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Pete Thamel blasts Connor Stalions Netflix documentary: ‘My eyes rolled a bunch of times’
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Earlier this week, Netflix released a documentary covering the Michigan sign-stealing scandal from Connor Stalions’ point of view.
The documentary, which has received mixed reviews from across the college football community, tells Stalions’ side of the story from the scandal that rocked college football last fall.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel, who has been reporting on this story for the World Wide Leader for much of the last year, was not impressed with the documentary.
“Don’t tell me that you think you’re smarter than everyone and read signals better than everyone, when there’s a Notice of Allegations that says you illegally scouted 50-something games,” Thamel said on the College GameDay podcast. “Right? Like, if you have that information, you are going to be ahead of it. There’s an intellectual disassociation with, ‘I’m so good at this, here’s my system,’ when you don’t acknowledge the root of your system … that anyone in football will tell you, gives you the advantage.
“So there was just selective facts … my eyes rolled a bunch of times.”
Thamel also ripped Stalions for using the documentary to try to endear sympathy from viewers.
“This is pretty straight forward,” Thamel said. “You ran an illegal cheating scheme. You got caught. You put a $100 million enterprise in jeopardy. It worked out for them, which is great and celebrated. But … there could have been more self-awareness in him and in him putting it together.
“Like going to the games? There’s nothing smart about that.”
According to multiple reports, Michigan received the official Notice of Allegations from the NCAA earlier this week. The program has 90 days to respond.
Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.