There weren’t too many surprises in Michigan’s 41-10 stomping of Northwestern on Saturday. The No. 5 Wolverines were expected to beat the Wildcats, and beat them bad.

The biggest surprise of the game for me was the attendance of Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti.

Why was I more stunned by the presence of local media than by Chris Perry running over NU at will?

Because as a rule Mariotti, equally famous for his angry columns and his angry performances on ESPN’s Around the Horn, only writes about one thing when it comes to NU. His issue with what he calls “the affluent and powerful school by the lake,” is the Aug. 3, 2001 death of NU football player Rashidi Wheeler, the most tragic incident in the history of NU athletics.

While I agree with some of Mariotti’s opinions and share his disgust for the way the university has handled many aspects of the Wheeler case, I was confused as to how losing to the No. 5 team in the country could possibly relate to the heartbreaking death of a player more than two years ago.

But in Sunday’s edition of the Sun-Times, I found out. Well, sort of.

The Michigan game, a “dismal experience that should make Northwestern fans ponder life and Randy Walker,” was simply a front for Mariotti to explain why the NU head coach should be fired. In other words, the game was a convenient opportunity for Mariotti to write about the Wheeler tragedy yet again.

In the last two years, any time something happens with NU athletics, Mariotti writes a column about Wheeler. Sometimes it makes sense; when the facts about NU team physician Mark Gardner burning Wheeler’s medical records came out, Mariotti’s “Ultimate cover-up stinks” column made perfect sense.

Other times, it’s just a cheap shot. Kind of like when Mariotti wrote a column earlier this season about defensive line coach Jay Peterson’s intentional-or-unintentional-depending-on-your-opinion elbowing of Air Force quarterback Chance Harridge. Funny how in a column about cheap shots, Mariotti takes one of his own, comparing the university’s reaction to the Peterson situation to the totally unrelated Wheeler issue.

If Mariotti wants Wheeler to be his cause, by all means he should go for it. It’s certainly an issue that should be addressed. If his opinion is that firing people will somehow rectify the tragedy, he should keep on pumping out the Wheeler columns. But writing three sentences about Saturday’s game as a front to talk about Wheeler is nothing but a cheap shot.