In his defense, Dennis Norfleet became internet famous dancing to the Atomic Dog towards the end of last year's Penn State game...a game in which Michigan won...barely.
But that doesn't change the fact that a week before Michigan had lost to Rutgers. And a week before that they had lost to Minnesota. And a week before that, lost to Utah. And was two weeks away from getting waxed, again, by Michigan State.
Looking back on the moment Dennis Norfleet decided to turn Canham's Carpet into his personal dance floor gives me mixed feelings. At the time, I think I was just so numb from watching this thing Michigan was doing each week that I never stopped to really decide if what Norfleet was doing was okay or not. I mean, he's just a kid and what's the big deal anyway? The rest of the M bloggosphere thought it was funny, so who am I to argue?
But watching that video of Norfleet dancing now...I don't know man. Maybe I'm getting older or something but so many things bother me about that clip. The uniformz and the rawk music. Knowing how the rest of the season turned out and that Ohio State danced their way into the CFB Playoff and onto a national title. Maybe I'm bitter?
That isn't what losing should look like. Brad Pitt was right. Losing should suck.
Even when you stop losing for one week to beat a mediocre team, it should still suck. It should suck to know that your coach is about to get fired. It should suck to know that the current team you're on is one of the very very very few losing teams Michigan Football has ever seen.
The reason I'm writing this now is because Dennis Norfleet has officially appeared on another team's roster for this upcoming season...a roster in which a great deal of the players' previous school was not a high school. After appearing in Michigan's spring game as a cornerback (!), rumors began to surface that Fleetwood might not be back for academic reasons. So this latest news should not come to a shock to anyone.
Either way...we do wish Dennis all the best. He is a good player who will do well I'm sure.
For so many reasons that moment in time, mid-2014, feels so long ago. Michigan Football has changed so much since then that to even think of the previous season feels like entering another dimension. I'm not going to say everything is going to be gumballs and lemon drops this year, but you just get the sense that those old days are long gone and a totally new era of Michigan Football is upon us.
This is a very good thing. And much needed as well. The lasting impression of that Norfleet clip, at least for me, was that Michigan Football had become something so foreign that it was starting to slip away.
The tickets for two Coke's fiasco, the student section fiasco, the Shane Morris fiasco, Dave Brandon's emails, all of the "miscommunications" were just window dressing for the real problem. Michigan had struggled so much and lost so frequently that losing was becoming okay, at least on a certain level. There was a complacency evident in Norfleet's actions. It wasn't deliberate, but it was there.
We're not very good, but we're having a good time.
Trouble is, Michigan it seems has forgotten what a good time really is.
Now, you can dance.
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