Stephen A. reacts to Sherrone Moore's firing & arrest: 'It's incredibly disappointing' | First Take

Hello everyone, welcome to First Take. We're going to start today with the biggest story in sports right now and especially in college football. Yesterday, Michigan fired their head coach Sharon Moore for quote inappropriate relationship with a staff member according to the school. That is just the tip of the iceberg this morning and this has obviously been an ongoing story into yesterday afternoon. For more on this, we welcome in Adam Schefter who has been a part of the reporting on this and Adam, can you take us through what transpired yesterday?

Yesterday was a wild day. And I think if we go back to the season, there have been whispers and murmurs about things that have been happening. And Michigan's HR department looked into it and found no wrongdoing.

Now, clearly something transpired here this week that changed things, that changed the equation to lead Michigan to fire Sharon Moore with cause and to say that he had an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. That leads to a series of events yesterday that culminates with him showing up somewhere and him being detained in the Washtenaw County Jail.

Now we've heard Michigan's side of this. It feels like he had an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. What we haven't heard yet is Jerome Moore's side of this and he gets his say into this particular situation as well and I do know that he felt like people had it in for him for an awful long time there while he was at Michigan. He felt like there were people who were out to get him. So all these things can all be true.

It's possible that, yes, Michigan does have evidence that he had an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. And it could be that Sharone Moore is right, that people had it in for him. But the whole situation itself is just sad and tragic.

Because now we have a individual who had his professional life, his personal life, completely upended. We have a school with a bunch of players who don't have a coach to turn to right now. We have a school in search of a program,

a new coach to lead forth that program. There are a whole host of things that have transpired here that have led this to be a completely surreal, wild situation that if you heard about it, you wouldn't believe it because it almost seems made up.

Adam, thank you for the information. Number one, when we talk about a staffer, are we talking about somebody that's in a subordinate position, number one? Number two, how long has this investigation been going on? The way it came out, a lot of people are acting like it's something that Michigan just found out.

But there are other reports that were saying that it was an ongoing investigation where discovery ultimately came about over the last few days. What can you tell us about that?

Well, my understanding, again, is there have been talk and whispers about this for weeks, if not longer. This is not something that surprised a lot of people around the Michigan football program. This is not something that surprised a lot of people.

If I'm hearing about it weeks ago, then other people are hearing about it. Now again, my understanding is that HR looked into it weeks ago, and HR was unable to corroborate any of the claims that people had made or any of the claims that people had made

or any of the accusations that had been levied. Again, yesterday, Michigan makes the decision to fire him with cause. The first black head coach in school's history, a man who had been a part of the national championship team a couple of years ago, a man who

was viewed as a leader, who they gave a five-year contract worth five and a half million dollars a year to, they made the decision this week to fire him with cause and to put out there that he had an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. You don't do that unless you feel like you have irrefutable evidence in the eyes of the university. Something changed this week where something or somebody came forward to the school and presented evidence that changed the school's mind and

caused it to act the way that it did.

Shafty, when you say that...

Any credibility whatsoever to the cons... I don't want to use the way that it did. Shafty, when you say that- Any credibility whatsoever to the, I don't wanna use the word conspiracy theorist, but any credibility whatsoever to the notion that Michigan wasn't necessarily high on him before this incident took place. And obviously, you know, a buyout is only about 14 million,

so I can't imagine that that's a big deal, but I'm wondering how they were feeling about him before all of this stuff unfolded. What can you tell us about that?

I believe that he had key support in the positions and places that mattered. I believe that this evidence that was uncovered here resulted in the situation unfolding the way it did. Now, again, I want to be very clear, Stephen A. This is the Michigan version, and Sherome Moore

is entitled to his version. And I think he would agree with what you're saying, that there were people out to get him. I think he actually definitely would agree with that, and has felt that way as a coach at the University of Michigan. But I think in this particular case, both things can be

right. There were people that were out to get him, perhaps, and he was made to feel a certain way. And there was evidence that turned up, that implicated him in the school's eyes, that led the school to act the way that it did. I think in this case, both things actually can be true.

