John U. Bacon: The Leaking comes from Jim Stapleton
October 25th, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
Who the hell is Jim Stapleton?
October 25th, 2023 at 11:09 AM ^
Must be Jean Stapleton's son.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:18 PM ^
So we can call him Meathead?
October 25th, 2023 at 1:10 PM ^
Meathead was her son-in-law
October 25th, 2023 at 6:22 PM ^
I would use a different word for meat.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
Ohhhhhhh.....ohhhhh!
October 25th, 2023 at 12:14 PM ^
I.. I... I don't know, Archie
October 25th, 2023 at 11:09 AM ^
country music singer i think
October 25th, 2023 at 11:09 AM ^
Every thread that mentions Stapleton as the leak gets deleted.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:13 AM ^
A John U Bacon confirmation changes that.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:50 AM ^
Now if anyone goes rogue and exacts vigilante justice we can blame Bacon instead of MGoBlog. Seriously, one of the earliest deleted threads about this elicited a response that JS needs to understand there are consequences to his actions. That could be interpreted many ways and there are many sick people on the internet. I support Seth’s decision 100%. Bacon has some self reflection to do. His need to be in the spotlight is apparently greater than his concern over the welfare of another human being. If JS is the problem, let UofM and the legal system take care of it.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
Not sure if serious? God I hope not. Can we stop pretending like our words have power over other people's actions? People have power over themselves, period. Stupid people do stupid things, and no amount of censorship will change that.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:20 PM ^
He is serious, and people should stop spouting things that could put other people in danger. There have always been and always will be people who can't control themselves. This type of behavior could trigger someone. Rather not take that chance.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
I am serious. Everyone has a different interpretation of when free speech crosses the line and becomes yelling fire in a crowded theater.
This game of football that we all love is a multi-billion dollar business, but it’s still just a game. I didn’t like the tone of some of the comments about JS when Seth was actively deleting JS threads. Let the Athletics Department deal with him. If it’s clearly a case of him targeting UofM because he’s disgruntled, he should be recused from any investigations involving UofM.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:39 PM ^
You can yell in a crowded theater.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:27 PM ^
Thanks for catching that. I added “fire” to my comment. You can do that, but then you should be held accountable for the results.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:23 PM ^
Bacon = reporter and commentator.
There is nothing wrong with reporters reporting, or commentators commentating. There is something deeply wrong with vigilante justice or appeals to undertake vigilant justice, but that's not a justification for quashing speech.
It is hateful, vigilante justice we should be questioning and monitoring, not truth speakers.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:45 PM ^
becomes yelling in a crowded theater
I'm begging people to educate themselves on this EXTREMELY stupid saying. Stop repeating this shit.
October 25th, 2023 at 2:28 PM ^
Yeah but on the other hand, citing a 100+ year old canard from a case overturned 50+ years ago helps my argument for banning threads I don't like on a sports blog
October 25th, 2023 at 12:30 PM ^
That's all nice to say but when you have 500,000 readers you have to know the effect of things, and take moral responsibility for the results of your actions and inactions.
I intend to repost the Stapleton article that I took down when things calm down.
The anger I feel right now that Ohio State was allowed to run both the investigation and the reporting into Michigan is fierce, and I know this is true for a lot of our readers. That much anger can become dangerous. If a reader in that state of mind decides to go harass Stapleton, or worse, and then it turns out it was because he read something about Stapleton on my message board, I would not feel comfortable with that.
I know that a lot of media, especially the kind that is in the business of telling people what they want to hear or reporting what an associated entity wants people to hear, do not have any moral compunctions about the results of their reporting. They don't care if the lies they tell lead to violent insurrection, or violence in the streets, or violence against groups. They certainly don't worry about the repercussions of facts they report.
