AN EVENING WITH SAFA AL AHMAD
NOVEMBER 19, 2019 | 7:30 P.M. | RACKHAM AUDITORIUM
FREE | NO REGISTRATION | WALLENBERG.UMICH.EDU
D
ear Only News Source in
Ann Arbor,
To be honest, I’m
impressed.
Finding
time to go
to class,
prepare for
a football
game and
bike to city
hall meet-
ings in the
rain — all
while bal-
ancing being
one of four (four!) city gov-
ernment reporters — must be
exhausting.
The thought of carrying one
whole fourth of really any beat
while attending the prestigious
University of Michigan — wow.
They should write stories about
people like you in The New
York Times.
It’s not just your city govern-
ment reporters I would want to
single out, though. Unless you
were, well, craving the atten-
tion of being singled out by
being featured in the Times.
It’s also this quote — which I
had to re-read twice — because
I couldn’t believe it wasn’t said
in jest, even by someone at your
notoriously humble university.
“We’ve been given this
mantle of holding the powerful
accountable, five nights a week,
with no department backing us
up,” your managing editor said.
When it comes to the rivalry
between The Daily and The
State News, you might want
to pipe down about holding
the powerful accountable.
That’s kind of our thing. That’s
why we win Pacemakers. And
unlike the one in Schembechler
Hall, our trophy case is full of
awards from this century.
What department, by the
way, do you speak of? Are you
referring to the fact that your
university, with its 200 years
of history and presidential
alumni, still doesn’t have a
journalism school? Your uni-
versity cured polio, so ask them
to invest in its journalists!
We don’t have a department
backing us up, either. The State
News is wholly independent,
both from our university and
our journalism school. We
“carry that mantle” also, and
we do it without histrionic,
self-important quotes.
I wonder how you get by
with just a $4.5 million endow-
ment and a staff of more than
250 students.
According to the Times arti-
cle, you only elected your most
recent editor-in-chief after she
was able to successfully name
the 11 members of city hall,
along with their wards and
party affiliations. I assume she
was one of 17 or 18 people cov-
ering the city the year before,
but maybe not.
That is not a test to see if
someone is fit to lead. That’s
the kind of pointless memo-
rization I had to do when I
joined a fraternity.
So, now we come to the
football game. A touch football
game played to prove, well,
what exactly? I couldn’t tell
you.
That your staff of 250 has
better athletes than our staff
of 40?
It’s like a school from the
Football Bowl Subdivision los-
ing to a team from the Football
Championship Subdivision —
there’s a difference in scholar-
ship count.
You guys are the favorites
this year, looking for your 15th
straight win in this very impor-
tant, not at all farcical, game.
But The State News could
win. Crazier things have hap-
pened, like a Michigan team
under Jim Harbaugh winning
an important game on the road,
or a Michigan alumnus going
through one whole dinner
party without mentioning their
degree. It happens once in a
blue moon.
And, besides, no team repre-
senting the University of Mich-
igan has ever lost a football
game when they had a substan-
tial advantage in the number of
participating athletes.
So, with that, I will wish
you good luck Friday night. I’ll
wish good luck to the real team
representing your university
with actual athletes on Satur-
day afternoon, too.
I’ll be there. So will your
14 football reporters. In all
seriousness, in this day and
age, where journalists from
all schools are under attack,
I think it’s important that we
stick together. We’re all trying
to do the same thing — keep
the public informed.
Some of us just recognize
that other people do it, too.
Michaelson is a spring sports
editor for The State News. He can
be reached via email at chase.
michaelson@statenews.com or
on Twitter @Chasemarino13.
L
ast week, our editor-in-
chief, Maya Goldman, and I
received an email from The
State News
asking if we
could play
our annual
touch football
game — which
has never let a
little weather
change things
before —
inside this
year.
Forgetting
for a second the fact that this is
newspaper football and nobody
has the time nor the means to rent
a damn dome, that actually sums
up the current state of this news-
paper rivalry quite well: one side
humming along, business as usual,
the other desperately looking for
any excuse to feel slighted.
Every year, their quips in this
column take on a similar tone. This
year, as with most, they will fall
remarkably flat.
