Since this scandal broke, other BIG 10 teams have openly colluded to share information about Michigan’s game signs. Tit-Tat.
Full disclosure: I’m hold a MA from the University of Michigan, and am a huge fan. I saw Jim Harbaugh play in college, and played pick-up basketball with some UM basketball and football legends in grad school.
As a Michigan grad and long-time, loyal fan, the controversy about the sign stealing allegations is embarrassing. Maybe it’s the tip of the iceberg of a historical scandal involving one of the nation’s most popular/loathed coaches (take your pick) in the country. That would warrant severe sanctions. Maybe it’s a matter of an overly zealous, ambitious, ego-driven, low-level Junior Analyst; who grossly exceeded his authority and job description. Naturally I lean in that direction, and not without plenty of information and perspective.
Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh will appear in a Washtenaw County Court on Friday, where UM attorneys will argue for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to enjoin the BIG 10 Conference from further suspending him. He’s prepared to speak if called upon.
Michigan’s 24-15 win against Penn State on Saturday was cathartic, with deep emotion. They won without their head coach, who was presumably bouncing off walls in his hotel room. He was summarily suspended without due process by the BIG 10, which appointed Offensive Coordinator Sharonne More as Acting Coach. I didn’t realize the full emotional impact until Moore’s beautiful, salty, tearful post-game interview. Then I got a bit misty-eyed too. There IS crying in football, baseball and ALL sports. This is because players and coaches invest so much of their lives to excellence. Fans also to a lesser extent.
Even IF Jim Harbaugh was directing this, he certainly would have counseled his junior charge to say, “OK kid, but pay cash for any tickets, travel expenses or other scouts; or use somebody else’s credit card. For G-d sakes, don’t leave a paper trail.” Connor Stallions paying for all those game tickets with his own credit card is about as stupid as buying a pound of reefer in the 1970’s and paying with a check! No one in the Michigan program is THAT stupid, other than maybe entry-level pay grade.
Consider how many coaches, including Deion Sanders, have offered sheepish responses to the situation. He said, “You can’t gain much of an advantage from stealing football signs, as you do in baseball. You still have to stop the s***.” Then consider that other BIG 10 schools have openly colluded to share Michigan’s signing scheme.
It’s a widespread practice, which was never prioritized for enforcement by the NCAA. Since this scandal broke, other BIG 10 teams have openly colluded to share information about Michigan’s game signs. Tit-Tat.
Alleged pictures of Stallions dressed in other teams’ gear don’t look good .But they haven’t been absolutely confirmed. “It looked like him,” the accounts said. But the big question is who empowered Stallions? I don’t know that the dots connect directly to Harbaugh. Stallions had delusions of grandeur, evidenced by his composing a 600 page “Michigan Manifesto,” which was not directed or authorized by Harbaugh. Yes, he had contact with other football staff members, but we don’t know how high up in the coaching food-chain this went.
There has been a rush to judgement to punish UM and Harbaugh before they can compete for the national championship this year.
There has been a rush to judgement to punish UM and Harbaugh before they can compete for the national championship this year. Greatness often generates resentment, detractors and haters. UM appears fully prepared to meet such a move with cogent legal challenges, and there are many questions beginning with that quaint ol’ “due process” thingy.
It’s not as though UM has never had lapses in integrity. The scandal that involved the sexual assaults of over 1000 mostly male athletes by a horrible doctor was only recently resolved after years of resistance by the Board of Regents. And the complaints dated back to at least the early 1970’s. Regents were never the most popular group on campus, and I attended my share of colorful and argumentative Regents meetings as a student journalist for the Michigan Daily and campus organizer.
Ann Arbor is a special place. Along with Berkeley, the two cities are home to arguably the two greatest public universities in the US, and have some interesting parallels. I’ve been blessed to live in both at different times, and I can tell you this: Berkeley is the Ann Arbor of the West! Many Berkeley people REFUSE to believe that many cool things associated with West Coast progressivism actually began in Ann Arbor; including the co-op movement and legalized cannabis! The co-op movement began in Ann Arbor in the aftermath of the Great Depression, initiated by resourceful students to share costs for housing and buying groceries.
Also, Ann Arbor was the first American municipality to decriminalize reefer back in 1971, and make it a code violation with a $5 Fine. The following year, they had the foresight to cement that code in the City Charter, so it couldn’t be used as a “political football” for less thoughtful Republican politicians. That’s a good thing because in 1983, the few remaining Republicans on the City Council set a move afoot to take the $5 Fine out of the City Charter, and place it back in the statutory realm. This was during the depths and nadir of Nancy Reagan’s creepy “Just Say No” campaign, which encouraged kids to turn in their parents and teachers if they suspected marijuana! Somehow or another, I got elected to lead the campaign to Save the $5 Fine, and we won against all odds. I couldn’t always put that on my resume, or discuss it in a publication.
And we used to smoke openly at UM football games in those days. Some stoners became rabid UM football fans, after a life of hating sports until then.
As for Harbaugh, I expect this will be his last year at Michigan either way, especially if we win the National Championship. He’s an ambitious man with unfinished business in the NFL, having lost to his brother John in the 2013 Super Bowl. And I expect that a Black man will succeed Harbaugh as Michigan coach, just as David Shaw succeeded him at Stanford.
Go Maize, GLOW Blue!
