Here’s some Sunday perspectives and columns on Jim Harbaugh and the Current UM football scandal……
jaymariotti.substack.com
JAY MARIOTTI
OCT 27, 2023
If Sam Bankman-Fried appears before a jury and claims he didn’t defraud FTX customers, why would we expect a guilty plea from Jim Harbaugh? America is a hoaxer that doesn’t care about falsehoods in certain arbitrary cases. A potential national championship in college football must apply, given the lame justifications from 108,000 fans at the maize-and-blue-coated Big House.
Yet it’s beyond obvious that Michigan was cleverly aware of Connor Stalions, among various accomplices, and an in-person scam to steal signs involving future opponents. A long-deceitful scouting scheme is outlawed by the NCAA rulebook and requires heavy punishment from the Big Ten Conference, which must protect integrity in a high-tech age when teams are permitted to intercept signs off game tape. A rule is a rule, even when athletes are allowed to transfer in the dead of night and are paid handsomely via their names, images and likenesses.
And if the Wolverines proceed to win a title in January? The banner should be removed and tossed in storage, as it was when basketball’s Fab Five were corrupt.
A day doesn’t pass without another dirty tale exposed about the former officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. Stalions has raved on his deactivated LinkedIn bio that he’s an expert at “identifying the opponent’s most likely course of action and most dangerous course of action” and “exploiting critical vulnerabilities” — the specific tactics of an impermissible sign-stealer. On Friday, ESPN reported the suspended staffer paid at least one person “a couple hundred dollars” and a ticket to a home game — a former Division III football player and coach — when he filmed every series from 15-20 rows above the field at three Big Ten games. On Wednesday, the Washington Post looked into the operation via computer drives accessed by Michigan’s coaches and said the cheating trips were budgeted at more than $15,000. On Monday, ESPN reported Stalions purchased tickets to at least 35 games, including 12 Big Ten sites and possible College Football Playoff foes.
Why? The strategies of sign-stealing are more perceptible at the scene of the crime, which is why Michigan knew Stalions was breaking rules and paying people from his personal Venmo account. Said the ex-Division III coach: “A lot of people may say you can just rip that from the All-22 (wide-shot game film). Well, it's not that easy. This makes it easier to mirror things up and get those tendencies.”
And didn’t the man know he was entering a scandal with potential all-time magnitude? “I didn't like it, but it's a gray line,” he told ESPN. “You can call me naive, but no one is reading the bylaws. I'm not a contractual lawyer. ... I just felt like if you're not doing it, you're not trying to get ahead.”
Oh, if anyone is trying to get ahead in the chaotic world of college coaches, it’s Mr. James Joseph Harbaugh. On the record, he has said this: “I have no awareness of anyone on our staff having done that or having directed” any sign-stealing. Yet Harbaugh doesn’t know about the travel excursions? He doesn’t know Stalions is seen on the team’s sidelines speaking to defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and other coaches? The head coach doesn’t know he’s paying $55,000 a season to Stalions? He doesn’t know he’s being investigated by the NCAA over alleged recruiting violations, which he self-doctored to three games from four?
Nothing is worse than winning a national championship … and have it hauled away in scandal. In the beginning, Harbaugh was despised in the profession. Now he’s mocked for fraud. Everyone in football knew about Michigan’s chicanery but not to this degree. Remember when TCU pulled a 51-45 upset in the national semifinals last season? Coach Sonny Dykes mixed in new calls known as “dummy signals.” A Horned Frogs coach told Yahoo Sports on Friday: “Sometimes we froze a play before the snap. We’d call a play and then we’d signal in another play with an old signal, but we told players to run the original play.”
Connor Stalions is still being paid by Michigan, somehow. He will take the hissy hit, but Jim Harbaugh is the master thief who has been nailed by an elaborate system. We assume he’s off to the NFL next year, but as each week brings more news, we’re wondering if the big league still wants him. Some are comparing this swindle to Deflategate or Spygate. How about Watergate?
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.
www.toledoblade.com
DAVID BRIGGS
The Blade
dbriggs@theblade.com
OCT 28, 2023
5:59 PM
What’s that old saying? People who live in a glass Big House shouldn’t throw stones?
Jim Harbaugh is learning the hard way.
If any college football program were ensnared in a half-baked, wholly illegal sign-stealing plot, it would be a big story.
