Memories

  Christmas Day and the NBA have special meaning for me. Not just the TV games. For I actually attended an NBA game on Christmas Day. 

While I was born in Albany, Georgia as my father was stationed there as part of his Air Force residency after attending the Temple University School of Dentistry, I grew up in the New York Metropolitan Area. Central Jersey was a great place to grow up in, while still maintaining strong family ties to Brooklyn and Manhattan. 

We were strongly influenced by the local New Brunswick media—The Home News and WCTC am radio. That’s how my affinity with Rutgers sports grew. It didn’t hurt that I could bike or even walk to Rutgers Stadium to see the Scarlet Knights take on foes such as Lehigh, Lafayette, Columbia and Colgate. 

From my backyard, raking leaves on an autumn Saturday, I could actually hear when the cannon located inside the stadium went off after RU scored a touchdown. I still have a stainless steel water bucket handed to me by a wild fan after the Knights defeated Colgate in the early 1960’s and the crowd tore down the wooden goal posts. My father gave me hell but he kept the bucket and ladle—they were high quality items. 

My affinity for Rutgers sports grew as I attended more events. Lacrosse was on an open field in Piscataway now energized as a soccer stadium—I saw RU take on powers such as Johns Hopkins and Princeton. 

The baseball field was located nearby the stadium—it had to be relocated to a different place when the football program expanded to big time status. I spent many a day watching RU play or, since it was open, shagging fly balls and practicing my throws back to the infield. 

Then there was basketball. RU became really good in the mid-1960’s. So good that it was hard to get a seat inside the tiny and cramped Rutgers Gym—I went twice while in high school and my high school team actually played a state tournament game on the hallowed hard wood (I would later play pick up basketball there against the likes of some RU players and high school legend John Somogyi, who became the all-time leading scorer in NJ scholastic history—what a gunner!)

What made me the fan that I am today was television. Back in the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s, TV sports was not anything like what we have today. Nobody could have predicted the plethora of cable stations like ESPN, the Big Ten Network, MSG Network and YES, or even the streaming platforms of Netflix and Amazon which gave us Thursday’s NFL games.

Local baseball was the prime attraction. I was just too young to remember the Dodgers and Giants playing in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I recall watching one game on WOR Channel 9, which appeared to be a Dodgers’ away game in Philadelphia. 

Then they up and left for the West Coast, leaving me and my eyes to watch New York Yankees baseball on WPIX Channel 11 (the Giants had been on that station until they abandoned New York). That began a happy marriage for me with the likes of Mel Allen, Phil Rizzuto and all the announcers who followed in their footsteps to the present-day lineup of Michael Kay, Paul O’Neill, Joe Girardi and David Cone, who handle the broadcasts on cable for the Yes Network.

Understand that I do not hate the New York Mets. I became fascinated with the Mets largely from reading the New York papers. Dick Young was an avid National League fan (he was very angry at how the Giants and Dodgers bolted town to what would become richer pastures) and his columns in the New York Daily News brought the fledgling Mets to life. So, too, did WOR, which took over as the Mets broadcaster. I found Lindsay Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner entrancing—even as the Mets soared to record-setting losses in 1962. 

If there wasn’t a Yankees game on, then I watched the Mets. I rooted hard for the Mets in 1969 to a) win the NL East; b) survive the playoffs against the Atlanta Braves; and c) take down the favored Baltimore Orioles in 1969. 

The only time I rooted against the Mets was when they played the Yankees—in the regular season Subway Series contests (I saw one game in person at Yankee Stadium) and of course in the 2000 World Series. Right now I am too addicted to Aaron Judge (like I was to Derek Jeter) so I watch very few Mets games. 

For the record—this baseball-addicted young man delighted in watching out-of-market cable telecasts of Philadelphia Phillies games on WPHL Channel 17 and subsequently seeing the Atlanta Braves play on WTBS—the brainchild of Ted Turner. Baseball heaven indeed. 

When I was growing up, the NFL was too. The Giants were the team. They left the Polo Grounds in 1957 to play in the larger Yankee Stadium, perhaps because the baseball Giants had left and nobody quite knew what would happen to the stadium in Upper Manhattan. 

Except the Giants were not seen on local TV for the home games. The NFL had a blackout rule in effect to promote fan attendance (I had a small, small part in drafting a companion bill to end the local blackouts while I was a Congressional intern in 1971; the bill died then but eventually the NFL dropped its ban on televising home games in the local markets). So what we saw were the away games from places like Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field or Pitt Stadium; Philadelphia’s Franklin Field; and the humongous Cleveland Municipal Stadium, home of the Browns. 

