Signgate

Sports Illustrated has taken a close look at the sad state of reporting on the sign-stealing allegations against the Michigan football team, and the results are sobering.

First, in the spirit of transparency, two disclosures. I am a former Sports Editor at the Michigan Daily (1968-9), the student-controlled daily newspaper on Michigan’s campus. During my time there, our sports staff investigated reports of misbehavior in the football program that led to the first-ever censure of the university’s athletic department.

Second, I am a fan and I root for Michigan. So I guess you could call those off-setting disclosures, which should at least theoretically render me neutral on this matter.

But I’m not neutral; I have a strong opinion. These allegations are ridiculous. Sign-stealing per se is not even a crime under NCAA regulations, but it is the way a low-level Michigan official allegedly did it that is in question.

As best as I can follow this twisted tale, this guy bought tickets to opponents’ games where he sat in the stands and observed the signs flashed by opposing coaches and presumably passed them on to higher-ups on the Michigan staff, thereby securing a supposed competitive advantage.

Mind you, these games are all broadcast on TV, and the coaches at Michigan and every other school have those game tapes in house to study before every upcoming game.

The tapes include shots of those signs, which are conveyed in a frankly comical manner by coaches on the sideline to their players on the field during each game.

Having watched thousands of such interactions, I can attest they are hardly subtle. Coaches wave their arms, kick up their legs, hold up fingers and tap their caps in an amusing display more reminiscent of a family game of “charades” than the high-tech communication and surveillance that would constitute an actual scandal.

Meanwhile, a far more likely explanation for the sudden explosion in orchestrated outrage over what was at worst a minor indiscretion is the propensity of Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh to speak out on behalf of college athletes, arguing that they should share in a much greater portion of the massive revenues, including TV contracts, collected by others for their “amateur” efforts on the field.

What I am saying, and Sports Illustrated confirms, is this is a whole lot of noise about very little, or about at least something very different than sign-stealing..Call it capitalism. Call it Harbaugh crossing the powers that be.

So let’s move on to my second, much more significant disclosure of partisanship. I’m sill going to root for my team, which very likely is among the very best in the land, sign-stealing or not.

Go Blue! And Hail to the Victors!

HEADLINES:

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