3h ago•1 min read
Amid an NCAA investigation into an alleged sign-stealing scheme at Michigan, the NFL is "unlikely to make itself a safe harbor" for embattled Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero. Harbaugh has become known for his flirtations with NFL head-coaching opportunities during his nine-year run with the Wolverines, and it would be no surprise if he's of interest to professional franchises again this year as he guides the No. 2 Wolverines. Should he decide to take an NFL opportunity, Harbaugh could be required to serve "some or all" of a potential NCAA suspension, according to the report.
NCAA investigators have been on campus at Michigan in recent days, and the association's quick response to the allegations against the Wolverines suggest the sign-stealing scandal could be a high-priority case. However, the wheels of justice turn slowly in matters of NCAA jurisprudence, and it's conceivable that Harbaugh could try and jump ship before the fallout arrives.
At the heart of the investigation is staffer Connor Stalions, who allegedly bought tickets for more than 30 games (many of them within Big Ten) and used "illegal technology" to steal signs. Stalions has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the NCAA's investigation. Harbaugh, who has already been entangled with the NCAA for alleged recruiting violations, has denied knowledge of the operation.
There is a mixed precedent for high-profile college coaches seeking to jet for NFL opportunities amid scandals at their college programs. Pete Carroll famously left USCafter the 2009 season to become coach of the Seattle Seahawks before the Trojans were hit with significant penalties -- which included a two-year bowl ban -- in the case centered around alleged improper benefits received by ex-USC star Reggie Bush.
By contrast, former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was treated much differently in the NFL amid a similar NCAA investigation into the Buckeyes that zeroed in on players trading memorabilia for tattoos. In that situation, Tressel faced a five-game suspension at Ohio State before resigning and becoming a game-day consultant for the Colts, who held Tressel out of his duties for the first six weeks of the season.
The NCAA's investigation into Michigan for sign-stealing is a rapidly-developing story and CBS Sports is covering it in real time
THE END IS LOOMING FOR JIM HARBAUGH AND A MICHIGAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Each day brings more evidence that an overbearing coach was well aware of a fervent sign-stealing scheme, which is outlawed by the NCAA and requires historic punishment from the Big Ten Conference
jaymariotti.substack.com
THE END IS LOOMING FOR JIM HARBAUGH AND A MICHIGAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Each day brings more evidence that an overbearing coach was well aware of a fervent sign-stealing scheme, which is outlawed by the NCAA and requires historic punishment from the Big Ten Conference
JAY MARIOTTI
OCT 27, 2023
If Sam Bankman-Fried appears before a jury and claims he didn’t defraud FTX customers, why would we expect a guilty plea from Jim Harbaugh? America is a hoaxer that doesn’t care about falsehoods in certain arbitrary cases. A potential national championship in college football must apply, given the lame justifications from 108,000 fans at the maize-and-blue-coated Big House.
Yet it’s beyond obvious that Michigan was cleverly aware of Connor Stalions, among various accomplices, and an in-person scam to steal signs involving future opponents. A long-deceitful scouting scheme is outlawed by the NCAA rulebook and requires heavy punishment from the Big Ten Conference, which must protect integrity in a high-tech age when teams are permitted to intercept signs off game tape. A rule is a rule, even when athletes are allowed to transfer in the dead of night and are paid handsomely via their names, images and likenesses.
And if the Wolverines proceed to win a title in January? The banner should be removed and tossed in storage, as it was when basketball’s Fab Five were corrupt.
A day doesn’t pass without another dirty tale exposed about the former officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. Stalions has raved on his deactivated LinkedIn bio that he’s an expert at “identifying the opponent’s most likely course of action and most dangerous course of action” and “exploiting critical vulnerabilities” — the specific tactics of an impermissible sign-stealer. On Friday, ESPN reported the suspended staffer paid at least one person “a couple hundred dollars” and a ticket to a home game — a former Division III football player and coach — when he filmed every series from 15-20 rows above the field at three Big Ten games. On Wednesday, the Washington Post looked into the operation via computer drives accessed by Michigan’s coaches and said the cheating trips were budgeted at more than $15,000. On Monday, ESPN reported Stalions purchased tickets to at least 35 games, including 12 Big Ten sites and possible College Football Playoff foes.
Why? The strategies of sign-stealing are more perceptible at the scene of the crime, which is why Michigan knew Stalions was breaking rules and paying people from his personal Venmo account. Said the ex-Division III coach: “A lot of people may say you can just rip that from the All-22 (wide-shot game film). Well, it's not that easy. This makes it easier to mirror things up and get those tendencies.”
