I guess I just don't understand the #outrage at this. If my wife was abusive to me, the first thing that crossed my mind wouldn't be to call my wife's boss and complain, would yours? Call family, call a lawyer, call the police, but calling my wife's employer would never cross my mind.

It's really none of my employers' business what happens in my home/life, unless and until it affects my job performance (including public perception of me).

I realize this is a public institution, so a person's employment is affected by another eleventy billion public regulations private employers don't have to deal with. But given most of them are virtually unenforceable in the real world, it shouldn't be surprising when they get ignored.

Caveat that I'm sure will be ignored, because #outrage. Striking another person without being struck first is reprehensible, even more so when it is your spouse. If he were my employee, I would have told him to find another job, before I found a reason to fire him. But legally, not my business.

Players at UNC who sold shoes they got from the school are going to miss more games that Urban Meyer, a man who covered up for domestic violence, will get.

I really don't care anymore.  Nobody apparently does.  This sport is all about a bunch of rich, mostly older white men fucking over literally everyone else.  Kill a student athlete in practice?  No big deal.  Bring rapists onto campus because they are decent pass rushers?  Good, we need the depth.  Racist former football player?  Hey, he's better than the other guys we have at SAM.  

So whatever.  Michigan will lose a couple of games this year, probably to teams that covered up systemic sexual assault of young boys and/or girls, or a decade of domestic violence because the offender is the grandson of a famous asshole.  Whatever.

One of the OSU trolls last night cited the recent record vs UM.  Prior to yesterday, that would have bothered me, whether I admitted it or not.  But, last night it didn't illicit the same visceral response. 

I just felt bad for the guy/girl. 

I think what happened yesterday takes a lot of the "power" out of the wins OSU had/will get. Maybe it is wishful thinking.

I don't have much to add that others haven't said, but I'm at least happy to see I'm not alone in being turned off from the sport by this.

And none of this will weigh too heavily on Urban since he can just take his meds and forget the whole thing ever happened.

This feels a little bit like a snowflake thread after a Michigan loss. Reactions like “how can I even watch football anymore” are probably excessive, and I think in a week people will move on. Ohio State could still receive a notice of inquiry from the NCAA.  We will see.

Michigan hasn’t lost to OSU and MSU because of their domestic violence and rape cultures.  We’ve lost, generally, because of our own internal shortcomings (coaching hires, player development, etc.). Blaming others’ shitty ethics is unnecessary and is a bad look. 

I’d say take all the negative energy towards Ohio State and the NCAA and channel into building/maintaining the University of Michigan’s culture as one that respects everybody, and has a commitment to fair and equitable treatment to all.  Our fans, faculty, students, and athletes have much more ability to keep Michigan in a leadership position in this regard than they are able to police/influence other universities.  Furthermore, we all can have a similar influence in our places of work, neighborhoods, etc.

For this to work, OSU needs to fix OSU, and MSU needs to fix MSU.  They need to want to be institutions that care about human decency.  You can’t force them to care.

I still sit back and am amazed that Michigan gets nailed for stretching too much - stretching - and then MSU, PSU, and OSU all get hit with scandals of some bad degree, basically give a non-apology, and move on with life unscathed.

I like that Michigan does things right (or at least I think we do) but it's just demoralizing to see the lowlifes prosper with a smug grin on their faces

Large scale institutions are not designed to act morally or ethically. They are designed to improve the bottom line. As long as keeping brings in more money than firing this will be the outcome. This is not a new phenomenon nor is a problem only in sports.

I'm still surprised that the media didn't try to hang Auston Robertson around Dantonio's neck.  If no one questions his judgment after that, I doubt anyone in the media ever will.

It is what it is and it's out of our control. That's the conclusion I come to so often in my life and it can really have a negative impact on my mental state at times. The only way to cope with it is to detach and not let yourself be emotionally affected by it. Sadly that just leaves you feeling defeated and beaten down, but it's not like I can fight it. It's not like I have any say in the matter. It is what it is and it's out of my control. All I can really do is focus on the positive and be grateful for what I have. Grateful for what I have been given that isn't like everything that's going on around me. The things that are good and bring me joy. I only hope that they aren't taken from me. If they are, and at some point I'm sure they will be, then it is what it is and it's out of my control.

I like to believe that all these things happen for the good in some way. Perhaps the good isn't us winning and them losing. Perhaps it's it's as simple as we're given more of the truth. They've revealed themselves to everybody that can see it. Perhaps other victims will be saved or some other organization will do the right thing before it gets out of hand. Perhaps this horrible example that they've set will start a movement that will help many people that are out of the spotlight, and we'll never know about it. 

Regarding Michigan's institutional mission of doing things the "right way": there's an old saying, perhaps you've heard it.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I only care that Michigan Maintains,

Loyalty Integrity and Character.

Traits that Yost initiated, Bo potentiated and Harbaugh maintains.

That is the M difference.

This is expected and I think to some degree, it will benefit to us in longer term for recruiting. Smart parents know he is a lier. Now, osu abide themselves to Meyer, it can lead to bigger PR damage if media unveil more shit later on.