A big event was the annual exhibition game between the Giants and Philadelphia Eagles at Palmer Stadium, the home of the Princeton Tigers. I remember going twice and coming back roasted from the August sun (nobody had lights back then except in the baseball ballparks) but sated. 

Then the American Football League was born. Teams in New York, Boston, Buffalo and Houston formed the East Division; Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles and Oakland comprised the West. If it wasn’t for NBC with Curt Gowdy at the mike for play-by-play with Paul Christman covering the color, the AFL was not going to survive and ultimately challenge the NFL to the point that they forced a merger on the haughty NFL owners. I was reminded of the AFL roots on the Christmas Day broadcast of Denver at Kansas City when Al Michaels alluded to the fact that this was the 113th meeting between the two rivals (Dallas-KC leads by a wide margin even with the Broncos’ win). 

It wasn’t until the New York Titans became the New York Jets under the ownership of David Abraham “Sonny” Werblin, a well-known entertainment and sports impresario who moved the team to a gleaming new Shea Stadium in Queens and then drafted quarterbacks John Huarte from Notre Dame and one Joe Willie Namath out of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and the University of Alabama. NYC and I took a liking to the team and the games on TV. 

So, Giants fans, I don’t root against your team—except when they meet. I was happy for the Super Bowl wins—especially over hated New England and Tom Brady. For the record, NYG leads the series-8 to 7. 

Hockey became my sport of choice for Saturday afternoons on CBS and Saturday nights when the New York Rangers invariably traveled to Canada to meet the Montreal Canadiens or Toronto Maple Leafs. I knew everybody who played on the Original Six teams, which also included Boston, Chicago and Detroit. Win Elliot was the first voice I heard on WOR as he called the Rangers games. 

My love of that team led to my 10 year affair with the Rangers as a season ticket holder at Madison Square Garden. I don’t hate the Rangers—I just fell in love with the New Jersey Devils after the franchise relocated to the Meadowlands from Colorado. (My daughter and I are going to Newark after the snowstorm to see the Devils take on Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Saturday night).

Plus I was enamored with the expansion team called the New York Islanders. Big losers like the Mets in the formative years, they were still fun to watch. I enjoyed the times I went to see a game at the Nassau Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale. Watching their games on TV was the reason behind my liking the Isles (It didn’t hurt that they were a dynasty in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s with the likes of Denis Potvin, Mike Bossy and Billy Smith in the nets). 

So let’s circle back to pro basketball. I remember watching the Knicks games on WRCA, the forerunner to WNBC, the NBC network flagship station in NYC. Marty Glickman, a legend as a track star from Syracuse in the 1936 Olympics and a Brooklyn native, called the games like he did the football Giants and Knicks games on radio. 

I can recall watching broadcasts from Syracuse, where the Nationals, led by Hal Greer and Larry Costello, played in old War Memorial Arena before becoming the Philadelphia 76’ers; Rochester then became Cincinnati for the Royals with Jack Twyman and Oscar Robertson leading the way (now they are called the Sacramento Kings); Fort Wayne and then Detroit for Pistons’ games with George Yardley and Walter Dukes and a bunch of no names; the Civic Center for Philadelphia Warriors contests involving Wilt Chamberlain, Al Attles and Guy Rodgers; Kiel Auditorium, home of the St. Lous Hawks, where Bob Petit and Cliff Hagan roamed; and the old Boston Garden, home of the Celtics, where Red Auerbach and Bill Russell resided. It was rare that a Knicks home game was televised, although I can visualize a couple of times the Knicks, the lesser tenant at the old Madison Square Garden, had to play at the 69th Regiment Armory on Manhattan’s East Side. 

The Knicks were bad in my childhood. Not until Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere and head coach Red Holtzman showed up did we have anything to cheer about. Titles in 1968-69 and 1972-73 were glorious years, especially listening to a very young Marv Albert call the games on the radio (Marv also did Rangers games). 

Not until the American Basketball Association came together to challenge the NBA like the AFL did to the NFL was thee a second team in the area. The Nets began in New Jersey, then migrated to the Nassau Coliseum. The team even won a title with Roselle Park’s Rick Barry leading the team. They even had one Julius Erving, a local kid from Roosevelt, until owner Roy Boe had financial problems and sold his hot player to the Sixers. 

