Welcome back to Why I Love College Sports, an occasional chat with someone from politics or entertainment.

This week, WILCS welcomes actor Dann Florek to Ann Arbor.com. Florek is a longtime Michigan football fan along with loves of the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Lions. He grew up in the state and splits his time between California and New York. You'd recognize Florek from his role as Capt. Donald Cragen from "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which he has been on for 11 years. The Eastern Michigan University graduate also played David Meyer in "L.A. Law."

Michael Rothstein: How did you become a Michigan fan?

Dann Florek: I was born in Michigan in a small town, Allen Park, and then we moved to this little town called Flat Rock when I was a kid. And my dad was a Michigan fan. One of the things about it was as a kid you really have no real understanding of it but they had the coolest uniforms and the coolest helmets. You know what I mean. No one had anything like that. It was like the old throwbacks, and as I got older, I guess it became my thing. It’s always funny because people ask, Wolverine or Spartan, and it was just never any question about it. We lived closer to Ann Arbor but I don’t know, it was Michigan. I even remember the lore of Tom Harmon and stuff like that, stuff my dad would teach us. So being a Michigan fan, loved it. Even when I went up to Ypsilanti and Eastern Michigan University, I didn’t follow the sports there all that much. But we used to go, my brother worked with security and could sneak us into the games so we would drive on over to Ann Arbor to see as many of the games as we could get into.

MR: What was your favorite memory watching those games and with your dad?

DF: One of the best things was me, my dad, my older brother and my younger brother sitting down and watching it on TV. It was something father and son did together. It became a tradition. My dad is passed away now, but I’ll tell ya what happens. When we watch, like last week, I watched them pull it out against Notre Dame, that (Tate) Forcier kid is amazing. And when that final score hit, I remember jumping up and just saying ‘There ya go, Pop.’ Then I called my brother and left a message for him and my sister sent a little text that said ‘Go Blue.’ So we watch ‘em and have been fans. I guess, also, the first time walking into the Big House. You don’t understand how kind of overwhelming it is. You see it on TV but to actually be in there with, what, 106,000 people, it’s kind of amazing.

MR: When was the first time you actually went to a game there?

DF: First time would have been when I was in college, so it had to be ’69, ’70, ’71, somewhere in there. Like I said, my brother worked for Brinks Security, and he doesn’t work there anymore, so they can’t fire them now, but he would kind of open a door where you could kind of slip in. Then we’d get in and we didn’t have a seat so we’d be walking around until they told us to move. You know another thing I remember, and you might remember the team, but there’s this small-college team, Shippensburg State or something, and they would flash the score for that game and the crowd went crazy. It became a tradition. It would be some odd school that no one even cared about but when you flashed the score, the crowd would go crazy just like it was a Michigan score.

MR: You hit on what your Saturdays were like as a kid. What are your Saturdays like now? I know you have shooting schedules, but when they are playing do you make an effort to watch?

DF: I really live in California, but we shoot the show in New York. So there’s a great deal of travel that goes on. On Saturdays, I always try to watch some of the college football. One of the great things is you can get to ESPN later and get the highlights of all the games. I try to watch any games that are really appealing to me. If the Wolverines are on, I will really try to do it. If not, I will try to record it so I can get back to it later. Saturday ends up being a day that if I have worked very long hours, there’s so much that has to be done on Saturday so sometimes it’s hard to take three-and-a-half hours or longer to sit down and watch. Like the Michigan-Notre Dame game, I had a ton of stuff to do, but I made sure the game was on and I was out doing yard work but I kept running in if I would hear something. When we’re up 14-3, I was going crazy and I poke my head back in and we’re losing and I’m like ‘Uggh, you suck.’ When I came back and saw they were back in the game, I couldn’t miss the second half or fourth quarter. When the guy (Savoy) dropped the ball, right in the hands and they got another whack at it, that was just great.

MR: What were you like during that drive? Were you yelling at the TV?

DF: Yeah. Well, I scare my dogs sometimes. What happens is these obscenity-laced things come flying out, you know what I mean. I’ll be screaming ‘I could have caught that (explicative) thing.’ And over there my dog is looking at me, like ‘What’s the matter?’ I’m like ‘No, it’s not you.’ It’s the game. Then I settled down and of course we got it but I kept saying ‘I hope you’re not the goat, man. I hope they get in.’ And I’ll tell you something, the poise of that quarterback was the thing, coming down to it. I’m thinking ‘If this kid is what I think he is from the rest of the game, they are going to win this.’

MR: How often do you get back, when was the last time you were at a game?

DF: Oh no, a Michigan game or any game?

MR: A Michigan game.

DF: Oh, it’s been since college. I was actually going to try to get to Michigan (Thursday), I was going to try to go for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Had I been able to do, through my connection to Eastern, I might have very well been able to go to the game. But I may have to work Friday and flipping stuff around and so what I’m going to try and do is go the next weekend so I won’t make it. It’s just, when I do go to Michigan, I go to visit family I’m visiting my mom, my sister and her son, my older brother and his family and it’s kind of taking the time to go do that, I’m just on limited time. But it’s been over 20 years since I’ve been able to go to a game.

MR: So next weekend will be your first game back?

