steve shields

A messy, tiring, and embarrassing saga in Michigan Athletics history came to the only logical end today as interim university President Mary Sue Coleman and Athletic Director Warde Manuel announced that hockey coach Mel Pearson has been relieved of his duties: 

It is official:
The University of Michigan has terminated hockey coach Mel Pearson’s employment.

— John U. Bacon (@Johnubacon) August 5, 2022

For those living under a rock, Pearson was under investigation by the WilmerHale law firm from fall 2021 until spring 2022 due to a complaint filed by former goalie consultant Steve Shields that Pearson retaliated against him in firing Shields in August 2021, in violation of the university's code. The investigation's report, which was finished on May 5 and leaked to the public on Tuesday through MLive, concluded that while Pearson did not technically violate university code in firing Shields, the tenure of Pearson and his right-hand man, former Director of Hockey Operations Rick Bancroft, was deeply troubling and problematic.

The report painted a rather muddled picture of the allegations that Pearson directed his players to lie on contact tracing forms during the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2021 and regarded the allegation that Bancroft's (supposed) knowledge of Dr. Robert Anderson's conduct was central to the feud between Shields and Pearson as unfounded. However, the report did uncover what could best be described as a toxic workplace culture towards female employees in the hockey department, largely perpetrated by Bancroft, forcing one employee into retirement rather than to continue to work for Michigan. The report didn't list a multitude of instances of negative conduct by Pearson towards women, but did highlight one troublesome incident involving Hockey Sports Information Director Kristy McNeil that Pearson was involved in. At the very least, the report described Pearson as enabling Bancroft's behavior. 

Finally, the report detailed a culture of intimidation between Pearson and some members of the Michigan team. It stated how Pearson set conditions around team captain Strauss Mann that pushed Mann towards departing the program after Mann spoke up in favor of greater "respect" for the players (Mann was closely associated with Shields), leading to Mann signing in Sweden in April 2021. After that, the university commissioned an anonymous survey of players and staffers, which found that between 30 and 35% felt that they were not "respected and treated fairly" by Pearson, that they "personally experienced offensive, intimidating, discriminatory, or harassing conduct", and that they rated the culture more negatively than positively (this was not in the report but was leaked to The Athletic on Tuesday in conjunction with the report). The report also documented a meeting between the eight seniors from the 2021-22 team and Sport Administrator Josh Richelew, in which the group stated that Pearson "holds grudges", that if players were to speak up or complain they "won't play", and that the Mann incident made them "afraid of the consequences" if they "came forward". 

If you would like to read the report in full, you can do so here, or you can read a full summary with excerpts included in a tweet thread from your author here. 

[James Coller]

After the report was released to the Athletic Department in early May, Warde Manuel and his department did.... basically nothing. Pearson's contract expired at midnight on May 1, 2022, and for three months, he remained as head coach without a contract, one of the stranger developments anyone can remember. Insiders on paid sites like 24/7 and Rivals continued to signal that the university intended to keep Pearson, but as the weeks went by with no extension announced, more confusion and doubt began to shroud the situation. In June, MLive reported that Bancroft had been let go, leading many (myself included) to theorize that Michigan intended to use Bancroft as the fall guy to keep Pearson. That said, as the dog days of summer began to arrive and still no news was around the corner, more questions began to be asked. Then, the report was leaked to the media. We got word it had been obtained by independent journalists (no word as to how) a week ago today, and then it was published on Tuesday. 

The report's shocking bombshells led many on this space and elsewhere to conclude on Tuesday that Pearson needed to be removed from his position. Interim President Mary Sue Coleman met with Manuel on Wednesday, who, it had been indicated to this blog privately, was still in firm support of Pearson. That was confirmed publicly yesterday morning when John U. Bacon reported that Manuel stood in opposition to Coleman, as well as the unanimous (8-0) assent of the Board of Regents, who all supported the firing of Pearson. It was then reported last night by Bacon that unanimity had been reached between Manuel, Coleman, and the Regents. Given that Coleman and the Regents are the superiors to Manuel, most saw the writing on the wall as to Pearson's future. Indeed, the news that was very predictable last night came to fruition today. 

---------------------