Michigan Sold Its Soul, Coaches Keep Letting Us Down, and the Titans Draft Room Delivered Great Theater
Plus: Ty Simpson picked #13, Jared Stillman’s live meltdown, and Rick Neuheisel running a team during commercial breaks.
There are certain programs in college sports that become cautionary tales. Right now, Michigan may be the clearest example of what selling your soul to win can look like.
Yes, Michigan football reached the mountaintop with a national championship. Nobody can take the banner down. Nobody can erase the parade. But what has followed has been ugly, chaotic, embarrassing, and revealing.
And if I’m LSU or any other major program flirting with the idea that winning at all costs is worth it, I’d study Michigan closely.
Because the bill always comes due.
Meanwhile, thank God for Dusty May if you’re a Michigan fan. At least the basketball program has momentum and hope after reaching the top of the sport this season. But the football side? It continues to vomit on itself.
The Sherrone Moore Mess
This week, Paige Shivers appeared on Good Morning America and painted a troubling picture of her time at Michigan while working as a football staffer and her alleged relationship with Sherrone Moore.
The details are strange and disturbing. The optics are worse.
Moore, already under pressure as Jim Harbaugh’s successor when he got the job and had to deal with fallout from NCAA issues surrounding the previous regime, now finds himself connected to a scandal that damages both his credibility and the university’s image.
Whether lawsuits follow or not, Michigan now has another mess tied to a football program that already spent years skating on thin ice.
And this is what bothers me most about modern coaching culture:
Too many of these guys preach discipline, accountability, sacrifice, commitment, character—and then live by a completely different code when nobody’s watching.
Why Coaches Meant So Much to Me
As I’ve gotten older, one of the more disappointing realities of life is realizing how often people you respected let you down.
Politicians. Doctors. Police officers. And yes, football coaches.
At their purest, these are noble callings.
A football coach should be a leader. A builder of men. A teacher. A motivator.
I still think about coaches from my youth with enormous gratitude.
Guys like Glen Kozlowski, the former Chicago Bear, who gave kids structure and toughness.
And Jon Teichman—maybe the greatest Pop Warner coach I ever saw.
Teichman could rip your rear end in practice, but you always knew it came from a place of caring. He loved to call me “Sally” or “Mickey Mouse” and tell me I was soft. I honestly loved it. You knew he was trying to get the best out of you. He taught discipline, detail, and the beauty of the game.
That kind of coach leaves fingerprints on your life forever.
Lou Holtz Was a Hero to Kids Like Me
When I was young, Lou Holtz was larger than life.
I lived for his speeches. His energy. His message. Here was this small man motivating and commanding gigantic football players, 3 times his size, through sheer force of leadership.
He seemed like the embodiment of discipline and virtue.
That’s what many of us thought coaches were.
Then you grow older and realize some of them are among the biggest hypocrites walking.
Now, let me be clear: there are tremendous coaches out there. Men of character. Teachers who genuinely put players first. Leaders who sacrifice for the right reasons. Neuheisel is one of them.
But too many others are frauds dressed as mentors.
And every time a scandal hits, it chips away at what coaching is supposed to mean.
Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Legacy Is Complicated
Look honestly at what built Sherrone Moore.
Jim Harbaugh built it.
Harbaugh delivered the title Michigan fans craved. He beat Ohio State. He restored swagger. He changed the trajectory of the program.
But the fallout has been nonstop: investigations, controversies, suspensions, staff drama, and now this.
Was the championship worth it?
Michigan fans will say yes.
But institutions should ask deeper questions than fans do.
The Real Victim Here
Whenever stories like this break, there’s collateral damage everywhere.
If the allegations are true, Paige Shivers may have been manipulated by a man in a position of authority.
But the person most often forgotten in stories like these is the spouse.
Mrs. Moore didn’t sign up for public humiliation.
She’s the one left in the wreckage.
And too often in college football, wives and families are the silent casualties while powerful men chase ego and indulgence.
Live in Nashville: Titans Draft Night Theater
Now let’s pivot from scandal to comedy.
Last night I joined Jared Stillman for a live NFL Draft show at M.L. Rose in East Nashville during a Titans draft party hosted by Braden Gall and 440 Sports.
