Harbaugh through his lawyer responds. Lord.
Tom Mars, Harbaugh lawyer:
“Coach Harbaugh filed a lengthy response to the NOA, which unfortunately has not been made public. I see that Michigan changed its position to get this resolved, which is not surprising. I can almost hear the wheels of the bus going ‘whomp, whomp.’” https://t.co/JBcWXrs9eo— angelique (@chengelis) April 16, 2024
So save to say Jim's not very happy with how this was handled by Michigan. WOW.
If it makes you feel any better, here's a reminder of how Jim thinks about things:
Even winning the National Championship does not change that his brother is still one better than him having a Super Bowl (at his expense no less). Jim may have gotten a seat at the grown up's table, but he still didn't get to sit next to the head of the table. That was going to gnaw on Jim until the grave if he didn't give it another try. Jim is still driven by sibling rivalry.
Harbaugh wasn't pushed out the door. He's always seemed to want another crack at the pros...as was evident every off-season since he had receive even the faintest reciproca interes from the NFL...and good for him.
Mission accomplished at UM against massive odds...now onwards to the one prize in the sport that's bigger than the National championship.
Good points. Passes Occam's razor.
To be fair, M probably just assumes the NCAA won't exist the next time Harbaugh needs a job, so...
I'm ok with this. If the choices are:
- Michigan and the current staff get slammed with penalties
- The NCAA scapegoats coaches who left the program
I'm choosing 2 every time. Wish this bullshit weren't happening and there was a 3rd choice.
Agreed, However it happened, "He gone". Move along and protect Sherrone.
Agreed, However it happened, "He gone". Move along and protect Sherrone.
Sounds on brand. Makes me sick that this could have helped push Harbaugh out the door to the NFL. I'm sure I will hear he was gone anyway but the fact the school and AD did not support him 100% is just wrong.
Boy howdy, do I want to see Harbaugh's response to the NOA. C'mon Tom, drop it like it's hot!
Anything to put the pressure on Warde to defend himself.
Yea, more drama and shit-flinging and embarrassment to the University. Hooray!
Can we just let this shit die already?
“Russia, if you’re listening…”
Am I missing where it says Harbaugh is responding via his lawyer? It looks like Tom Mars grandstanding to me. That seems to be how he gets free marketing for himself (which good for him).
My assumption was Mars wouldnt issue a statement that damning to Michigan without being directed to do so by his client.
Harbaugh isn't in college football anymore so what exactly would he be using a lawyer that specializes in needling the NCAA for at this point? Mars is just stating a fact that a response was filed and then grandstanding which is his wont. I wouldn't assume Harbaugh approved this or even really cares anymore unless it comes from him directly.
Could well be wrong here, but I’m a lawyer and I would never, ever issue a statement relating to a client without full approval by said client. I’m not sure it is unethical to do so, nor would it necessarily be malpractice, but it is a very bad move if you want your clients to trust you.
This is more about how Tom Mars operates/markets himself. Seems to always try to be in the news cycle to keep his name out there. If it were just about anyone else I would say MGrowOld's original assumption was correct.
You may well be right. I don’t know Mars - except what I read about him. Just a very different approach to practicing law from what I think is appropriate if that’s the case. I’m sure there are many lawyers who believe they can do what they want and get away with it. But they usually can’t.
I’d be surprised if Harbaugh wanted to weigh in on this at this point. He moved on, it was something he had entertained every off season for the prior three years. I don’t believe it was a hard choice, he had nothing left to accomplish at Michigan. And he’s been the kind of guy who avoids the media if he can. This seems off brand for Harbaugh.
I think he's doing the Lord's work by being a thorn in the NCAA's side whenever the opportunity arises. I just have a healthy amount of skepticism when it comes to things like this when it involves him.
slblue- you are not wrong, it is highly unlikely that Mars issued this statement without Jim's approval. For some reason people here like to take shots at Mars though.
If he did it wasn't because he hasn't moved on and wants anything other than his good name. He moved on. Mars might have sent him the draft and he just said sure. He didn't think about it much like you all are if he saw it at all.