The rest is history. And the NBA absorbed the franchises from New York, Indiana, Denver and San Antonio. The Nets were lured to New Jersey by the promise of playing in a new arena in the Meadowlands; a stop at a new Rutgers Athletic Center didn’t hurt my rooting for them. Which has lessened now that they play in Brooklyn. 

About that Christmas Day game? It was in 1980. Cold as heck—zero degrees and my friends and I froze on the train platforms in Elizabeth and New York as we made our way to MSG, which still sits atop Penn Station. Christmas Day games on national TV were just coming into vogue (Unlike the 5 games on ABC/ESPN on Thursday: the Knicks won in a close contest; San Antonio downed Oklahoma City for the third time this season—that’s over 50% of the Thunder’s losses; Golden State handled rookie sensation Cooper Flagg and Dallas; Houston romped over an unemotional LA Lakers team; and it took OT for Denver to win against Minnesota).

But for over two hours, we warmed up watching Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics trounce the Knicks whose shooting was as frigid as the weather. It was a great and memorable experience despite the freezing temperatures. The rhapsody of sound reverberating from the multi-colored roof was intoxicating. This was New York coming together as one. For their Knicks. In the spirit of the holiday.

All this nostalgia was borne from my love of New York sports. Which is now augmented by so much sports on TV, cable and streaming services. Maybe too much so. 

I hope you had a great Christmas Day. Watching the Knicks beat Cleveland brought back memories. 

No More Complaints About Notre Dame. Please.

  Let’s begin with something which sparked a lot of comments from last week’s blog. That would be the Notre Dame-CFP flap.

I remarked that I felt no pity for the Notre Dame athletic administration. They knew that  they were dealing from both ends when they made their pact with the College Football Playoff committee to garner greater consideration as an independent because, to put it bluntly, they ARE Notre Dame, a singularly popular academic institution with a football team. Glorified in the Great Depression by sportswriters and able to capture the imagination of so many Catholics throughout the country, thus drawing capacity crowds in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, the Irish became powerful media darlings. 

Growing up, a staple of Sunday morning television in the New York market was the package of Notre Dame highlights filmed on Saturdays, edited overnight and voiced over by the great Lindsey Nelson, a national TV announcer for NBC and a local star broadcasting the infant New York Mets in the 1960’s. The next day—whether it was at school or in businesses in the area—there was bound to be a discussion about the exploits of the boys from South Bend. 

Even being Jewish and not actively rooting for Notre Dame, I was awed by the mythical stature of coaches Knute Rockne and Ara Parseghian. Along with the greatness of Johnny Lujack, Paul Hornung and other star Irish players.  And I did watch the movie Rudy, a story about a walk-on who captured the spirit of a team and its fans when he finally got his chance to play. 

In my quest to see as many college campuses and stadiums, I mapped out a stop at Notre Dame. That was part of an itinerary which began in Detroit; migrated through Michigan; stopped in Green Bay to pay homage to the Packers and Madison to see the University of Wisconsin and friends who lived there; then wound into Chicago before returning to Detroit. 

It was an early morning mid-Summer trip from the Windy City, with my wife and two tired children in our rental car. I was hellbent on seeing the campus and at least driving by the fabled Notre Dame Stadium. 

I found the stadium easily. We parked the car. The gate was open as the maintenance crew was cutting the historic sod. It looked smaller than I thought it would (then again, I thought Ohio Stadium looked bigger than Michigan Stadium—which, capacity-wise it wasn’t). Older and a little worn. 

Dutifully, my family posed for pictures and I ran around like the lunatic I could be at times, getting whatever angles of the field and stands I could before being shooed away. I had reached the Mecca for so many and I was in the presence of stadium royalty. 

Then reality struck home. Little children need to go to the bathroom. Try finding a place for that on a campus which was still very much asleep and with school not in session. The basketball arena was locked tight. Other doors couldn’t be opened. I tried to ease my children’s concerns. But the pressure was mounting. 

Then I remembered that the tall building with the mural on it—affectionately called “Touchdown Jesus”—was the school library. So we headed to the doors and saw movement inside. 

Except that nobody was moving to the doors. The library was not ready for public admission. 

I continued to knock on the doors and gesture about my children. Finally, a female librarian came to the door and in a typical manner and voice, scolded me for banging on the doors. 

