Warning: This post contains details about sexual assault and harassment. Please proceed with caution and care.
I’ll get back to writing about women’s basketball soon. First, unfortunately, there’s another Michigan beat that’s been ignored by too many people for too long.
On Friday, multiple reports and a team statement confirmed that the Atlanta Falcons fired newly hired assistant coach LaTroy Lewis because the Ann Arbor Police Department is investigating an accusation of rape from when Lewis served as an assistant defensive line coach for the Michigan football program.
The alleged incident occurred in December of 2024 and was recently reported to the AAPD, according to a statement made to ESPN’s Mark Raimondi.
The woman Lewis allegedly assaulted claims she told then-head coach Sherrone Moore, who has since been fired and arrested on a felony and misdemeanor charges after allegedly carrying on an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Instead of reporting Lewis’ conduct to the proper authorities, Moore is alleged to have sexually harassed the woman himself:
The woman informed then-Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, whom she knew personally, about the incident, according to her attorney. But Moore did not report Lewis and "weaponized" the incident against the woman, Truszkowski said, including sending her lewd and sexually charged text messages.
Moore's attorney, Ellen Michaels, denied the allegations in a statement to ESPN.
These accusations are horrifying. That they involve the University of Michigan, the football program, and the athletic department is depressingly unsurprising. It is long past time for change, starting with athletic director Warde Manuel and the living monument to his idol, disgraced enabler Bo Schembechler.
Unfit to lead. [Patrick Barron/MGoBlog]
Warde Manuel has served as Michigan’s athletic director since January of 2016. The list of scandals that have occurred under his watch is extensive; there’s not only a pattern of negligence but a willingness to overlook glaring misconduct.
October 2018. Former Michigan gymnast Scott Vetere, who was hired as an assistant women’s gymnastics coach in 2017, is banned from coaching at the school after being caught in a sexual act with a student-athlete in an apartment complex parking lot. He’s arrested and charged with misdemeanor indecent or obscene act in public.
Vetere resigned citing “family circumstances” while he was under investigation, not mentioning the arrest or relationship with the student-athlete.
January 2019. Manuel hires Rhonda Faehn, reportedly the first official at USA Gymnastics to learn about and fail to report the longtime abuse of team doctor Larry Nassar, as a consultant for the gymnastics program:
“After our exhaustive due diligence, we felt comfortable that coach Faehn reported all information available to her regarding Larry Nassar and that she cooperated fully, including voluntarily participating in all investigations and offering testimony before Congress,” Manuel said in a statement, via the Detroit Free Press. “Neither an internal investigation by USA Gymnastics or a criminal investigation by the FBI have assigned culpability or resulted in any charges against her.”
A week later, after public outcry — including from survivors of Nassar’s abuse — along with pressure from the university’s regents, Michigan fires Faehn. In a course reversal that entirely contradicts his initial statement, Manuel says it was “not in the best interest of the University of Michigan and our athletic program to continue the consulting contract with Rhonda Faehn,” and apologizes for making the “wrong decision.”
May 2021. Law firm WilmerHale releases a 240-page report detailing “countless” incidents of sexual assault by longtime Michigan team doctor Robert Anderson against U-M athletes and students, as well as repeated failings by former football coach and athletic director Bo Schembechler to take action despite being told about Anderson’s abuse.
Michigan’s football facilities are, to this day, named after Schembechler, whose statue stands outside the building.
August 2022. Men’s hockey coach Mel Pearson is fired three days after the public release of another WilmerHale investigation confirms multiple allegations of misconduct within the program, including harassment of women employed by the team:
The report lists instances of harassment committed by both Pearson and [former Director of Hockey Operations Rick] Bancroft against sports information director Kristy McNeil, Director of Performance Nutrition Caroline Mandel and administrative assistant Lora Durkee, who has since retired. Other women were also mentioned to have experienced harassment, largely at the hands of Bancroft, but also by Pearson.
The first incident described involved Pearson bullying McNeil for scheduling Zoom interviews for two players in February 2021. Equipment manager Ian Hume also said in the report that he overheard “so many mean things about Kristy McNeil,” including that Bancroft and Pearson plotted to remove her from the position.
