PJ, Win The Axe and Shut Everyone Up

Gopher football fans have had an interesting few weeks. They were bent over by a terrible Illinois team, sending critics into a frenzy and PJ Fleck apologists into hiding, eventually leading to defensive coordinator Robb Smith being fired. But then, they rose from the ashes to curb stomp a rolling Purdue team the next week. Out came the apologists, into hiding went the critics, and out came the Superman cape for new DC, Joe Rossi.

So, enter last weekend vs the Big Ten West Champs: – Northwestern @ TCF Bank – The Gophers were actually favored going into this game. Insanity.

So, now what?

The haters are running amuck. It’s ugly out there right now for PJ. Predictably, the sensitive Gopher fan base is fighting back. Let’s start with the haters. There’s no bigger troll in the Twin Cities than Patrick Reusse. And, it just so happens he hates PJ Fleck. Reusse is also the writer who picks out the Turkey of the Year for the Star Tribune, which is just him labeling one sports figure in town as the biggest failure of the year. Sadly, it’s become a pretty big deal in its 40 or whatever years of existence.

It was the perfect storm.

Before I move on to why I actually sat down to write this article, I’ll stick up for the Gopher fans out there who were triggered by Pat.

The fact that Reusse picked ANYONE over Jimmy Butler, who just ruined the Timberwolves franchise for the next 10 years, means that he’s either as blind to Jimmy Butler’s bullshit as Tom Thibodeau or (the more likely scenario) that he just likes to trigger Gopher fans and hate on PJ Fleck.

Me personally? I fucking love PJ Fleck. I’ve been in the boat since the first article I read on him. Gopher fans, you can’t listen to people like Reusse and Jim Souhan from the Star Tribune. They are the original trolls. Before Twitter, there was Reusse and Souhan. It’s laughable that so many fans/writers, who have been ok with 50 years of shitty Gopher football, now demand excellence from Fleck, after 2 seasons.

I don’t trigger that easily. Souhan, on the other hand…

Remember kids, bullies aren’t usually that tough when confronted.

Let’s move on to why I’m writing this.

Beat the family-copulating Badgers Saturday and shove the Ax up Reusse’s ass

I got a little distracted up there. My fingers and heart sometimes work against my brain when I sit down to type things. This is a “PJ Fleck turns the narrative” piece.

Has this season been disastrous for Fleck? No. Does he need a win this weekend to keep his job? Fuck no.

Fleck gets more undeserved hate in this state than anyone not named Joe Mauer. All he has done is come here and tell everyone that Minnesota is good enough to win a national championship. That this state is great enough to get the best recruits. That we have everything we need here to compete with the top schools and programs around the country.

Ooh… what a terrible fucking person.

The Wisconsin Badgers are beatable this year. They aren’t the reliable Badgers that have beaten the Gophers 14 straight times. They are getable this time around. Our disgusting neighbors have the 4th-best rushing team in the country so you have to slow down RB-Jonathan Taylor to have a shot. On top of that, we’ll have to play a mistake-free game. But it can happen.

Wisconsin has struggled with good teams. They got beat handily by Michigan, Northwestern, and Penn State, while struggling to beat Purdue last week. They also lost to BYU earlier this year. The only really good win they have on their 2018 resume is vs Iowa. Again… beatable.

If PJ can bring the Axe back to campus we’ll go from running him out-of-town to building him a fucking statue.

Eric Strack
Minnesota Sports Fan

Follow @realmnsportsfan