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In case you missed it, on Thursday, the Ann Arbor News revealed precisely the incident that got Michigan point guard and senior captain Zavier Simpson suspended for one game. And upon hearing the details, it’s quite understandable why head coach Juwan Howard had to expend some justice upon the man he’s often called his ‘Tom Brady.’
ANN ARBOR, MI – Zavier Simpson’s one-game suspension last month came after he wrecked a car that belongs to athletic director Warde Manuel’s wife, according to a police report obtained by The Ann Arbor News/MLive.
The report also shows that the University of Michigan basketball star lied to officers about his name and whether he was driving when the vehicle crashed into a utility pole in Ann Arbor hours after Michigan’s loss to Illinois last month, according to the police report.
Officers found the senior point guard outside the vehicle that made contact with a pole and street sign on the corner of Hill Street and South Forest Avenue at 3:03 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, according to the report.
Simpson initially told officers his name was Jeff Jackson Simpson and that he was walking down South Forest Avenue when he noticed the crashed vehicle, Ann Arbor police said in the report acquired via Freedom of Information Act request.
When officers recognized him as the point guard for the Wolverines, they asked him why he lied about his name. Simpson told officers he didn’t want to be involved in the crash report.
We don’t question the use of Warde Manuel’s wife’s car as much as some — Dodge reported that it was in use by Evan Manuel, the Michigan AD’s son, who’s also a student manager for the men’s basketball team — though per the rest of the story, Simpson admitted he was the only person in the vehicle. But with everything else, it’s a bad look.
Crashing someone else’s car is one thing, but to lie about your name and the situation at hand to police officers, that’s more than a bad look. And with the story also noting that Simpson stumbled — but didn’t appear to have any odor of intoxication — it paints a picture that the senior captain will likely have a hard time shedding throughout his life.
We’ve seen this type of thing happen with student-athletes before, being out late, not being truthful with police. There’s old axioms surrounding sports that are axioms for a reason, such as: ‘nothing good happens past midnight’ and ‘don’t turn a one day story into a two day story.’ You can’t fault a college student — even if he’s a senior student-athlete — for being out late, but with late night/morning activities, there’s bound to be repercussions, self-inflicted or otherwise. And then to lie about your name to evade responsibility, like running from the police, it just makes matters worse — and turns what could have been seen as a minor incident into a more major one. You expect a team captain to be a bit more responsible.
This story was getting out regardless, because there was no way it wasn’t going to make it to Howard’s desk, and there was no way that Simpson wasn’t going to be suspended. We also don’t know what the additional punishment was that Howard insinuated he doled out, but good on the first-year Wolverines coach for having a spine, even though Simpson is among players Michigan needs every game.
But Simpson, regardless of age, should be smarter. Team captains need to be better. However bad this situation looks, it does seem, per Howard and his teammates, that he’s made his penance. But like Michigan fans often do with MSU players and their indiscretions, you can expect to hear Simpson’s name rattled off as that of a troublemaker by rival fans for eternity. Between that and the suspension, small prices paid for an incident that should have never taken place to begin with.