The State News will claim to
not care about the annual touch
football game, which I suppose is
the correct stance for a group that
had recently graduated diapers the
last time their team won. They’ll
show up to chant expletives at us
anyway, take their 15th-straight
loss and drive back to East Lansing
assured that next year is the year.
They’ll lament our large staff,
because offering opportunities
to eager, young journalists is,
of course, a bad thing. Awfully
rich coming from the paper that,
as of the publication of this col-
umn, hasn’t covered its school’s
women’s soccer team in 26 days,
its volleyball team in 13 days and
its field hockey team team in 78
days. They’ve written two stories
all year — one of which was a 398-
word Big Ten title game story —
about the women’s cross country
team, which is the most successful
team at the entire school.
You might want to grab any
riffraff off the street to help you
out there.
Maybe, in a fit of desperation,
The State News will turn to the
Michigan State football team’s on-
field product, which seems, uh …
off the table this year. It’s always
been weird when your writers
have gone that direction in the
past, considering you’re supposed
to be objective, but I suppose it’s
particularly hard to do this year
when the Spartans are a living,
breathing embodiment of the “this
is fine” GIF.
They’ll hold up their J-School
as if it somehow portends a better
newspaper, which is easily dis-
pelled by, I don’t know, a cursory
scroll through statenews.com.
Sometimes they’ll stress their
collection of awards, which seems
like the wrong course of action in a
year we won the award for the best
college sports section in the coun-
try — not to mention best gamer,
best columnist and best front page.
One year, they even drew a
little Spartans/Persians metaphor
that made for quite the read. One
excerpt:
“Mark Dantonio is King Leoni-
das, and has been for his Spartans
since his arrival to the throne
of head coach in East Lansing.
A great leader — the men he has
recruited were not the best ath-
letes, nor the greatest students,
but dedication to his process of
intense, hard-nosed training and
conditioning has led him to glory
no Spartan coach in the modern
era of MSU football has achieved.
‘Those who have stayed are
already champions.’ ”
Nailed it. Just a couple thoughts:
1) Be more of a homer. I dare
you.
2) Help me brush up on some
history — was King Leonidas also
forced out of his role after blowing
a 25-point lead at home to Lovie
Smith?
In reality, I harbor no disdain
for Michigan State. I’m not from
Michigan. I did not apply to Michi-
gan State. I’m sure it’s a fine school,
and I’m sure you’re all totally,
completely, entirely pleased you’re
there and not here. I’m sure you’re
all good people, and I’d love to grab
a meal or beer after we make it 15
on Friday.
You can have your robotic
J-School ledes, I’ll take our creativ-
ity. You can have your haphazard
profiles, I’ll take our deeply-report-
ed features. You can have your
professors, I’ll take the best alumni
base out there. You can have your
smaller staff (weird flex), I’ll take
the best college sports section in
the goddamn country.
So, by all means, rehash the
same flimsy insults this year;
there’s not a single leg to stand on.
We’ll just be over here beating you
on the field, off the field, in the
classroom, in the newsroom and
just about everywhere in between.
Hopefully you can find some
dignity in that defeat.
Marcovitch is a co-managing
sports editor and football beat writer
for The Daily. He can be reached via
email at maxmarco@umich.edu or
on Twitter @Max_Marcovitch.
Dueling columns: The Daily vs The State News
CHASE
MICHAELSON
MAX
MARCOVITCH
Michigan preparing for cold weather
As the Michigan football team
practiced outdoors in single-
digit windchills this week, snow
and ice still on the ground, Chris
Partridge didn’t hear a single
complaint.
But the safeties and special
teams coach couldn’t help but
notice that he hadn’t quite dressed
for the weather.
“I don’t understand (when
coaches wear shorts),” he said. “I
don’t want to freeze. I want to have
clothes on when I’m coaching.”
In bad weather, Partridge has
to worry more than most other
coaches — not just because of
his apparel choices, but because
special teams plays like kicks and
punts are affected more by the
weather than others. Rain, snow
and cold all make kicks harder
due to reduced aerodynamics, and
wet conditions make returns more
difficult without fumbling.
