The amount of assistant coaches and players that are going to be potentially in play this year will be absurd.
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Inside Sherrone Moore’s downfall: Instagram messages, emotional outbursts and Michigan’s breaking point
Five women contacted by The Athletic said they had strange or uncomfortable exchanges on Instagram with ex-Michigan coach Sherrone Moore.
www.nytimes.com
Inside Sherrone Moore’s downfall: Instagram messages, emotional outbursts and Michigan’s breaking point
By The Athletic College Football StaffDec. 22, 2025 2:00 am CST
By Bruce Feldman, Austin Meek and Katie Strang
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Five women contacted by The Athletic said they had strange or uncomfortable exchanges with former Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore on Instagram as recently as last month and dating as far back as 2020.
One woman said she received a hand-waving emoji from Moore a few hours before Michigan kicked off against Purdue on Nov. 1.
The woman who received the message had no connection to the Michigan football program and wasn’t sure why Moore would be sending her direct messages. She responded with a hello.
Moore’s next message popped up roughly 20 minutes after Moore finished his postgame news conference. The Wolverines that night narrowly beat the last-place Boilermakers 21-16. The woman, incredulous that Michigan’s head coach would be messaging her on a game day, initially believed it to be a fake account. Once Moore assured her it was not, she congratulated him on that night’s win.
The woman did not respond the next time he engaged with her on Instagram two days later, when he left a fire emoji on a story she posted of herself on a stairmaster at the gym. In the days following their initial conversation, she discovered he was married with kids. She was mystified that he had the time to be scrolling through social media when he had a team to prepare.
“What is he doing?” she wondered. “Sitting in the bathroom?”
Those interactions shed light on Moore’s behind-the-scenes behavior as his two-year tenure as Michigan’s head coach neared its disastrous end. Michigan fired Moore for cause Dec. 10, alleging “credible evidence” that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a female staff member.
The Athletic spoke with more than 20 people, including current and former staff members, players, school officials and women who interacted with Moore on social media, on the condition of anonymity so they could speak candidly about Moore. They paint a picture of a coach who became increasingly volatile before his firing and subsequent arrest and arraignment on felony and misdemeanor charges for alleged crimes against the staffer.
Moore would break down sobbing in staff meetings and lash out at other coaches, according to three program sources who witnessed the behavior. He was seen eavesdropping on closed-door meetings inside Schembechler Hall, one of those people said, and fellow staff members became concerned about his mental state.
According to police and prosecutors, Moore went to the female staff member’s apartment after his firing, barged in without permission and threatened suicide while wielding butter knives. Police reviewed text messages Moore sent to the staffer around the time of the incident that stated, “I hate you. My blood is on your hand,” according to court transcripts. Court transcripts show that the woman’s lawyer, Heidi Sharp of Clinton Township, Mich., told police that Moore had a “long history of domestic violence” against the staffer, an allegation Moore’s lawyer denied in a statement to The Athletic.
Moore was arraigned Dec. 12 on charges of third-degree home invasion, a felony, and misdemeanor charges of stalking and breaking and entering. He was released on a $25,000 bond and ordered to be tethered to a GPS and continue mental health treatment. He parted with his original lawyer, Ann Arbor-based Joseph Simon, following his arraignment, and is now represented by Ellen Michaels, a Detroit-based criminal defense lawyer. Michaels provided the following statement in response to detailed questions about Moore’s online interactions with women, his alleged emotional volatility and the domestic violence allegation.
“Sherrone Moore denies any criminal wrongdoing,” Michaels wrote. “There is no history of domestic violence, no prior adjudication supporting claims of dangerous conduct, and no judicial determination validating these allegations. This matter will be decided in court based on evidence and due process, not speculation.”
Sharp, the university and Moore’s agent did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Moore, who could not be reached directly, has not spoken publicly since his release.
Moore’s online interactions with women were raised to university officials by fall 2024, early in his first season as head coach, two people briefed on the matter said. The behavior shared with school officials wasn’t criminal and didn’t involve university employees, the two people said, but it raised red flags about his poor judgment and lack of discretion.
“It was not sexual harassment,” said one of those officials. “It was propriety, ‘Are you an idiot?’ kind of stuff.”
