None of My Business...

I mean, technically that's true but...

So I'm not sure how up to date most of you are on college football coaches but Michigan's coach was just fired. Seems he was having an "inappropriate" relationship with a staffer and Michigan has a zero tolerance policy so as soon as it was proven then he was out.

I've got multiple threads about this so bear with me as I jump around. And also be prepared as this is going to be a long blog.

First off let's start with my gut reaction as just a fan. Not considering that these are real people, just that they are positions, not in the dirty way, in the you are your job way.

So my first thought was fuck. Again, not in a dirty way. But that was it. It was a better season this last season than any of us were expecting. Freshman quarterback and a ton of injuries but still did pretty well overall. And what the real hope was that we were on an upswing. If a lot of the kids stayed for next year and we got a little help in the receivers we could be looking at another National Championship run. This trashes that.

In the era of NIL money and transfer windows and extra transfer allowances if your coach leaves we will be lucky to hold on to even a small handful of the players. And then who knows who they will get as a coach. It's a good gig as far as pay and exposure goes, but in the past few weeks the coaching carousel had settled out. Decent coaches looking for jobs already made their decisions. We weren't expecting to need a coach this year so nobody ready to step right in.

Brent guesses that this will set the program back by five years. I say at least. Because this is a different era and once you start sliding you are on a skid. I mean the era of NIL has changed everything. It's a constant scramble to secure players and coaches and get that chemistry working. We will see what happens but we are no longer hopeful for next season.

And my additional take is that if the AD keeps his job I want to know what he has on the board. There have been multiple coaching scandals under his watch. Now is it his fault that Pearson told the hockey players to lie about their COVID exposure and was an asshole to his female staff? No. Was it his fault that Stallions spied on other teams to get their signs and Harbaugh bought a cheeseburger for a player? No. Was it his fault that another football coach stole digital information (I'm not really sure what all this was about so I don't have a name or misdeed right off my head, but it was theft of information and computer access related)? No. Was it his fault that Howard couldn't control his temper? No. Is it his fault that Moore couldn't keep his dick in his pants? No. None of these things are his fault. BUT they all happened under his watch and there should be some accountability for that aside from the coaches getting fired.

As a Michigan fan I can tell you that this one really stings. Because if there is anything that Michigan fans like better than winning it's being better than everyone else. I'm not that bad (I SWEAR) but there is a reason that Michigan fans are as hated as Ohio fans in the B1G. There is always a certain group that expects the wins. Like feels like they are deserved just because it's Michigan. And for a long time (before NIL) there was always the "We do it the right way" tone. The athletes had to have the grades to actually be admitted to UM. They were there for the right reasons. Being a Michigan Man meant something. The team the team the team the team. James Earl Jones told me so and gave me goosebumps so I believe him.

And now the #1 GIF that pops up on Bluesky (so I have to imagine it's everywhere) when you want to post one as a comment is Moore crying. So yeah, fans of other schools are going to have a field day with this one.

Which brings me to another thread in my head.

These are people. Like real people. Not avatars. It's not a coach and a staff member. It's a man and a woman and their families. For Moore, at least, that's a spouse and three kids. And Moore had a breakdown when the firing happened. Like totally lost his shit. Allegedly busted into the house of the woman he was having the affair with and threatened to kill himself in front of her. Told her she had ruined his life and his blood was on her hands.

(SIDE BREAK)

Yes, she had an affair with a married man, but no this is not her fault. Him losing his job is not her fault. His marriage falling apart over it is not her fault. He had free will, he made his choices, he lied and covered up and didn't get away with it. This is the find out part of the literal fuck around. She will lose her job, lose her reputation (once her name is out) and pay her own consequences. Which she had an affair with a married man, who she worked with which was against their employment policy, so she gets her own consequences, BUT his consequences are not her fault.

(AND BACK)

When I was in high school a local businessman died from carbon monoxide poisoning. My mother was one of those women who would whisper causes death like if you said it quietly it wouldn't come for you sort of thing. My mother and father were talking about it with my aunt and uncle and my mom said, "he was with his mistress and he asphyxiated and died." So for ages I thought asphyxiation was a sex thing.

So yeah, he was with his mistress. And we all knew it. And we knew he died from asphyxiation, even if we didn't know what that meant.

This was in a time before social media and Google and how fast rumors spread online. Just newspaper articles, I just looked it up to see what was said and I kid you not, the headline read "Fumes Kill (His name here): Auto Dealer's Friend Also Found Dead." So even without the internet we all knew it. And would know it forever. And his wife and all five of their kids had to face not just the loss of their father but the fact that odds were everyone they came in contact with knew he was with his mistress when he died.

As an adult I went to work for his sons. Technically for his wife but she had pretty much turned running the businesses over to her kids. I got to hear more about her. Like how when she took over running the business and was very successful she sold off all of the original pieces. She didn't keep anything that was his, and made her new things more successful to the point where her name was the one people thought of first. Which, brava.

But still, I thought, how weird for all of you to know that we all know how your dad died and what he was up to. There is no revisionist history to reshape him into a saint.

And it was none of our business.

Just like the stuff with Moore. It's none of our business what was going on in his private life. But we will always know it.

The last piece for me is around social media. I guess that the original investigation happened last summer. There had been rumors but he denied it and she denied it and there was no proof so that was that. But if you were on Facebook or Insta there were comments all year about it. The rumors. The innuendo. But Brent and I aren't on those sites and they aren't on Bluesky so all we had were the games and the official press conferences and official news stories which weren't going to touch rumors like that without proof. So it was completely out of the blue for us when he was fired.

And I thought...this is what it's like to be news siloed. Like when you see someone of a different political persuasion who has ZERO idea of what is going on. And then you find out it's because they only watch Fox and so they literally have never been exposed to that particular news story.

When I was on Facebook I still had a couple conservative friends, and a lot of my other friends still had a few so I was exposed to what their focus was. They would talk about the news that Fox was pushing and so I was aware of what was being said. And I found out a lot of the time in political discussions that they would have no idea what I was talking about. Like they thought I was making up stories out of whole cloth. Because they never watched MSN. They didn't read anything out of their own pocket.

News bubbles.

It was just really interesting to be on the other side of one. Absolutely unaware of the rumors because my news bubble doesn't report on rumors.

And, honestly, I'm really glad. We were sheltered from the rumors all year so we could enjoy the games, and enjoy the press conferences with the coach without giving him side eye the whole time. Sometimes a news bubble is a good thing.

Because it really was none of my business.

But now it's always going to be part of my knowledge.

Which is a damn shame.

I hope his wife and his kids weather it all okay. I hope that the assistant coaches and support staff that are about to be out of work find new positions easily. I hope that his fuck around doesn't become their find out.

And I hope we get a good coach and rebuild soon.

Look, I'm a Michigan fan, we deserve the win. (Kidding, I'm kidding)

Sort of.