This was going to be about the Detroit Lions dealing with a myriad of injuries to their defense.
Then Michigan and Ohio State decided to go berserker mode and get into a post-game scuffle after the Wolverines’ shocking 13-10 victory over the Buckeyes.
Suddenly, what should have been a celebration of a landscape-changing upset turned into something quite different.
Neither team was in the right. Both lost a little something Saturday.
It’d be great to just write about Traverse City West grad Christian Boivin owning a perfect 4-0 record against Ohio State.
But things turned sharply when the Wolverines decided to plant a giant Michigan flag on Ohio State’s field. Not a classy move, and you can excuse the enthusiasm of 20-somethings who just won their biggest game of the season just so far.
Flag planting has become somewhat of a tradition in college football. Baker Mayfield did it to Ohio State back in 2017. But you also don’t do it thinking there’ll be no repercussions, especially when the other team is still sitting right there.
The Buckeyes, meanwhile, shouldn’t have still been on the field. Let the security at the game handle Michigan.
Instead, the postgame celebration turned into chaotic clash, with players from both teams getting pepper-sprayed as police officers desperately tried to separate two bitter rivals who towered over them. Obscenities were heard all over the broadcast as Gus Johnson had to shift into dad mode and admonish both teams for a sad postscript to a great game.
Michigan senior lineman Raheem Anderson rushed onto the field with a huge Michigan flag, led back onto the field by several teammates. He planted it at the 50-yard line and swayed it back and forth along with chanting Wolverines, but that didn’t last long as Ohio State players took exception and a skirmish between the two teams turned a football field into a battle zone.
Just as things were somewhat dying down, Michigan junior defensive end Derrick Moore picked up the flag and started running through a crowd of Buckeye players with it hoisted up. The whole thing blew up again, with Ohio State senior defensive end Jack Sawyer ripping the flag out of Moore’s hands and tearing it off the pole.
If Ohio State showed that kind of fight during the game, maybe the Buckeyes could have won.
Then things really break loose, and overwhelmed police officers had to resort to pepper spray to break up before the postgame devolved into an all-out brawl.
Michigan running back Kalel Mullings poured gas on the fire in a postgame TV interview on the field, saying, “Some people got to learn how to lose.”
The same can be said of learning how to win.
Michigan won the game, then managed to make Ohio State look like the good guys.
Instead of talking about how great a win this was, or whether Ryan Day will be coaching the Buckeyes next season, we’re left with this.
There were much better ways to handle this.
It’s time Michigan stops putting an asterisk next to so many accomplishments.