New York Magazine (!?!): Suspending Harbaugh is Insane
Not much new info here, but the fact that it's making headlines in reputable non-sport publications will hopefully help color the public perception.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:07 AM ^
Chait is a Michigan alum, he appears in the 2007 HBO special about The Game.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:43 AM ^
And long ago he wrote some things for mgoblog.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:07 AM ^
It's Chait, he's a Michigan homer. (And a tool, but I'm a teacher so biased against him)
November 12th, 2023 at 10:21 AM ^
Yeah, gets very defensive when his conflict of interest is brought up in education articles. It’s ridiculous that NYM lets him write about the topic and silly for them to let him write about Michigan IMO.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:43 AM ^
When it comes to conflicts of interest, I'm usually an adherent of the Rosenthal Rule: I don't care if you f**k elephants, but then you can't cover the circus.
That said, this is a one-off in which he admits his bias. And do you want exclude all Michigan grads and leave commentary on this subject to Buckeyes and Sparties? There aren't enough crayons in the world.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^
It's New York Magazine, not the New York Times. I think there's a different journalistic standard when you're a feature writer, which is what he does. It's inherently more editorialized than what should be expected of a piece of sports reporting.
November 12th, 2023 at 1:03 PM ^
The NYT is vomit regurgitated vomit. RCMB average poster has more integrity than the NYT
November 12th, 2023 at 12:41 PM ^
Wasn't there some potential connection at Boston College between Ryan Day, Pete Thamel and the WaPo journalist? I don't care what his connection is the UM as long as this keeps getting the light of day (no pun intended)!
November 12th, 2023 at 10:07 AM ^
Jonathan is a Michigan grad. I don't always concur with his political views, but since I am also a Michigan grad and total homer, I agree with the opinions expressed in this article.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
It serves as a good "explainer" article for those who aren't sitting on sports blogs all day.
When some coworker says "I heard that Jim Harbaugh got caught cheating", this is the article I'll send.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:44 AM ^
Very true. It’s actually quite surprising how little other college football fans know with regards to all of the different story lines regarding this scandal. The propaganda against Michigan has been overwhelming.
on a more important note. Anyone know if those black “Michigan vs. everybody” Jordan brand shirts will be available to the public? I want one, or 3.
November 12th, 2023 at 11:33 AM ^
Already pre-ordered one
November 12th, 2023 at 11:50 AM ^
I was wondering the same thing. Woodson's shirt looked like it had a Jordan logo, but I think it might have been just a pin? The shirts at M Den don't have the logo.
November 12th, 2023 at 12:32 PM ^
A friend of mine, an Illinois grad who hates Michigan, posted a Huff Post article about Harbaugh's suspension on Facebook two days ago with no comment. I knew what she was doing, so I told her that I read all the legal docs presented and top lined the various bylaws and rules and what was being alleged and all I got was, "I haven't been interested in college football since the Penn State scandal, that ruined college football for me." It was like she was pulling some moral superiority shit on me: "You can overlook a child rape scandal in order to watch some guys play football?," all while posting an article on her least favorite university. Then of course she posted the Illinois score yesterday with a "Woo!" I called her on it.
November 12th, 2023 at 1:00 PM ^
I am constantly baffled by Illini hatred for us: it seems baseless.
The level of weaponied sanctimony out there has also been stunning. I had a Buckeye (but otherwise quite intelligent) friend rattling on about our supposed cheating, so I sent him UM's letter to the Big Ten. His response: "OJ had lawyers too." Amazing.
November 12th, 2023 at 1:20 PM ^
Envy is a deadly sin.
November 12th, 2023 at 1:58 PM ^
My favorite thing is random Illinois fans on the Internet screaming at me "JUWAN HASNT BEATEN BRAD UNDERWOOD"
Like dude am I supposed to care?
November 12th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
Because they don't actually care what the "cheating" was. They just want to use it to bash Michigan.
November 12th, 2023 at 4:08 PM ^
Always the answer.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:47 AM ^
Well at least we'll have New Yorker subscribers on our side....
Edit: misread title. It is New York Magazine.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:50 AM ^
I believe the New Yorker and NY Mag are unaffiliated with one another
November 12th, 2023 at 10:50 AM ^
So, New York and the New Yorker are different...
November 12th, 2023 at 11:06 AM ^
New York mag began as the Sunday supplement to the old New York Herald-Tribune. It first rose to prominence on the back of Tiny Mummies, an article by Tom Wolfe that ripped The New Yorker a new one for being a stodgy bunch of sycophants beholden to a glorious history that was neither glorious nor all that old.
November 12th, 2023 at 12:14 PM ^
I wouldn’t send this article to others. While I agree with the overall tenor of the article, so many of his assertions of fact and characterization of rules are just plain wrong. I’ll try to point out specifics in a follow-up post when I have a moment.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
Chaitt is a Michigan alum but a godawful columnist. Just terrible shitty takes for years. Guess he can be right once, but be prepared for folks to point out his Michigan ties. He grew up in Bloomfield Hills.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:41 AM ^
The blind squirrel found a nut.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:13 AM ^
Great column. I came across Jonathan Chait when I wrote an often hilarious column in the Daily back in the early '90s. He admits that he is a biased on this issue. I'm glad to see points made mostly locally being shared with a national audience.
