The Fog is Getting Thicker...and Michigan is Getting Larger

The Only Thing Getting Bigger Faster Than Our Tickets is Our Coaches

The long wait is almost over.  It's a just a month until two propane tanks will fire up the 12 burner monstrosity we call a grill, just a month until the first beer is cracked as the sun struggles to rise, just a month until Coke and Captain hit large glass mugs filled with ice.

The sizzle.  The fizz.  A couple guys putting up tents.  And lots and lots of hugs welcoming everyone home to The Cove.

I got my tickets today, much earlier than I remember them arriving in the past...and let me tell you, they're huge.  Enormous.  Remember the souvenir ticket for the rededication game from last year?  Well, they're all that big.  They've also got face values to match.  The five "crappy" games have a face value of $70.  Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Ohio State are branded with a daunting $85 price tag.  Michigan Football is not-so-slowly but surely moving towards a "profit at all costs" model.  Stub-Hub has been named the official scalper, Adidas pours money into the coffers and offers a product that after three years pales in comparison to the cool shit (of a higher quality) we used to get from Nike, and Admiral Brandon has no problem making it clear that when you've got 113,000 seats, a home-at-home series outside of South Bend is not going to be a possibility.  In other words, more money and less fun.

And he'll get away with it, because you'll still be there.  Because you believe.  You believe that there is a happy place, somewhere between Carr and Rodriguez.  A place where offensive innovation is not lost, and defenses are not porous.  Where the guy at the podium doesn't recite Chaucer, nor does he have a drawl of an inbred.  Where really old traditions are kept, and new traditions are embraced no matter who brought them here.

And in this magical place...we also have a kicker.  And we win all of our games, just because This Is Michigan.