I am hoping Denaly will go down more than Meyer. He and his evil schedule and referee assignment are definitely influenced our games more than anybody else. He needs to go first. I will put my curse until he steps down. Have not followed the Comcast and BIG deal yet. I hope he screws up big time and lost his money leverage. Other than big money contracts he sign for BIG, which many othe CEO can achieve the same result, he is worthless. 

Long post, lots of thoughts in here, but here it goes...

I'm not necessarily proud of it, but have a bit of mixed feelings about this and the general idea.

On one hand, I'm not sure I'm completely comfortable with the standard of punishing folks in Meyer's position consistent with the punishment of people that actually committed the crime(s) or had the problems. On the other hand, the major reason this problem still exists in today's society is a standard of silence that surrounds these sorts of issues; if this is what it takes to break that, then it's for the best.

Now, domestic abuse is awful. I feel gross saying this, but *if* that was *the only thing*, if this was a one time event or a very limited event, I can to a degree understand that a coach knew the police were already involved and you believed talking about it with your boss is sufficient, that you may find yourself in a position of compassion or trust or following your heart and not your head.

The problem for Meyer is that it was repeatedly this thing; there was evidence abound that there was an issue related with domestic violence and Smith for better part of a decade, repeatedly. You can't have the issue in 2009 and just "not bring it up" when you go to hire him again; even then, maybe a lapse in memory may be believable if it didn't seem to happen so regularly regarding this issue. A lapse in memory repeatedly on major issues "with previous extensive knowledge" seems like a bad thing for a guy that is the head of your most visible program at your University. But it wasn't just multiple domestic violence red flags, it was red flags left and right with Smith. And protecting him as Meyer did calls into serious question his managerial capabilities and morality. What it appears to me is this: Smith helped the program (namely with recruiting), firing for him earlier would have potential brought a bunch of these things to light which may have negatively impacted the program, so Meyer stuck with him. He stuck with him, that is, until the public basically found out. Early on, I was very willing to hear Smith's side of the story (this gained public attention because he violated a restraining order basically, which seemed relatively shady). So he basically only took action once he knew having a crappy person and mentor on his staff would negatively impact his program more than it would to get rid of him, despite all the red flags that morally bring his continued employment into question. And in some ways, he comes out as neutral, because he got rid of the bad actor (regardless of how long it took), especially to people that ultimately care about how he can impact players on the football field.

So one thing, beyond just the Zach Smith issue (and Smith is pretty obviously at this point a shit person), is that it calls very much into question other managerial aspects for Meyer. Great coach, great at managing winning football teams. But what about some hires he's made (namely Wilson, but Schiano and possibly others should be looked at in light of this); what about punishment for players, what about his past and what has and maybe hasn't followed him to OSU (and while player character seems better than Florida, let's not act like the Columbus area may not be willing to play their part), what about other aspects? I get that Meyer has seemed to turn a leaf on kids he's recruiting from his Florida days, his "career" nights or whatever is a very nice thing which is also a very nice selling point to recruits, I get why OSU fans bring those things up in his defense, but all that is seen on the surface. Even at Florida, Meyer seemed to have a very clean surface until he didn't, and then you looked beneath and it was pretty nasty. People accept it, because he's a hell of a coach, but it's worth actually looking at, and taking into the scope rather than treating it as a "Zach Smith issue".

Now, regarding how I hope I would handle a situation like this for my team. That's hard to say. Some aspects, at a high level, OSU fans have legit arguments without the additional knowledge of what OSU provided in their own report. Meyer did report to his boss. Smith was never charged. But then OSU has done an actually terrible job actually controlling the message they are trying to send; they're busy talking out of both sides of their mouth and being very obvious in doing so and as such, as missing the boat in basically every area. You could send a message of "time served", or "fired", or "suspension", and some would buy it and some wouldn't but hell, at least you'd be standing by something. OSU is doing none of that. And man, that high-level logic sure conveniently takes out a lot of detail that shows the red flags building up for a long time.

Do you fire someone for keeping around an obvious crap person? In some cases, absolutely. And in fact, if Smith was charged in 2015 and then all this came out, I think it's an absolute no brainer, even though it may be that Smith very well could have been in other circumstances. All I'm saying is that there is something there for OSU fans to legit hold their hats on, even if I don't think that's enough.

But as much as OSU's fan base can really be a problem for "cult" like followings, I'm not convinced their response is terribly unusual. If Dantonio had done something similar (there are similarities in some ways at MSU and dissimilarities as well), I think MSU fans would circle the wagons and make the same excuses OSU fans are. If Dantonio would have done something similar but it was after the 3-9 season, eh, maybe watch out. If Harbaugh did something similar after his first two seasons, I think the majority of Michigan fans are circling the wagons. After this past season, maybe or maybe not. Fans want to win, first and foremost. There will always be some that always look closer at the moral aspect of the story, but I think if most schools had a Meyer level coach coming after Meyer level success, they are, for the most part, acting similarly to OSU (maybe without Tennessee Buckeye Guy or whatever his name is).

And all that kind of just sucks.