Benjamin St-Juste Michigan Exit Story
Ben details how Michigan wanted him to medically retire after 6 hamstring pulls.
We'll never know Michigan's side of the story. If what he's saying is the full story and accurate -- then, yeah -- shitty stuff by Michigan and Harbaugh.
Agree there's definitely way more to the story, and he's factually misrepresented at least one thing.
For one he claims "they took away my scholarship", which is diametrically opposite, that paper he signed was precisely so he would be guaranteed his degree for free at Michigan regardless of anything.
I probably should look it up, but I believe he had the same hamstring injury history in high school.
I'm not trying to absolve UM at all in this, at least potentially, but Team doc's, trainers, coaches, staff, and the player themselves all collaborate in the process. If the docs thought the injuries look severe under imaging, and their manual testing seems to confirm, but the player wants "full go" and/or the opposite, if the imaging looks fine and the manual testing seems to confirm it's fine too, but the player refuses to "go", or wants to "do it their own way", etc. that can very quickly lead to a lot of friction.
Now if he indeed strained his hamstring "6 times", then you have 6 (or more) huddling of the docs/staff/player which would obviously compound any sort of friction.
The fact that he said his dad came in and "snapped" and "snapped crazy", etc. sounds like there were many differing channels of communication going and certainly points to strong disagreement and conflict.
And seeing as he "went to indiana" to get cleared by a non-team doctor, only further sounds like there was a full disagreement, and also a sort of weird perception of "authority", as if UMich's medical team of docs/surgeons/trainers are all going to fall over a private visit to a team doctor in Indiana (I think I might even know which doc lol).
But yes, we'll never know the full story, precisely because UM has zero benefit to comment, and have their own internal system and policies, and you know, are doing pretty good at both football and medicine (and a few other things probably) at this point in time.
"For one he claims "they took away my scholarship", which is diametrically opposite"
Getting a medical scholarship means they take away your athletic scholarship.
yeah, so they can give it to someone else
Correct... And no matter what happens health wise, you can never play a sport at that school again. You are permanently barred from even being a walk on, even if you return to full health.
I think most people would interpret "they took away my scholarship" as making the person pay to go to school, and not the hairsplitting matter of it being medical rather than athletic.
Absolutely.
I think most scholarship athletes planning to make a career of their of their sport wouldn't.
look at the Matt Falcon situation.... he was committed and blew out his knee for a 2nd time before graduating HS.... Michigan pulled his athletic scholarship and offered him a medical scholarship. he decommitted, went to WMU... Played in 1 game and his career was ended due to another knee injury.
Just because St. Juste didn't end up having a career ending injury at MN, didn't mean there wasn't a high probability of that, based on his prior history and the U or M Medical Staff's opinion.
Playing footballs comes with loads of risks and Michigan is particularly keen on maintaining their brand image - which means steering clear of catastrophic injury occuring on the field.
If we're more risk-averse than other teams on this front I have next to zero qualms considering the shit show of Shane Morris and Grant Newsome nearly dying.
Three sides to every story: yours, mine and the cold hard truth
Sounds somewhat familiar to the Ondre Pipkins story as well:
https://www.si.com/college/2015/06/26/michigan-ondre-pipkins-jim-harbaugh-medical-form-retire
Pipkins claims that he was pressured to medically retire by UM staff, which led him to transfer to Texas Tech to play out his final 2 years.
Seems like a very strange thing to do over a hamstring pull. Looks bad unless there's more to it.
If I recall correctly, Michigan was desperate for good cornerbacks at that time. It doesn’t make sense we would force him off the team.
Seems like it’s more of a difference in opinion in medical staff. Maybe the Michigan docs are conservative or were just wrong. It happens.
Or maybe a personality/work ethic conflict with his position coach who used it as reason to get rid of him. I think sometimes a player gets a wake up call when they get processed and take advantage of the second opportunity.
This is so obviously what happened I stopped thinking about it years ago. Not everything that happens that appears negative at the time is failure, sometimes it's the key that opens the door to eventual success.