Four of the five women who spoke to The Athletic provided screenshots or text messages from Moore. The women said Moore reached out on Instagram via DM or by “liking” a story they posted on the social media app. Of the five women, three worked in sports media and one had mutual friends with him. One had no mutual connections with him she could identify, did not live in Michigan and did not have any connection to the university.
According to a number of screenshots shared with The Athletic, Moore would ask seemingly innocuous questions or send emojis — the fire symbol, clapping hands, a wave — in response to stories posted and then attempt to engage the women in conversation. “How did we start following each other?” he wrote to one woman, who reminded him that he began following her first.
One woman with whom he shared mutual connections provided messages the two exchanged after he asked her if he could fly her to come see him (she does not live in Michigan). She asked him why he’d do that and whether he had considered the potential ramifications of a relationship. If she visited, would she need to avoid being seen in public? Would he expect her to be “holed up in some hotel?”
“I guess we will have to see ! I would say yes but you would also have a driver haha.”
“We will go into that detail later,” he wrote.
When the woman asked how many women he had propositioned similarly, he responded: “none.”
Moore wasn’t oblivious to the temptations and pitfalls that accompany social media. During preseason camp, Moore said he instituted a “no social media” challenge for the entire program to help players and coaches focus on football. Players and staff acknowledged the challenge with social media posts that used the hashtag #LockedIn.
“I really wasn’t on (social media) until last week, and then I’m back off of it again,” Moore said Aug. 25, the Monday before Michigan’s opening game. “It’s kind of good not to be on it. I kind of feel good about that.”
During the latter part of Michigan’s season, the university’s human resources department investigated an anonymous tip that Moore engaged in a relationship with a female football staffer, two school officials briefed on the investigation said. Michigan’s Standard Practice Guide states that a supervisor cannot initiate an intimate relationship with a subordinate. Relationships initiated by the subordinate are permitted but must be disclosed by the supervisor and are subject to a management plan.
Michigan’s initial inquiry didn’t produce definitive proof of the relationship, but the school found the allegations credible enough to hire the law firm Jenner & Block to conduct an external investigation, the two school officials said. The staffer told police that she and her lawyer met with investigators shortly before Moore’s firing to disclose the relationship, according to court transcripts.
Following his arrest, Moore told police he was engaged in a relationship with the female staffer for “approximately two years,” which indicates the relationship began before he was promoted to head coach in January 2024. Several Michigan players lived in the same apartment complex as the staffer, and one program source recalled seeing Moore there late at night and Moore’s SUV parked at the complex late at night on several occasions. Moore and the staffer were frequently spotted together in public after he became head coach, and footage of the two attending a Michigan lacrosse game aired on Big Ten Network in the spring of 2024.
Moore denied the relationship to colleagues and became angry when a member of the Michigan staff warned him the video clip gave the appearance of impropriety, a program source said.
Moore’s emotional volatility was no secret. One of his most memorable moments came after he led Michigan to a 24-15 victory at Penn State in 2023 while filling in for a suspended Jim Harbaugh. In his postgame interview on Fox, Moore burst into tears and delivered a profanity-laced tribute to Harbaugh.
“I f—ing love you, man,” Moore said on live TV, tears streaming down his face. “I love the s— out of you, man.”
At the time, Moore’s reaction seemed like an endearing, if profane, expression of emotion from a normally buttoned-up coach who was thrust into a difficult situation. In retrospect, some at Michigan saw it as the first indication that Moore wasn’t completely in control of his emotions.
Moore, who joined Michigan’s staff in 2018 as tight ends coach, was widely viewed as the likely successor if and when Harbaugh returned to the NFL. At Moore’s introductory news conference in January 2024, athletic director Warde Manuel said he surveyed the landscape but interviewed only Moore before promoting him two days after Harbaugh left to coach the Los Angeles Chargers.
“The man auditioned,” Manuel said then, referring to the games Moore coached while Harbaugh was suspended. “He had four games as head coach. Y’all tell me, ‘How could you see him as a head coach now?’ Those four games.”
