Mel Pearson’s Side of the Story
Fired hockey coach Mel Pearson speaks for the first time on ‘what really went down' at Michigan
https://www.therinklive.com/mens-division-1/big-10/fired-hockey-coach-mel-pearson-speaks-for-the-first-time-on-what-really-went-down-at-michigan
After 40 years as a college hockey coach, Mel Pearson will not be on a campus this season, having been dismissed from the University of Michigan in August. The claims against him and others there were numerous and thoroughly investigated. In an exclusive hour-long interview with The Rink Live where no topics were off limits, Pearson offered his side of the story regarding the case made against him and his hockey program.
September 29th, 2022 at 8:22 AM ^
Saw Mel and Wife at volleyball last night, was a little surprised but have seen him at events in past.
But then I saw this. UM still in his handle.
September 29th, 2022 at 12:14 PM ^
Good to see.
September 29th, 2022 at 8:37 AM ^
the fact that so many of you are readily gargling this bullshit is kind of worrying, but not unexpected. Sounds like an old guy who is full of shit, got caught being full of shit, was very upset and concerned that he got caught, and now wants to play victim and revisionist.
Our very own Urban Meyer.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:15 AM ^
Our very own Urban Meyer.
did not know Mel catered to murderers and criminals both as players and coaches, as well as cramming his hands in the ass crack of a young coed while on camera.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:38 AM ^
I think that Urban's fingers explored more Cayman territory than "just" an ass crack.
To be fair (sarcasm), it seems obvious to me that the former co-ed wasn't a random and is actually his side piece.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:21 AM ^
yeah, many of the comments in this thread are pretty disappointing
September 29th, 2022 at 5:37 PM ^
Kinda like all the people who read the WH report and got out the pitchforks even though the report said Mel was innocent of the one thing they were tasked with investigating but there were things they did not investigate that might be problematic.
September 30th, 2022 at 10:46 AM ^
Had to log in just to down vote this. You're the one dealing bullshit. Mel dedicated most of his life to Michigan hockey and was instrumental in the initial rise of the program to the top of college hockey. He then restored the program when he came back as head coach. And he got fired mainly because of one disgruntled underling who acted like a baby when Mel's bosses didn't agree with him.
September 29th, 2022 at 8:56 AM ^
Was traveling last March wearing a Michigan pullover and stopped in a NY airport lounge to grab a quick breakfast before my connection. Was zoned out with earbuds in when I noticed a guy trying to get my attention. Pulled out my earbuds and got a “Go Blue” and he noted what a great week it had been for Michigan sports. Started up a conversation, told him my son was a senior nearing graduation and he tells me his son played hockey. I ask him his sons name and he replied “Strauss Mann.” He was obviously a bit thrilled that I knew who his son was and that he had played on the Olympic Team.
Reflecting back it does seem a bit odd that Strauss’ father would still be pretty positive on Michigan given the first story that came out. As noted by Booted Blue I suspect also that the truth lies somewhere in the middle and the indication of mistreatment of female employees probably pushed the University over edge.
I can’t imagine these decisions aren’t made without consultation with the University president and that probably hasn’t helped Warde look very good. Ran into Santa hanging outside the student union just shaking hands and greeting folks about three hours before the UConn game. Seems like a very positive change.
September 30th, 2022 at 12:38 PM ^
It took me a second on the "Santa" thing, for the briefest of moments I was like "what does that have to do with anything?" and then it hit me.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:05 AM ^
Still don't understand what issues Strauss raised? What were they? This sounds like all Shields' doing.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:13 AM ^
Pre-note: I was a Mel Pearson fan and even after the report came out - I was hoping that there were some misunderstandings or something that would have allowed him to stay. My thought was that there were some players (especially the legacy kids that were there before he came back) that didn't like him but that his recruits were on board. So the comments below came as a huge surprise to me...
Take this for what its worth, the son of a close friend of mine plays major junior hockey in Canada. The son grew up playing with one of Michigan's recent highly drafted players and they remain friends - my friend is friendly with the father of the former Michigan player.
I asked my buddy about what the former Michigan player and his dad thought about the Pearson situation - the basic message was that Pearson is an asshole and not a good coach. He was divisive in the locker room and the players (even the top draft picks) couldn't stand him. The team underperformed the talent level due to the coach.
Now, they did say that the team was really tight and the players were playing for each other (and loved being on campus) - which is why they got most of the team to come back last year. This is really interesting because if the coach was a divisive asshole, you would expect that to cause rifts and whatnot amongst the team. So I wonder if some of the antics were designed to bring the team together - who knows.
The player and his dad were glad to see Pearson gone and expect the team to be better under the new coach.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:24 AM ^
You aren't wrong that one tactic to bring a team together is focus their hate on the coach. The Army basically shortcuts their basic training esprit down to that very dynamic.
Content young people don't usually excel.
September 29th, 2022 at 10:35 AM ^
Worked for Kurt Russell.