I'm glad St. Juste found a place to play at a high level, and wish him nothing but success in anything he does in life.
I see no reason to assume it was anything other than what we've been told it was.
By St-Juste's own admission, he tore his hamstring six times. It seems rational enough that by that point - after seeing the guy get hurt over and over - you'd conclude that his body probably just isn't going to cooperate and that he may not want to keep playing.
Do we really need to search for alternate explanations?
I agree. Perhaps I'm being naive, but I find it hard to believe that physicians are unprofessional enough to consider a kid's position on the depth chart in determining whether the kid should be cleared to play
Seems pretty similar to what happened with Erick All. The medical staff is very conservative and will try to preserve the long term well being of the athlete rather than try to get them back on the field asap. It's pretty clear some athletes aren't a fan of that and I can see it from both sides
It’s okay to admit when your favorite team does something shitty. In fact, it’s admirable.
I'm not going to criticize Michigan's medical staff for choosing to be cautious with their athletes when it comes to chronic injuries
especially since we know none of the details with any certainty.
St Juste was a highly rated cornerback. Since Michigan was extremely thin at cornerback at the time, it makes no sense that the team would coerce the medical staff to lie in order get him off the team. The medical staff must have said there was no real chance he could fully recover and not risk serious injury.
The long term evidence indicates that the medical staff is similar to the transfer admission people. When there is a close call they err on the side of caution.
Good grief. An administration used a medical excuse to remove a player from the roster yet guaranteed medical support and an academic scholarship. The horror.
Seems like a very strange thing to do over a hamstring pull.
Not “a” hamstring pull… SIX hamstring pulls plus, IIRC, a hamstring injury in high school. Recurring injuries to the same area are a red flag that there’s something wrong with that area of the body. ANY medical professional is going to raise concerns over that, whether they look to clear you or not is a matter of their own professional opinion. Different doctors will have different diagnoses and different recommendations, hence the whole “get a second opinion” thing.
Yeah, six seems like a lot. You don't want to be the program that causes a kid to get permanently injured because he's a good player.
St. Juste would have been a starter if healthy. It's not like the coaches didn't want him to play.
It's great that he was able to overcome it and continue his professional career, but I also understand the coaches seeing a guy with chronic injuries to the same spot thinking that it's in both his and the team's best interest for him to refocus exclusively on academics.
He got processed. I think we knew this all along.
Given that we were very thin at his position, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Why process him specifically, and not some other player?
Does it have to be more complicated than that our doctors didn't think he'd recover enough to play football again?
You process him specifically because he was coming off of 6 hamstring pulls so you don't like his chances of staying healthy in the future.
If there’s an increased likelihood of a player having continuous issues with injury, especially a specific injury that he’s already had 6 separate issues with to date, sounds like a reason for the player to consider retirement…
Yeah, more than likely M trainers weren't confident in what they had seen and the staff trusts the trainers. I remember Ondre Pipkins had a similar complaint, then he went to play at Texas Tech. Seems like how they process kids in this situation.
Michigan's training staff either lacks transparency or is extremely conservative and cryptic with players about this kind of shit similar to how it is with NIL. Maybe after the Hoke concussion debacle they've gone too far in the other direction? Seems like the culture is to have their heads really far up their own asses because they think their farts smell better. The Michigan way. The right way (aka self flagellation). That said, I'd like to hear Michigan's side, but we never will.
"Seems like the culture is to have their heads really far up their own asses because they think their farts smell better. The Michigan way."
Is Michigan institutionally conservative? Yes, it would appear. Are Michigan doctors overly concerned with player safety? Probably. But how can they not be in this day and age. How any of this constitutes having their "heads up their asses" is lost on me. And none of this constitutes self flagellation.
