by Mitch Albom | Oct 2, 2016 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
They were a big, tough team with its shoelaces tied together. The power of the Wolverines’ running game would carry them so far, then they would stumble, the field-goal kicker would come out – and down they would crash. Not once, not twice, but three times they...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 4, 2016 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Moments before Michigan’s football season began Saturday, coach Jim Harbaugh was excitedly banging the shoulder pads of Wilton Speight, his newly starting quarterback. And after Speight’s first pass, Harbaugh likely wanted to bang on something else. But this is why...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 1, 2016 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
How Michigan’s football coach Jim Harbaugh does things his way, an enthusiastic way, but a way different from his mentor Schembechler. That gum. That poor gum! It’s getting chomped. Mashed. It’s a tiny, helpless glob in the ever-gnashing molars of Jim Harbaugh,...
by Mitch Albom | Aug 28, 2016 | Sports, Detroit Free Press
Spartans football coach Mark Dantonio talks about his program, his hangup, his rival Harbaugh and his lack of smiling. EAST LANSING — When your friends say you should smile more in news conferences, it usually means two things: 1) You should smile more in news...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 14, 2016 | Comment, Detroit Free Press, Sports
Years ago, I sat in coach Bo Schembechler’s office as he finished a phone call with a recruit. His voice was unnaturally high and soft, and a smile seemed pasted on his face. When he hung up, he banged the handset into the base and declared, “God, I hate this...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 27, 2015 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
“Everyone keeps telling me congratulations,” Connor Cook said over the phone last weekend, “but usually when someone says congratulations, you feel happy.” He sighed. “I feel sad.” A few hours earlier, Cook, who turns 23 next month,...
by Mitch Albom | Nov 29, 2015 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
The sky was clear but the storm kept coming, a relentless downpour of scarlet and gray that ran, got up, ran, got up, and ran some more. The Ohio State rushing attack was a tank, collecting first downs like mud in its tires and rolling over every possession, plowing...
by Mitch Albom | Nov 15, 2015 | Comment, Detroit Free Press, Sports
For years, we’ve debated whether college football players should be paid. Their games bring in a fortune. Their TV revenue builds stadiums and libraries. Yet, the players get only scholarships and living expenses. The money and power, critics say, is highly...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 17, 2015 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Rub your eyes. Shake your head. Rub your eyes again. You will never see a play like that again and you will never see an end like that again and there may never be a game in this storied Michigan-Michigan State rivalry like that again, not one that ends more strangely...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 5, 2015 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
INDIANAPOLIS – In the hyperdrive world of the NCAA tournament, it takes six days to go from overjoyed to overwhelmed. The Michigan State team that fanned crazy flames these last few weeks, flamed out badly in the national semifinals Saturday night....