On The Pearson Report
Well, it's out: 70 pages of Wilmer-Hale billable hours on what went down with Mel Pearson and the hockey program over the last couple years. Pearson chased off team captain Strauss Mann, was ineffectual at best when dealing with a subordinate's abusive behavior towards women, instructed players to lie about positive COVID tests before the 2021 NCAA tournament, and repeatedly lied to investigators.
So what are we doing here? It is August 2nd. This report was issued to the university in May. Warde Manuel has done nothing either way since. The report was made available to the public by MLive, not the actual university. Mel Pearson costs zero dollars to fire. What could possibly justify the three months of limbo the hockey program has been in? A week, maybe two is understandable. Three months is absurd.
As for what happens now, I cannot imagine that Pearson is allowed to continue. I mean:
The evidence shows that, despite what [Pearson] us in his interviews, [Pearson] was aware of Complainant’s concerns about mistreatment of female staff members
That's on page five and should be a fireable offense. There are 65 more pages, many of which make it clear that Pearson shouldn't be in charge of Michigan's hockey program. John U Bacon is probably the most careful member of the media out there and he says it's "not clear to me how U-M could retain Pearson and claim it is serious about protecting students and employees." And well, yeah:
The investigators raise the question of Pearson’s “inability or unwillingness to hold Mr. Bancroft accountable for his conduct.” In other words, Pearson was well aware of the abuse, or should have been, and did nothing.
— John U. Bacon (@Johnubacon) August 2, 2022
He's got to go.
That Pearson is still Michgian's hockey coach brings Warde Manuel's competency into question. His reaction to Strauss Mann's situation seems naïve at best:
Manuel, the athletic director, testified that he confronted Pearson about the allegations of retaliation but that he “never felt (Pearson) was retaliating against (Mann)’” and that Mann left the university “on his own.” But that belief was not shared by some of the players and staffers who participated in the survey. “Several responses noted that Coach Pearson recently removed Strauss Mann, the former team captain and starting goaltender, from the team in retaliation,” the summary reads.
Manuel's been a cipher since day one, and while that's a huge improvement over his (non-interim) predecessor he hasn't exactly been the kind of bold leader who has much of a track record to oppose what appears to be an inexplicable do-nothing approach to this situation. Manuel's made a few obvious hires, extended some contracts, done nothing to improve the fan experience, and generally faded into the background. That provided an extended honeymoon that now seems over.
As for what future awaits the hockey program: if I was in charge I'd axe Mel immediately and just replace him with Bill Muckalt, who everyone seems to love. If that's not possible because he is implicated in the report—it does not seem like he is but it might be a tough sell to promote Pearson's right hand man—then I guess Brian Wiseman just left a job with the Islanders. At this point making a splash hire outside the program seems tough because, you know, it's August.
Pearson will likely still be signing a new contract with Michigan, from what I’ve heard.
If that's the case, we need to full-on storm the diag with a "Fire Manuel" event
Well, just a second there, professor. We, uh, we fixed the *glitch*. So he won't be receiving a paycheck anymore, so it'll just work itself out naturally. We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem is solved from your end.
Well I guess we'll know who did it if Yost gets set on fire.
August 3rd, 2022 at 12:03 AM ^
Or if we find strychnine in the guacamole.
It is always interesting to see reactions on this blog... often of the form "ready, fire, aim!" variety. I'll let others debate the specifics, but the report seems to be rather heavy on allegation and innuendo rather than facts and data.
End of the day, Pearson is an employee of the university just as any other - he can be released for whatever reason if they so choose.
1) The lying to investigators is pretty cut and dried... They have a recording.
2) Pearson isn't an employee of the university. He WAS an employee, but his contract is done.
As long as Mel is doing anything job related (and likely getting paid), you should understand that Pearson IS in fact an employee. If his contract expired and didn't have a renewal clause, he becomes an at will employee like any other employee. But not having a contract does not mean his employment with the university has ended, only his contract. This basically never happens in the coaching ranks (or really at any high executive level) but he is still an employee.