McNamara, All, St. Juste, and I think there were a few others that had weird injury situations. I think there is a lack of communication happening somewhere. Seems pretty obvious. I don't think it's the coaches or staff, but I think there are people higher up in the admissions office, administration, etc. that don't want full NIL or fully operational money cannons and promote the self flagellate to create and maintain an identity as a first and foremost prestigious institution of learning. We don't win the biggest recruits, we report every minor violation, weird Harbaugh contract stuff, etc. In general, everything is by the book and I think that 100% is a result of of some people enjoying the smell of their own assholes and maintaining that image. I think this attitude likely extends to the medical staff who err on the side of extreme caution almost to the detriment of players personal choice. We'd rather go 11-1 the right way than go 12-0 and do what everyone else is doing anyway. I think the team finally got over the hump by focusing on what they can control and creating a fantastic internal culture despite administrative headwinds.
Dude, All's story has been pretty well documented. He wanted what was essentially experimental surgery from a doctor that many folks (even outside of the UM establishment/family) call a quack. It was 100% his right to seek the care he wanted, just as it was 100% UMs right to say they wouldn't let him play if he had such surgery for fear of permanent injury. IMO, All had already decided he was leaving and knew he wouldn't be but 3rd on the TE depth chart due to the injury and recovery period.
As for Cade, what miscommunication occurred? The guy blew his chance to cement QB1 and quite frankly even he if had played well, JJ still has a much, much higher ceiling and IMO is a better QB anyway.
but we (read: U of M) paid for all's surgery even though we disagreed with it. so quack or not, we did our best to accommodate him. since he's apparently planning on playing at iowa i assume the quack did the job right.
I wonder. The Iowa fans I see on social media don't count on All to contribute much this fall.
More than a few are convinced that if they had Cade last year *they* would have won the conference and made the playoff.
More than a few are convinced that if they had Cade last year *they* would have won the conference and made the playoff.
Did they watch him play last year, or are they solely going off of what they saw in 2021?
Guessing 2021. They're not easy to reason with. When you try to point out their D's numbers are influenced by the bad division they're in they just plug their ears.
Didn't you get the memo? We are supposed to believe everything a disgruntled former player says, as gospel truth.
EDIT: never mind.
Kudos to St-Juste for making it back, making it to the league, and sharing his story at a time when he has enough hindsight to put things in perspective. This story sounds reasonable, and (to me) is a lot more impactful than Erick All rage-tweeting his feelings when the screen door has barely swung shut.
This isn't a great look for Michigan, both because it sounds like: A) a young man was asked to sign medical / employment documents without proper advisory, B) that young man wasn't given a chance to prove himself, and C) we REALLY could have used a CB of his caliber in 2019-2020.
This isn't a great look for Michigan, both because it sounds like: A) a young man was asked to sign medical / employment documents without proper advisory, B) that young man wasn't given a chance to prove himself, and C) we REALLY could have used a CB of his caliber in 2019-2020.
How is it a bad look for us? The staff saying "Hey dude, given your history of chronic injures, we're not sure we're comfortable with you playing here in our professional opinion. If another school will let you play, then that is their prerogative" is not a bad thing. Also, the kid is a legal adult. He can sign things without a parent. Lastly, your last 2 points kinda cancel each other out. Why would the staff willingly process a kid at a position of need?
"How is it a bad look for us? "
Having a player sign documents they don't understand?
If his story is correct - they medical'ed him without explicitly telling him that they thought it was too risky for him to play.
Maybe you explained your concern improperly but shouldn't it be obvious that being medicaled means it is too risky to play?
If you believe his story - they never told him he was being medical'ed.
Having a player sign documents they don't understand?
He's a legal adult who apparently didn't read a document he signed. That's not Michigan's fault. Not to mention, we don't even know what he signed. This is all from St Juste's POV
It's not Michigan's fault... But it's a bad look.
They should be explaining anything they ask players to sign, plus providing legal resources to discuss it with players before they sign.
I doubt the paperwork he was asked to sign concluded that his academic assistance would self-destruct if it wasn't signed within 30 seconds of finishing the last sentence. There are tons of ways to get (free) legal aid, especially at a school like Michigan.
Absolutely - and the team should be directing him to them.