Matt Schembechler to hold press conference tomorrow, not good
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/06/09/schemb…
He's going to say he told Bo he was abused by Dr. Anderson when he was 10 years old. Will be joined by Daniel Kwiatkowski, a Michigan Football player from the late 70s who was abused by Anderson 4 times, and Gilvanni Johnson who says he was treated and abused by Anderson 15 times.
This is awful and heart breaking. My only thoughts are with the victims, no one else matters as much as they do.
I was afraid at first this would be the Schembechler family blasting the investigation, victims, etc. Glad to see that's not the case and sad for Matt - must be wrenching to have a parent ignore your abuse
Yeah, total monkey's paw type of event for all of us that hoped that the Schembechler family would support an fair and open assessment of Bo's role.
I've always wanted the football program to separate from the Bo era because I thought it was in a way holding us back, but this... this is abhorrent. It's indefensible and sad for all victims who were affected by it and to make it worse, a man who they revered and looked up to did absolutely nothing, even when his own son was abused.
One way or another, this will be Harbaugh’s last year. He has no chance at handling the media storm coming his way.
Manuel has no chance at coaching Harbaugh up either.
I’m sure there are worse coaches to have as the face of your program in times like these but that list is small.
Maybe you’re right, I just don’t see it being that black and white.
When he was asked about it a couple weeks ago the headlines were “harbaugh defends bo”. I didn’t hear it that way, he simply stated he didn’t notice or encounter anything. If he stays on that narrative I don’t see how that ends his tenure. I am not one of these people who usually defends harbaugh either. It wouldn’t crush me if this was his last season.
You didn’t see this statement as defending Bo:
”The Bo I knew would have handled the situation right away?”
come on now.
Right, he’s speaking to his experience.
BTK’s daughter said the same thing. Is that defending him?
Some of just can’t see past the word vomit people spit out.
Problem is the Bo Jim knew still didn’t do the right thing. Jim is trying to create an alternate Bo. It’s not possible.
Me: the last time I went to the U.P. It was 90 degrees and sunny every day, and everyone was so polite. Great experience, can’t wait to go back.
You: the last time I went to the U.P. It snowed in June and everyone was rude and miserable. Horrible experience, never going back.
Did I create something impossible that doesn’t exist or was it just based on my experience?
Talking about your quality experience to national media when you have heard the horrible experience that others have had the courage to share is a problem.
For example: I had a good experience traveling in Germany in 2004, and in context of talking about vacations that is fine for me to share. But if we are having a conversation around the Holocaust and my comment is "well the Germans I know wouldn't do that based on my experience" then I am a callous fool with no ability to perspective take
In that context I’d definitely makes sense. And I guess my analogy wasn’t great. Thanks for having a contrary opinion without being an asshole.
If you go back too my BTK reference above, it’s easy for us fans to say “fuck Bo! Rip down his name! destroy the statue!” But Bo was like family to Jim. Do we expect Jim Harbaugh to say “fuck Bo! He’s the scum of the earth?”
Hey--this is great! I appreciate the disagreement without venom, too.
To your question, I'm with you that Jim wouldn't go there now and doesn't need to say F**** Bo at this moment. If I were in his position, I'd still be processing a bunch of complicated feelings. If Jim had acknowledged empathy for victims and belief in their experience while also stating it is really difficult because he knew so much of the good of Bo, then I think many would give Jim grace on it, for now.
A few months from now, Jim needs to have at least begun to process this and have a more negative opinion of Bo, but I understand needing time.
JH doesn't need to say "fuck Bo," but he shouldn't release statements that implicitly cast doubt on the truth of the victim's statements. For the head coach of the UofM football program dealing with this tragedy, that's a colossal screw up.
He's speaking to his experience IN DEFENSE of Bo.
This shouldn't be hard to comprehend. I don't know how old you are, but around 2nd grade I would hope you could connect these dots.
Try to start a conversation and you get stupid motherfuckers like these two idiots ^^ that just jump into insults and name calling. Go fuck yourselves.
how I do lowering myself your level?
Defending the indefensible will get you called out quick big guy.
Whatever dude. I was just voicing how I interpreted it, not meant to defend anyone, just trying to be objective. Pretty impossible on this site, guess I give you guys way more credit than you deserve.
Harbaugh took a sitting on the fence approach, but this will nothing to do with him going forward.
It's time to stop naming things after people. If the press conference goes according to plan, this is a massive fall from grace.
Maybe it is. I figure there are some better people to name stuff after than sports figures (and politicians for that matter) to begin with.
I can't comprehend this. I always suspected evil enablers like Joe Paterno would most likely have acted differently if their children or grandchildren were among the victims.
Here we have a situation where a son WAS victimized...and nothing changed? I can't wrap my brain around this.
It's really fucking awful.