He's not? Then why is he still leading the program?
I think he's an employee, he just doesn't have a contract. It's probably an at-will employee like any staff member at Michigan.
Meaning he can be fired and they don't owe him anything.
The lying is really incredible.
In his March 30, 2022 response to the preliminary report, Respondent asserted that he “did not discuss Mr. Mann with” Complainant; that a May 12, 2021 conversation with Complainant “never took place”; and that Complainant’s allegations that such a conversation occurred were “false.” The recording shows that Respondent and Complainant did discuss the circumstances surrounding Mr. Mann’s departure from the Michigan hockey team. We provided the recording to Respondent and asked him about it during his fourth interview session on April 12, 2022. Respondent confirmed that the Complainant and he are the speakers in the recording and that the recorded conversation took place sometime around May 2021. Respondent stated that Complainant did not ask for permission to record the conversation and that he did not know the conversation had been recorded until WilmerHale provided the recording to him for his review.
I think based on that, if you keep him, you have to have decided that it's ok if he really did everything alleged and also intentionally lied about all of it to investigators afterwards. While I appreciate that we have had a great hockey program, I don't know how anyone can make that call.
August 3rd, 2022 at 11:10 AM ^
I have now read the entire report. I'm putting this here for visibility, as otherwise my ego would demand that I make my very own snowflake thread. #sorrynotsorry
My first conclusion was that Mel should've been forced to fire Bancroft or take the opportunity to give whatever input he wanted to give about his own successor before being shown the door. Bancroft was allowed to retire in June rather than having been fired. My suspicion is that this only happens if the university is negotiating with Mel in order to keep him rather than cleaning house. The university gets half points for a forced retirement.
My second conclusion, based on apparently uncontested evidence from Strauss Mann, is that Brian Brewster told student athletes to say they had no close contacts with positive covid cases on contact-tracing forms, and people assumed this instruction was coming from Mel. What should have happened, as soon as anyone heard this, was for them to tell Mel, and for Mel to step in and clearly instruct student-athletes to fill out the forms honestly. Unless there is a lot more to this story, Brian Brewster should have been fired as soon as the team was sent home from the tournament, and (again, unless there is a lot more to this story) he should be fired today. That said, the university may be doing a lot of ass-covering on this issue. The fact that Brewster is not investigated further in this report is very convenient, as he may be able to point the finger at Mel or other figures in the AD, if he receives the further scrutiny that he should receive. AFAICT, Brewster is still a university employee, and the university is not further investigating his actions around contact-tracing forms, so negative points for the university there.
My third conclusion is that the idea that Mel told players to lie comes from Mann’s and/or Shields’s assumptions about why Brian Brewster seemed to be telling players to lie. I think that the report can be read as exonerating Mel for having told players to lie on forms, and that it’s only poor leadership that allowed the issue to fester. Mel should be reprimanded for poor leadership on this issue. (This assumes that Brewster was acting on his own initiative, but we have nothing further to go on from this report.)
My fourth conclusion is that Mel pressured Mann out of the program. What Mel reportedly said is technically defensible, but nobody who has worked with college students could fail to know what effect Mel saying what he said would have had on Mann. (My suspicion here is that Mel's presently good relationship with Mann is in part a matter of Mel covering his own ass on Mann's exit.)
My fifth conclusion is that Shields’s conduct around the contact-tracing form issue was fireable troublemaking. He treated Mann's assumption as a known fact and made a stink about it, instead of finding out whether it was true. (If it was true, and the story ends here, I would back away from this conclusion and start to think of all this as a straightforward coverup. But hopefully we find out more about Brewster's conduct later.)
My sixth (set of) conclusion(s) is that Mel is guilty of protecting Bancroft rather than having fired him a long time ago like he should have, that Mel is guilty of poor oversight of Brian Brewster and poor leadership with respect to that entire episode, and that Mel is guilty of pressuring Mann out of the program, but whether these are fireable offenses or not is a matter of opinion.