I'm not those media. I think people respect this site more because they know I'm going to start with what's right and wrong, not what makes us the most money or best serves my interests. Do you have any idea how lucrative and beneficial it could be for me, personally, if there's a single boogeyman out there who's ginning up all of this drama for the school I'm such a huge fan of I made it my career? I'm acting against my interests here, because I don't think there's enough on Stapleton to make him more than an ancillary bad actor with his own interpretation of good intentions, and because I have a real fear that something might happen to him if a large number of people are led to believe he's The Bad Guy.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:40 PM ^
what thread/s does one need to read to find definitive answers to two questions:
What is the factual basis for your opinion that OSU 'was allowed to run the investigation and the reporting'?
and
Who the hell is Jim Stapleton? it seems people are only answering this question with jokes, which are funny if one has the background knowledge to 'get' the joke, but is just annoying if one is actually looking for information.
A 'thank you' to anyone able to answer these two questions.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:46 PM ^
Jim Stapleton is a UM grad and current board member of the NCAA infractions committee who has a long and not remotely secret history of having strong opinions for or against coaches and coaching candidates. Listen to the 9 minute interview linked in the OP, you'll get your answer within the first 6 minutes or so.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:52 PM ^
Sam Webb exposed OSU as the B10 school that gathered the information, informed other B10 schools, and tracked Michigan's sign-stealing over the course of the season. Thamel is Ryan Day's man, and broke the story. Also Bill Greene, the former 11W writer who got broomed for paying and OSU walk-on for insider information, was the first to be saying anything public about this stuff, and other OSU insiders were the ones who knew there was a story about to break. The NCAA has not conducted an investigation yet, so everything out there is what was handed to them by Ohio State's investigation. The reporting on this subsequently has been mostly broken by, shaped by, and added to by Pete Thamel. The weird interpretations of NCAA rules are being copied from him. Nobody else has anything to add because the only source of information right now is what Ohio State investigated.
Jim Stapleton is a local rich guy/booster who dabbles in politics and likes to get involved in who's coaching Michigan. He was in the news years ago for getting involved in Detroit School Board politics in order to win their contracts. He got on Bacon's bad side by being one of the primary program people undermining Rich Rod. According to Bacon he's a thorn to Harbaugh as well; he was the guy in the Vikings ownership group who sunk the deal to have Harbaugh coach there. He's recently gotten himself on the NCAA committee of infractions, and Michigan people believe that's why we got investigated for Burgergate.
Evenyoubrutus put together an article outlining most of the above, but I didn't want to have that on the message board until things cooled down, and then with a well-worded editor's note about how to use this information. I have a lot of other priorities however, both professional and personal, so spending time on that can wait. I finished UFR charting at 2:45 am last night and I have yet to start writing the article. Hopefully this is enough on stapleton for now.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^
I appreciate the answer, and the information. I thought the NCAA had begun its investigation...is that not the case?
October 25th, 2023 at 3:51 PM ^
*Just* begun... yet now has a wealth of "evidence" provided by some anonymous third party (as Seth aluded).
October 25th, 2023 at 1:13 PM ^
I'm really glad that you made the decision you did Seth. Admittedly, the tone of the comments section got pretty dark pretty fast in a manner I wasn't expecting but probably should have.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:41 PM ^
Thanks for the clarification and transparency Seth! It boggles my mind how scared OSU is of Michigan right now. When this thing goes away or gets quiet and the last Saturday in November comes and they actually have to play the game, I am not sure if they are going to know what to do. They certainly are not going to know what hit them come the end if the game.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:44 PM ^
They are a “win at all cost” program - possibly even above the academic/reputation value of the university. It is probably the most fundamental difference between the two programs that drives a bunch of different practices and culture.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:54 PM ^
Seth, you're a good dude.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:55 PM ^
While I understand your point of view, and recognize that you have the right to publish or not publish whatever content on your private business blog, I still have to disagree with your decision.
Any information published anywhere that is remotely controversial could and should be withheld from the public, by your reasoning, due to the unpredictability of how someone might react to the information.
That is a far cry from someone yelling fire in a crowded theater.
You may mean well, but I would urge you to reconsider going forward. Sunlight is better than censorship.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:33 PM ^
I hope he doesn't reconsider. He can do what he wants with his site.