The
Wolverines’
coaches
have always embraced whatever
weather may come and hope their
players follow their lead. This is
Michigan, after all. And Saturday
— when the Wolverines suit up
against Michigan State with a
forecasted high temperature of 31
degrees — it won’t be their first
brush with bad weather.
Michigan took the field before
a tilt with Notre Dame on Oct.
26,
wearing
blue
warm-up
jackets. Some coupled that with
white gloves or long socks to
shield from the rain and mid-40s
temperatures.
For that game, the Wolverines
were more pumped up than usual.
“That’s our best warmup we’ve
ever seen,” Partridge said.
In
the
end,
Michigan
game-planned
perfectly
for
the conditions, sticking to an
aggressive rushing attack until
the rain slowed and ultimately
running all over the Fighting Irish.
But this week, the team will
face a different sort of weather
challenge in the bitter cold. While
Ann Arbor isn’t exactly known
for balmy weather in November,
most games are at least in the 40s.
You’d have to go back six years, to
a game against Iowa at Kinnick
Stadium in 2013, to find a game
that kicked off with temperatures
below freezing.
To
make
matters
worse,
Monday blanketed Ann Arbor in
nearly a foot of snow — and not
all of it is expected to melt before
Saturday. So, to be ready for
anything come the weekend, the
Wolverines have been switching
off between indoor and outdoor
practice.
“Coach (Jim Harbaugh) does
a really good job of going in and
out and being outside,” Partridge
said. “It was great yesterday, I
don’t think it sucks. I mean, we’re
in Michigan, we’re not gonna say,
‘Oh, it’s gonna be warm,’ we’re
gonna go out and we’re gonna
deal with it, and I think that’s
important for the players, too.
“It’s like, ‘OK, well, it’s cold
out, so we’re gonna stay inside
the whole time?’ No. You play in
Michigan. This is what it is. So you
go out there and enjoy it. I didn’t
hear one complaint.”
According
to
quarterbacks
coach
Ben
McDaniels,
cold
temperatures, and even snow,
don’t affect game plans as much
as rain. Wet weather causes the
ball to become slippery, which
can cause problems in the passing
game and with ball security, so
safe running plays — like what
the Wolverines ran against Notre
Dame — are the best bet. As part of
pregame preparation, the coaches
check the forecasts, cross their
fingers that they’re accurate, then
adjust on the fly if needed.
There’s no snow in the forecast
Saturday, at least not for now. But
cold weather can still change the
feel of the ball, so it’s important
to get reps in for all kinds of
conditions.
“My experience is, cold is
cold, so it’s gotta get pretty darn
cold to factor in, in my opinion,”
McDaniels said. “Some guys wear
gloves, some don’t, that’s a topic of
discussion for quarterbacks. But
my experience coaching guys and
some playing experience, once you
get running around, you’re pretty
comfortable and you get used to
being in the environment and
those frigid, frigid temperatures
might affect, at some point, your
ability to hold a ball. The feel of the
ball is different as it gets colder,
but we should be in great shape for
this weekend.”
McDaniels
was
careful
to
note that cold weather didn’t
necessarily mean ball security
was harder, just that the texture
of the ball could be different and
quarterbacks
need
to
adjust.
Senior quarterback Shea Patterson
is one signal-caller who does wear
gloves in low temperatures. He’s
done it ever since he was a little kid
when the thermometer dropped
below 30.
Harbaugh is a perfect poster
child for Michigan’s weather
mentality. Look at him, and it
might as well be 70 degrees and
sunny. When Harbaugh and the
other coaches adopt that attitude,
the players follow suit. If the
Wolverines have their way, they’ll
play like they don’t even notice the
temperature.
“That’s really Jim’s personality,
right?” Partridge said. “He can
walk outside and everyone else is
like, ‘Damn, it’s pouring out,’ and
he’ll be coaching his butt off, not
even noticing it’s raining.
“You’re like, ‘Does this guy
even
know
it’s
raining
and
freezing?’ But the team gains that
personality. The coaches, that’s
who they become.”
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan football team will play Michigan State on Saturday, and on Friday, The Michigan Daily and The State News will play their annual touch football game.
FOOTBALL
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
8 — Thursday, November 14, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com