My seventh conclusion is the same as in the previous post: Mel intentionally lied to investigators, and that is a fireable offense. If he’s not fired, he should be on an extremely short leash with respect to his oversight and leadership of the program, the work environment for women, the freedom of student-athletes to speak openly about their experiences with the team without fear of retaliation, and an even shorter leash with respect to candor with the AD or its representatives when asked questions.
August 3rd, 2022 at 11:26 AM ^
How are people making the jump that "Brewster telling them how to fill out the forms" is "Mel telling them how to fill out the forms," without something more? The entire later confrontation regarding this issue (and leaking said issue to the press) appears to be based on something people just assumed.
August 3rd, 2022 at 12:22 PM ^
The report reads as if it is Mann’s assumption. I think what makes the most sense of the report is that Shields subsequently took it as gospel truth that Mel was really behind it. Whether Shields thought so because Mann misrepresented his evidence to Shields, or because Shields made the same assumption independently, I have no idea.
If you search the report for Brewster’s name, you’ll quickly find the relevant mention, and nothing else at all about him. [Edit: well, almost nothing else. UMPD interviewed him along with several others when an anonymous complainant called the police to report the chicanery with covid forms. See p. 29 for both Mann's assumption and mention of the UMPD report. Also he is mentioned on p. 48 as being present at a meeting in which Mel told people he'd fired Shields.]
ETA: to answer your question more directly, what people are doing is reporting on Shields’s allegations that Mel was responsible, rather than reading the whole report to find the buried treasure about Brewster, which IIRC is almost 30 pages in. They’re not doing their homework.
Sounds entirely plausible, enough so that I'm going to have to find the time to finish reading the entire thing and then see what I can conclude from it.
At this point, has the Athletic Department made any kind of statement/press release or hinted at an upcoming press conference? The longer they hide themselves the worse this all looks---something I would think they should be smart enough to realize.
Final conclusion. He should be fired for the totality of everything turned up in this investigation. If you don’t it’s a black eye on the university and will leave a dark cloud over the program as long as he’s there
Based on my reading of the report, I think it would be fair to fire him. The fact that they haven't fired him suggests to me that they're not going to.
They forced the source of the climate problem into retirement and the situation with covid forms, which would have been handled equally badly or worse by roughly half the US population, is unlikely to recur. So I don't agree that it will leave a dark cloud over the program as long as he's there if they don't. Winning solves a lot of problems; championships blaze with the force of a thousand suns; etc.
Just because his contract is done doesn't mean he isn't getting paid. He's still an employee until otherwise notified.
Yeah, I worry that Warde was angling to hang on to him. And--agree--I've defended Warde, but we've seen him play old boy enough times now. Personally, I think that his honeymoon ended with the Anderson mess. We need a guy who shows anger over ugliness that hurts the university and responds appropriately. The next hire will need to be someone who takes us--jeebus, should we have to say this--past the era of Bo. Enough genuflecting before false gods, thanks.
"Personally, I think that his honeymoon ended with the Anderson mess."
Not me. The honeymoon with Warde ended when he left Jimmy out to dry after the OSU game in 2016. Harbaugh rightfully blasted the OSU fanboy officials for costing us that game and all Warde could do was "work behind the scenes" and never once publicly stood up for our coach. Hell, he all but told him to sit down and shut up (my guess is Warde's preferred seats for the B1G AD summer cotillion were threatened).
I said it then and I'll say it now. Gene Smith would've NEVER let officials with a strong Michigan bias be given our game and he damn sure wouldn't have left his HC twist in the wind alone afterwards if they cost OSU the game. He would've been front and center in blasting the officiating and the league for assigning them. But not brave Warde. He never said a peep about it - didnt want to upset the other ADs I'm guessing.
Where's MassBlue in this thread? He's ALWAYS the first to jump to Manual's defense in these situations.
Although I was also disappointed by the 2016 debacle (JT was short) and Manuel silence afterward. It seems to be asking much of the exiting President and Santa Ono starting on 10/13.
Although justifiable might be prudent to slow the roll.
