Slightly OT: A Review of Mel Pearson's Michigan Tech Tenure
Thought this was an interesting perspective:
https://www.techhockeyguide.com/2022/09/16/mel-pearson-the-huskies-head-coach-a-retrospective/
TL;DR
Pearson's manipulative and abusive behavior seems to have (unsurprisingly) begun well before he was hired as UM's head coach. Unfortunately, while there were perhaps some warning signs, they seem to only have taken the form of off-the-record comments from anonymous former players. The on-the-record accounts appear to have all come after Pearson's investigation and eventual firing. It's not clear whether anyone would have been willing to speak negatively about Pearson (publicly or privately) prior to his firing, given his pattern of retaliation.
I don't know whether that absolves UM entirely; who knows whether they adequately vetted Pearson before he was hired, or if they appropriately heeded any warning signs uncovered in the vetting process.
September 16th, 2022 at 2:20 PM ^
Really interesting article, added perspective on Pearson. Thanks for posting.
September 16th, 2022 at 2:39 PM ^
Very interesting. The 'bad' more or less lines up with the behavior we learned about in Ann Arbor- if you were a favored son or stayed on Mel's good side, Mel was good to you, but if you crossed Mel or pissed him off, he was apparently a vindictive jerk who wouldn't hesitate to make life difficult for you
I'd say it says something about hockey culture that Mel was apparently a dickhead to guys who crossed him for 10+ years as a head man and there wasn't a peep of trouble till fall 2022
September 16th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
“if you were a favored son or stayed on Mel's good side, Mel was good to you, but if you crossed Mel or pissed him off, he was apparently a vindictive jerk who wouldn't hesitate to make life difficult for you”
This literally describes human beings.
September 16th, 2022 at 2:46 PM ^
Doesn't make it ok when part of your job is to usher these kids through college and support them in endeavors beyond. Sounds like he was an abusive dick.
September 16th, 2022 at 2:50 PM ^
Not all human beings. If someone crosses me, I don't necessarily become a vindictive jerk. Most of the time I let it go. I'm not going to waste my time trying to exact revenge on someone.
September 16th, 2022 at 3:16 PM ^
Same. I still think about revenge. Or at least things that can't get caught on camera. And then I still decide not to actually do anything.
September 16th, 2022 at 7:06 PM ^
“Most of the time I let it go. I'm not going to waste my time trying to exact revenge on someone.”
But at least some of the time when someone crossed you, you DON’T let it go, right? And I’m betting you also don’t just forgive and forget. That is the part that is just human nature, and that’s all I was saying.
September 16th, 2022 at 3:09 PM ^
Yes, but only those humans who are immature enough and insecure enough to behave poorly in certain situations.
September 16th, 2022 at 4:21 PM ^
"This literally describes human beings."
Clarence, what it more nearly describes is the behavior of some people online.
"Disagree with ME?! I'll insult you! I'll get in a flame war! Worst of all, I'll down vote you!"
September 16th, 2022 at 7:07 PM ^
Now that’s a fact and I completely agree. Well, almost - I would say it’s well more than “some”. Great post!
September 16th, 2022 at 4:53 PM ^
I know you basically refuse to accept Mel was worth firing, but cmon man. Dont pretend like thats normal behavior from a head coach dealing with college kids
September 16th, 2022 at 3:01 PM ^
Well, sounds like there was at least a peep. We know that these patterns persist, and that offenders trail enablers. But they usually betray long patterns of such ugly when finally, fully exposed.
September 16th, 2022 at 3:07 PM ^
Yeah, I definitely know of people connected to the Tech program that were happy to see Pearson go, but I (and probably everyone else) just figured that it was personal dislike and coaching style disagreements, not real toxic culture issues. So many people loved the guy that it was hard to say for sure that he was a problem.
To compound matters, a lot of what we as a culture used to think of as a "tough coaching style" is now being understood as abusive, and that understanding is changing almost by the day. Without a full independent investigation, like the WilmerHale one, it's easy to see how most abusive coaches just written off as tough, and we all move on.
September 16th, 2022 at 3:18 PM ^
Yeah, the culture stuff is similar to what you'd hear about football coaches ignoring injuries and berating players who sat out. It's really only recently that the fetishization of "toughness" was replaced with a more holistic view about how abusing some of these practices really were.
September 16th, 2022 at 4:26 PM ^
Changing but not exactly changed yet.
You know, bronxblue, that some people reading what you wrote wouldn't go, "Ah, yes, we've come a long way in understanding how to teach, coach and motivate."
Instead more than a few people are right now muttering to themselves that all this new shit is turning us weak.