September 29th, 2022 at 1:15 PM ^
The focus on guys not leaving somehow implying that everything must have been okay with the coach is lazy. How many guys stayed at Indiana during Bobby Knight's tenure? How many guys chose to play at Duke during Coach K's tenure? Bill Parcels, Brian Belichick neither known for being nice guys, had high profile players stick with them for years.
There are so many other factors which come into play on a guys decision to stay or not. Maybe all of the high draft picks thought playing with other high draft picks was fun and the best way to prep for their NHL career. Maybe the guys who weren't going to get drafted loved skating with the top picks. Maybe they actually built up friendships and that was worth it. Maybe it simply was not worth transferring to play one more year of college hockey so they stuck it out. Maybe all of the stuff about how Pearson treated co-workers and handled Bancroft was worthy of firing but didn't impact what was happening in practice or games.
None of this has been communicated publicly. All we have is the WH report and now this rather weak interview with Pearson. Anyone using this interview as a "see I told you so" moment should note the interview leads with "no questions were off the table" yet, the full transcript of the interview isn't provided. I read the whole thing waiting for a Q&A style transcript to see what was actually asked. It's not there. This is a carefully crafted article with quotes but no questions.
September 29th, 2022 at 5:40 PM ^
It is infinitely easier and more common to transfer today than in Bobby Knight's era. That's not a fair comparison.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:28 AM ^
Benedict Shields, and JUB, should be banished from UM athletics forever. As well as all of those ignorant "fans" calling for him to be fired without having understood or read anything about this issue. Pearson was a victim of a witch-hunt. Incredibly unfortunate.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:39 AM ^
Yes. and OJ too!
But really -- all it took for you to say that is this one story with the accused defending himself? There are tons of reactions to this story on Twitter from those in the know re. the many errors within.
September 30th, 2022 at 10:33 AM ^
LOL, "defending himself." So now Pearson is a paragon of honesty, especiually after having months to practice his story for an ass-kissing interview? Dude, HE LIED! He's a liar.
September 29th, 2022 at 9:59 AM ^
So, the guy that did the most damage was allowed to retire with benefits? The guy that turned a blind eye to keep the "status quo" gets fired after lying to save his job? Mel was screwed from the get-go. If he doesn't lie, he doesn't have control of his program and is let go.
I hated to see Mel depart the program, but maintaining the status quo doesn't save you in 2022, especially when it involves harassment. People thinking the "good ole boy program" will save them in this climate, should wake-up and realize it's time to change.
September 29th, 2022 at 10:55 AM ^
Pearson wasn’t fired, he didn’t have a contract
September 29th, 2022 at 12:19 PM ^
One doesn't "need" a contract to be an employee. He was simply working off-contract after it expired.
September 29th, 2022 at 6:38 PM ^
Right but ending an at will contract less arrangement is different legally than firing someone under contract. So Bancroft was allowed to retire because firing him was legally difficult whereas terminating Mel was exceedingly simple
September 29th, 2022 at 10:01 AM ^
good riddance to bad rubbish.
September 30th, 2022 at 12:59 PM ^
While I support wholeheartedly the removal of Mel, this is also a bad and uninformed take.
The tl:dr for all of this is that Mel put himself in a position where his job was in jeopardy by not being in step with the times and establishing a work environment where it clear that misogyny wouldn't be tolerated, compounded by not taking immediate and decisive action when it was reported. Taking a path of zero repercussions and zero accountability here was extremely unwise.
I HAVE to wonder if the AD has a standard program for coaches/teams to use in creating an environment of equity and inclusion and whether or not Mel utilized it. If M doesn't provide this as a framework and require participation, In would actually have them shoulder some of the blame here.
Then he lied repeatedly to investigators in a way that was provably a misrepresentation and that was that. It was for these items he did not remain the coach at M.
Those are not issues that can be accepted, worked on, coaches and improved.
Everything about team culture, toxicity, handling of Mann, etc. are window dressing and only the rationale for why no one in the program so much as put out a tweet in his defense or in any way expressed regret at his removal. Not realizing that the Bobby Knight tyrant coaching style is an out oded approach is an error in style and not a fireavle offense. These are the kinds of things that can be worked on, monitored and improved, but unfortunately Mel won't get that chance.
He's not rubbish, he's not a terrible coach or person. He will probably/possibly coach somewhere else again and do well, especially if he learns from this and perhaps updates some of his methodology and has better help, no doubt his next employer will have that discussion with him.
I wish Mel all the best and hope he does well at his next stop.
October 1st, 2022 at 7:56 AM ^
i can’t even tell you hard i stand behind what i said.
i have no idea if he’s a “bad person,” but that wasn’t really my point. there was an undeniably toxic culture around his program, and he lied about it when confronted.
we’ve had quite enough cover-up shit already, thank you very much.
September 29th, 2022 at 10:04 AM ^
I think I will be consistent on this. Until collaborated facts for or against actually appear, I will neither condemn or exonerate. I will never be a member of a pitchfork mob like we had here, but I will also never just assume someone isn't culpable.