A few weeks before Moore’s first game as head coach, news broke that he was named in a draft notice of allegations from the NCAA alleging he deleted text messages he exchanged with Connor Stalions, the Michigan staffer who orchestrated an impermissible scouting and sign-stealing operation. Moore served a two-game suspension this season for his failure to cooperate with that investigation and was set to be suspended for Michigan’s 2026 season opener. He’d previously served a one-game suspension for recruiting violations when he was Michigan’s offensive coordinator in 2023.
The revelations of the past two weeks prompted questions about how Michigan missed clear warning signs, including persistent rumors about his relationship with the female staffer. Some sources close to the program said they didn’t give much credence to the rumors, while others said the relationship was discussed openly by coaches and players.
“There were rumors about their relationship,” a staffer who worked for the team for three years said. “Nothing was set in stone — like, ‘Oh, they have a relationship.’ It wasn’t known across the building.”
In a video statement, Michigan president Domenico Grasso said the university has expanded the Jenner & Block investigation to include “culture, conduct and procedures” throughout the athletic department and would “act swiftly” to terminate other employees if evidence of additional misconduct emerges.
“It’s like a bad nightmare or a soap-opera drama,” said a second former Michigan staffer. “It’s a sad story, and it’s not over yet.”
— The Athletic‘s Alex Andrejev, Sam Jane and Nathan Fenno contributed reporting.
"It was known all along" said the media whores that didn't whisper a word of it about a half-decade long series of it being an open secret in one of the most connected universities to sports media personalities.Inside Sherrone Moore’s downfall: Instagram messages, emotional outbursts and Michigan’s breaking point
Five women contacted by The Athletic said they had strange or uncomfortable exchanges on Instagram with ex-Michigan coach Sherrone Moore.
Inside Sherrone Moore’s downfall: Instagram messages, emotional outbursts and Michigan’s breaking point
By The Athletic College Football Staff
Dec. 22, 2025 2:00 am CST
By Bruce Feldman, Austin Meek and Katie Strang
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Five women contacted by The Athletic said they had strange or uncomfortable exchanges with former Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore on Instagram as recently as last month and dating as far back as 2020.
One woman said she received a hand-waving emoji from Moore a few hours before Michigan kicked off against Purdue on Nov. 1.
The woman who received the message had no connection to the Michigan football program and wasn’t sure why Moore would be sending her direct messages. She responded with a hello.
Moore’s next message popped up roughly 20 minutes after Moore finished his postgame news conference. The Wolverines that night narrowly beat the last-place Boilermakers 21-16. The woman, incredulous that Michigan’s head coach would be messaging her on a game day, initially believed it to be a fake account. Once Moore assured her it was not, she congratulated him on that night’s win.
The woman did not respond the next time he engaged with her on Instagram two days later, when he left a fire emoji on a story she posted of herself on a stairmaster at the gym. In the days following their initial conversation, she discovered he was married with kids. She was mystified that he had the time to be scrolling through social media when he had a team to prepare.
“What is he doing?” she wondered. “Sitting in the bathroom?”
Those interactions shed light on Moore’s behind-the-scenes behavior as his two-year tenure as Michigan’s head coach neared its disastrous end. Michigan fired Moore for cause Dec. 10, alleging “credible evidence” that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a female staff member.
The Athletic spoke with more than 20 people, including current and former staff members, players, school officials and women who interacted with Moore on social media, on the condition of anonymity so they could speak candidly about Moore. They paint a picture of a coach who became increasingly volatile before his firing and subsequent arrest and arraignment on felony and misdemeanor charges for alleged crimes against the staffer.
Moore would break down sobbing in staff meetings and lash out at other coaches, according to three program sources who witnessed the behavior. He was seen eavesdropping on closed-door meetings inside Schembechler Hall, one of those people said, and fellow staff members became concerned about his mental state.
According to police and prosecutors, Moore went to the female staff member’s apartment after his firing, barged in without permission and threatened suicide while wielding butter knives. Police reviewed text messages Moore sent to the staffer around the time of the incident that stated, “I hate you. My blood is on your hand,” according to court transcripts. Court transcripts show that the woman’s lawyer, Heidi Sharp of Clinton Township, Mich., told police that Moore had a “long history of domestic violence” against the staffer, an allegation Moore’s lawyer denied in a statement to The Athletic.
