On Jan. 8 , the University of Michigan football team won the College Football Playoff National Championship in a 34-13 victory against the University of Washington. To those who didn’t keep up with college football during the year, this seemed like an exciting, yet standard football game. However, this victory represented the resilience of Michigan’s players despite a cheating scandal gathering steam and the subsequent media frenzy that ensued during the majority of the 2023 season.
Untold: Sign Stealer, is a new sports documentary directed by Micah Brown that was released on Netflix on Aug. 27 about the scandal. It explores how a low level employee on the Michigan football staff was accused of stealing signs from other teams. But here’s the kicker: sign stealing is legal by NCAA standards. The issue was that, as it is alleged, the manner in which Connor Stalions, the focus of the film, was decoding signs is illegal. Stalions was accused of “advanced scouting,” which involves sending people to opponents’ games to film and gather information. Stalions denies this in the documentary, saying, “I don’t always break the rules. I just walk a very fine line in the gray. I exploit the rules.”
For example, NCAA rules state that teams cannot send a scout to look at other teams’ games intending to steal signs before they play them in a given season, but what if someone not on the football staff goes to a game and films from the stands and shares that film with the team? Is that “in-person” scouting, or is that taking advantage of a gray area, as Stalions argues?
As the film shows, Stalions had been a “Michigan man” since day one. The documentary showed home videos of a young Stalions watching Michigan games, playing football, even dressing up as legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler for Halloween. These clips are accompanied by testimonials from Stalions’ parents and friends praising him and his passion for Michigan football. He eventually was hired by Michigan as what the program ultimately termed “a low-level employee” responsible for decoding opposing teams’ signs — legally. In the three seasons he was employed by Michigan football, they had the three best seasons they’d had in years. The documentary shows that prior to Stalions joining the program, Michigan’s efforts to steal and exploit others teams’ game signs — something virtually all of their opponents were doing — was non-existent. Yahoo Sports has reported that 80-90% of other teams had a dedicated sign stealer, while Michigan’s program did not — until Stalions.
These interviews in the film represented Stalions as an intelligent and hardworking man who created opportunities for himself and helped the Michigan football program succeed. Still, Brown’s documentary explores both sides of the story, taking all opinions on the situation into consideration.
Various unnamed internet users were featured in the film condemning both Stalions and Michigan football as a whole, with one TikTok creator calling for the team to be completely stripped of their national title as well as harsh punishments for all players and coaches.
Other critics of then head coach Jim Harbaugh and the entire football program include an anonymous internet sleuth using the nickname “Brohian,” inspired by the fact that he’s a die-hard Ohio State fan. He claimed that Stalions did cheat, and expressed his suspicions about Harbaugh leaving the Michigan football program following the undefeated season: “We’ve never seen a coach win a national championship and immediately bolt and route the whole staff with him,” he said. Brohian’s frustrations represent the anger that many college football fans felt during the 2023 season when their team got beat by a team that was allegedly cheating. The Netflix film also strongly suggests that it was Ohio State who instigated the investigation into Stalions and the U-M program.
However, last year’s Michigan Wolverines, despite their tumultuous season, were able to accomplish what it seems like the entire country didn’t want them to achieve: winning a national championship. Brown’s documentary perfectly captures the chaos surrounding the scandal last season, and brings in perspectives from all parties involved; from Stalions himself to critical journalists. After watching the film, my biased opinion is still the same: I believe Michigan should be able to keep their championship title and that they didn’t deserve all the backlash they received. However everyone, football fan or not, should watch this documentary to form their own opinions on the situation.