I told her I had two children who needed to go and no place was open. I pleaded to her sensibilities. 

She looked to the security guard next to her and said okay, I will make an exception. She informed us that the guard would accompany us to the restrooms just down the hall from the entrance

He stood outside the doors, closely monitoring the situation. Not that we planned a heist of any books from the library, nor were we going to desecrate the building in any manner, other than taking care of business in the lavatories. 

We were hustled out of the building and I could distinctly hear the locks being shut to keep the place intact after we had intruded. There’s more to the story which includes what I said to my wife as we headed to our car. 

The point I want to make is the people at Notre Dame act as if their school is sacred. Whether it is workmen, librarians, security guards or athletic directors, the belief that Notre Dame is better than anywhere else is palpable. 

I’m not saying that other schools don’t display arrogance in public. The Ivies are certainly like that. Known academic schools like Michigan, Virginia, Duke, MIT all retain special status from their academics. 

But at Notre Dame, they want to stand alone yet reap all the benefits of conferences and their members. Emboldened with money which flows to them from NBC and Peacock, which exclusively televise Irish home football games, plus a merchandising arm which appears to match that of “America’s Team,” the Dallas Cowboys, the coffers of the school are filled with donations and revenue streams other schools could only wish they had. This is a continuation of the groundbreaking deal the school signed with ABC in 1953, generating the needed capital to stand alone while carving out a national schedule  with the likes of schools like Stanford and USC, the service academies and others willing to schedule the school to obtain more exposure in the pre-ESPN era. 

Standing alone in football is what they crave in South Bend. Keeping as much of  the money for themselves as would be possible. Yet they need to compete in other sports—scheduling becomes a nightmare remaining as an independent.

Notre Dame has ventured into other conferences to meet the demands for opponents. For many years the basketball teams toiled in the Big East, a predominantly Catholic school league. That was not exactly what the school wanted, but more of what it needed.

Notre Dame repeatedly sought entry into the Western Conference (now the Big Ten), only to be rejected led by opponent Fielding Yost of Michigan, who was influenced mightily by anti-Catholic sentiment of the day. All rumors that Notre Dame wanted to join the Big Ten in recent years were that—just rumors (Men’s ice hockey does compete in the Big Ten—but that is isolated and not enough to thaw the frostiness between the school and the conference). 

What has gotten Notre Dame football into a pickle was the COVID-19 pandemic. To be able to play, Notre Dame signed an agreement with a very willing Atlantic Coast Conference to play its entire 2020 slate against ACC institutions. In doing that, agreements were reached for other sports and for the football team to play 5 ACC schools each season. If Notre Dame sought conference affiliation, it must be with the ACC. 

Notre Dame was more than wiling to live with this, given its alliance with NBC. Besides, which teams, outside of Miami, Clemson and Florida State were likely to give the Irish much trouble—and it was unlikely that they would have to play all three in any given year. That was a beautiful deal which should get ten wins nearly every season. 

Plus being a full partner with the conferences at the CFP table was better than being in a conference and having revenues slashed, too. Notre Dame expected deference would be given to them as it is to the SEC. 

Then the unthinkable happened. A really sound Irish squad lost two close, early season contests to Miami of the ACC and Texas A&M from the SEC. Those schools each recorded double-digit wins in 2025. 

The committee had to weigh whether Miami losing to Louisville by three points and at SMU in overtime pushed Notre Dame ahead of the Hurricanes. It decided it didn’t. 

Fans of the Irish were outraged. The school decided that if they weren’t good enough to pass a team it had lost to early on and be a part of the CFP—they surely were better than James Madison or Tulane, teams which came from the Group of 5 conferences not named SEC, ACC, Big Ten or Big 12—they just would not settle for a bowl game (and perhaps shared revenue—which they didn’t have to do if in the CFP). 

Despite my story, I really have no axe to grind with Notre Dame. Could the playoffs have been better if they were included instead of Miami? That might be answered when the Hurricanes and the Aggies square off in College Station on Saturday in what has been dubbed the “Notre Dame Bowl.” 

And any question as to whether Alabama belonged in the playoffs was resoundingly answered when the Crimson Tide rolled into Norman, erased a 17-0 deficit and won 34-24 on Friday night. Next up for the Tide is #1 Indiana in the Rose Bowl.