But to your bigger point, he took down threads about one guy and didn't want it out there without corroboration and things to cool off. All that anger was going towards one guy, when there are other major players like OSU, not being slammed. I am good with people not posting stuff without corroboration. There is a difference between spewing nonsense and being responsible. He actually activated the original post once there was corroboration. So, all good.
October 25th, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
Sorry. Double
October 25th, 2023 at 1:06 PM ^
I respect your decision to withhold the Stapleton blog post. As an owner of the blog, you have to live with the consequences of your decisions. While you cannot control what other people say/do with the information on the blog, you still have to sleep at night. You have listened to the voice within that tells you where your comfort line is drawn. If I were only so wise to have done that in certain moments in my life!
October 25th, 2023 at 1:20 PM ^
100%. Rare instance of reflection + self-control. Nice break from what's going on in most of teh rest of the Twittersphere
October 25th, 2023 at 1:53 PM ^
You're a good egg Seth. As a small business owner, myself, I learn a lot from hearing you (and Brian) talk about how you focus on doing what's right over the money. I appreciate you guys!
October 25th, 2023 at 12:14 PM ^
October 25th, 2023 at 2:19 PM ^
No one should be physically harmed. But if this douche bag is causing ridiculous issues for Michigan he should be spurned by the Michigan community. No physical harm, just ex-communication.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:19 PM ^
one of the earliest deleted threads about this elicited a response that JS needs to understand there are consequences to his actions.
I sort of agree with this. Of course I cannot go back to that post and point to exactly what about it and the replies made me uneasy, but it was in this ballpark.
JUB is totally different. His tone was not in the least bit dangerous. The only thing I'm not sure people realize, if they didn't listen to the audio, is that he's not reporting this. It seems to just be him making an educated guess.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
No, you don't blame one person's actions on another because they reported the truth. Unbelievable and frankly a little disturbing that people believe this nowadays
October 25th, 2023 at 12:31 PM ^
My understanding is that John U. Bacon is a fairly reliable journalist. If he's ready to call out Jim Stapleton it's probably because he has some intel -- a source, a document, some personal knowledge of Stapleton -- something -- that we didn't have before.
Up to now the Stapleton story was a bit of educated guesswork, a theory that explained some very troubling trends at the NCAA (itself an extremely dysfunctional outfit) but still more speculative than anything else -- which is why the mods took it down. With Bacon on board Stapleton is now a story. I'll be very interested in hearing what his proof is.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:10 PM ^
Surprising that Bacon would name-drop him like this. This can't just be speculation.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^
I haven't read every thread that got deleted. I only saw the first one. I don't remember the first one saying "Stapleton is leaking the info" but if it did--and it was sourced--it was buried in the middle of a post that was nothing more than doxing.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:19 PM ^
This is different in that it's just reporting what someone else said. I don't think everything needs to be policed but a bunch of posts about why he's a monster isn't something this site wants, but if Bacon wants to throw his credibility behind it there's less of an issue just noting he said it
October 25th, 2023 at 12:22 PM ^
Stapleton is an attorney, and therefore savvy enough to understand the law of defamation. MGoBlog is understandably worried about exposure to liability from unsourced rumors being posted on its forums. But now that a reputable journalist like John U Bacon has reported on Stapleton's role in some tangible medium (and I'm sure Bacon vetted his information and thought very carefully before mentioning Stapleton's name), and OP has done nothing more than link to the interview in which Bacon made those comments, the risk of this particular post subjecting MGoBlog to liability is less than the others.
Yes, I'm aware of Section 230, but courts have been chipping away at Section 230 for years now, and I don't blame MGoBlog for not wanting to roll the dice.
October 25th, 2023 at 12:47 PM ^
Seth posted his reasoning above. This wasn't CYA because the guy's a lawyer. That's silly.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^
He is UM grad who is butthurt that Ron English was not hired as head coach...so he undermines Harbaugh at UM every chance he gets and also the Vikings interview since he is a minority owner there.
He is also on the NCAA infractions (I think)
Bacon also said he undermined RR
October 25th, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
Imagine having a comfortable life but you spend your free time living out every internet message board warrior's dream. What a goon. To your own alma mater.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
Wolverine Devotee?