Mea Culpa re: Shemy
I want to apologize to the readership. When news of Shemy's hiring hit the message board on Wednesday, and a reader referenced liking a Steve Deace tweet, I reached out to a mutual who knew Shemy better to say he should take that down. Shemy called me. I congratulated him on the position, and after chatting I told him he should take down the Deace like, and anything else he doesn't want to be associated with. He also explained on that call what he was hired to do, which I shared on the MGoBoard thread.
That I didn't know there were hundreds of racist, insurrection, and anti-trans likes is no excuse. Like Michigan, I could have taken 20 seconds to look. Had I done so I might have advised Shemy to turn down the position, because that's the kind of stuff that sticks, and it would hurt Michigan. I don't think he would have listened because this job meant the world to him. But at least I wouldn't feel like I deceived you, nor acted in a way that could be interpreted as a cover-up.
The fact that you need to post this is asinine. Don't let the Ace's of the world get you down Seth.
Edit: Ace was right about Shemy but his misplaced outrage elsewhere is what I'm referring to here.
I disagree.
Seth didn't NEED to post this...but you can never go wrong by making a sincere apology and/or admitting where/when you might have been wrong about something.
Doing so is the mark of a mature, emotionally-intelligent individual.
Spot on, 1989. Seth is obviously in an interesting world of personalities working here over the last however long and always appears to make a genuine, good faith effort to be up front and do the right thing. To me, that's all you can ask and when you compare to folks who literally never acknowledge a mistake, that is a signal to notice.
I appreciate that the posters here do my social media research for me, because I avoid that often toxic sinkhole as much as possible. MgoBlog is as close as I come to it.
I don't think this is an Ace thing at all. If you look at Seth's post last week, it could be construed that Seth was OK with the hire. So having to post something like this, especially after what transpired over the weekend, is probably a prudent act.
Sounds good, I remember looking at the post but I don't remember is being celebratory. Haven't looked at it since so I could be misremembering. Just seeing Ace go into burn the world down and burn the people he's talked to in the past in confidence and everyone else he's worked with made me think this was because of that.
Yea, I’m no Ace fan either. I can’t believe I donated $50 to his cause.
I don’t know. I feel like ace has definitely gone extreme in his internet posting, but he wrote some of the best pieces on this blog, and played a huge part of helping it grow. And he has a horrible illness that has deprived him of living a “normal” life. So I’m able to say, “I’m glad i donated. I hope he is getting the help he needs, and I hope he finds peace.”
Yeah, Ace can be exhausting online but you can absolutely tell he's still suffering from a very real medical disease and is himself a survivor of a sexual assault. He did good work here and I wish him a good future. People being angry that he pointed out Shemy's numerous racist posts are just looking to blame someone other than the perpetrator because they like his Dad and/or are reflexively protective of UM.
There are a lot of people who are suffering yet who are not insufferable pricks. More than people are aware of. Ace is far from the only online personality suffering.
There are times when the messenger is so noxious of a personality that whatever they say will elicit strong negative responses no matter what their intent was in spreading that message.
I think you way too quickly dismiss people’s legitimate dislike for the guy. A dislike that is revealed anytime his name is mentioned here, not just when a Schembechler is mentioned.
I know Ace is hurting. His illness is debilitating physically and emotionally. But being so mean spirited really dials down my compassion quotient.
There was a mother in my son's kindergarten class years ago who was pretty insufferable and controlling. She didn't just control her child; she tried to control all our children as well, wielding undue influence on stuff like snacks, where we went on field trips, etc.. Seemingly ticky tack stuff but she was still out of bounds. Then I found out her kid had had cancer as a toddler, and all my. judgment went out the window. I have no idea who I'd become if my kid had cancer (or if I had some awful incurable disease). I feel the same way about Ace. I've never stood in his shoes.
I think the issue is that he took the money and (allegedly) bought some podcast equipment instead of the addressing his illness. Secondly, he said if get got over $100k (which he did) in donations he'd get a tattoo (which he didn't as of a couple years ago).