Moore was arraigned Dec. 12 on charges of third-degree home invasion, a felony, and misdemeanor charges of stalking and breaking and entering. He was released on a $25,000 bond and ordered to be tethered to a GPS and continue mental health treatment. He parted with his original lawyer, Ann Arbor-based Joseph Simon, following his arraignment, and is now represented by Ellen Michaels, a Detroit-based criminal defense lawyer. Michaels provided the following statement in response to detailed questions about Moore’s online interactions with women, his alleged emotional volatility and the domestic violence allegation.
“Sherrone Moore denies any criminal wrongdoing,” Michaels wrote. “There is no history of domestic violence, no prior adjudication supporting claims of dangerous conduct, and no judicial determination validating these allegations. This matter will be decided in court based on evidence and due process, not speculation.”
Sharp, the university and Moore’s agent did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Moore, who could not be reached directly, has not spoken publicly since his release.
Moore’s online interactions with women were raised to university officials by fall 2024, early in his first season as head coach, two people briefed on the matter said. The behavior shared with school officials wasn’t criminal and didn’t involve university employees, the two people said, but it raised red flags about his poor judgment and lack of discretion.
“It was not sexual harassment,” said one of those officials. “It was propriety, ‘Are you an idiot?’ kind of stuff.”
Four of the five women who spoke to The Athletic provided screenshots or text messages from Moore. The women said Moore reached out on Instagram via DM or by “liking” a story they posted on the social media app. Of the five women, three worked in sports media and one had mutual friends with him. One had no mutual connections with him she could identify, did not live in Michigan and did not have any connection to the university.
According to a number of screenshots shared with The Athletic, Moore would ask seemingly innocuous questions or send emojis — the fire symbol, clapping hands, a wave — in response to stories posted and then attempt to engage the women in conversation. “How did we start following each other?” he wrote to one woman, who reminded him that he began following her first.
One woman with whom he shared mutual connections provided messages the two exchanged after he asked her if he could fly her to come see him (she does not live in Michigan). She asked him why he’d do that and whether he had considered the potential ramifications of a relationship. If she visited, would she need to avoid being seen in public? Would he expect her to be “holed up in some hotel?”
“I guess we will have to see ! I would say yes but you would also have a driver haha.”
“We will go into that detail later,” he wrote.
When the woman asked how many women he had propositioned similarly, he responded: “none.”
Moore wasn’t oblivious to the temptations and pitfalls that accompany social media. During preseason camp, Moore said he instituted a “no social media” challenge for the entire program to help players and coaches focus on football. Players and staff acknowledged the challenge with social media posts that used the hashtag #LockedIn.
“I really wasn’t on (social media) until last week, and then I’m back off of it again,” Moore said Aug. 25, the Monday before Michigan’s opening game. “It’s kind of good not to be on it. I kind of feel good about that.”
During the latter part of Michigan’s season, the university’s human resources department investigated an anonymous tip that Moore engaged in a relationship with a female football staffer, two school officials briefed on the investigation said. Michigan’s Standard Practice Guide states that a supervisor cannot initiate an intimate relationship with a subordinate. Relationships initiated by the subordinate are permitted but must be disclosed by the supervisor and are subject to a management plan.
Michigan’s initial inquiry didn’t produce definitive proof of the relationship, but the school found the allegations credible enough to hire the law firm Jenner & Block to conduct an external investigation, the two school officials said. The staffer told police that she and her lawyer met with investigators shortly before Moore’s firing to disclose the relationship, according to court transcripts.
Following his arrest, Moore told police he was engaged in a relationship with the female staffer for “approximately two years,” which indicates the relationship began before he was promoted to head coach in January 2024. Several Michigan players lived in the same apartment complex as the staffer, and one program source recalled seeing Moore there late at night and Moore’s SUV parked at the complex late at night on several occasions. Moore and the staffer were frequently spotted together in public after he became head coach, and footage of the two attending a Michigan lacrosse game aired on Big Ten Network in the spring of 2024.
Moore denied the relationship to colleagues and became angry when a member of the Michigan staff warned him the video clip gave the appearance of impropriety, a program source said.
Moore’s emotional volatility was no secret. One of his most memorable moments came after he led Michigan to a 24-15 victory at Penn State in 2023 while filling in for a suspended Jim Harbaugh. In his postgame interview on Fox, Moore burst into tears and delivered a profanity-laced tribute to Harbaugh.