What did he expect? Michigan was going to go all in on a coach who isn't even there any longer?
Yes we should always expect that the school will do the expedient thing, apparently.
Perhaps. But, raising the profile of the news doesn't seem like a good idea. Let it die. It's a farce and most people know that. He got his revenge by winning it all.
Fire everyone!
Clown music.
I have not laughed so hard in a long while. And I feel guilty because what the minivan driver did was very dangerous . . .
Was Warde Manuel cowering in the face of adversity? Gee, hard to imagine…
How did people think this would go exactly? Harbaugh leaves Michigan, takes most of the staff with him, Michigan conveniently throws former staff under bus, avoids punishment, previous staff uses lawyer to issue statement proclaiming innocence, we all hug at the championship reunion in 10 years.
Except now we’re on probation and there are more, nebulously-defined penalties on the horizon, so to me that may be a concern. Not sure what the NCAA precedent is but something as Kafkaesque as using a freshly ginned-up probation to exacerbate penalties for alleged infractions already committed would be on-brand.
There was always going to be probation, it is one of the only "real" penalties you can give out that isn't a real penalty. I take a lot of solace in how the NCAA has commented on the two investigations. With this one they issued a separate statement about how "it's not about burgers". Contrast that with signgate stuff where they have said that Michigan "has been a fully cooperative partner" and "the title is clean". Those statements kind of jibe with the rumor I have heard that the NCAA was way more gung ho about the burgers than Stalions.
Exhibit A in the case as to why Michigan can never truly be a dynasty program.
eh not really
I never considered that POV
If only we had just given those recruits boatloads of money, the NCAA would never have gotten interested in the matter, as shown by its reaction to all those schools that have wisely employed that approach. While we were at it, we could have created classes that didn't really exist.
jim not happy with michigan being shitty at playing the game??? You'll never believe what he said!! Click here to find out!
Uhm....Harbaugh has a "next man up" philosophy and when he left he grabbed everything he could take on the way out....fair enough. I'm not saying he tried to hurt Michigan, but he took an "everybody move on" attitude.
At that point Michigan has every right to act in their own best interest and take the path that is best for the team and literally everyone else involved, top-to-bottom and not die on some hill for a coach that has every clearly stated he no longer works there.
Business....is business....and that's the game.
I will be forever grateful to Harbaugh for getting M to where it is now and winning the NC. Forever, wish him all the best wherever he goes, but (as he made it abundantly clear) he doesn't work there anymore.
Yeah, Harbaugh acting like UM needs to defend his honor once he bolted is pretty stupid. Again, I agree with Harbaugh that the violations are BS but he didn't stick around to fight them and instead left that to his former employer so I'm not sure what he expected UM to do
As far as I know, no one is even questioning whether the allegations are true or not. Most are just mad that Michigan is accepting the penalty while other schools handle it differently. This is so much like disciplining children at this point. Yes, you got caught for something dumb and your brother didn't. Are you really going to keep arguing about it not being fair once the parent has told you to zip it and threatened further consequences if you keep it up?
Based on what we know - admittedly not the whole picture - it seems as if what Michigan did voluntarily last fall to ameliorate the NCAA's bloodlust amounted to more than any other school has received by way of penalty even for much more egregious violations. Further, as soon as Michigan again turned tail on Harbaugh when the Big Ten wanted its bite, Harbaugh had a pretty good idea about the extent to which - zero - the AD would stand up for him when it counted. I will always take 1 Harbaugh over 100 Manuels. If you show you have no spine, expect to get pushed around. That's our AD.
They suspended some coaches for 3 meaningless games because that was going to be the type of punishment the NCAA would have handed out. I don't get why people keep acting like every other school gets away with stuff when they get caught - they usually get probation and some recruiting restrictions, and UM's added suspension of some coaches is largely because Harbaugh was caught, at the very least, being uncooperative with an investigation. Yes is that petty? Sure, but that's the deal you make with the NCAA and so they took their medicine and it sounds that was basically it.
