Dad, Husband, Diehard Iowa Hawkeye Fan, Chicago Cubs fan, and Chicago Bears trying to raise 3 kids with my amazing wife!
Marion, IA
Joined December 2015
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Matt Miller retweeted
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THIS PAST WEEK:
I've been a Hawkeye fan for more than 40 years, and I'm sitting in my garage close to midnight on Saturday with a drink, watching Caitlin Clark highlights on YouTube and feeling proud as hell.
Which is kind of strange when you think about it.
Caitlin and the Fever were eliminated from the playoffs this week.
Iowa just got rolled by Ohio State.
Normally, that sounds like a pretty miserable few days to be an Iowa fan.
But somehow, it doesn't feel that way.
College GameDay came back to Iowa City.
Nike turned Caitlin's shoe launch into an event on the Pentacrest, building a temporary basketball court right next to the GameDay stage.
Caitlin came home and was the guest picker.
She picked Iowa, of course. 😅
And then came the Wave.
After the first quarter, 70,000 people inside Kinnick turned toward the children's hospital.
The cameras went up to the windows, where the kids and their families were waving down at the stadium.
And standing up there with them, waving back at Kinnick, was Caitlin Clark.
Maybe the most famous athlete the University of Iowa has ever produced.
One of the most recognizable athletes in the world.
And somehow, in that moment, she wasn't a global superstar making an appearance.
She was a Hawkeye who came home.
One of ours.
That's what I've been thinking about tonight.
At Iowa, we're probably never going to measure our fandom by a trophy case full of national championships.
That doesn't mean winning doesn't matter.
Of course it fucking matters. 😂
I wanted the Fever to keep playing.
I wanted Iowa to beat the hell out of Ohio State.
Losses hurt. Bad seasons piss us off. We bitch about coaches, officials, play calling, recruiting and everything else sports fans bitch about.
But the older I get, the more I realize that being a Hawkeye has never really been dependent on any of those things.
It's deeper than wins and losses.
I've never been part of another collegiate fan base, so maybe others feel the same way about theirs.
But Hawkeye fandom has always felt like a family to me.
In Iowa City, it's everywhere. You can feel it walking down the street.
But I live in Minnesota.
And I can't tell you how many times I've been walking through a store wearing an Iowa shirt and heard some complete stranger yell:
"LET'S GO HAWKS!"
And immediately, you know.
You're one of us.
A 6'4"-6'5" kid commits to Iowa women's basketball, someone I've never met and probably never will, and my first thought isn't just, "Great pickup."
It's:
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY.
That's what being a Hawkeye feels like.
Players come and go.
Coaches come and go.
Seasons come and go.
There are incredible wins we'll talk about for the rest of our lives, and absolutely brutal losses we'd prefer to erase from our memories.
But the Tigerhawk remains.
The people remain.
The family remains.
Wins are something Hawkeyes celebrate together.
Losses are something Hawkeyes suffer together.
But being a Hawkeye?
That doesn't change.
So yeah.
The Fever lost.
The Hawks got rolled.
And somehow I'm sitting here tonight feeling more proud than ever to say:
I'm an Iowa Hawkeye.
Always have been.
Always will be.
💛🖤
GO HAWKS. – at Byron, MN
Matt Miller retweeted
Mr. Cub homered 512 times across 19 seasons, all with the @Cubs. His statue stands outside of Wrigley Field and his No. 14 flag flies inside.
Repost and reply for a chance to win this Ernie Banks @Topps card!
ALT 2022 Topps Triple Threads Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs (012/125)
LEGENDARY BIRTHDAY ALERT!
Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks AND Nolan Ryan were all born on January 31 🤯
ALT A 3-pic collage of Jackie Robinson (Top), Ernie Banks (Bottom Left), Nolan Ryan (Bottom Right). Robinson is wearing a home white Dodgers uniform and dark blue cap while he swings a bat. Ernie Banks poses in his batting stance. He wears a white pinstriped Cubs uniform and a blue cap. Nolan Ryan throws a pitch. He wears a white Rangers uniform and a blue cap.