November 12th, 2023 at 12:22 PM ^
I've been a fan of Chait for years and used to read his column all the time. I think he's a brilliant writer and is excellent at crafting arguments (and debunking weak ones). And he does that well here.
My issue with this fiasco is that Petitti was pressured into this by the other coaches/ADs and he's not considering all the facts. From my unprofessional and unlawyered reading of both Michigan's and the Big Ten's statements, it seems like the conference is eager to punish Harbaugh - even though they admit they don't even know if he was involved. Michigan feels like they haven't gotten a chance to review the evidence or respond - but the B1G doesn't care; they consider the matter so urgent they have to suspend him now. And that is why this is all so ridiculous. In Petitti's letter, it seems like he considered the evidence put forth by the NCAA and every other B1G institution but has totally dismissed and disregarded anything Michigan has to say. As Chait says - it drastically overstates the importance of the rule and the seriousness of the violation.
It's also a power grab by Petitti who is using an obscure rule in the B1G to act immediately and without appeal. And that really bothered me because this is very unprecedented and Michigan has not had a chance to defend itself.
If they do an investigation and find that Michigan violated some part of that scouting rule and punishment is warranted, fine, so be it. Just do that. Don't do whatever this is.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:18 AM ^
Well, Chait is no Tom Wolfe but it's probably the best piece in New York mag since Tiny Mummies (which, incidentally, also mentions UM).
November 12th, 2023 at 10:21 AM ^
We'll see what happens when the evidence is all laid out and all of these assertions and claims floating around have to be backed up. This may become a case study of unintended consequences for the Big Ten and the NCAA. In their efforts to "nail" Jim Harbaugh they bring awareness and scrutiny to their own practices - which appear long overdue to overhaul.
One thing that will happen, is that anyone hiring at a UM coaching or support staff will be vetted in great detail.
November 12th, 2023 at 11:14 AM ^
The NCAA is mostly staying out of this, and I wouldn't be surprised if they just let their "investigation" die a quiet death as a result of the jeopardy that continued legal scrutiny place upon NCAA practices.
November 12th, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
No way they let this go away quietly. NCAA and Big Ten are all in. Fine. Let’s see how it ends up.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:29 AM ^
Great article that will unfortunately be clicked away from by most the second he admits to being a Michigan fan. But these are the same points I've gotten sick of having to explain to people, I respect the author feeling the same and doing something about it l
November 12th, 2023 at 10:29 AM ^
This is a great article to send to friends and family who are asking WTF but haven’t followed the details. Very clear, succinct summary of the relevant background and facts. Thanks for finding and linking (correctly).
Yes, Chait is an alum but he does not hide his bias in the article and is upfront with it.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:39 AM ^
The non-sport world can certainly see the injustice of rush-to-judgement more rationally and draw the correct conclusion.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:40 AM ^
So if we beat OSU without Harbaugh, does Day get fired? I thought the PSU fans were about to lynch Franklin on his off the field.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:47 AM ^
Well, since OSU made the CFP last year, I think the answer is no.
Franklin’s in game strategic decisions are truly idiotic. Luckily the only thing we are bad at is changing our snap counts and getting a play called in time.
November 12th, 2023 at 10:44 AM ^
Is my bias the reason I have followed this story with Talmudic devotion? Absolutely.
In fact, the university suspended him as soon as it learned of his activities and has since fired him.
If the first statement is true, how did he miss that Wyld Stallyns resigned?
November 12th, 2023 at 10:52 AM ^
Yeah just don’t read the comments section.
November 12th, 2023 at 12:34 PM ^
That's going to be the epitaph on my tomb stone: Don't Read The Comments.
November 12th, 2023 at 8:56 PM ^
Edward Abbey's epitaph is, I kid you not, "No Comment".
November 12th, 2023 at 10:53 AM ^
J. Chait is why it's great to be a Wolverine. He and Jane Coaston are both respected and influential in the NY/DC bubble and both are unabashedly Michigan football fans.
November 12th, 2023 at 11:04 AM ^
The comments are so entirely ignorant. "Think about how dumb the average person is, and realize that half the people are dumber than that."
November 12th, 2023 at 11:38 AM ^
Well. That comment is manifestly true, so not sure if you are really making a point?
November 12th, 2023 at 12:13 PM ^
Half the people are dumber than the median person. That’s not necessarily true about the mean person.
#Math
November 12th, 2023 at 12:16 PM ^
Don't disagree with the pedantry there, but given the rule of large numbers both are likely the same number.
November 12th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
Technically it's a matter of standard deviations from the mean. Many people cluster around the average. The vast majority of people are between slightly below average or slightly above average intelligence. Those that are 2.5 standard deviations below the mean, for example, are called Ohio State fans and the single most absolute dumbest person existing on the curve has a very rare syndrome, that causes common logic to evade your synapses, called Tony Petiti disease. One of the symptoms is having a penis the size of a thimble.
November 12th, 2023 at 12:25 PM ^
But half the people don't understand your distinction because half are dumber than average.
November 12th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
Nice to see positive media on this issue. B10 has a heckuva lot to answer for in what I think was an outrageous overreaction to whiney hypocrite complaints by so called "leaders" of the conference.
November 12th, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^
I don’t read anything from NY, living out here in the southwest. But I recall that Chait once published an article speculating that Trump was a Russian spy going way back, maybe to the 1980s. Since the whole collusion thing was a scam and a hoax, I guess he had no basis for his speculation. But I will happily read good takes from him on our team.