It is a cliche that ‘you can say anything on the internet,’ implying that one can say things without consequence in this venue. That is a myth, of course, and it remains a myth as long as there are blogs like the WLA around. Walk with me.

Not that it mattered, but I basically disappeared from this blog and MGo for the last couple of months. Without diving into too much detail:

• My wife required surgery.
• My mother’s already-tenuous health deteriorated.
• My brother and his family were quasi-homeless for the holidays.
• My company faced and continues to face an industrywide spending freeze.
• My wife’s surgery happened, except…
• My wife’s recovery from surgery had complications and she was readmitted to the hospital week later.

I do not mention this to garner sympathy because, and this cannot be mentioned enough, my story is not unique. Hundreds of thousands of people go through worse and handle it better. I simply make that list to illustrate that, when life throws you knuckleballs, perhaps that’s not the best time to go write stuff on the internet…especially about something as emotional and irrational as your fandom of Michigan football. At the very least you should take care, because your real life will inevitably color your writing.

I wonder how many others follow this advice. I imagine many are having rough times right now, and a 3-9 season was exactly the wrong fucking thing we wanted to see out of the Michigan football world. 3-9 hasn’t helped numb the pain of our other troubles, and as a result those responsible for 3-9 have received a LOT of abuse. And until 3-9 is expunged from our memory or until we learn not to rely on a college football team to take away our troubles, I fear this abuse will continue.

As members of the WLA continue to show you, however, it doesn’t have to be that way. The WLA believes fandom should be fun (and it’s possible even in the midst of a 3-9 disaster). Why? Because too many other shitty things are happening to you and everyone else for Michigan football to be elevated to the level of other, more important things. They went 3-9, Morgan Trent and Stevie Brown transformed into toast, and the offense turned into a freakish combination of Santa Claus and Gilligan. So fucking what? Look at my list above or, better yet, write your own list of things that happened to you and your family during football season. How big a deal is 3-9, really?

Rooting for Michigan should be fun, and if it’s not, then one or both of the following is happening:

A: Something surrounding your fandom is pissing you off (see: Ward, Pam; Horne, Lisa; Sharp, Drew; Heuser, John, etc).

or

B: You’re doing it wrong.

And this is where the WLA comes in. I don’t know how it works with other fanbases, but the WLA is committed to holding people accountable for the stupid shit they sometimes say, because we want everyone to have fun with their M fandom. By frequently and consistently using logic and facts and using, um, “colorful” words, we are hoping that WLA abuse can become a tool to ensure fun for everyone. Some examples:

Fun: trying to work Kate Beckinsale and Unicorns into every liveblog.
Not Fun: reading about which players/coaches should get “pink slips” after every game.

Fun: trying to come up with a unique and funny way to blame Stevie Brown for everything.
Not Fun: being serious about blaming Stevie Brown for everything.

Fun: watching RichRod’s Florida recruits discover that some games late in the season are “cold” and sometimes have this thing called “snow” (hahaha welcome to the Big 10, Martavious!)
Not Fun: watching ex-Defensive Coordinator Scott Shafer get fired after only 1 year, forcing him to uproot his family for the 20th time in the last 3 years.

Fun: The Charlie Weis Thanksgiving Game.
Not Fun: reading a Fox Sports “journalist” nonsensically criticize RichRod for using a zone-blocking scheme while praising Norm Chow for, uh, being Norm Chow.

Fun: getting OSU fan poguemahone (or any OSU fan for that matter) to click on the boytaur.net link that infects a LOT of our message threads. (note: ALL CAPS is not sufficient enough to explain how NSFW!!!!! that link is. Don’t touch it- German scheisse, 2Girls1Cup, and munging videos are safer than that thing).
Not Fun: letting the OSU win streak affect who you are.

On and on I could go, and last week’s L’Affaire Helmet d’Trent and OMG$6Million!! are but two more examples. I’m proud and happy for the things my fellow Revolutionaries said, and I have little to add to either discussion. I only belabor them to remind my fellow fans and bloggers that we have been doing this all along and we will continue to do this again and again and again. If you write things that makes it seem like you’re not having fun, or if you ruin the fun for the rest of us, just assume the WLA will rip you a new asshole.

Some think blog slapfights, especially inside a fanbase, are silly wastes of time (cough Varsity Blue MGoBlog cough). They’re probably right. I believe, however, that at the heart of the internal slapfights is somebody that has stopped having fun with his/her fandom. Expecting us to hold our fire on a fun-free and/or fact-free fuckball is like expecting us to promote the eating of Unicorn meat. It’s against our nature, and always will be.

Fandom is irrational and emotional, and therefore should be fun. Period. Enjoy the ride, and if you ever stop having fun (and consequently write something stupid), the WLA will be there to remind you that you’re a bitchy little donkeyfucker. You can count on it and, by knowing we’re here for you, maybe next time you’ll refrain from saying something stupid on the internet.