Over the last week, Michigan football legend Charles Woodson has been far more vocal in his defense of Michigan amid the ongoing sign-stealing scandal. On Thursday, he appeared on ESPN to share his thoughts once again on the Pat McAfee Show.
"I spent three years at the University of Michigan," said Woodson. "I was a fan before I went there, I played there of course, and I'm a fan now. To me, I look at the situation and I just really have to say, first of all, it's great to be a Michigan Wolverine."
Woodson was clearly eager to take a hard stance against the negative perception that has been created when it comes to the Michigan football program. Not only did he praise Jim Harbaugh for building a legitimate national championship contender, he insinuated that much of the "outrage" really boils down to being envious of the product Harbaugh has built.
"I've got to congratulate Jim Harbaugh for building this team into a position where it seems like people are envious of what he has going on in his program," Woodson said. "If you think about it, five, six years ago, nobody cared about what Michigan was doing. Harbaugh was a couple of years in, we were winning some games, but we couldn't beat Ohio State. And now here we are, we've been able to beat those guys two times in a row, so now everybody's looking at Michigan and saying, "ok, these guys can't be that good, what are they doing wrong?". That's the way I look at it. So congratulations to Michigan for building the program up, getting the type of recruits in there that, like I said, people are looking at and saying, "wow, where did this come from? They must be cheaters if they're this good.' So I'm proud today to be a Michigan Wolverine, and have everybody looking at us as the team to beat."
Woodson then discussed the hypocrisy when it comes to the selective outrage over what Michigan is being accused of. Sign-stealing is a widely know practice in the world of college football, yet some are trying to paint the situation with Michigan as the worst scandal in college football history - and the leading voices in that effort seem to reside at one network in particular.
"Everything that I hear on every outlet is that everybody steals. But it seems like when it comes to Michigan, they're saying. 'oh, Michigan is stealing stealing.'"
Recent reporting indicated that Rutgers and Ohio State both assisted Purdue before the 2022 Big Ten Championship game, handing the Boilermakers all of their intel on Michigan's play calling signs. This would certainly fit the bill of in-person scouting of a future opponent, but there doesn't seem to be nearly as much outrage about that situation.
For Woodson, it's clear that this is something that is part of the college football world, and if punishment is going to be handed down to Michigan and Jim Harbaugh, then the head coaches of other programs should face the same level of scrutiny and punishment.
"I don't matter what part you played in it," Woodson said. "If you're stealing, you're stealing. And so that means if we're going to have some type of sanctions put on Harbaugh, then there's got to be some sanctions on other coaches as well. Does Harbaugh get more because he was more a part of the plot? Maybe so. But everybody's hands are dirty in this situation."
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