All right, look, there's a lot of layers to this story at this point, and if you have the internet, you know there are other questions to it as well. Those will come out as they may. We're gonna stick to the facts and what Adam Schefter is reporting to us here

on First Take, and so let's bring in Ryan Clark and Paul Feinbaum here into this conversation. Arce, I know you wanted to ask Adam something.

Go ahead.

Yeah, when you said Sharon Moore will have his opportunity to tell his side of the story, what do you mean by that, Adam, in a sense?

Well, he has his version of how these events transpired. He has his version of thinking that people were out to get him. He has his version for the way this unfolded. He has his version of that relationship with that staffer where the school says it was an inappropriate relationship, that the school clearly feels like it has evidence to prove that that's the case. It wouldn't just go, I don't believe, and fire him for cause if it didn't have some

sort of smoking gun.

But again, Sheryl Moore is allowed to say, hey,

And this is my version of the story. I don't know how he would respond to that and what evidence he has that that is not true. But clearly, the school feels like it has overwhelming evidence that it was left no choice but to make this decision.

I'm just a little bit confused It may very well be true that everyone was out to get him or some of the people were out to get him But that doesn't change the facts of the story as the school sees them and the HR did not find whatever they did not find But the HR is actually not the FBI. They eventually found something. So I'm trying to understand how two things can be true. If indeed the university found irrefutable evidence against Sharon Moore, then they did the right thing, and he can certainly take legal recourse. But it feels like you are suggesting that maybe he has been outed because people just didn't like

him or were out to get him. No, no. And that's a pretty dramatic change of things here. I'm not suggesting that. like him or out to get him. And that's a pretty dramatic change of things here. Because if he did what we believe he did, it's a pretty pathetic thing for somebody to wonder if just because somebody may have been out

to get him, he lost his job.

No. Paul, let me be very clear. I'm saying the school fired him for cause because it felt that reason. I'm saying that we haven't heard Sharon Moore's version of events. All I'm saying is he's got his

side that we haven't heard. That's all. I'm just trying to give a voice to somebody that we haven't heard from who's had his personal and professional life completely upended. Clearly, there are questions about his judgment. We're not here to argue that but again, he can't himself, and I'm not trying to defend him, I'm just trying to say this is what could be happening

and he is entitled to his version of events, whatever they are.

Yep.

Stephen A.

Absolutely.

No.

You're good?

I'm just listening right now, go ahead.

Okay, well let's move this forward a little bit here because obviously the most important thing is the well-being of all these individuals involved in this very unfortunate situation. But this is a sports network and a sports show, and so we're gonna push forward. The timing, obviously, not ideal for Michigan.

January 2nd, a huge day in college football. They have a bowl game coming up in two or three weeks. And so now we have to look forward for the University of Michigan and what they should do at the head coaching position. And so guys, when you look at Michigan and what they have in front of them

and the type of university, this is a top five coaching job, you could argue. I'll let you go first here, Shefty. Is there a short list, a long list here in terms of head coaches

that could possibly find their way to Ann Arbor? school is an interim president, so we have to figure out exactly who's leading the search. I would think that Ward-Manuel, the AD, would have a big voice here, but that still has to be determined and established. And then I think it's Michigan. So it's one of the great jobs in all of college football, in all of sports. I would think it would attract the attention of a lot of different people. And I know, and Paul can address this better, his college football universe, not mine. Some people say the timing is of the essence. I would say it's more important to make sure

that you get the timing right. And I would say that in the free-for-all world of college football, anybody is now game, contract or not. We've seen enough examples of that. So Michigan can sit back and figure out who it identifies as a leading candidate for this job.

I think you can come up with any name imaginable, apply them to the university and think, well, if Michigan's interested, there might be some mutual interest in most cases.

Pauly.

Yeah, and Adam, to that point, the name that surfaced yesterday from a lot of people is Kalen DeBoer, the head coach at Alabama, who has struggled at times through a difficult first year when he did not make the playoffs and he was one of the last schools in this year. He has a critical game a week from tomorrow night at Norman, Oklahoma.

Should he lose? That's a, that's two consecutive four loss seasons. Remember, Alabama lost to Michigan in a bowl game last year as a double-digit favorite. So I think he is well-suited for this job. We don't know whether he would consider it,

but considering a lot of the angst and anxiety that he has experienced throughout his two years in Tuscaloosa with the task of replacing and succeeding Nick Saban, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he listened to Mishkin.