Matt Miller retweeted
🚨 Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet. We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day. Like it and share it around like wildfire! Its time to hold these corrupt politicians and fraudsters accountable
We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening, the fraud must be stopped.
Matt Miller retweeted
For no reason at all Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly shot-for-shot recreated David Bowie and Bing Crosby's "Little Drummer Boy" duet 😂 wait for the end
Matt Miller retweeted
This is both hilarious and disgusting. I don't blame this guy for not wanting to go back for more. Definitely worth the time to listen. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Matt Miller retweeted
You know what time it is. Got (5) more helmet fridges so you’ll have yours in time for the big game!
Here’s how to win one:
1) Follow @drinkgaragebeer
2) RT this tweet
3) Tag up to (5) friends in the replies
Giveaway ends 1/29/25 @ 11:59PM PST
Must be 21+ years to enter
Matt Miller retweeted
GIVEAWAY: This is a football helmet that holds six ice cold beers inside of it. Until today you’ve never needed a football helmet as much as you need this football helmet. GOOD NEWS: we’re giving (3) of them away because we love you and we want you to have this football helmet.
Here’s how to win one:
1) RT this tweet
2) Follow @drinkgaragebeer
3) Tag a friend in the replies
Giveaway ends 1/10/25 @ 11:59PM PST
Must be 21+ years to enter
What a roller coaster of emotions!! Coach Bluder, whom I love and respect is saying goodbye 😢. Coach Jensen named as her successor 😲. I wasn't ready for this on a Monday 😆
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This is a fantastic answer. "It takes what it takes "
Nick Saban was asked a question after practice once.
His response was 70 seconds of gold on what it takes to be successful in life.
Here’s Saban on the Illusion of Choice:
“These guys, they all think they have this illusion of choice. Like I can do whatever I want to do.
“You have a younger generation now that doesn’t always get told no. They don’t get told this is exactly how you need to do it. So they have this illusion that they have all these choices.
“But the fact of the matter is, if you want to be good you don’t really have a lot of choices. It takes what it takes. You have to do what you have to do to be successful.
“You have to make the choices and decisions to have the discipline and the focus to the process of what you need to do to accomplish your goals.
“All these guys that think they have a lot of choices are sadly mistaken. As we all have done with our own children, they learn these lessons of life as they get older.
“Sometimes the best way to learn is from the mistakes you make, even though we all hate to see them have to make them, and we don’t condone it when they do.”
–
I’ve studied Saban for 12+ years, and the Illusion of Choice is one of the most powerful concepts I’ve come across.
Some key takeaways:
1. Excellence has a price. We can complain about that, but it’s a fact of life.
2. Most people don’t want to pay that price. They just haven’t admitted it to themselves.
3. Saying you want to be excellent is easy. Becoming excellent is hard.
4. There may not be one way to become great, but there are very few. And they all have discipline and consistency in common.
5. Every action we take is a choice. We’re choosing to make progress, or we’re not.
6. The formula for becoming successful: Your Daily Choices x Time. It’s simple, but we make it complicated.
7. Sometimes we learn more by making the wrong choices. Reflect on them, pull out the lessons and move on.
8. You have to choose what you do every day. Don’t follow your feelings. Choose to do what will make you better.
9. There are no long-term hacks. It takes what it takes.
|||
Hope this is helpful. Follow me @TMitrosilis for more writing.
I also write a weekly newsletter on the process of improvement → theprocess.news/subscribe
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Matt Miller retweeted
So many things I want to say from this segment I don’t have enough characters
1) @IowaWBB is selling out every home game, MORE than the men, not “about as many as the men”
2) Caitlin will not take a “massive pay cut” in the WNBA, she will continue to have massive brand deals