But Ace knows Seth. They worked together for years. If he was implying that Seth would support the hire knowing all that we now know, then that's pretty low in my opinion.
(I don't know shit about Ace except that he was a pretty good writer for the board. And I don't really know the inside info of what went down here. It just looks like he is really going out of his way to trash this place and/or those that are associated with it like Sam).
He is entering End-stage politics. Rarely is there a full recovery from where he is at now.
I actually agree with many of things that Ace says...... but also realize there is a difference between pushing for what you feel is right and being a huge dick about it.......
I disagree with much of what Ace says but fully support him and his right to try and make changes he feels will make the world a better place. I even support his right to “be a dick” about it. It hurts his cause but that’s on him.
To go a step further I can even support Shemmy's right to "like" what he likes........... BUT it should have been caught by M before he was hired, and/or he should have known better and cleared his social media if he wanted a public position at the university - particularly one dealing directly with recruits and their families. There is no way he could or should have been retained.
This is the problem with social media. People shout and shout but to what ends? If they think that snarky zingers that play to the base for likes are persuasive then they are sorely mistaken. The structure of social media encourages people to preach to the choir. They get both positive and negative attention from it, but Twitter and Facebook and all the others don't care whether the attention is negative or positive, as long as it's attention.
I'm glad that I'm not on Twitter so I have no idea what Ace is like there. I just know him as a mediocre writer who once wrote about sport here. For those here who are complaining about him, I hope that you will stop paying attention to what he says. The more you pay attention, for better or worse, the more social media encourages him to act insufferable. Or, better yet, ditch Twitter. Maybe we can come together and form an MGoBlog Mastodon instance or something.
January 25th, 2024 at 10:18 PM ^
He's actually a very good writer and got even better when he took over the majority of the Michigan basketball coverage here.
I'll keep my opinions to myself on his personal matters, other than to say he has my full sympathy as he battles a very debilitating disease, a disease a former co-worker of mine has been battling for several years.
Ace was right about Shemy but his misplaced outrage elsewhere is what I'm referring to here.
Ace is commonly right, but he’s such a miserable person in how he words his arguments that it’s impossible to agree with him
Shemmy and Ace are 2 people I hope to never hear about again.
I'm not typically a tough love kind of person in terms of emotional labor/availability for others but all I see Ace ever do is post self-victimization shit on Twitter and treat others poorly. I feel like Ace could solve a lot of his problems by focusing on his mindset.
I'm just glad I'm not Ace, because he doesn't really seem to enjoy life very much. Most people use sports as an escape -- he's the exact opposite of that. I hope there's something in the world that brings him happiness.
The only time I see anything about or from Ace is when people here are bitching about him.
He does give a lot of reasons to bitch about him. I totally forgot about the guy until reading the page. I had hoped to see him improve as a person but it seems like he’s the same old Ace. I am in the middle as far as his politics. I think he’s right on many issues and wrong on many more and just come off as a thin skinned wimp in a lot of ways. But never had an issue with him expressing his perspective but I always wished he did so with a little more tact and wasn’t so quick with the banning. He banned me because I dared to NOT believe all women during the me too stuff.
Same here. I only hear about him here. You mean the above people cannot stand him, and do not agree with him and hate his takes, yet go out and continuously read his views daily?
What is the definition of insanity?
I can guarantee I don't read anything Ace puts out and I blocked his Twitter whine fest years ago
I don't follow him or seek out his tweets. But I see him when he's tagging (and usually attacking) guys I follow (Sam, Brian, Seth, etc). I've honestly never blocked anyone on Twitter, but I considered blocking Ace a couple days ago when he kept popping up on my feed bc he was attacking Sam. He just seems very unhappy ... with everything in the world.
Like I said yesterday, I knew you guys would come around.
I had to go back and downvote the Hello : Ace Anbender post from 2019
"Don't let the *person who was entirely correct* of the world get you down!"
Fuck off lmao. Misplaced outrage my ass.
