Michigan released staffer after online video alleged underage solicitation
Michigan released staffer after online video alleged underage solicitation
Michigan football released a low-level staffer earlier this fall after a social media video claimed he was soliciting someone who he allegedly believed to be a minor, sources told The Michigan Insider.
Alex Yood, a low-level staffer within the program, was the subject of an Instagram video that claimed he was purchasing liquor ahead of what he thought was a meeting with an underage girl. The Michigan football program released Yood after the video was published, TMI was told.
In the words of Alex Drain: Not great!
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
Oh good. This will go well.
November 2nd, 2023 at 4:45 PM ^
How is this a problem? No way they could have known this in advance (unlikely vetting would have revealed anything amiss) and they fired him when they found out.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
At least we don't have a serial killer on the staff yet.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
I heard he spied signals for Bump Elliott. That's Ryan Day's brother behind Ted.
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:04 PM ^
We're basically 1 Aaron Hernandez away from media climax criminal bingo.
November 2nd, 2023 at 6:10 PM ^
Media climax? Could they get anymore stimulated? Is it possible?
November 3rd, 2023 at 4:52 AM ^
Just wait until you discover who H. H. Holmes, and his Murder Castle are.
Makes Hernandez look like a three year old sandbox bully.
Class of 1884
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:23 PM ^
So they fired him. Good.
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:26 PM ^
I've always wanted to figure out the percentages of stuff. What percent of people die of what? What percentage of people suffer from what chronic diseases? What percent of people are sociopaths, pedophiles, etc.? Some percentage of people are creeps. I'm glad they caught him. Michigan did the right thing and fired him. Hopefully the criminal justice system can get him the help he needs.
November 2nd, 2023 at 4:08 PM ^
Exactly!!! Also, why all of sudden, did they decide bring it up now, instead of when it happened. "Earlier this fall" is a lot different than now.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:23 PM ^
Did anyone have the last week and a half of news on their 2023 Michigan Football Bingo card? If so, bravo.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:28 PM ^
I would wager “mentally challenged staffer busted in an amateur pedophile sting” busted a lot of brackets.
November 2nd, 2023 at 3:13 PM ^
Let's leave the punching ourselves in the face to Staee. This is getting out of hand in terms of bad hires.
November 2nd, 2023 at 4:46 PM ^
You mean "vast network of pedophiles. "
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:13 PM ^
"Low level UM staffer I've never heard of with a brown paper bag full of wine coolers and condoms..."
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:25 PM ^
I mean, its not good that this happened, but it seems like this was handled correctly?
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:27 PM ^
Exactly. It's the exact opposite of a lack of institutional control. Michigan terminated the person's employment. They aren't required to issue a press release or commission a billboard in Times Square.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:28 PM ^
Just another poor hire...I guess they are just unlucky.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:41 PM ^
How could they possibly know this? If it was any other school, I would say the same thing, and that they handled it appropriately.
November 2nd, 2023 at 4:33 PM ^
Unlucky, meaning they spun the new hire wheel and it landed on pedophile, manifest writing lunatic, and closet racist in a couple year period. What are the odds of that happening??
Oh I forgot about the computer hacker under FBI investigations.
November 2nd, 2023 at 4:37 PM ^
How could they know?
It's EASY. For every potential hire (Person #1), six months earlier hire someone else (Person #2) to befriend and maybe move in with #1. Then have #2 hack #1's accounts and surveil all of #1's friends and family. Finally have #2 administer a truth serum to #1.
Otherwise, as you point out, they're stuck for that kind of background info.
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:12 PM ^
The Shemy Schembechler thing is 100% on them. His social media was out there for all to see and they didn't do their due diligence. But this is not that.
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:41 PM ^
Not a matter of lucky or not. It's what happens in any large institution that hires hundreds of people on an ongoing basis. A small % are going to be bad hires for whatever reason. And no amount of filters are going to catch them. So, you fire them as soon as you find out. I can bet you every large athletic program out there has cases like this and we never hear about most of them. The question you should be asking is why Michigan is getting crucified in the media every time it happens here.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:40 PM ^
True, but why are we finding ourselves in this situation over and over again with all of these awful hires? I don't know who is making all of the hiring decisions, but some changes need to be made.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:42 PM ^
Ah yes, I totally forgot that there's totally a fool proof test available to see if someone you're hiring is a gonna go after underage girls /s
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:44 PM ^
If he had no record, how are they supposed to know this? How far would they need to dig in order to find something like this out (that had never been found before)? Hire a mind reader?
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:46 PM ^
Hire Oz the Mentalist, he would know.
November 2nd, 2023 at 3:40 PM ^
I believe you're referring to Ooze the Magnificent.
November 2nd, 2023 at 3:56 PM ^
No no no. I'm sure the reference is to Ivan Ooze.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:47 PM ^
Cmon Wendy you know why! It's sorta like that guy who would never leave you alone!!! He would always say,"but why Wendy?" Please tell me why!!! Some people live their lives through the lenses of what the,"others" are doing!!!
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:56 PM ^
Clearly Wendyk5's comments have more meaning for me rather than others on this board, but I remember a story that my now 45 year old daughter told me 23 years ago when she described one night during her first job as a line cook at an upscale restaurant.
At the end of a busy Friday night the staff had gathered on the rooftop and were drinking wine. Probably 10 people altogether. They started telling stories of when they had been arrested for various misdeeds and pretty much all had spent at least one night in the local lock-up. When it came time for her big reveal, she disappointed the gang as she had never been arrested for anything. They kept on pressing her, certain that there must have been something, so she finally, sheepishly disclosed that there was one time in 5th grade when she had been sent out to sit in the hallway.
