What to expect in Netflix documentary about Michigan football, Connor Stalions
There was a report recently that a documentary about Connor Stalions, Michigan football, and the alleged sign-stealing scandal was in the works.
On Monday, that report by Chris Balas of The Wolverine proved accurate as Nextflix announced the documentary which will be available to watch on Aug. 27. It's part of the untold series, and outside of it being really interesting to Michigan football fans and frankly, college football fans everywhere, my hope is that we learn a lot from this documentary.
It wouldn't shock me if we learned that Stalions wasn't the only college football staffer buying tickets for other teams games. The alleged sign-stealing by Stalions was always portrayed as some "elaborate" scheme but the truth is that it wasn't that at all.
Stalions bought some tickets for people and they recorded some videos. Even if those were signs, it's a lot of effort for a little information. But, as this documentary will probably show, Stalions was obsessed with Michigan football. He was obsessed with being part of the program.
He worked his way onto the staff as a sign-stealer, which isn't against the rules (in-person scouting technically is but the NCAA even said it provides "minimal competitive advantage").
In other words, it wasn't the reason U-M won the national championship (as the NCAA president already said) and it wasn't the reason Michigan beat Ohio State three straight times, especially since the Wolverines won 'The Game' in November months after the allegations came out.
If Ohio State didn't change its signs by then or in 2022 or in 2021, that's their fault. Just like Michigan can be blamed when Ohio State stole its signals. It's a cat-and-mouse game but one that got blown out of proportion because Ryan Day is a crybaby (James Franklin is too).
My hope is that this documentary sheds some light on "Third Day Investigations" and how a Washington Post reporter and the NCAA got information that was on a protected drive that Stalions had protected with a password.
It's all very interesting. My thought is that Stalions wouldn't do the documentary if it was going to show Michigan football in a bad light. He has always said the coaching staff didn't know, which has been echoed by the staff and Jim Harbaugh who said his program is "innocent."
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I don't know exactly what we'll see. It's not like Stalions has final editing power but I think it could change some misperceptions about Stalions and this perceived scandal which might be the most overblown in sports history.