And didn’t the man know he was entering a scandal with potential all-time magnitude? “I didn't like it, but it's a gray line,” he told ESPN. “You can call me naive, but no one is reading the bylaws. I'm not a contractual lawyer. ... I just felt like if you're not doing it, you're not trying to get ahead.”
Oh, if anyone is trying to get ahead in the chaotic world of college coaches, it’s Mr. James Joseph Harbaugh. On the record, he has said this: “I have no awareness of anyone on our staff having done that or having directed” any sign-stealing. Yet Harbaugh doesn’t know about the travel excursions? He doesn’t know Stalions is seen on the team’s sidelines speaking to defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and other coaches? The head coach doesn’t know he’s paying $55,000 a season to Stalions? He doesn’t know he’s being investigated by the NCAA over alleged recruiting violations, which he self-doctored to three games from four?
Nothing is worse than winning a national championship … and have it hauled away in scandal. In the beginning, Harbaugh was despised in the profession. Now he’s mocked for fraud. Everyone in football knew about Michigan’s chicanery but not to this degree. Remember when TCU pulled a 51-45 upset in the national semifinals last season? Coach Sonny Dykes mixed in new calls known as “dummy signals.” A Horned Frogs coach told Yahoo Sports on Friday: “Sometimes we froze a play before the snap. We’d call a play and then we’d signal in another play with an old signal, but we told players to run the original play.”
Connor Stalions is still being paid by Michigan, somehow. He will take the hissy hit, but Jim Harbaugh is the master thief who has been nailed by an elaborate system. We assume he’s off to the NFL next year, but as each week brings more news, we’re wondering if the big league still wants him. Some are comparing this swindle to Deflategate or Spygate. How about Watergate?
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.
Briggs: The hypocrisy of Jim Harbaugh and Michigan football
What’s that old saying? People who live in a glass Big House shouldn’t throw stones? Jim Harbaugh is learning the hard way. If any college football ...
www.toledoblade.com
Briggs: The hypocrisy of Jim Harbaugh and Michigan football
DAVID BRIGGS
The Blade
dbriggs@theblade.com
OCT 28, 2023
5:59 PM
What’s that old saying? People who live in a glass Big House shouldn’t throw stones?
Jim Harbaugh is learning the hard way.
If any college football program were ensnared in a half-baked, wholly illegal sign-stealing plot, it would be a big story.
Why Jim Harbaugh potentially bolting for NFL amid Michigan cheating scandal could prove difficult, per report
By David Cobb3h ago•1 min read
Amid an NCAA investigation into an alleged sign-stealing scheme at Michigan, the NFL is "unlikely to make itself a safe harbor" for embattled Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero. Harbaugh has become known for his flirtations with NFL head-coaching opportunities during his nine-year run with the Wolverines, and it would be no surprise if he's of interest to professional franchises again this year as he guides the No. 2 Wolverines. Should he decide to take an NFL opportunity, Harbaugh could be required to serve "some or all" of a potential NCAA suspension, according to the report.
NCAA investigators have been on campus at Michigan in recent days, and the association's quick response to the allegations against the Wolverines suggest the sign-stealing scandal could be a high-priority case. However, the wheels of justice turn slowly in matters of NCAA jurisprudence, and it's conceivable that Harbaugh could try and jump ship before the fallout arrives.
At the heart of the investigation is staffer Connor Stalions, who allegedly bought tickets for more than 30 games (many of them within Big Ten) and used "illegal technology" to steal signs. Stalions has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the NCAA's investigation. Harbaugh, who has already been entangled with the NCAA for alleged recruiting violations, has denied knowledge of the operation.
There is a mixed precedent for high-profile college coaches seeking to jet for NFL opportunities amid scandals at their college programs. Pete Carroll famously left USCafter the 2009 season to become coach of the Seattle Seahawks before the Trojans were hit with significant penalties -- which included a two-year bowl ban -- in the case centered around alleged improper benefits received by ex-USC star Reggie Bush.
By contrast, former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was treated much differently in the NFL amid a similar NCAA investigation into the Buckeyes that zeroed in on players trading memorabilia for tattoos. In that situation, Tressel faced a five-game suspension at Ohio State before resigning and becoming a game-day consultant for the Colts, who held Tressel out of his duties for the first six weeks of the season.
The NCAA's investigation into Michigan for sign-stealing is a rapidly-developing story and CBS Sports is covering it in real time