September 16th, 2022 at 3:00 PM ^
I asked the editor at THG about this, but I am surprised they didn't attempt to interview former staffers as well as players, since many of the most serious allegations of the WilmerHale report were specifically about his relationship with support staff.
That being said, the picture being painted here is pretty consistent with what we were hearing at UM. Pearson's definitely the same person, probably just becoming more emboldened at UM than he was at Tech.
September 16th, 2022 at 3:16 PM ^
None of this is particularly surprising but also (to my untrained eye) seems to be behavior not wholly uncommon amongst high-level coaches. Some guys are just controlling, angry assholes who are allowed to be that way because they win. And as noted both in the WilmerHale report and in various articles, Pearson seemed to play favorites and so if you were on his good side you likely had a much different experience as a member of the team.
It sucks and I think UM failed to respond to the allegations sufficiently without external pressure, and I'm not sure Warde really "learned a lesson" with his actions. I guess we'll see.
September 16th, 2022 at 3:45 PM ^
Wait, so are you saying that someone could actually murder someone and the coach would help them get away with it as long as they were a favorite of the coach? I can't imagine anything like that even happening.
September 16th, 2022 at 4:17 PM ^
I feel like if a guy like Pearson was coaching an NHL team, it'd just be seen as part of the deal. I mean I recall there being pretty similar complaints about Mike Babcock in terms of personality (anyone remember how much Mike Commodore went out of his way to talk smack about Babcock?)
I mean it's not like hockey teams (i.e. businesses) hire coaches (i.e. managers) with the expectation that they're going to be employees' best friends or father figures or even especially nice people. The expectation is success, and if you gotta crack some eggs to make that omelet then so be it.
College is somewhat different, but of course given everything that's been happening in collegiate athletics recently it's fair to ask just how different is it, really. We make a lot about the players being 'kids', but really they're young adults. In Europe, 18-19 year olds play in pro teams coached by the same guys, often enough megalomaniacs with a temper problem, as the 30 year old players. Once player payments are openly accepted part of the deal, I suspect that the expectation that collegiate athletics is some kind of educational 'life growth' exercise kinda goes out the window with the amateur status.
September 16th, 2022 at 5:25 PM ^
You're not wrong, but if you put some of the alleged behavior in the business arena, it would be even more toxic. Can you imagine your boss driving around to your house to check up on you, outside of working hours? That's not going to fly in the workplace or on an NHL team, and therefore by your reasoning, should be just as wrong on a college team.
On the other hand, consider the medical treatments denied. That's extremely unlike the NHL or any normal job: other people have brought up that these athletes can just seek treatment elsewhere if they're unhappy with the standard provided by the school, but these are college hockey players: no job, no NIL, amateur athletes. The injuries they get from playing for their school can really only reasonably be treated by the school. And the coach, a non-medical professional, should not have input into what treatments those athletes receive.
It's pretty clear that this goes beyond tough coaching or playing favorites.
September 16th, 2022 at 7:23 PM ^
The medical stuff was the most jarring. Why can a player who think he's injured have his medical care vetoed by the coach? The fact that he was right and he did have slipped disks later is outrageous. That can be life altering to have an injury go untreated and Mel just vetoed it because...? He's a dick?
September 16th, 2022 at 11:54 PM ^
I think you're actually wrong on the medical treatment. There's a long history of injuries being obscured/covered up/downplayed and treatment being tailored to suit the team's preferences not the player's long-term health in the pros. Just think about how head injuries were treated until pretty recently.
I'm not saying that to justify it because it is a dirty and dark chapter in pro sports as well, but just to illustrate that Mel Pearson doesn't exist in a vacuum.
With regard to control about private life, again, read about Scotty Bowman and how he handled his teams. You have to remember that even though the NHL is a workplace, it's not a 9 to 5 job and traditionally teams have exerted or attempted to exert considerable amounts of control over their playing 'talent'. When they had young Sidney Crosby live with Mario Lemieux - who at that point was a part-owner of the team - that was naturally done not just for Sid's benefit but also because it gave the team a way of keeping an eye on their young asset outside the rink. And having rookies room with reliable 'company men' veteran players is of course standard practice for that exact reason.
September 16th, 2022 at 11:35 PM ^
Shows UM did zero due diligence or worse, ignored it
September 17th, 2022 at 12:50 AM ^
Ok, bringing up the Blackhawks and Hockey Canada in comparison to Mel's situation as the author did, is a non-starter. Those were rapes. Multiple rapes.
September 17th, 2022 at 7:34 AM ^
Still can’t decide if he is actually a bad guy or just an old school hockey coach in new school times.
September 17th, 2022 at 10:21 AM ^
His denial of medical exams and treatment should be actionable. I'm not saying they are actionable, but they should be. To me it shows clear intent to cause harm through negligence.