If you are at all offended by curse words, then don't follow me to the jump. Consider yourself duly warned.
As the days continue to pass, there seems to be daily FanPosts about how some folks are ready to move on from the Leach Saga and other folks aren't quite there yet, and may never get there unless something is done about the current administration. The point of this post isn't to discourage you guys and gals from speaking your peace regarding Leach, the administration, how it's been handled, how you feel about the situation or anything else that you might consider to be somewhat relevant to what's been done.
I'm not sure what made me think of the connection, but at some point this afternoon, when I should have been working on something really important, it occurred to me that there may not be a better example of this than Swingers (film).
The general point of this post and this film is rather to say that you can't tell someone when should or should not get over a girl, and you sure as hell can't tell someone when they should or should not get over Mike Leach.
For those of you who don't remember the movie (and if you haven't seen it, go ahead and put it on your list of movies to rent in the near future, you'll thank me later) Mike, played by John Favreau, recently broke up with his long-time girlfriend, who still lives in New York, while Mike has moved out to Los Angeles. There's a trip to Vegas with Trent, played by Vince Vaughn, that quite a few folks remember, but what I was thinking about what some of Mike's conversations with Rob, played by Ron Livingston, as to how Mike should be getting over his old girlfriend and getting back in the game.
I'm not going to connect the dots for you on this, but you can see where I'm going with this analogy.
Consider the opening scene:
Mike: Okay, so what if I don't want to give up on her?
Rob: You don't call.
Mike: But you said I don't call if I wanted to give up on her.
Rob: Right.
Mike: So I don't call either way?
Rob: Right.
Mike: So what's the difference?
Rob: There is no difference right now. See, Mike, the only difference between giving up and not giving up is if you take her back when she wants to come back. But you can't do anything to make her want to come back. In fact, you can only do stuff to make her not want to come back.
Mike: So the only difference is if I forget about her or just pretend to forget about her?
Rob: Right.
Mike: Well that sucks.
Rob: Yeah, it sucks.
Mike: So it's just like a retroactive decision, then? I mean I could, like, forget about her and then when she comes back make like I just pretended to forget about her?
Rob: Right. Although probably more likely the opposite.
Mike: What do you mean?
Rob: I mean at first you're going to pretend to forget about her, you'll not call her, I don't know, whatever... but then eventually, you really will forget about her.
Mike: Well what if she comes back first?
Rob: Mmmm... see, that's the thing, is somehow they know not to come back until you really forget.
Mike: There's the rub.
Rob: There's the rub.
The premise of Swingers is more or less about Mike getting on with his life after the break-up with his girl. The cast of characters in Swingers try to help and tell Mike when he should or shouldn't be getting over the only girl he's ever loved. We've all been in Mikey's shoes at one time or another in our lives and I think for a large majority of Texas Tech fans, Mike Leach is none other than that ex-girlfriend.
This one phrase from above stuck out to me, and I'm not sure how many times we've heard similar words uttered on DTN in regards to Leach:
You're gonna get over it.
For a large portion of Texas Tech fans, they're certainly not over Leach. And perhaps what I took away from Swingers more than anything else, is that we've all got to get over Leach on our own terms or perhaps we don't get over him at all.
At one point towards the tail end of the movie, as Mike tries a handful of times to try to get over his ex-girlfriend, he meets a beautiful baby. Mikey turns into a big bear and acquires the beautiful baby's digits, perhaps acting a bit out of his character and mainly acting out as a result of the strong encouragement of his friends. After acquiring the beautiful baby's telephone number, it's made very clear to Mike as to when he needs to call the beautiful baby -- six days at a minimum.
Mike goes home that night, digits in hand, proceeds to conduct one of the most painful scenes in my movie-watching life:
Dear baby Jesus, please make it stop.
Naturally, Mike is a tad bit depressed after this debacle, but if you stayed with the video, the very next scene, you get this:
Rob: You don't look at the things that you have, you only look at the stuff that you don't have. Those guys are right about you - you're money.
Mike: Then why won't she call?
Rob: She won't call because you left. She's got her own life to deal with, man, and that's in New York... alright? And she's a sweet girl, and I love her to pieces, but fuck her, man. You gotta get on with your life. You gotta let go of the past. And Mikey, when you do, I'm telling you: the future is beautiful, alright? Look out the window. It's sunny every day here. It's like manifest destiny. Don't tell me we didn't make it. We made it! We are here. And everything that is past is prologued to this. All of the shit that didn't kill us is only - you know, all that shit. You're gonna get over it.
Mike: How did you get over it? I mean, how long did it take?
Rob: Sometimes it still hurts. You know how it is, man. It's like, you wake up every day and it hurts a little bit less, and then you wake up one day and it doesn't hurt at all. And the funny thing is, is that, this is kinda weird, but it's like, it's like you almost miss that pain.
Mike: You miss the pain?
Rob: Yeah, for the same reason that you missed her... because you lived with it for so long.
That's it right there.
Right now, we're all sort of sitting in our underwear, looking at all of our old pirate gear, reminiscing about what we had with Leach. And there are some of us acting in the Rob role, trying to help our fellow Red Raiders by bringing the others that are still down an orange juice and cured meats (truly, a perfect combination).
But right now, I think that Texas Tech fans are right where Mikey is right before Rob comes to talk to him. We're not sure how to feel about the whole thing. Some of us are sad. Some of us are depressed. And some of us just want to wrap ourselves in a blanket, never change our underwear and just think about all of the good times.
Probably that night in the movie, Mike decides to get back out there and he meets the one and only Lorraine, played by the one and only Heather Graham. Mike meets Lorraine on his own terms doing it his own way.
For some members of DTN, we hope that Lorraine is Tuberville and Tuberville is Lorraine. And just like Lorraine, she left someone, but now she is looking for someone too. It's almost a match made in movie heaven.
The movie ends with the idea that there's the chance that there might be something special between Mike and Lorraine, and the audience is left with the thought that perhaps these two were meant to be. For the rest of us that are quite ready to move on from what Leach Era was, there's the hope that Texas Tech and Tuberville will be that perfect relationship that most crave.
I'll stop with the analogies because I think you get the point.
So I'll ask you all, I have no problem with expressing your allegiance to Leach or to Texas Tech. That's what DTN is about, it's about giving you an outlet to express your thoughts, but what I would like from you guys and gals is not to tell someone when they are supposed to be over this entire mess. Some of us will be over it last week and some of us won't be over it for years.
At the end of the day, I hope that you can just accept that this is real easy for some, but it's not easy for others, and therein lies the problem.
There is no right answer.