Pearson’s contract had expired in May 2022, the same month WilmerHale turned over their findings to the university. Manuel not only waited until the WilmerHale report went public to let Pearson go, he reportedly advocated for Pearson to receive a contract extension instead of being terminated, putting him at odds with the entire board of regents.
A combative Manuel blames “internal discussions” for the three-month delay between learning of Pearson’s misconduct and letting him go in an interview with Tony Garcia of the Detroit Free Press:
Garcia: Why did it take three months, after a 68-page WilmerHale report from the investigation into the hockey program, for you to not retain Mel Pearson? Why did it take those three months?
Manuel: Because there was internal discussion going on about the report and about what was going on in the program that we had to review. Again, it wasn’t something that we were not discussing internally and within the university. So, those things don’t automatically, you don’t get a report and just "here’s the decision we’re going to make" the next day. You have conversations, discussions and that’s what happened with that. Some of those take time because of schedules and those kids of things, but three months or two months or eight months, to me it’s an issue of process and going through it.
Garcia: I think the timing is in question because the findings of that report because public earlier that week that you let him go.
Manuel: Understood.
Garcia: The report seemed to express there were concerns over the program.
Manuel: There were concerns, yeah, absolutely, there’s no doubt.
Garcia: So what was the hold up?
Manuel: I just told you what the hold up was, Tony. I don’t understand (why) you don’t understand or maybe people don’t understand that these things take time. Whether it had the appearance that it happened after the article came out, it was in discussion throughout that timeframe. So timing is what it is.
January 2023. Offensive coordinator Matt Weiss is fired from the football program. No reason is given for his dismissal. In March of 2025, Weiss is charged with 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and ten counts of aggravated identity theft:
The feds say that he downloaded personal, intimate digital photographs and videos that were never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.
According to the criminal complaint, Weiss "primarily targeted female college athletes. He researched and targeted these women based on their school affiliation, athletic history, and physical characteristics. His goal was to obtain private photographs and videos never intended to share beyond intimate partners."
Weiss’ alleged crimes date back to 2015, when he was an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens. He coached at Michigan from 2021-22.
December 2025. Football head coach Sherrone Moore is fired for conducting an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Immediately following his dismissal, he drives to the staff member’s house, where he’s arrested on felony home invasion and misdemeanor stalking charges.
Later that month, The Athletic reports that five women contacted them to report “strange or uncomfortable exchanges” with Moore through Instagram direct messages dating back to 2020. The university was made aware of his behavior well before his firing:
Moore’s online interactions with women were raised to university officials by fall 2024, early in his first season as head coach, two people briefed on the matter said. The behavior shared with school officials wasn’t criminal and didn’t involve university employees, the two people said, but it raised red flags about his poor judgment and lack of discretion.
“It was not sexual harassment,” said one of those officials. “It was propriety, ‘Are you an idiot?’ kind of stuff.”
They also report that Moore’s behavior at work became increasingly erratic before his arrest, to the point of raising questions about his mental health. Moore is currently awaiting trial.
This is an institutional culture problem.
In June of 2022, Manuel appeared on the podcast “From the Chair with Mike Hamilton” to discuss his career in athletics. Unprompted, Manuel brought up how much he admired Schembechler’s character, and when questioned further he gave a lengthy statement that functionally absolved his former coach of responsibility for reporting Robert Anderson’s abuse:
Originally transcribed by 247’s Alejandro Zuniga.
Schembechler, needless to say, did not always carry himself “with high character.” Michigan’s institutional problems with treating women and assault survivors as human beings can be traced directly to the example he set as a leader. He was an outspoken opponent of Title IX, telling the press it was a “great crisis” that’d put the game of football at risk:
Schembechler’s misogyny marred his brief, ill-fated tenure as team president of the Detroit Tigers. After pitcher Jack Morris made a sexist comment to Detroit Free Press reporter Jennifer Frey in the locker room, Schembechler defended Morris, saying a locker room was no place for women:
Schembechler’s response to Shine reeked of sexism and condescension. He acknowledged the substance of Morris’s remarks, but blamed the entire incident on Frey. Schembechler complained that she “watched men from 20 to 65 years of age undress and dress for more than half an hour without asking questions.” He also charged Free Press sports editor Dave Robinson with a “lack of common sense in sending a female college intern in a men’s clubhouse.”
