DETROIT — On Thursday, Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh met with the media for the first time since early in spring ball.
A lot has happened since then, including the Wolverines hiring Shemy Schembechler, son of legendary coach Bo Schembechler, who resigned after just three days in response to controversial Twitter likes had surfaced publicly.
So what happened? Was Michigan aware of Schembechler’s social media in advance? Harbaugh said the program became aware after the fact and that the team took action once the controversy came to light.
“Once we became aware of things that were just offensive,” Harbaugh said. “Offensive to me, offensive to other members of our team, we didn’t want that mindset around. It’s disappointing. I’ve known Shem for a long time. But there are no sacred cows. It’s not who we are, it’s not us.”
Harbaugh said that the program has a company that vets incoming staff members, but aspects of Schembechler’s social media fell through the cracks. Harbaugh said the team is no longer using that company given its report had none of the details that went public just a day after Schembechler’s hire.
“Yeah, we’ve had that,” Harbaugh said. “I’ve read the report myself. We have a company that vets that. We got a new company doing that. But we’re gonna be better. I’ll take responsibility for that. It’s not what should have been. If somebody can find that in a day, then we have to be able to be on it ourselves.
“Sometimes you got to do stuff yourself.”
Another controversy that Michigan football was embroiled in actually took place last fall.
Michigan running back Donovan Edwards retweeted something that appeared to be anti-Semitic. The retweet was deleted, and Harbaugh addressed the situation in October, saying that the team would be visiting the Holocaust museum at some point to educate players and make penance for the incident.
This spring, a handful of Michigan State fans posed as investigative journalists and shared that the Wolverines had yet to visit the Holocaust museum, nor did they have any plans to. However, not only did the team have the Washington D.C. Holocaust museum on the docket for the team trip in late April, early May, but Harbaugh shared that the program also visited the Holocaust museum in Michigan in April.
“Yeah, yeah, very impactful,” Harbaugh said. “It’s like anything, there’s so much to learn and those who want to learn learn, and that was really, really impactful and insight on history. You learn more than you did before, I recommend that.”
The local trip was arranged by University of Michigan regent Jordan Acker, who Harbaugh credited for enlightening the team on an important period in history that we should never forget.
“Jordan did a great job. Jordan was — he was amazing,” Harbaugh said. “Really. I mean, understanding that people don’t just — people think — people don’t know until they know. And so I applaud him for suggesting it, for hosting us and teaching us all. Because we care, we care about our fellow man and I don’t want to do anything that’s offensive to anybody. We’re for everybody.”
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