No problem Seth. We all make mistakes. I think the level-headed folks on this board will realize that in no way would Michigan (or Mgoblog) endorse someone with those views. Sometimes things fall through the cracks, so I'm glad we all acknowledged it, corrected it, and will make sure stuff like this doesn't happen again.
Nonsense. This wasn’t a “fall through the cracks”. Someone wanted him at Michigan and I’m sure fought for him to be there. No way all his baggage fell “through the cracks”.
Someone wanted him here and hoped the baggage would blow over. It didn’t and they cut him loose.
I simply don’t agree. If Jim Harbaugh hired him after knowing about all those tweets, then Jim Harbaugh needs to go too.
I’m pretty certain Harbaugh wasn’t aware of those tweets. The guy isn’t active on social media.
he either has or should have someone to do for him then--it's part of modern day vetting.
Yeah, if my kids were worried about their social media accounts when they applied to colleges five years ago, the Michigan athletic department should at the very least be caught up culturally by now.
i don't think harbaugh is completely blameless in this whole thing - as i've said before, repeatedly, he never should've hired him in the first place. again - there are roughly a million meatheaded coach types that could do this job without having that last name.
that said, it's a huge and pointless leap to go from "if he knew" to "he needs to go" when there's literally zero evidence that he did know, and almost zero reason to think that he did, given what we know about him.
That's kinda my point. I don't think Harbaugh knew, because if he did, he would not have hired him.
The poster above thought that was nonsense.
I'll disagree with this take. You make it sound like some conspiracy effort to get him hired, which is highly doubtful. The more likely scenario was that someone in the football office saw that he was available, thought to himself (or herself) 'hey, Bo's son could be here', and set about hiring the guy - no doubt with JJH's approval. I doubt anyone did a background check, they saw the name and thought 'legend'...
Once the background hit, it came apart. Nothing more, nothing less. Stop trying to force something into a conspiracy that doesn't exist.
Lesson: Do a background check before you hire someone - even a legend's kid.
agree 100%. there's no conspiracy here, unless you think doing really dumb things is conspiratorial behavior.
Agree with no conspiracy, but for a different reason. Based on years of inaction, I don't think the AD's office has the ability to think up or execute anything that complex.
It's very possible that both reasons are true.
If you think the Athletic department gives out employment offers without a background check then I can’t help you. This is standard practice. It isn’t hard and they do it routinely.
I'd like to believe you, but its pretty clear it didn't happen in this case. If you think it did, I can't help you...
In general and with high profile hires, sure. But Warde and Jim had a prior existing relationship with Shemy. Both played for his dad and Shemy is just a few years younger than Jim and two years younger than Warde, meaning was likely around practices while they were playing. Given he played under his dad, he was teammates with Warde for a while as well.
It’s also very likely that they remained in contact throughout the years, given his ties to the school, his dad, and his position as a scout in the NFL.
The most likely scenario in my mind is that they neglected to do an in depth background check on a guy they’ve known for 30-40 years. A simple background check to make sure there is no criminal history or anything, sure. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume they just neglected to dive into the Twitter likes of someone they’ve known for years.
A criminal background check, sure. Are they going to send the detectives out for a full on evaluation? Or even Google the guy? For an analyst position? I doubt it. Maybe they will from now on, though....
I agree. The only plausible explanation is that someone known to the school became available and was hired without going through the typical due diligence process because they were already known.
Just a complete and utter failure and you'd think someone in the AD would have even the slightest bit of common sense to realize they should at least do the minimum required so they don't get egg on their face, especially with someone with that last name after the last few years. Its not like the guy was posting under a pseudonym - would've taken 15 minutes to realize he has some abysmal qualities and mindsets and no way was that not going to be discovered
I could easily he misinterpreting you but it sounds like you think Harbaugh (who has been lauded for hiring and promoting black coaches) and Warde (a black man) were cool with the “slavery and Jim Crow was good actually” and were just hoping no one would notice.
What’s far more likely imo is this was a typical old boys club hire and they just told some HR cog to run a criminal background check and called it good.