Warde not throwing a public temper tantrum in 2016 was honestly an argument in his favor. He's been a competent AD who was guiding the department well.
Its become clear since the Anderson situation and his reaction to that and handling of Bo and now this that Manuel is willing to overlook things to keep friends happy and maintain the status quo of overlooking the well being of students. That is a problem and he needs to go now.
I completely disagree. You think Warde's desire to placate his friends through inaction only extends to people employed by Michigan???? I sure dont.
Warde placed his standing within the AD community above that of standing up for his head football coach (hence my dig about the summer AD cotillion). Same person. Same values. Different situation that's all.
And for the record sometimes a "temper tantrum" is absolutely warranted and what's needed. And having the B1G eastern championship stolen from us by fanboy officials would be an excellent time and place for one. Just ask Jim Harbaugh.
I'm inclined to agree -- we're talking about sports, after all. Even if a show of anger by Warde didn't accomplish anything tangible, it would have let the team, Harbaugh, and the university community know that he cares and has the team's and coaches' backs. To put it differently, Warde had a role to play in keeping the fire alive -- or in putting it out.
The AD publicly complaining about refs wouldn't have achieved anything. It wouldn't have changed any rules or the result of the game. It would have continued to make Michigan look bad. Every single program has been the victim of bad refs. Every single one.
Maintaining long term relationships with other AD's is part of the job of the AD. Its how you avoid getting fucked in scheduling when the conference has to adjust schedules and divisions with the additions of USC and UCLA. There is an incredibly large difference between maintaining relationships for the long term gain of your program and maintaining relationships at the risk of doing harm to individuals. Its a ridiculous comparison and cheapens the negative reality of what Warde is doing in regards to these issues.
Ak47 gets it. This is 100% correct.
And please believe, old Michigan would've gotten fucked.
A night game @USC, followed by @MSU at noon the next week. While Sparty comes off two home games and a bye week.
Michigan had a bad rep in the league for doing stuff like that and Warde was working hard to repair that. Harbaugh was super vocal against the B1G even before that, they hated Michigan. And those are some of the ways the league can be difficult right back.
Warde did a great job in fixing that. Doesn't make this situation okay, but that '16 ref thing was the right move.
And now that Michigan's relationship has been repaired with the league...if that happened now, Warde could absolutely pull from his "goodwill bank" and lay fire to the league publicly.
August 2nd, 2022 at 11:44 PM ^
Yeah. Right. Warde is not going to do anything. Harbaugh won't say anything anymore. He changed. Warde? He will do the same thing he did before.
And just to be clear, if there were some changes to reffing situation, I would agree with you. I do not see any changes in the refs. If Warde has built so much rep, he could have made the league do better with refs. B1G continues to roll out refs who don't know what they are doing in many games. Not just our games.
It just feels like you are giving him way too much credit.
Sounds like you would like Warde acting in a similar manner to Illinois' AD when he felt they were cheated out of a Big Ten Regular Season Basketball title. Do you remember the threads about that incident? Not exactly a glowing review of his actions.
Warde is a calm steading presence AD. If you want a fiery hot head AD, fine, but that comes with ramifications also. Ramifications I'm guessing you would be just as quick to complain about.
"Warde is a calm steading presence AD."
I have no problem with an AD who is a calm steadying presence. But that doesn't mean I want a guy who views the job as balancing the books and maintaining pleasant relations with other AD's. How about standing up for Michigan when our biggest rival gets fanboy refs in their stadium? How about taking the lead in getting to the bottom of the Dr. Anderson affair (and to hell with frightened lawyers dictating caution. What did that do for us)? And what the hell is this indecisive nonsense with Mel Pearson?
We have had a real run of mediocrity (or worse) in our AD's. Tom Goss runs the department into the ground financially and turns the outside of Michigan Stadium into something even K Mart wouldn't consider. Bill Martin goes incommunicado on a yacht during a football coaching search he was clearly unprepared for. Dave Brandon...where do I start? And Warde, a nice get along go along execucrat. Not exactly the sort of people you would hope the "Leaders and Best" could produce.
