Lloyd Carr Is Our Girlfriend

After reading all the internet rumors about Lloyd Carr’s impending retirement (which has been internet rumor for many years now, let’s not kid ourselves…) I immediately equated his relationship with us, the fan base, to a girlfriend we just broke up with. I feel confused and frankly I’m a little nervous. Prior to the break up I was excited about the opportunity the freedom would provide. Certainly “the grass is always greener” has found it’s most relevant example. But what if Lloyd is the best for us?! Sure the sex wasn’t great but we’re not going to be able to keep it up forever (just ask The Captain)

During his tenure we’ve (I’ve) constantly looked and analyzed his imperfections. Why didn’t we do this or that, how come this happened, (how did we go 7-5?!etc…) After all, competition is striving for perfection. And more often than not we’ve wanted to be perfect. We were reminded countless times about what we didn’t have by looking around us. If you believe in the 10 commandments you could add “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife” to the many sins that we have committed together as a tailgate. “Look at USC!” we’d exclaim “Why can’t we be like Florida?!” And it would routinely be thrown back in my face by our own Webmaster that we haven’t had a down year. 7-5 was as bad as it’s gotten. Even losing to a 1-AA team this year hasn’t prevented us from being one victory away from returning to the Rose Bowl. “Look at Nebraska, look at Notre Dame!” or “USC and Oklahoma both went through rebuilding periods…look at Alabama…” And these are valid points but the constant reminders - turning on the tv, reading a magazine, walking down the street - of what is “available” make this idea of perfection so intriguing. We spend our time scrutinizing our relationships regardless of who they’re with and thinking what could make this person better instead of actually appreciating the relationship. So on Saturday, despite how negative I’ve been towards my “relationship” with Lloyd I’m going to embrace the accomplishments and raise a toast to what might be the last hurrah. And if we’re as unfortunate to be without Henne and Hart I’ll accept our fate. This isn’t the game that will make or break the final outcome of our relationship though. Those games have come and gone. He’s one of the best we’ve had and I’ll be satisfied with either decision, except if he stays… Imagine if we became, gasp, unpredictable?! Here’s to what we have, here’s to what we had and most importantly here’s to our foot in ohio states’ ass!