🎣 Another Fisch-ing expedition?

Remember when I was saying how unconcerned I was over the fact that football coach Jedd Fisch had not signed an extension with the University of Washington?

I do. It was nine days ago. I looked it up to remind myself of just how calm and composed I sounded:

Well, as Washington prepares itself to face Boise State in the L.A. Bowl on Saturday, I find myself thoroughly anxious about the possibility that Fisch might wind up as Michigan’s head coach. We’ll get to that in a second, and then I’ll explain why one of the most prominent reporters at ESPN had me gritting my teeth on Thursday.

But first, let’s set the table for the Seahawks game.

This looked like a heavyweight matchup as recently as three weeks ago. The Colts were 8-2 heading into Week 12, but they’ve lost three in a row — failing to score more than 20 points in any of those games — and on Sunday their starting quarterback is going to start either Riley Leonard, a rookie who might be banged up, or Philip Rivers, who is 44 years old and a Hall of Fame semifinalist, which is significant because you need to have gone five years without taking an NFL snap to be considered for the Hall of Fame.

Philip Rivers has not taken an NFL snap in five years! And he might be starting Sunday! Against the Seahawks!

Honestly, I hope it’s Leonard, the rookie from Notre Dame. This is not because I think Rivers is a more formidable option. It’s because I fear my own reaction should Rivers be injured by the Seahawks defense.

More specifically: I’m going to laugh. I know I’m going to laugh, and this would be in poor taste because you should not take any satisfaction when a professional athlete gets hurt. You should remain quiet and earnestly hope that the player who’s down isn’t too badly injured, but I know myself and how much Rivers annoys me and I will absolutely laugh because I’ve always found Rivers to be a bit obnoxious and I think there’s a bit of hubris for someone to think he can come off the couch and face Seattle’s defense.

All right, let’s back to the Huskies. They play Boise State in the L.A. Bowl on Saturday, but I’ve found it hard to devote my fulll attention to the Broncos because people keep saying Jedd Fisch could wind up coaching Michigan.

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic is a reporter I trust a great deal in these situations,¹ and he mentioned Fisch as the second of five potential candidates positioning him behind only Kalen Deboer.

“I think Jedd Fisch is definitely in play,” Feldman said during a live stream with Ralph Russo.

Fisch does have experience at Michigan, having served two seasons as an assistant coach early in Jim Harbaugh’s tenure. According to Feldman, Fisch is well-regarded at the school and the fact he’s built a formidable offense from scratch first at Arizona and then at Washington could intrigue Michigan given the so-so performance on that side of the ball.

I’ve been telling myself that Michigan is going to be focusing on someone more prominent than Fisch, who has won more than eight games exactly once in his five years as a head coach.

Let me tell you that it is a humbling experience to assuage anxiety by telling yourself, “Our coach isn’t too small a fish to be appetizing to Michigan.”

That’s where I’m at, though.

For now, Washington has a game to play on Saturday in Los Angeles, which Christian Caple and I previewed in this week’s episode of “Say Who? Say Pod!”

On Wednesday, the University of Michigan announced it had fired its football coach Sherrone Moore for what the school described as an inappropriate relationship.

On the same day, Moore was taken into police custody and booked into jail after he was investigated for assault.

On Thursday morning, ESPN reporter Adam Schefter — a Michigan alum — offered his perspective on a show called “Get Up.” As I listened to one of ESPN’s most prominent reporters cast his college’s former coach in sympathetic terms, it occurred to me that his reporting would have been dramatically improved if he had concluded each sentence with the phrase, “all because Sherrone Moore could not his pants on.”

Like this: “Now, you are in a situation where Michigan fires the first Black head coach in the school’s history,” Schefter said.

All because Sherrone Moore couldn’t keep his pants on.

“He’s married, has three daughters and this family obviously is going to be subjected to things now you couldn’t even imagine,” Schefter said.

All because Sherrone Moore couldn’t keep his pants on.

“This man’s life, professional and personally, was upended yesterday. It’s a sad story in so many ways.”

All because Sherrone Moore couldn’t keep his pants on.

I realize how judgmental this sounds, and I feel kind of bad about that. I’m not interested in passing any sore of judgment on who Brown as a person nor do I want to imply that he has all this coming to him.

Humans err. They make awful mistakes and cause pain to those around them. I take no joy in Brown’s missteps.

But I don’t think Sherrone Moore is the victim here, either, and I will admit it pissed me off to hear one of ESPN’s most visible and most well compensated reporters describe Moore as if he were one.

Here’s what Schefter said in a subsequent appearance on “First Take”

Schefter’s not wrong. Moore does have a right to talk about the degree to which he felt supported as Michigan’s head coach.

However, with Moore sitting in custody, being investigated for assault, I can think of several other questions that I’d deem to be more important, starting with the reason he was taken into police custody on Wednesday:

• Was he in a position of authority over the person with whom he is alleged to have engaged in an inappropriate relationship?

• Did Moore pressure the person he had an affair with to conceal it?

• Did Moore contact the person he allegedly had the affair with after he learned he was being fired?

• Who is the victim in the assault Moore is being investigated for?

• When did Michigan’s athletic director first become aware of a potential issue?

I could keep going, but I think you get the point. The question of whether Sherrone Moore received adequate institutional support isn't all that important to the story as it currently stands.

It’s worth noting that this is hardly the first time I’ve objected to Schefter’s coverage of a man accused of mistreating a woman:

An addendum: John U. Bacon, a Michigan historian who is something of an expert on Michigan football, stated that after Moore was fired, he broke into the house of the staffer with whom he had the alleged affair and threatened to harm her and then himself. Bacon provided this account during his appearance on a Michigan FOX affiliate, which I’ve linked below.

1  And I’m not just saying that because Bruce was my boss when I worked at ESPN.com back in 1999.