Not content to attack Frey and Robinson, Schembechler also claimed that the incident “was a scam orchestrated by you people to create a story.”
Every day Schembechler’s statue stands outside the football building is a shameful one for the University of Michigan.
Michigan’s culture problem extends to the media that covers the athletic department.
Multiple credentialed media members, including U-M’s in-house athletic department reporter Steve Kornacki, went on the Schembechler grave walk and/or praised his character after the WilmerHale report came out. Michigan’s football play-by-play announcer at the time, Jim Brandstatter, tried to discredit one of Anderson’s victims because he’d been dismissed by the program for drug use.
Greg Dooley, who took over teaching John U. Bacon’s course at UMich.
The unofficial historian of Michigan athletics, John U. Bacon, co-authored Schembechler’s book on leadership, Bo’s Lasting Lessons. Bacon was a longtime lecturer at the school, teaching the History of College Athletics — I took his course.
Bacon wrote a lengthy piece after the WilmerHale report came out that questioned the accuracy of survivors’ testimony and the culpability of Schembechler, whom he repeatedly called “Bo,” as journalists do:
But if I’ve seen evidence of ignorance, neglect, and an enabling culture from Schembechler and [former athletic director Don] Canham, I have seen no evidence of malice, deceit, or a cover-up – or even compelling evidence that Canham or Schembechler fully grasped the gravity of the situation we see so clearly today.
When the WilmerHale report came out, I was working for MGoBlog, which I believe was and is the largest team-specific blog on the internet. By that point, I’d already written about my experience as a survivor of sexual assault. I took on reading the entire report and writing “Countless” because I wanted the site to handle the story with the appropriate tone and gravity.
The day after writing that post, I woke up to multiple messages from people who were alarmed at how my coworkers discussed Schembechler during their weekly radio roundtable with Sam Webb on WTKA. I tried to contact my coworkers with my concerns, and when I didn’t get a response, I pulled the podcast from MGoBlog’s front page.
The next day, MGoBlog founder Brian Cook wrote “About That Podcast,” saying he disagreed with my decision even though the radio appearance, in his own words, “went off the rails.” The post ends with this statement:
The university now has to address the contents of the report in a formal way. I'm not zealous about any path they take except obviously they cannot let the status quo stand. If they decide to memory-hole everything, I get it. If they take the route we suggested in the podcast where the statue is modified to include Robert Anderson in some way and the museum portion of Schembechler Hall has a prominent display explaining what happened, that feels fine to me too. But I'm just a guy on the internet. I didn't play for Bo; I wasn't abused by Anderson. It's not my call.
The status quo has stood precisely because the university — along with most of the people who cover it — has decided to memory-hole everything. The modified statue suggestion is so ridiculous it’s not worth addressing. I was never consulted about the contents of the post, which begins by acknowledging I care about the issue a lot more than Brian.
I asked for an apology. Instead, I never heard from Brian again, and I resigned to start the first version of this newsletter. I have no regrets.
For reasons that should be obvious, I don’t trust the university, the media covering it, or much of the fanbase to give enough of a shit to prompt meaningful change.
The school’s regents have taken no action even when Warde Manuel has pitted himself against them. Regent Jordan Acker posted the most asinine reason imaginable to keep Bo Schembechler’s name and statue attached to the football facilities in an August 2023 Reddit Q&A:
Flawed buildings kill people.
“…always name buildings after flawed men and women, because buildings are flawed just like people are.”
The thought of the Theodore John Kaczynski School of Mathematics should put that idea to rest. It’s clear, however, that Michigan’s leaders will not take action unless they’re under intense pressure. It’s also clear that pressure must come from people like you — people who care.
Not for the first time, I’m going to post a list of phone numbers and emails to contact every member of the board of regents:
Jordan Acker: [email protected], (248) 483-5000
Michael Behm: [email protected], (810) 234-2400
Mark Bernstein: [email protected], (248) 865-0877
Paul Brown: [email protected], (734) 730-1077
Sarah Hubbard: [email protected], (517) 853-1236
Denise Ilitch: [email protected], no phone listed
Carl J. Meyers: [email protected], (734) 548-7800
Katherine White: [email protected], (313) 577-1054
Let them know how you feel. I hope you’re as fed up as I am.
Photo credit: Patrick Barron/MGoBlog