I do believe Jim Hackett is available. I'm not being facetious.
I hate to do this, and I've never done it on this board. But as someone with Athletic Director in their job title, and someone who was in the B1G when it happened in 2016.
Warde made the right move, especially at THAT time.
Now if it happened today, where he's got 6 more years on the job and per CBS Sports, the #1 athletic department in the country. Now it probably makes sense to use the clout you've earned over the past 6 years (as Gene Smith or Barry Alvarez would).
It was well-known around the league that Michigan was a bully, and Michigan whined about everything, everyone hated Harbaugh...Warde was actively trying to change that narrative. I know for a fact the conference officials (including the commish), weren't fans if Michigan and would put the screws to Michigan any time they could (within reason).
Things like MSU playing at Michigan during the COVID year. OSU going back to back in Arbor...and finally flipping MSU/OSU, only happened because of Warde's work behind the scenes. If it was 2016, we would've been told to go fuck ourselves...because the league didn't have to do any of those things. So that's what I mean by put the screws to us. I mean they would reject every favor or ask from Michigan, just because it's Michigan and we had a rep for not playing nice in the sandbox.
Harbaugh was wrongfully labeled as just another example of this (I think people forget how much he was HATED in those early years).
Did you know (of course you didn't) the league could've even said no to the patches UM wore on their jerseys against Iowa? Actually they DID say no.
Warde was the one who worked that out and ultimately got it approved.
Another fun fact...Warde made Harbaugh not publicly push against the B1G when the league announced the Social Justice day (a mandatory day off for service). Iowa and Nebraska flat out said they weren't going to do it and they were practicing. The day is always the Tuesday where you vote in November.
Warde actually went to Gene and came up with the idea to instead make Social Justice Day a day that schools can determine on their own, but no team activities are allowed and it has to be during the fall semester. So now teams schedule it on a previously scheduled off-day. Before that, Michigan would've just been like, "no, we're Michigan...what are you going to do about it? It's an initiative, not a law, we're practicing."
In the end, Warde is exactly what I've always said he was from the day he was hired. He's a B+. Sometimes he'll jump up and give you A work, other times it's a C. But at the end of the year, he's a B+.
August 2nd, 2022 at 10:43 PM ^
What is this voice of experience and reason you bring preaching with insight and candor? This is MGoBlog, MORE BASELESS OUTRAGE!!! is called for.
August 3rd, 2022 at 11:26 AM ^
So our perception that the B1G actively screws Michigan when given the chance is not imagined? And the only way to fix it is to grovel and accept the headwinds and obstruction that they send in our direction? That is a depressing thought, and at what point is our penance complete? Do we ever get a fair shake? Once you accept that it is a legitimate business practice to discriminate against a member organization, how do you come back from that?
It also isn't much of a leap to buy into the conspiracy theories surrounding OSU and The Game in 2016. They may not have told the refs to throw the game, but if those refs know that the league wants to take Michigan down a peg, then why not make the bosses happy and (consciously or subconsciously) have every close call go against Michigan? Hell, I would be tempted to openly have talks with the SEC, just to let the B1G consider if they really want to keep abusing one of their biggest revenue-drivers.
Thank you. I had very similar thoughts reading the Athletic Director poster's comments. He said the quiet part out loud - that our perception that the deck is stacked against us is actually correct, we're not imaging it. The league has and will stick it to us any chance they get and we have two choices: sit quietly, take the abuse and hope it stops someday because we arent making a fuss about it anymore or two; speak up and get fucked over even more.
It really would be hilarious if Michigan bolted for another conference and took it's revenue and TV viewing audience with them.
Michigan has a history of not playing nice, not cooperating, and using it's bully position to run over other members of the B1G.
The only way to fix it is to be cooperative, compromising, and treat other conference members as we'd like to be treated.
