Man says U-M staffer paid him to tape Big 10 foes
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Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff Writer
Suspended Michigan football staffer Connor Stalions compensated at least one person for recording future Wolverine opponents with “a couple hundred dollars” and a ticket to a Michigan home game, according to the person.
The man, a former Division 3 football player and coach, spoke to ESPN on the condition that his name not be published because he was concerned about his privacy. He is the first person who was involved in the alleged cheating scheme to publicly share details about their role.
He said he attended three Big Ten games during the past two years to record the sidelines of a future Michigan opponent. He said he uploaded the videos he took on his personal cell phone to a shared iPhone photo album, but does not know who else other than Stalions had access to the album.
He said he was wary of Stalions’ plan “to a degree” when he was first approached to tape the games, but felt that if someone from Michigan’s staff was asking him to do this that it must fall safely in the gray area of college football’s sign-stealing rules.
“I didn’t like it, but it’s a gray line,” he said. “You can call me naive, but no one is reading the bylaws. I’m not a contractual lawyer. …I just felt like if you’re not doing it, you’re not trying to get ahead.”
It is against NCAA rules for staff members of a football program to scout games of future opponents in person. The NCAA football rulebook also prohibits “an opposing player, coach or other team personnel” from recording an opponent’s signals through audio or video. The NCAA is investigating claims that Michigan used a large network of individuals to tape games of future opponents. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh denied any knowledge of the alleged scheme in a statement last week. A Michigan spokesman added on Friday that “due to the ongoing investigation, no one from Michigan will be able to comment beyond what was shared last week.”
According to a LinkedIn page he has recently deleted, Stalions is a former officer in the Marine Corps who was hired as a member of the program’s recruiting staff in 2022 and worked with the team as a volunteer for several years before then. Photos from recent Michigan games show he frequently stood next to the team’s play callers on the sideline during games. Michigan suspended Stalions with pay last Friday, and sources told ESPN that the NCAA is seeking his computer as part of their investigation.
Stalions did not return multiple phone calls seeking a comment for this story.
The source who spoke to ESPN Friday said he attended games at Rutgers and Penn State last season and another game at Penn State last month.
“I only did a half because it was pouring rain and they were playing UMass. It didn’t pay well enough so I was like, ‘yeah, I’m not staying here.'”
He said that before the news of the investigation was made public Stalions also provided him a ticket to this coming Saturday’s game between Indiana and Penn State. He does not plan to attend.
He said at the games he attended he filmed every drive from his seat in the stands about 15-20 rows above field level. He said he tried to film wide enough to include the sideline and the majority of the team’s on-field formation so members of the Michigan staff would be able to sync his videos with other film and decode the team’s signals. He said he was able to capture enough of the coaches on the sideline that their signals were visible for someone who zoomed in on the recorded video.
“A lot of people may say you can just rip that from the All-22 [wide-shot game film]. Well, it’s not that easy,” he said. “This makes it easier to mirror things up and get those tendencies.”
He said for the three games he taped he received roughly $1,000 to cover his travel expenses and pay for his time. He said Stalions paid him from a personal Venmo account.
Stalions purchased tickets to at least 35 total games featuring 12 other Big Ten teams and several other potential College Football Playoff teams during the last three years, sources told ESPN earlier this week. The Washington Post reported earlier this week that investigators hired by an unknown source to look into Michigan’s operation found evidence that the scouting trips were expected to cost more than $15,000 this year. Stalions, according to the university’s website, received an annual salary of $55,000.
The source said he has not yet been contacted by any investigators from the NCAA or elsewhere.
ESPN contacted several other individuals this week whose names were connected to ticket purchases made by Stalions. One woman based in Jacksonville said she was friends with Stalions from their time together in the military but hung up abruptly when asked about attending last year’s Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville. One other former Michigan staff member, Andrew Barlage, was among the names connected to tickets purchased by Stalions. According to Barlage’s LinkedIn page he was the head recruiting intern at Michigan in 2021 and worked as a graduate assistant for Akron’s football program in 2022. He did not respond to multiple phone calls seeking comment.
The source who did speak with ESPN said he was not aware of how many people helped tape the games. He said he assumed someone else was helping to fund the trips, but that he only ever spoke to Stalions.
“I wasn’t doing it for personal gain or hoping to get my foot in the door if Conor becomes a head coach someday,” he said. “It was just I got to go to some Big Ten games, alright sweet. And everyone else I felt was doing it to some degree. It’s a billion-dollar industry. You’re going to work in the gray areas as best you can.”
ESPN’s Pete Thamel contributed to this story.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Chicago White Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi will miss four to six weeks with a broken hand after being hit by a pitch in a spring training game on Thursday.
Benintendi was hit on the right hand with an 87 mph fastball by Cleveland right-hander Logan Allen in the first inning and left the game. The White Sox announced the diagnosis as a non-displaced fracture, with no surgery required.
The recovery timetable means Benintendi likely will start the season on the injured list. The White Sox open at home on March 27 against the Los Angeles Angels.