“I f—ing love you, man,” Moore said on live TV, tears streaming down his face. “I love the s— out of you, man.”
At the time, Moore’s reaction seemed like an endearing, if profane, expression of emotion from a normally buttoned-up coach who was thrust into a difficult situation. In retrospect, some at Michigan saw it as the first indication that Moore wasn’t completely in control of his emotions.
Moore, who joined Michigan’s staff in 2018 as tight ends coach, was widely viewed as the likely successor if and when Harbaugh returned to the NFL. At Moore’s introductory news conference in January 2024, athletic director Warde Manuel said he surveyed the landscape but interviewed only Moore before promoting him two days after Harbaugh left to coach the Los Angeles Chargers.
“The man auditioned,” Manuel said then, referring to the games Moore coached while Harbaugh was suspended. “He had four games as head coach. Y’all tell me, ‘How could you see him as a head coach now?’ Those four games.”
A few weeks before Moore’s first game as head coach, news broke that he was named in a draft notice of allegations from the NCAA alleging he deleted text messages he exchanged with Connor Stalions, the Michigan staffer who orchestrated an impermissible scouting and sign-stealing operation. Moore served a two-game suspension this season for his failure to cooperate with that investigation and was set to be suspended for Michigan’s 2026 season opener. He’d previously served a one-game suspension for recruiting violations when he was Michigan’s offensive coordinator in 2023.
The revelations of the past two weeks prompted questions about how Michigan missed clear warning signs, including persistent rumors about his relationship with the female staffer. Some sources close to the program said they didn’t give much credence to the rumors, while others said the relationship was discussed openly by coaches and players.
“There were rumors about their relationship,” a staffer who worked for the team for three years said. “Nothing was set in stone — like, ‘Oh, they have a relationship.’ It wasn’t known across the building.”
In a video statement, Michigan president Domenico Grasso said the university has expanded the Jenner & Block investigation to include “culture, conduct and procedures” throughout the athletic department and would “act swiftly” to terminate other employees if evidence of additional misconduct emerges.
“It’s like a bad nightmare or a soap-opera drama,” said a second former Michigan staffer. “It’s a sad story, and it’s not over yet.”
— The Athletic‘s Alex Andrejev, Sam Jane and Nathan Fenno contributed reporting.
Thats just good theater. What a match made in hell.
We should all go in on a motorcycle dealer in the area because business has to be booming
This is going to end with him being caught on a motorcycle with Jordan Hudson, isn’t it?
That man has tits so big, Sherrone Moore is considering another go at it.
Like why the fuck am I able to see the titty acne/moles/whatever the fuck I'm seeing in this picture?
From the footballscoop article that came out today that Michigan deal is still a disaster. 3 Factions
1) Hire Jesse Minter and keep the Harbaugh thing rolling (yikes)
2) Hire Kyle Whittingham, clean house and start all over
3) Hire a Michigan man - like Adam Stenavich (OC Packers) that was at Michigan before Harbaugh
On top of that, Biff Poggi is saying he's interviewed "multiple times with multiple people" and says they need to clean house...uh hey Biff you were on staff with Harbaugh 3 years ago bud.
Two factions is hard enough to deal with, 3 factions...geez.
1) Hire Jesse Minter and keep the Harbaugh thing rolling (yikes)
2) Hire Kyle Whittingham, clean house and start all over
3) Hire a Michigan man - like Adam Stenavich (OC Packers) that was at Michigan before Harbaugh
On top of that, Biff Poggi is saying he's interviewed "multiple times with multiple people" and says they need to clean house...uh hey Biff you were on staff with Harbaugh 3 years ago bud.
Two factions is hard enough to deal with, 3 factions...geez.
On top of that, Michigan admin is trying to fire their AD, and has an interim university president, so who exactly is making the decisions, and will the new hires be supported by the new university leadership is also up in the air.
Might be more of a cluster than PSU.
Forcing Michigan fans to watch cutoff Poggi every Saturday would be beautiful
And if you try to punt on 2026 does Bryce Underwood leave?
Come home Bryce
Bryce and Brown, TJ moves to an analyst role
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