Think back to the most humiliating moment of your life. Now imagine that moment happening with 100,000 people surrounding you and millions more watching on television. And, because your pants split just as you were walking to the front of the class, all your closest friends were extremely let down, because they all depended on you not splitting your pants at that exact moment. How eager would you be to rehash that awful episode 48 hours later?
Okay, maybe the analogy doesn’t perfectly work, but you get the point.
And, Tuesday, Michigan punter Blake O’Neill stood in front of reporters and talked about his personal pants-splitting moment - the most famous dropped punt in college football history. The purpose of O’Neill’s availability, it seems, was to... thank people?
"The support from the Michigan community has been fantastic. It means a lot for people to take time out of their day to write me."
— Zach Shaw (@_ZachShaw) October 20, 2015
O'Neill says he's been overwhelmed by the support from fans. Had a nice chat with Jay Feely.
— Zach Shaw (@_ZachShaw) October 20, 2015
O’Neill cooly walked through reporters through the 10 seconds that will live forever in college football history.
“Like any other punt, you just go out there (knowing what you want to do) and try to execute it to the best of your ability. Obviously that didn’t work, I tried to sort of kick it over my head and it didn’t work out,” O’Neill told MLive.
“That’s life. That’s football. You learn from it, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on. ... Put me back out there for the next one, and I’m sure I’ll make the kick. I think (Sypniewski and I) will probably be bound at the hip for the rest of our lives for that play, but it is what it is. I have complete trust in him and I know I’ve got the support of my team and Scott in particular. We’re looking forward to just getting better.”
Safe to say, O’Neill, an Australian, handled Saturday’s events better than most wearing maize and blue. “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go again,” he said. “That’s the beauty of sports. We’ll get another chance against Minnesota to come out and prove that we’re improving.
“The Michigan football team all rallied around me and said ‘look, mate, one play doesn’t define a game and we’ll come back stronger from this and, as coach said, put steel in our spine.’ ”