I think from the Sharon Moore point of view, you have to look at his failures as well. He failed, if these things are true, he failed his family. He failed the young men he was in charge of leading and coaching, and he also failed a community of coaches who would love to follow him to get an opportunity

to coach at a historically great university like Michigan, to be amongst the names of the Yost and the Schoenbechlers and the Lloyd Carrs. That was the opportunity that he had that he failed at. And we also have to think about this young lady who was a subordinate and what these accusations or what these actions

will do to her for the rest of her life. And so now if you're Sharon Moore, who was the first African American head coach at the University of Michigan, there's also a community of coaches that would love to follow in your footsteps

that will be partly judged because of your actions. He does have to own that. He does have to at some point acknowledge that. He has to be held accountable for that, whether these things are true and someone was after him or not. And so if you're Michigan, you're truly coming from two head coaches in a row, and Jim Hugh and also Sharone Moore, that has let the university down in some way. It is not the level of excellence that we expect from that position that has a responsibility.

You know, in Romans 3 and 23, right, it says, all have fallen short because of sin and fallen short of the glory of God. So Sharone Moore will be and will have an opportunity to be given grace by his family, by Christ, but he won't get a Bobby Petrino rebound, right? He will be treated like Mel Tucker. He will be treated like Michael Haywood, who in 2010 was supposed to be the next head coach

of the University of Pittsburgh. So I just don't think we could skip over how serious this situation is for Sherone Moore and the decision making, this situation he put himself in. And so going forward, you can't just bring in a coach that's good at great, that X's and O's.

You need to bring in a leader of men. You need to bring in a man that these young men can look at and model certain aspects of their life afterwards. And I don't know who that is. Is it a Jed Fish from the University of Washington who turned Arizona around?

I know I heard the name Brian Kelly being floated. He absolutely should not be the next head coach of Michigan. From everything you see of Kellen DeBoer, even if he's not winning the amount of games you want him to win at Alabama, he carries himself in a way where that is someone I would want my son to play for.

And I think when you're looking at finding this next head coach, it's not as simple as how many games can we win. It's who can change the perception of the sort of person we are picking to lead young men into the next chapters of their lives.

Jerome Moore has been married since 2015. Jerome Moore's first child was born in 2019. He has daughters, and he's in the news because of this today. My heart goes out to his family, his loved ones, who are being subjected

to this kind of stuff through no fault of their own. He's 39 years of age. He's a grown man. And to put himself in this position is egregious. And for us to be sitting on the air today, yes, there are facts that we do not know. is egregious. And for us to be sitting on the air today, yes, there are facts that we do not know.

Even the stuff that we have heard and have some knowledge of, it's a sports show, we're not going to get into that. But it's incredibly disappointing. To be the first black coach as well, that's another angle that our seat brought up

With a job like this comes incredible incredible responsibility

this is a blue blood program that we're talking about here and

as a black man, you don't get these opportunities every day and

To find himself in this position. I can't even tell you I can't even describe the words that I'm feeling right now. But it's really, really unfortunate, and I won't go any further than that. Having said all of that, it's not going to be that difficult to replace him in terms of his level of production.

If you're Michigan, it should not be hard for you to go out and find somebody that can deliver a 17 and eight record over two years, averaging four losses a year. Yeah, they won a bowl game against Alabama last year, and we got that part.

And yes, they were 8 and 5 this first year, 9 and 3 this year. We got that part. But when they talk about Kalen DeBoer, whatever, it's very, very simple. If he's not happy at Alabama. Sure. You could get a because I for one ain't that happy with him at Alabama. It's huge shoes to fill succeeding. Nick Saban. It's quite a

different challenge to be succeeding. Sharon Moore. And that's the reality of the situation at this particular moment in time. But again, I'd harken back to arm. I meant seven and three this season. You're right, but I want to harken back to what RC said. It's incredibly unfortunate that he finds himself in this situation. And if you go back and you read the details and

stuff like that, it's incredibly alarming that this situation exists, but that this man in this position

would find as a coach at a blue blood program would find himself would find as a coach at a blue blood program would find himself

in this kind of position. If again, the allegations are true, it is incredibly egregious and