thus help promote the University, Ohio State went to court complaining of the defendants’ attempt to “rip off” Ohio State’s sports enterprise. The university protested that it had just started to license out the right to publish sports programs, instead of doing such publications inhouse, and if outsiders could publish programs without permission, the value of this licensing would be reduced.
I ain't passed the bar but I know a little bit, enough to know... That seems awfully overly reactionary, at least at first glance.
The story takes a familiar turn when the University's high priced attorneys inundate the case's judge with fancy legal briefings, while the low tech web site's defense are only able to provide a haphazard, inadequate retort. The following ensues (no pun intended):
The next day, the judge heard argument by telephone and granted not only a TRO but a preliminary injunction forbidding the defendants from using any domain names that includes the name Ohio State or Buckeyes, or using the Ohio State or Buckeyes name in any publication.
I'll leave the hard copyright law debate and discourse to any folks with J.D.'s in the comment section below, but this would certainly strike me as an instance of the University potentially damaging the very market they're trying to cater to solely in the name of monopolizing pre-game programs. Instead of letting the free market decide which program will cater to the folks putting hundreds of dollars every Saturday morning on campus back into the university's pockets, OSU essentially decides to Ndamukong the opposition into the stone age and ride the chill monopoly waves. Hope the several thousand $8 programs sold cover the retainer in spades.
THE BATTLE FOR OHIO!!1!one! What better way to get ready for in-state rival Ohio (and threat to ourexistence, very way of life, and stranglehold on the O-h-i-o chant) than with a taste of Bobcat factoids and bullet points courtesy of NBC4. It's not too meaty, but it's a COSTCO sample-sized appetizer to get you just hungry enough to really slam down what will be around these parts in the not too distant future.
If you knew anything about football, you'd know spiking the ball before crossing the goal line is the coolest. The Wiz of Odds has YouTube'tastic recaps of near moments of great stupidity in both the Marshall-WVU game and the ND-Michigan games this past weekend. In both instances, receivers appear to discard the ball before actually getting into the end zone, though both are inexplicably spared the public humiliation of joining the illustrious best charitable touchbacks of 2K10 club. Now where have I seen that before?
