Inside The Huskies

Michigan Stadium Exchange Not a Good Look for UW Fans

Wolverines football staffer shown in heated exchange with UW followers.

Dan Raley

Jedd Fisch and Sherrone Moore greet each other after the UW-Michigan game.
Jedd Fisch and Sherrone Moore greet each other after the UW-Michigan game. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Making the internet rounds after Saturday's game at Husky Stadium was a video clip of an angry Michigan football staffer threatening unruly Washington fans, later forcing the visiting Big Ten school to release a statement calling the situation "disappointing" and suggesting it should have been de-escalated in a different manner.

The immediate question raised by media outlets was whether the staffer, Chris Bryant, the Wolverines' long-time director of high school recruiting, still had his job after offering a profane outburst.

A better ask is this: do those particular UW fans involved, shown laughing after creating the problem in the first place, still have tickets or access to the stadium for future games?

Michigan, in its statement, said these people "were harassing our players by using over the top and offensive language.”

Throw them out.

Find out who they are and show them the door.

Offensive language is a firing offense.

Put them on a Husky Stadium no-fly list.

This is the Big Ten and a certain amount of class should be required in order to attend one of these football games.

Yes, Michigan fans got all over former Wolverine turned UW wide receiver Giles Jackson in 2021 in an ugly manner when he was leaving the field on his return trip to Ann Arbor.

Husky Stadium is better than that.

“Our staff member should have asked the stadium staff to handle the matter rather than act in the emotional manner with which he did at that time," Michigan said in its statement.

He shouldn't have had to respond to class-less fans in the first place.

Certainly not everyone was on their very best behavior at Saturday's football game, with UW senior linebacker Drew Fowler acknowledging that there was plenty of Michigan player trash-talking and taunting, even in warm-ups. Yet that's part of the game. It happened between the lines. No one really got offended.

"They seemed pretty excited to talk some trash and that seemed like that was their strategy really early, but again we tried to keep everything focused on us, inward not outward," Fowler said of the Wolverines. "It didn't really bother us too much to respond to chit chat a little bit, but nothing too crazy."

Husky coach Jedd Fisch and his Michigan counterpart Sherrone Moore had a warm embrace following the Huskies' 27-17 victory.

On a personal note, I can relate to what set off that Michigan football employee.

At the 2023 Apple Cup, which was decided by Grady Gross' walk-off field goal, I was late getting out of the press box and down to the field because the game went down to the wire. Typically, media members walk down the 109-110 aisle way to a gated field entry five or six minutes before the game ends to avoid getting entangled with departing fans filling all lanes.

I got stuck in the crowd. I didn't have a choice but to try and ease my way through everyone headed to their cars or the light rail in the opposite direction. I wasn't there to create an inconvenience, I was working.

A fan ordered me under no uncertain terms to get out of his and his wife's way, that I couldn't go forward. I wanted to tell him what that Michigan staffer told those other guys on Saturday. I settled for something more tame.

For the most part, UW fans are some of the best, but Nebraska football supporters forever will be considered the classiest across college football.

In 1991, when the fourth-ranked Huskies and No. 9 Cornhuskers met in Lincoln in a huge showdown, the UW rallied from a 21-9 deficit in the second half to win 36-21. As Don James' players were leaving the field, many of the 76,304 fans rose and loudly applauded the visitors for a job well done.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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