Irish Spring became popular among college football fans when the soap company trolled the University of Georgia ahead of its matchup with Notre Dame back in September. That led to Irish Spring launching a new campaign called “Irish Spring Neutral Zone” and it’s where fans from rival schools get together and sign karaoke. However, they are not competing against each other, they will be singing duets ” to promote fun, clean sportsmanship.”
One of the places Irish Spring is doing the neutral zone campaign is in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Ohio State versus Michigan game on Saturday. It will take place Baba Dari Mediterranean Grill parking lot and former Wolverines linebacker Dhani Jones will host the event.
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“It’s amazing when certain things happen during a season and there’s a response,” Jones said to Popculture.com. “Irish Spring came to me and talked about promoting clean sportsmanship. And then they started talking to me about how we are going to put aside our differences and everybody is going to sing karaoke.”
“I started thinking to myself, often times, rivalries get so heated that different things get out of control. I think that it is important to remember from a football perspective it is all about what we call good, clean fun. I think it’s admirable from a brand perspective. Besides the fact that I love karaoke, it gave me the opportunity to work on my pipes.”
Jones will have a lot of fun with Michigan and Ohio State fans on Saturday. But when he was playing for the Wolverines from 1996-1999, beating Ohio State was a top priority and his teams did it well as the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes three out of the four seasons he was there. And even though Ohio State has won the last seven meetings and 17 of the last 19 contests since 2001, Jones believes the rivalry is still intense.
“I think the rivalry is just as strong as it has been,” Jones said who also played 11 seasons in the NFL. “Obviously the tables have tilted in the favor of the team down south because they’ve won so many games in the past few years. Whatever their record has always been going into the Michigan-Ohio State game, you never know what’s going to happen.”
For the game on Saturday. Ohio State has already clinched the division and it enters as the No. 1 team in the country, but Michigan comes in with a lot of momentum, winning their last four games after suffering a tough loss to Penn State. Jones, who was a three-time All-Big Ten selection and member of the 1997 national championship team, knows Ohio State is the heavy favorite, but he also knows that Wolverines will be ready to play.
“As many people might count Ohio State as the top (team) in the country, they still got a lot of work to do and even now from their perspective when you come into Ann Arbor, and when you come to play Michigan, the rest of the season doesn’t matter,” Jones said. “It’s all about this game, it’s all about what you do on this day.”