The sad part is the pitchfork mob went after those of us that wanted collaborated facts before we decided where we stood just as much as they went after who they thought was a villain.
September 29th, 2022 at 10:59 AM ^
What exactly do you mean by collaborated? Multiple women described the workplace as toxic to women and Pearson admits Bancroft had problems. Is that not collaboration? Multiple players in the Wilmerhale report said player treatment was a problem.
This article does no reporting, Pearsons defenses are vague and basically boil down to “if I was so abusive why didn’t these people throw away everything else in their lives just to get away from me”
September 29th, 2022 at 12:37 PM ^
"Until collaborated facts for or against actually appear,"
Demonstrably caught lying, on tape.
September 29th, 2022 at 1:54 PM ^
The word is "corroborated" not "collaborated" but at least you are consistent.
September 29th, 2022 at 5:44 PM ^
This is basically where I stand. He was neither clearly guilty nor clearly innocent, the truth is somewhere in the middle. All the people who vehemently believe he shoulda been fired or kept are equally dumb. What's the full truth? We'll never really know...and I don't really care, I don't even watch hockey. I just find all the extreme reactions, in either direction, ludicrous.
September 30th, 2022 at 10:35 AM ^
The truth is HE LIED. There is no middle ground. He, in fact, is clearly guilty.
September 29th, 2022 at 10:37 AM ^
This article isn’t even close to journalism. It’s basically a Pearson puff piece
October 1st, 2022 at 7:58 AM ^
right? it’s about ten degrees from a “players tribune” article. the byline should have had mel as a co-writer.
September 29th, 2022 at 11:10 AM ^
It looks bad to me when you stand behind a coach that got into a screaming match with an opposing coach and slapped an assistant coach of an opposing team on live television, but dismiss a coach when no corroborated facts for or against have come out.
September 29th, 2022 at 11:28 AM ^
What looks worse is this laughable portrayal of events.
People act like Juwan went full Will Smith on that asshat from Wisconsin. I don't see the similarity.
September 29th, 2022 at 12:38 PM ^
" no corroborated facts for or against have come out. "
Caught lying, on tape.
September 29th, 2022 at 11:29 AM ^
It makes more sense now why Warde took more time. At the end of the day, it is a difficult situation and the boss has to go. That is the way the dice rolls whether the boss is right or wrong.
September 29th, 2022 at 12:01 PM ^
What a mess.
Was Person raliroaded by Sheilds? Or was he an abusive ass who finally screwed over the wrong person?
Extremely hard to tell. Clearly the locker room was divided over whether to support him or not.
Unfortunate situation all around. You have to wonder how much of this was precipitated by the stresses of dealing with COVID.
September 29th, 2022 at 12:24 PM ^
Both likely true - hard personality but also did little (verifiably) to warrant an abrupt dismissal. Had Mel been in the middle of his contract, things may have perhaps gone differently, but this way allows admins to easily move on regardless of the details.
September 29th, 2022 at 12:13 PM ^
“I wanted to move on from Steve because I just didn’t think he was healthy to be around our team after my first year,” Pearson recalled. “He’s one of those guys where, if he doesn’t agree with your coaching style or your recruiting or how you handle players, or any idea that doesn’t align with him, you’re doing it wrong and you don’t know what you’re doing.”
This is petty.
It comes across like Gary Barnett talking about Katie Hnida.
Mel had a long and personal relationship with him. Then all of a sudden he see this behavior in Shields?!
I call bullshit.
Mel hired a favorable mouthpiece to do this story on his behalf; just move on and keep the drama out of the public domain.
September 29th, 2022 at 12:39 PM ^
Eh the truth is probably somewhere in the middle but where exactly probably no-one knows who doesn't also have some kind of stake in it. Most of the stuff we know for sure sounds like fairly petty office nonsense.
But I'm surprised Mel thought he was gonna come out on top with the law firm investigation because if you're not a saint, they're going to find someone who will complain about you. And it looks like Mel knew he hadn't always been a friend to everyone around him (which is inevitable, but some do a better job at appearing like they are than others).
September 29th, 2022 at 1:21 PM ^
This doesn't change my opinion. Of course there is going to be a degree of he said/she said in this, but it doesn't change the facts uncovered
- Lying in the investigation
- Apparently letting Rick Bancroft do whatever the hell he wanted to do
- Retaliated against Strauss Mann
Not fit to be Michigan's hockey coach. The regents made the right call
September 29th, 2022 at 1:40 PM ^
Just dredging this thread back up for another non-UM perspective on Mel, since evidently Mel claiming he's really not a bad guy is enough evidence to relitigate the entire thing within the fanbase.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/slightly-ot-review-mel-pearson%27s-michigan-tech-tenure
September 29th, 2022 at 1:41 PM ^
Ah, a thread for all the oldhead "abuse is coaching is abuse" dumbasses to congregate.