DF: If I go next week, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ve been to Michigan many times, but the time was so limited I haven’t been able to go see a college football game. If I could go this weekend, I would very much try to see the Michigan-Eastern Michigan football game.

DANN FLOREK ON BEING ON LAW & ORDER, SVU:

MR: What's your favorite college football memory overall from watching Michigan??

DF: My favorite memory would not actually be in the stadium. But it was my dad, me and my brothers and we were watching and it was Michigan beating Ohio State. I also hated Woody Hayes. I wanted to see, if they had the WWF, would have liked to see (Bo) Schembechler take him on in the cage. That would have been worth it. Woody Hayes, I never liked, and after he hit a guy on the sidelines, I always thought, well, you really are a (explicative), man. And seriously, a Buckeye, I don’t even know what a Buckeye is. I think it’s a nut from a tree or something. So, anyway, and I just remember that. And I remember, God, it’s so long ago, when we last won the national championship. That was me dancing in the streets and stuff. That was pretty wild.

MR: You didn't go to that Rose Bowl game, did you?

DF: No, no, no. ’97, I was in California but I went to Rose Bowl games, and I did go one time when we got tickets to when we played USC and lost. It wasn’t for the national championship. Rodney Peete was the quarterback then. When you go there, you park on Brookside Golf Course. Back then, I thought it was cool but now I’m such a golf fan I kind of think it’s sacrilegious, but what are you going to do. But I remember going to the game and we lost. But it was a great game, Rodney Peete playing. There’s something about the atmosphere of a college football game, you know what I mean, it’s very different than the pros.

MR: When you're on the set, especially at "Law & Order," do you guys banter back and forth? Are there a lot of college football fans?

DF: Oh, yeah. There’s a lot of it. It depends on the sport. I still am a huge baseball fan so for me, it’s coming down to who is going to win divisions and who is going to be the wild card so there’s a big part of me and I also know all the other baseball fans. So (Wednesday), David Platt is directing, and he is a big baseball fan. I walk in, look at him and go ‘Gotta love my Tigers.’ And he’ll just look back at me and say ‘See ya in the playoffs.’ He’s a big Yankees fan. It’s that kind of stuff going on and all the trash-talking and stuff goes on, too. Like Chris Meloni, who plays the lead on the show, Elliot Stabler, played quarterback on his high school team and they were state champions and stuff so he’s a huge football fan. So, we’ll talk football. There’s other guys who are hockey fans. But especially, going in on Monday, there will be a great deal of talk of what happened in college and the pros. There’s also a split of are you a Giants fan or a Jets fan? But there’s a lot of talk about it. A lot of stuff going on. It’s fun, you know what I mean. It’s like going to the Man Cave.

MR: So what was this past Monday like? You were walking in pretty pumped up and happy?

DF: I was still in California. I watched the game and then Monday I went to see some friends and they were watching "Monday Night Football" and of course, I’m bragging U of M and they are trashing me on the Lions. So, there wasn’t much I could profess. I still think it’s a bad choice starting (Matthew) Stafford with that team and the shape it’s in. He has no O-line, doesn’t really have a running game. I think he’s going to get the snot knocked out of him for a while. I think he’s a great kid and he looks like a true, upstanding citizen and a very talented guy but I don’t know if he has the stuff around him.

MR: You've had a lot of roles. Is there one that stands out that you're like, 'Man, that was awesome.'

DF: There are a few, but they were for different reasons and I’ll kind of run them down because two of them happened in Michigan. Two of them are tied in in a way. One of the ones, I did a play called ‘I Never Sang For My Father.’ And in that play at Eastern Michigan University, my younger brother played my father, put on the makeup and the latex and stuff. And then my dad got to come see that and it wound up being a very emotional experience that's kind of been seared into me, into my being. Another one was when I did Richard III, and I played the title role, again, at Eastern, there was something about it. It was like being taken over by another power. That was when I knew ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ And I was a math and physics major. And I played in a band, played bass in a rock and roll band. I haggled around with sports, never good enough to really play, just intramural stuff. It was during that production that I said ‘This is what I’m going to do. This is it. This is my calling.’ It was a very powerful thing. Other than that, playing Teach in David Mamet’s ‘American Buffalo,’ I don’t know if you know that play or Mamet but the first lines when he walks in are ‘(Explicative) Ruthie, (Explicative) Ruthie, (Explicative) Ruthie, (Explicative) Ruthie.’ He goes off. And he has a breakdown. He’s a small-time thief and it’s just an amazing performance. That was about 10 years ago, and it was kind of when I fell back in love with acting. “The other one is Capt. Cragen, Capt. Donald Cragen. He’s been a part of my life for 20 years. From the original "Law & Order" to doing Law & Order Movie of the Week to now in the 11th season of "Special Victims Unit" and it’s kind of like I can’t walk away from this guy, even when I try, it comes back. It winds up allowing me to do many different things. It’s security for me and my family. I think that 20 years later we still do very high-quality stuff, we still do great storytelling, work with terrific people. It’s hard to say that it’s 20 years of your life. It’s certainly been impactful.

Previous Why I Love College Sports: Sept. 11 - Actor Steven Pasquale; Sept. 4 - Actress Nicole Forester.

If you have suggestions for who to feature in Why I Love College Sports, send an e-mail to michaelrothstein@annarbor.com and we'll try to make it happen.