I'm aware of what you're talking about. No doubt it's ugly. But why do a handful of our rivals fans always have to not just throw it in our faces, but make it sound as bad as possible? If I argue over what you left out of it and how you mischaracterized it, I looks like I'm defending Lewan. I don't want to defend him. At the same time, acting like Michigan is a program that tolerated "Lewan threatening Gibbons' accuser" leaves out a mountain of context. What was said, was not said to the accuser, but about her to people that knew her. The statement made it clear that Lewan believed Gibbons to be innocent (and I think the ugliness and stupidity of what was said also reflects the anger of feeling wronged, not covering for someone you think could be guilty). And the statement itself was so ugly, it could not possibly be believed to be literal unless you think publicly announcing premeditated rape is actually a thing people do.
So tell me about the problem with our program. An asshole that none of us like, felt his friend was being wrongly accused of something horrible, and in response he said something really horrible. Technically, it constitutes a threat, but only an idiot would take it to be an actual expression of intent. (I believe there's a legal requirement that something has to be literally believed for it to constitute a threat.) Meanwhile, in the midst of a national change to how sexual assault is being handled on campuses, Michigan is not only one of the 1st to make the change, but goes back and applies it retroactively to an athlete that would have fallen through the cracks under the old rules.
We have a problem? The people that issued the Dear College Letter pointed to Michigan as a school that was setting a good example implementing the changes.
"sending Taylor Lewan to intimidate the victim"
You should be embarrassed that you wrote that garbage.