Just playing devils advocate here. How do you know he never backed up JH after that game and talked to the powers to be in the BIG about the officials.
throwing a public temper tantrum isn’t always warranted or the best way to handle a situation like that. It can really come across as childish and turn off the people you need to get on your side. For all anyone knows maybe he was in their offices the next Monday stating his case and letting them know he didn’t want those officials ever again
Completely agree with you mGrowOld. I am tired of this guy for so many reasons. He has made some good hires in the AD, but a lot of them I cant even give him credit for the high profile ones as Juwan Howard and Mel Pearson were slam dunks.
Then to completely lack any leadership in NIL, his disgusting remarks about Bo after the university just settled a 500 million dollar lawsuit, refusing to even acknowledge taking down the statue/renaming the football building, pissing off assistant coaches during the Harbaugh NFL flirtation, and now not doing anything for 3 months despite having a report in hand that basically just says fire the guy (and he wouldnt even have to do that because Mel's contract expired).
It seems to me like Warde just sticks his head in the sand whenever controversy comes up instead of being the leader of the athletic department. If he's just going to collect paychecks and not do anything, just hire a schmuck like me instead cause I'll do the same job for a lot less money.
Calling Howard an obvious slam dunk hire is some serious revisionist history. There were many on this blog including I believe some writers who preferred Yaklich. Warde seems like a shit person who needs to go.
He was absolutely fine as an AD from a sports perspective.
He's actually a really nice guy.
Probably doesn't have the backbone you're looking for. But you can't question his character from a personality perspective. You've made that one up.
In the end, he got caught trying to be too cute and non-confrontational with this one.
August 2nd, 2022 at 11:36 PM ^
A couple of random posts doesn't a Yaklich movement make. Once Howard's name was mentioned, he was the clear favorite.
The officiating was so egregiously biased in that game that I said Warde should have been on the steps of the B1G office before 8:00am the following Monday morning. His silence after that really pissed me off. The stakes in that game were extremely high and he should have been screaming at the roof tops about the injustice that was done.
To be fair, he has done some good things since then, but I will never forget or forgive his silence after that game.
He did a lot behind the scenes...as he said he would. He just didn't blast the league publicly...because that wouldn't have accomplished anything and there would not have been any change. And the league would have continued to play tough with Michigan any time it could.
It's not what the fans wanted, but absolutely the right move administratively.
August 2nd, 2022 at 11:54 PM ^
I don't see any major changes in refs. Do you? If Warde gets it done in the background, that is fine. But I am not seeing major changes. I sure hope The Game this year doesn't come down to refs.
I agree. Warde has done less than zero for season ticket holders and the fan experience. The situation in basketball and his unwillingness to address no shows is a problem for me. Not allowing people to bring water into the stadium is bald faced money grab.
He seems really disconnected from his constituents if you consider them to be the ticket buying public. But maybe all he cares about is managing up.
August 2nd, 2022 at 11:18 PM ^
You perfectly encapsulated my feelings on that situation. Thank you!
I’ve always felt the Big Ten needed Michigan more than Michigan needs the Big Ten. He could have and should have blasted the league after that 2016 game.
How does Warde have anything to do with the Anderson mess that happened 30yrs before he got here?
Out he goes.
Disclosure: WilmerHale billable hours, several thousand of them, paid for my house.
Just a reminder about how much money, time & productivity society wastes by arguing in court (or threatening to do so).
Got any extra WilmerHale billable hours lying around to chip in to my house?
Come on Warde..'Leaders and Best'...stop leading from behind on critical matters.
If he's truly had this report for months then it really looks like he was hoping to keep this guy, right? Don't want to believe this, but I can't imagine any other reason and that is shocking.
Between the Anderson mess, our recently fired president, Juwan's problem last spring and now this, Michigan has more than a bit of mud on its face. Unfortunately, our shit does stink.
We can't fire a coach who is no longer under contract but we can say goodbye. I think Manuel needs to go too.
I guess our absurd approach to NIL makes up for another mess. /S
I hate to say it but I think we're losing any moral high ground that we thought we occupied. This may be on Warde for inaction but in the bigger picture Anderson, the provost Philbert, Schlissel and now Pearson the enabler represent a disturbing trend.
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