View from the Corner Desk

Looking over a cliff

Your spiritual connection to the water and to the land is too important to worry about such minor things as college football. So it was only later in the day that I noticed the symbolism of sitting on a rocky crag on the backside of SugarLoaf Mountain, looking hundreds of feet down to Lake Superior minutes before the Michigan-Michigan State game.

It is no surprise that Michigan State football always seems to be teetering on the edge. As the season goes on, Sparty first stands triumphantly upon that rock, then trips once, topples forward to the edge and holds on for dear life. In most years since I began attending the school, Sparty loses his grip, and the season tumbles over the edge and crashes into reality.

Michigan State must return to the water and cleanse itself of its problem athletes and administrators that keep making the same mistakes. My green faithful and I would love to have a winning season again sometime during our lifetimes. But I'd also like to have a program that doesn't end up in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

With time -- and if Mark Dantonio is allowed to run the program the way he wants -- maybe MSU can rise to the upper tier of the Big 10. There's no reason a university and team of its influence can't. If we can't win, I'd at least like to lose as a clean program. Right now, we don't even have that.

It's time for a spiritual cleansing in East Lansing. Then, maybe Sparty can climb the mountain, enjoy the view, and return home safely.