That defense has been brought up for a year, that Bo surely didn't know because otherwise Anderson wouldn't have been his family's doctor still. And here his son was abused at just 10 years old and told his dad about it. It's really hard to grasp, why Bo? Why? Did he really think this abuse toughened people up, including his own little boy?
Yeah. That’s where I’m landing here. I don’t condone it, but I can see how people who are really good at winning games, would not let this distract them from their goal. It’s perverted and amoral, but it no longer surprises me what some people will do for power or glory. But when your own son is telling you this, how do you not act? Just sickening. Curious to hear the story tomorrow with more details.
Well said, it’s impossible to understand. That’s your child....you did nothing to stop it.
edit of my edit: did not really like my original comment or the edit so I deleted them.. It’s just a really terrible story anyway you look at it. I feel bad for everyone involved
Or, Bo knew what it was and decided it was better to keep him as a physician to avoid questions as to why he made a change, which would then put the institution that was his “life” at horrible risk. Doesn’t mean the Dr ever saw his son again, it may have only been on paper. We don’t know, but trying to “understand” flawed people is a fools game. Either way we will likely know more tomorrow.
We have revered Bo for years. If true, this is indeed sad. Who is to blame here, because there is a lot of finger pointing. Let's not smear Harbaugh or anyone else with this and let it rest with Bo and Anderson.
To the victims, we feel your pain :-/
Harbaugh is an asshole for what he said the other day and the press conference tomorrow is in direct response to him.
Sorta seems like it right? Not even a week after his comments.
That's how many men/father's/coaches were back then. You had to be tough and deal with difficult situations on your own. It was a very different world than what we live in now.
Back when? Matt Schembechler was abused in the late 70s, but other were abused through the 80s and 90s. There are victims from the 2000s. I am close to Matt Schembechler's age, this would never have been different for me.
Gary Plauche didn’t react that way. He found out his kid was molested by his karate instructor in 1984 and shot him at the airport upon being extradited. I’m not condoning a murder, just pointing out, sticking your head in the sand when your kid is molested wasn’t the only reaction available to men born before 1950.
I think the Plauche story undermines your point. Presumably if Plauche thought there was a "good" way to deal with a situation like this, he wouldn't have gone to the airport and shot the guy.
IMHO this is not true, big difference between playing through a groin injury vs. multiple reports of a doctor playing with your teams's OR son's genitals!!!
It's easy to dump all the blame here on Schembechler after hearing this, but let's not forget the bigger enablers of Anderson - Canham and whomever was running the medical department at U-M then (Anderson's direct boss). Bo may have knew, but Canham and the medical dept. head also knew AND had the authority to remove Anderson from his role and didn't. Very sad day for the victims and everyone involved in this.
Don’t underestimate Bo’s power here. If he wanted Anderson fired, he would have been fired.
plenty of people to blame, but Bo was directly responsible for the well being of the students he recruited to the school. Parents put their faith in Bo, not the AD or the health system.
Sorry, that is the joepa "I reported it to my superiors" BS answer. Bo had more than enough clout to get a reasonably insignificant doctor canned.
Yikes
HOW!? As a father, would you let someone get away with doing this to your own child!? Not to dismiss the dozens of other victims but if you’re not going to stick up for your own son, what kind of man are you?
A pathetic man.
It was infuriating before but this story has put me over the edge. HIS OWN SON?! WTF?!
Matt has always had a strained and odd relationship with Bo. Check our own archives.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/schembechler-estate-sale-cancelled
Gee, I wonder why? If you told your dad that someone was sexually abusing you at 10 years old and he did fuck all about it, how do you think your relationship would develop from there?
Yeah, maybe this was the root of the friction? In 1999 Matt wrote an article in GQ alleging mental abuse from Bo. If I can find a link I will put here.
I have a close friend who was abused by her stepdad for years and told her Mom the abuse was happening. When she told her Mom, her Mom said she didn’t believe her and later told her to stop talking about it. Fortunately she was able to move in with an uncle when she was 16 to get away from the abuse.
I was never able to understand how her Mom could allow the abuse just because she was afraid to be divorced and poor. It appears Bo did the same thing and it’s disgusting. We will never know if it was because he was afraid of publicity or some other asinine excuse, but we do know he sacrificed his son.
MSU, PSU, OSU, UM, the B1G East has been a horror show of abuse.
Fuck Bo. Absolutely pathetic response from him as a father and someone who wielded unprecedented authority at the university.
Guess the university will have to do something now huh? Can’t believe it has come to this.
My comments are still the same about backing up a bulldozer to the statue from the report thread a few weeks back.
Time to erase Bo's name from the Pantheon of our lore and do whatever we can to support the victims. Disgusting.
We've seen the blueprint on how to handle this terribly, and if the university even shows an inkling of doing what Penn State did early on, shit is gonna get real real bad.