We have a set field of 12 vying for the championship. Ohio State, Indiana, Texas Tech, Oregon and Georgia are the top five seeds. And to the detractors of JMU and Tulane, the Division II, III and FCS playoffs take more teams than the CFP, allowing for conference champions from a variety of leagues (now including the Ivy League) to experience the reward for a very good season by playing additional contests. 

Until the field is expanded to 16 teams with no byes, then we will have the hiccups and still experience schools bellyaching about having a good enough record yet being excluded. I don’t think that the 12 teams are sorry that Duke defeated Virginia, which left the Cavaliers on the sidelines and thus eliminated Notre Dame, too. 

Besides, I would much rather have discussed the LA Rams-Seattle Thursday night showdown won by the Seahawks on two 2 point conversions. Or the Knicks winning the NBA Cup. Or even Texas A&M stopping the undefeated then 33-0 Nebraska women’s volleyball machine en route to the NCAA finals. 

 

So no more complaints about Notre Dame. Please. Their largesse can become self-defeating. 

Football Evolution

  I’m back from South Florida, visiting relatives and law school roommates. It was warm. The food and company were excellent. Even the United flights out of Newark, a notorious late departure airport, to West Palm Beach, left early and arrived early. And now there is snow and cold. 

The irony of the trip was that it was a day after my wife and I endured a half of miserable football from the New York Jets, who hosted South Florida’s own Miami Dolphins. Actually, it was nearly two halves, as we hightailed it out of Met Life Stadium with the home team trailing by a score of 24-7.  

We were home with little traffic on Route 3, the Garden State Parkway and Interstate 78.  In time to see much of a scoreless third quarter and all of the final stanza. The result was an overwhelming 34-10 win for the Dolphins. 

It wasn’t that the Jets didn’t try hard. They did. The first quarter punt return by Isaiah Williams resulted in a 78 yard scamper to pay dirt. That was the highlight of the game for the home faithful. 

Otherwise, with an injury to backup QB Tyrod Taylor in the first quarter, NYJ was forced to bring in undrafted free agent Brady Cook, a University of Missouri product, to direct the offense as best he could. Which really wasn’t too great and Cook was injured late but he made it through to the end. Cook will be this week’s starting quarterback when the Jets face AFC South leader Jacksonville on the road this Sunday. Good luck, kid. Just don’t get re-injured. 

New York has to play out the schedule with three of the four remaining games away from East Rutherford. Only New Orleans isn’t playing for a playoff spot. Buffalo and New England are, and they tangle this Sunday in Foxboro. 

Whether the team remains with 3 wins this season or somehow reaches the lofty heights of 4-13, New York will have a good chance to find its QB of the future. Speculation that NYJ will trade up to do that is just that; with the plethora of first round picks they can do that or sit tight and build a real foundation if the draft selections in the next two years are well-thought out. Could it be Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza from Indiana the Jets crave?

I want to briefly talk about Miami. The Dolphins began the season almost as bad as the Jets. Losers of six of the first seven contests, the only thing which prevented Miami from going 0-7 was that they came away winners over the Jets on the last Monday in September. 

But after a loss in Cleveland, the Dolphins started to turn the season around. Except for a loss to Baltimore, the Dolphins have won five of the last six games they have played. 

The remaining schedule isn’t daunting: at Pittsburgh on Monday night, a team currently leading its division with a 7-6 record, has lost its top pass rusher, T.J. Watt, to a collapsed lung which required surgery  and which has been inconsistent in its playing with 42 year old Aaron Rodgers at quarterback; Cincinnati, a below .500 team in turmoil, with its star quarterback Joe Burrow not necessarily wanting to remain in town; Tampa Bay, which is also on a losing streak that included a dud at home versus Atlanta on Thursday night when Kirk Cousins, the overpaid backup QB, led the team to a comeback victory, prompting mild-mannered Tampa Bay Head Coach Todd Bowles to go on a f-bomb tirade about his team; and a finale on the road against the current AFC East leaders, New England, which has a critical game on Sunday when it hosts Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills—if the Patriots win they will clinch the division, but if they lose, the finale could still be meaningful. 

I am not predicting that the Dolphins will win out nor that they will make the playoffs—which mathematically they have a chance to do if they continue to win. They have to catch the Los Angeles Chargers, Buffalo, Houston and free-falling Indianapolis, which lost its signal caller Daniel Jones to an Achilles tendon injury and has imported retired 44 year old Philip Rivers, whose name is among those presently under consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to keep its dreams alive to either win the AFC South or snag a Wild Card berth. Plus if Baltimore and/or a woe begotten Kansas City can get their acts together in these final four games, they have a better shot to make the playoffs than Miami. 

