Mike Hart Channels Drunk, Idiot Kicker
Former Michigan and current Indianapolis Colts running back Mike Hart just doesn’t know when to be quiet. He should have learned his lesson when he called out Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh for criticizing Michigan’s low academic standards for athletes.
“He says we don’t have great student-athletes, but he just accepted one of our transfers,” Hart said. “What kind of sense does that make? Obviously, he wants guys like us at his school. I don’t know how he can say that. He’s not a Michigan man. I wish he’d never played here.”
Just think. Michigan might have beaten Appalachian State if Harbaugh played there last season.
It turned out Harbaugh was telling the truth for the most part. The Michigan football team was all about general studies and not communications. According to Pat Forde, “only one junior … declared a major, according to the guide (in movement science)” in 2007. “In 18 years of covering college athletics, I’ve never seen virtually an entire junior class without a major.”
Now Hart’s gone and done it again. The sixth round pick is claiming that the NFL isn’t as hard as he thought it would be.
“It’s a little different,” Hart said Saturday at Randy Wise Chevrolet in Flint, where he signed autographs. “The only surprise is it’s not as tough as I thought it was going to be, as far as practice and those type of things,” he said. “It’s more laid back.”Hart was selected in the sixth round of the April draft by the Indianapolis Colts. He said: “Indianapolis is a different organization. You watch ‘Hard Knocks’ on HBO and you expect to be hazed and a lot of those things, but the Colts are a lot different. It’s not as bad as I thought — we don’t get taped, we don’t get hazed with the Colts.”
Hopefully Hart thinks OTAs are similar to training camp. The coaches and veterans must love hearing him say practice isn’t that hard or that he’s not getting hazed. It’ll be interesting to see if he thinks the same way when he’s duct taped to a bed while getting teabagged by a camel during training camp. Then again we probably have it wrong. Tony Dungy probably has his players read his book and go out on the town to haze gays while Marvin Harrison shoots off his guns like a Palestinian prisoner release celebration.
Filed under: Indianapolis Colts • Jim Harbaugh • Michigan Wolverines • Mike Hart • Tony Dungy
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I love your stuff, but Mike Hart is a poor choice of a NFLer to complain about. The dude is, by all accounts, a stand up human being and a quality individual. He is smart, engaging and respectful off the field. He trash talks with the best on the field, but who doesn’t?
The next (ignored) quote from the Free Press explains exactly what he meant: “They get all the rookies and young guys prepared, because the vets on our team, they’re proven… Really they want to see what the young guys can do, so they slow it down and teach us.”
It was a compliment to the organization, not trash talking or arrogance. I hope he makes the team, but I’m not entirely sure he will. Either way, while he’s trying, he should probably be extolled for his tremendous attitude and work ethic, not picked apart for controversy. The NFL has enough CedBen’s for that.
I’m not going to argue the Harbaugh stuff because it’s mostly a bunch of BS (Jim Carty is a sleazy dude), and I will just come off as a Michigan homer.
Keep up the great work guys… not the Hart bashing.
Point taken. We’re just giving him a hard time. There’s no way we’d put him in the same category as Steve Foley or any Bengal. There’s no controversy here. Of course, my dislike of Michigan and the Colts has nothing to do with giving him shit. Not sure he’ll make it but best of luck to him. If he’s going to help them, I hope he gets cut and gets picked up somewhere else.
By the way, we’re all about trash talk. That’ll certainly raise his stature with us.
I figured as much. I think my response was born out of the fact that he’s getting blasted in a lot of places for a comment that has been taken completely out of context.
I went to Michigan, and love their football program. That is a fact. Another fact is that Mike Hart is the type of player that other guys sacrifice for; ask any one of his teammates, and they will say the same thing. In fact, I’m pretty sure I remember some opponents saying the same about him (although I can’t back that up right now).
I hope he can shine in the NFL, or at least eek out a career being a smart, pass blocking 3rd down back, but he will always be one of the classiest competitors I’ve ever watched.
I respect you guys and your blog way too much to let a post like this knock you down in my book. But much like Mike Hart’s teammates, after four years of watching him play, he’s a guy who I will fight for… at least his reputation that is.
Good talk. Keep on truckin…
pat forde got his info from the previous year’s media guide. it was produced when the players were sophomores. michigan students declare their majors junior year.
espn actually printed a little retraction of that point when the university pointed it out, but go ahead and recycle it anyway
Totally off topic, sorry, but I’m lost w/ how you did the photobucket slideshow linking to another website. help me out please, thanks
patrick
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He’ll be a great NFL analyst someday.
I’ve never seen or heard of the ESPN retraction but shoot it our way and we’ll make note of it.