Mailbag question: Braylon’s comments

Posted at 8:00am — 1/10/2010

Mailbag question: Braylon’s comments

What do you guys think of Braylon Edwards comments or should I say his SNF introduction when he said “Lloyd Carr’s University of Michigan?” Is there something behind all of this or is this part of the agenda act/drama going on at UM?

It now seems like all of this is becoming something more than just being upset when Coach Rod came in and almost gave away his #1 jersey.

Ralph F.

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Thanks for the question.

Editors Note: The game on Saturday with the Jets they just reused last weeks introductions.

We were actually hoping that we would not have to deal with this type of question, but knew it would come up since all the message boards are talking about Braylon’s introduction on SNF.

Our first thought is this is much ado about nothing. Several players in the past have used different introductions (team identifications) besides Michigan, such as Larry Foote who always gives props to Pershing and Ty Law who gives the name of his high school, as well as Charles Woodson. In fact, in the same game on SNF, David Harris mentioned his high school, but nobody seems interested to discuss this occurrence on the message boards.

Braylon was just paying tribute to the man who through a ton of tough love helped force him to grow up. Remember Braylon and Coach Carr did not see eye-to-eye early on when Braylon was in college, but we believe that Braylon and other former players, after their playing time at Michigan, realize that Coach Carr was looking out for their best interests.

In the Detroit News, Braylon commented about the introduction and said “during my pre-taped introduction, as a way of paying tribute to Coach Carr, I identified myself as being from ‘Lloyd Carr’s University of Michigan,” Edwards said. “I had no intention of showing any disrespect to Coach Rich Rodriguez. I love the University of Michigan and will always be loyal to its coaching staff past, present and future.”

Was he also probably taking at least a small shot at Coach Rod, probably? But who really knows, because Braylon has also supported Coach Rod in the media recently as well. His father, Stan, was on a Detroit radio station the other day and talked about how it was not anything against Coach Rod, but was done to show support for Coach Carr.

It seems like whenever a fan, a booster, the media, or a former player says anything positive towards anybody, but Coach Rod, some message board quarterbacks take that as a slap against Coach Rod.

People were even making comments about what Dhani Jones said on the Jim Rome show and I listened to it along with reading the transcript and honestly, like probably a lot of former players, guys like Jones want their school to be winning. They take great pride in seeing their school keep moving at the top of the football world and being one of the elite teams in college football. The last couple of years have not only been tough on fans, but also the former players as well, who helped to build and keep the traditions of Michigan football at or near the top.

What Michigan fan is not upset by the 8-16 overall record and the 3-13 record in the Big Ten the last two years? If you are happy with this result, or okay with it, then UM might as well join the MAC or the IVY league right now and just give up the idea of being a premier football program.

What this really comes down to is that the former players are tired of the present coaches running down the former coaches, talking down on how things were done at Michigan before they arrived, along with how bad the recruiting has been in their opinion the last four to five years, and also stating that the cupboard is bare. Even after a meeting with Coach Carr, in which Coach Rod told Carr the negative comments would stop, the current staff continued to keep it up and the former players have obviously heard about the “goings on.” This is why we believe Braylon ultimately came out and said what he did in support of Coach Carr.

In our opinion what should happen is all parties need to stop taking the “dirty laundry” out to be viewed in full public, that is, any comments that are pro or con for both the former and current staffs. It only fuels the fire and also gives more ammo (if other programs do not have enough already) to negative recruit against Michigan.

This also should apply to the “experts,” who are in bed with the current staff and trumpet indignation to a perceived anti-Coach Rod campaign as being destructive and creating images of a semi-secret society, whose “blood-thirsty” members, known as a faction, are moving rapidly to destroy Coach Rodriguez and set Michigan football back to the stone-age (actually, Yost won everything in the football stone age).

The above scenario serves to divide the fan base even more. So now the result could be divided personnel groups within the UM community and divided fans. Not the best of possible scenarios. Fortunately, the team, even with defections, has maintained reasonable unity considering the extraneous conditions. But like the typical media, sites realize that controversy and chaos can build business, and so such drama moves traffic, maintains membership, and also serves as a catalyst for people to post during the dead time.

Factions, or people that do not agree with the head coach, happen at every major football power. That includes places like Ohio State, where fans are not happy with just being Big Ten champs and beating Michigan, but feel Coach Tressel is too conservative and not aggressive enough to get them back to the national championship game. Hell, in his first year if he would not have beaten Michigan, it was likely that he might not have been back, because several “factions” thought the job at Ohio State was too big for a coach that came from Youngstown State. Even this year, much of the Buckeye fan base was not happy with Tressel and wanted major changes. We remember not that long ago when Ohio State fans just used to care about beating Michigan and now that is an afterthought.

Our 2010 motto is “No more excuses — Time to WIN!” Just like many of the former players, that is what we are concerned about. The alumni players do not care who the current coach is or what schemes are being used. All they care about is winning football games and doing it the right way.

Written by GBMW Staff

Go Blue — Wear Maize!