Eric Boggs
Playing the victim is something that seems to be very much ingrained into the culture of Michigan athletics these days. For months, the college football community had to endure the insufferable whining of maize and blue fans who somehow believed that they were the victims of the terrible NCAA, the FBI, and even Ryan Day’s family because they chose to institute an elaborate cheating scandal that led to the second three-game suspension of head coach Jim Harbaugh and possibly even further disciplinary action by the NCAA. This belief that somehow they are the victims in every situation has not only permeated into other programs on the campus of the University of Michigan, but apparently if you become a coach there, you too immediately become a victim.
The tweet by Alford has him using hand emojis pointing toward a video of Illinois head basketball coach Brad Underwood, with the caption “If they hate you when you leave, you did a good job.” It is a sad attempt by Alford at trying to play the victim. The video is an approach at looking at the relationship between coaches and fanbases when a coach’s attachment to a program is contractual while a fan’s approach is emotional. Unfortunately for Alford, his sorry attempt to portray himself in this light has fallen on deaf ears for Buckeye Nation.
Alford and U of M deserve one another. You can’t spend nine years of your career preaching that the final game of the regular season is the most important on the schedule, only to turn around and leave for said program. Alford is not the victim in this scenario. If anything, the players he recruited, the families he told he would be there for to develop their sons and watch over them, those are the real victims. Buckeye Nation is right. It’s not that Alford left that is upsetting, it’s where he went that makes him a traitor.