What is notable is that the Dolphins never gave up, despite the losses and injuries. Those who think that wunderkind Mike Mc Daniel can’t coach should think again. I am not saying that the Yale grad will survive the season and be on the Miami sidelines next year. 

I am simply stating that the guy can flat out coach. Which showed against the Jets, with the Dolphins scoring touchdowns on tier first three possessions, all but ending the competitiveness of the game. 

While the Jets will likely lose to Jacksonville, a legitimate AFC Super Bowl threat, my attention will be for the 4:25 EST game from the West Coast. My daughter will be in beautiful So Hi Stadium in Inglewood attending the Detroit-Los Angeles Rams game which is the FOX doubleheader game televised nationally. 

It is an important game for both teams in their particular quests to reach the playoffs. Detroit is 8-5 and in third place in the NFC North, behind Green Bay and Chicago. Currently the first team outside of the post-season, a loss for the Lions will put their hopes to continue playing in January in real jeopardy. It might come down to the final Sunday when the Bears host the Lions to decide the Wild Card and maybe the division. 

For LAR, they are in a tie with Seattle for first place in the NFC West. San Francisco is one game back of both teams. The division may well be decided on Thursday when the Seahawks host the Rams. Seattle first has to overcome the drama surrounding the return of Philip Rivers and a good Indianapolis team fighting for its playoff life. Or if San Francisco keeps on winning and Seattle trips up, the season closer in Northern California between the Niners and Seattle may be quite meaningful. 

I saved my last bit of NFL commentary for you Philadelphia Eagles fans. Stop ranting and raving over the performance of your team. Things will straighten out. Your team has two games with 3-10 Washington upcoming and the Birds host 2-11 Las Vegas. A trip to frigid Buffalo right after Christmas is the only real bump in the road to the playoffs. Once they get there is another story. 

College football has been in the news this week. The CFP Committee excluded Notre Dame from the 14 team field, setting off a firestorm of protest over Alabama and the University of Miami making it in and not the Irish. 

That Notre Dame gets extra-special consideration to begin with is appalling. The fact that its schedule is littered with five ACC teams and they lost to the Hurricanes early in the season didn’t help. Nor did then 7-5 Duke defeating Virginia in the ACC Championship Game help the Notre Dame cause. 

The ACC is a weak conference for football. It has gone downhill for basketball, too. To fill out their schedule, Notre Dame agreed to play all other sports as ACC members and to meet 5 ACC schools in football annually. 

Moreover, if Notre Dame wanted to embellish its chances by joining a prestigious conference like the Big Ten or SEC, it can’t. Not until 2036—when its binder to join only the ACC is no longer. 

I feel no pity for the superiority of Notre Dame or the whining when they don’t get what they want. I applaud the CFP having the courage to exclude the Irish this season. It was the right thing to do and can really only be remedied with expansion of the playoffs to 16 teams—which I don’t think the participating conferences are in favor of. 

So when Notre Dame took its football with them and said they would not play in any bowl games as a consolation—I say good riddance. Sore losers are not tolerated well in college football. 

The final story is a very sad one. The University of Michigan fired Head Coach Sherrone Moore for cause after it was determined that he was having a relationship with a staffer. That kind of stuff is not permitted and was supposedly a known thing for the past two years. Moore is now under arrest for domestic violence assault when he allegedly carried a knife to the staffer’s residence and broke in. He had been described as suicidal. 

Nothing is going to come out of this that will be good. Lives and a family have been ruined. The players who trusted him have lost that bond. 

Michigan will be in the hunt for a new football coach. That may impact other schools and players and coaches. All because of a series of bad decisions. 

I don’t root for the Wolverines. Nonetheless, I hope that those who make the decision on the next Head Coach get it right. Michigan is a top tier school in academics and athletics and the administration needs to set a new direction that is unmistakable in ethics and morality. 

I hope that Moore and the young lady can move forward from this. Unfortunately, this kind of thing won’t stop—Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs acted irresponsibly when he entered into a relationship with the school’s gymnastics coach, which led to Hobbs’ leaving his job. 

At least Michigan doesn’t have to play Notre Dame until 2033 and 2034. Until then, football will continue to evolve.