Also, save me this "UM's AD didn't stand up for Harbaugh" bullshit. They sued the fucking Big 10 to stop his suspension, and mounted a very public defense of him during the Signgate fiasco. Chris Partridge being an idiot and texting players not to help with the investigation is why they stopped fighting it in court, which again isn't something an AD can do anything about. They allowed Harbaugh to hire people like Schemmy even though a cursory review of his social media posting showed he was immensely problematic. Harbaugh antagonized the Burgergate situation from a bunch of minor violations into a major one, and there's nothing an AD can realistically do there. Warde Manuel and the school's AD has real issues but at some point "Jim Harbaugh being Jim Harbaugh" is the source of a lot of the issues and the AD is going to be stuck dealing with the fallout of his actions long after he returns to the NFL, so it's not a lack of "spine" to recognize you've lost this fight and try to make right with the shitty cops who still have jurisdiction over you.
What did those three suspended games get us? Absolutely nothing. It made the burger thing look worse than it was. It pissed off Harbaugh. Thank God we made the NCAA happy.
The story is so old now, I'm not sure we all remember the critical details. As far as I'm aware, the NCAA had a former Michigan employee (Dudek) hand over legitimate evidence proving a violation had occurred. When this evidence was brought to Michigan's attention, Harbaugh argued about it. I don't know the nature of the disagreement, but it is clear their was not acceptance. This would put Warde into a very difficult situation. How do you back your coach when one of the organizations you need to be accountable to (Michigan being first, NCAA being second), are showing you evidence from your own house? Keep in mind, Harbaugh, once his convictions are set about something, is not an easy person to work with.
That does not typically happen in most other NCAA cases. Most of the time, a school self reports minor violations, or another school or someone acting against the alleged school may provide questionable evidence and it is up to the NCAA to figure out what really happened.
Trying to compare the Michigan situation to other's is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Ultimately, this is much more nuanced than "Warde has no spine" and "Harbaugh's awesome why wouldn't you support him?".
It seems like these days if you do fight it, you are 100 percent better off in terms of penalties than if you fall on the sword. Michigan has done jack shit in terms of making the NCAA prove anything in regards to the level 1 violation. They voluntarily suspended their coach for 3 games and then let the Big Ten suspend their coach another 3 and didn't do a damn thing. Warde got a cushy CFP job out of it. Maybe that's what the goal was. It wasn't about protecting Michigan.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:46 PM ^
But it's crazy for people to think Michigan doesn't have tons of lawyers advising the administration and the athletic department on the best strategy. I love how many of us commenters are sure we know what the right thing to do is, while assuming that somehow Warde, et al, are acting without any knowledge, advice, or input.
Jesus, comments on websites like these are insane. None of us are experts in this, nor have special behind-the-curtain access to what's going on. And, again, whatever choices they all made allowed us to win a national championship.
But that's not good enough. Fire everybody(!), for some fucking reason.
You seem to be missing the part where North Carolina and LSU got off free and clear for significant violations and Kentucky, Alabama, and others got off with no penalty other than probation with no show causes anywhere. Michigan, on the other hand, is putting player safety at risk while doing something that is legal per the letter of the law or at most a violation of a "COST SAVING RULE". Sorry, others are standing up the NCAA and Michigan should too. Obviously, the Michigan staff is doing something wrong. I really do not care to accept the easy way out that may or may not maximize revenue.
Michigan didn't act in its best interest. Again it handed the bully its lunch money.
I don't know what Mars and Harbaugh thought would happen - he left for the NFL and so he really doesn't have any skin in the game anymore. By comparison, UM and the current team and coaches are still on the hook. So of course they're going to try to figure something out to limit their punishment. Tom Mars is sort of a dipshit and Harbaugh is entitled to say his piece but grow the fuck up and take your shot at the NCAA and not at UM.
As much as I enjoy Harbaugh Michigan legend, he's not exactly the most mature 60 year old. It makes him awesome in his own special way, but not great at things like this.