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:13 PM ^
that's some southside LA, 5th grade gangsta stuff right there.
November 2nd, 2023 at 3:56 PM ^
Don't hire rich kids whose parents are funding a long and ongoing dream of running a football program.
Outside the cerebral palsy - Yood has a backstory strangely similar to Stallions.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:45 PM ^
Unless this person has a public record or other public history of this sort of thing how is anyone supposed to know they are a moron?
Hell not too long ago this probably slips under the radar until something heinous actually happened.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:46 PM ^
Because its a pile on.
Staffers are probably released all the time for a variety of reasons, but it isn't normally news. For Michigan, any negative story - no matter how minor - will become larger than it should because its necessary to keep the outrage cycle going.
Assuming no one on the staff knew about Stalions, there's not much left to report on Signgate, so the search is on for anything and everything to pile on to Michigan.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^
Much as I am pissed at the NCAA, the Big Ten, and ESPN, it must be conceded that is a disturbing problem that must be rectified. As Harbaugh himself has said, twice is a habit and three times is a trend. There is either a lack of judgement on some of these hires or not enough scrutiny of background being done. As much as we don’t like it, we are in the news for all of the wrong reasons right now and we don’t need anymore snafus that encourage more piling on of negative ink.
November 2nd, 2023 at 3:45 PM ^
There is either a lack of judgement on some of these hires or not enough scrutiny of background being done.
This is a stupid comment. In the case of this Yood character, if he had no criminal record or anything blatantly obvious on his social media (Shemy situation notwithstanding), there is no way to vet for this kind of thing.
w/r/t Matt Weiss, again, there was no record of this kind of behavior that would have come up in a standard background check.
And for Stalions? I suppose you could maybe infer based on some amateur psychological profiling that he would skirt the edges of the rules, but again, no record of this means there was nothing to discover.
Any of us in hiring manager roles have made regrettable hires. It happens and there are just certain things you can't really screen for.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:55 PM ^
You should have continued not posting for 13 more years.
Seriously, this is what made you comment after that long? This?
November 2nd, 2023 at 3:36 PM ^
You actually should read some of my other posts where I say we should aggressively go after the NCAA, the Big Ten, and ESPN with legal action, legislative remedies, and potentially leaving the conference and dissolving the rights deal that gives every member a huge windfall no matter how much value they drive. However just because they are being irresponsible and pressing a vendetta does not mean that we are without blame for using some serious poor judgment in recent hires. Speaking up on behalf of our interests in light of unfair treatment doesn’t mean being intentionally blind or brainwashed that we bear zero responsibility for our own circumstances.
November 2nd, 2023 at 4:43 PM ^
I wasn't commenting to you, the threading is fucked up here for some reason.
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:23 PM ^
It's not like we looked at a widely-known dirtbag like Meyer and knowingly signed him up. This is something you wouldn't know unless you were doing a very intensive background check, which is probably not done by any program for someone very low-level. And if we did, you would get a story attacking Michigan for invading the privacy of employees.
All of the people that could never beat Michigan on the field are taking their shots anonymously in the media and on social media. If they want to sign up for puting all programs under a microscope, then I am sure their time will be coming soon.
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:26 PM ^
Vet the vetters!!
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:48 PM ^
Says basically every HR department everywhere.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:25 PM ^
They fired him. Assuming that he had no prior criminal history, this isn't news.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:26 PM ^
He has no current criminal history, apparently, nor is he being charged with anything if I read the article correctly. And did it say the source for the story was Zach Smith?
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^
Gee, I wonder why Zach Smith of all people would have the inside track on this one...
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:03 PM ^
Seriously. As a quick refresher for anyone else (I looked it up to make sure I was remembering accurately the name 'Zach Smith'):
Brett McMurphy of Stadium reported in July 2018 that Smith's ex-wife, Courtney Smith, filed a domestic violence civil protection order against him. McMurphy outlined a history of domestic violence allegations against Smith, including when he was arrested for aggravated battery on a pregnant victim in June 2009—when Courtney Smith was pregnant—while a member of Florida's staff.
McMurphy also reported the Powell (Ohio) Police Department investigated Smith for felony counts of domestic violence and felonious assault in October 2015 but did not arrest him.
Meyer was suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season for mishandling the allegations against Smith, which McMurphy reported Meyer was aware of dating back to at least 2015.
November 2nd, 2023 at 2:36 PM ^
Less serious ethically, but maybe more relevant to the current matter, is that this is also the Zach Smith who had $2200 worth of "sex toys, male apparel and photographic equipment" delivered to his Ohio State football office and took pictures of himself having sex with a staffer.
November 2nd, 2023 at 5:34 PM ^
I just saw this story pop up on youtube on the King of the C-Ring's podcast....or Menace 2 Sports... (you might wanna send me to Bolivia) so I watched portions where he played the confrontation video of Yood and proposes that the sign-stealing investigation started with the FBI investigation on this case, that it did not originate from Day's brother.
November 2nd, 2023 at 1:26 PM ^
Is every termination at the University of Michigan or any University newsworthy? It sounds like the Athletic Department and football program did the correct thing in this circumstance and this has literally nothing to do with the Stalions story. No one was covering up for this guy like Urban Meyer did with one of his actual on field assistants who was abusing his spouse.