Benintendi signed a $75 million, five-year contract with the White Sox prior to the 2023 season. After debuting with Boston in 2016 and helping the Red Sox with the World Series in 2018, he was traded to Kansas City in 2021. He won a Gold Glove that year and was selected for his first All-Star team in 2022, before being traded to the New York Yankees for the stretch run.
Benintendi matched his career high in 2024 with 20 homers but batted just .229, his worst average for a full season, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 schedule. He has played in 286 games in two seasons with Chicago.
Derek Bender, the former Minnesota Twins minor league catcher who is under MLB investigation for telling opposing hitters what pitches were coming, denied the allegations in an interview with The Athletic as he remains out of professional baseball.
“No,” Bender told The Athletic, in an interview published Thursday, when asked if he gave away pitches to opposing batters. “And I’ll live with this until the day I die. I never gave pitches away. I never tried to give the opposing team an advantage against my own team.”
Bender, a sixth-round draft pick out of Coastal Carolina in July, was playing for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, the Twins’ Single-A affiliate. In the second game of a Sept. 6 doubleheader, Bender told multiple hitters for the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a Detroit farm team, the specific pitches being thrown by starter Ross Dunn, sources told ESPN at the time.
Lakeland scored four runs in the second inning and won the game 6-0 to clinch the Florida State League West division and eliminate the Mighty Mussels from playoff contention. Fort Myers coaches were notified by Lakeland coaches about Bender’s pitch tipping after the game, sources told ESPN at the time.
Sources told ESPN that Bender had told teammates he wanted the season to be over. In his interview with The Athletic, Bender said he joked to teammates about letting a ground ball go under their glove, but said he wasn’t serious.
Major League Baseball’s investigation of the incident continues, according to The Athletic, and Bender could face a permanent ban from the league.
“I had to go dark for at least three days,” Bender told The Athletic of the reaction to the initial story. “I had to private all my social media accounts. I was getting death threats and awful, obscene things said to me.”
Bender, 22, said he is trying to get back into professional baseball. He said he’ll play for the Brockton Rox of the independent Frontier League this summer.
Meanwhile, Bender said he hasn’t heard from any of his former teammates, including Ross.
“There are a lot of times where you’re talking with people that you thought you were friends with, they just don’t look at you the same,” Bender told The Athletic. “I’ve heard my friends get questioned about me, why they’re still friends with me. That’s hard to hear.
“It’s not like I’m getting accused of committing a crime.”
Bender told The Athletic that the Twins were willing to keep him in the organization if he admitted to the accusations and apologize. He said he apologized, but he wouldn’t say what he was apologizing for.
“The only thing I had left was my character at that point,” Bender told The Athletic. “Literally, the way they put it was, ‘If you want to die by the sword, we’ll release you.’ I knew there was no bluffing involved.”
His agents at Octagon told The Athletic that they had dropped Bender as a client because they had told him not to do any interviews until the MLB investigation was closed.
“It’s about gaining control over my life,” Bender told The Athletic of why he did the interview. “And this whole situation. I’m not doing this as a last-ditch effort to get back into affiliate ball. It’s more of this is the start of me taking control of my life again. Because I’ve let this completely control me for months now.”
A catcher and first baseman selected with the 188th pick in 2024, Bender signed for $297,500, slightly below the $320,800 slot for that selection. He will keep the entirety of his bonus after playing 19 games for Fort Myers, hitting .200/.273/.333 with two home runs and eight RBIs.
In three seasons at Coastal Carolina, he hit .326/.408/.571 with 32 home runs and 153 RBIs in 144 games.
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Jesse Rogers
Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner won’t be going to Japan where the team opens the regular season next month, manager Craig Counsell announced on Thursday.
Hoerner, 27, is still recovering from offseason arm surgery and will miss the two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Tokyo.
“Its good news because we were very much tracking towards opening day — domestic opening day,” Counsell said. “So it stinks in terms of not getting to be part of the trip, but his rehab in the last couple of weeks I think really took a step forward and he’s starting to progress quicker.”
Hoerner had surgery on his right flexor tendon back in October. He’s on track for an April return — but not for the mid-March beginning of the regular season. The Cubs and Dodgers play games on March 18-19, but the teams will be in Japan for about a week, eating up precious training/rehab days for Hoerner.
“He can’t play in games there and he needs at-bats,” Counsell explained. “He needs to be a baseball player, and the trip just does not allow for him to that in the proper way.”
Hoerner will stay in Arizona, playing in minor league games while the Cubs are in Japan. Counsell indicated back-ups Vidal Brujan or Jon Berti will likely start in Hoerner’s place.
The team also needs to make a decision on third baseman Matt Shaw, who has been slowed by an oblique issue throughout the first month of spring training. Shaw is scheduled to see his first game action this weekend. If he can’t play in Japan, Berti or Bruján — along with Rule 5 pick Gage Workman — will be candidates at third base.
“Nothing is off the table for Matt,” Counsell said. “No decisions have been made there.”
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