How Netflix’s ‘Sign Stealer’ documentary could impact Michigan football

Sports documentaries seem to get turned around faster than ever before, which was made evident when Netflix announced the release of Sign Stealer as a part of the newest season of their Untold documentary series. An episode dedicated to former Michigan football staffer Connor Stalions and the Wolverines’ sign-stealing scandal that is still currently under investigation.

Michigan was able to take home last year’s national championship after being the center of attention off the field thanks to their sign-stealing allegations. And with that in mind, The Wolverine‘s Clayton Sayfie spoke on whether he feels that the Sign Stealer documentary could serve as a potential distraction for this season’s Michigan team.

“I mean they timed it out perfectly, right?” Sayfie asked at the On3 Roundtable. “August 27. So I think that’s right after Week 0 and obviously leading into the Week 1 slate, where Michigan will open on the 31st there against Fresno State. So I think it can be some sort of a distraction. I think it’s going to be more on social media though than inside the program.”

The Wolverines had their fair share of distractions last year between news surrounding the sign-stealing scandal and previous recruiting violations centered around head coach Jim Harbaugh. Who wound up being suspended for six games last season as a penalty for both off the field incidents.

“They’ve done a really good job, this program, of just kind of blocking out the outside noise. I mean, we all saw what they did last season at the end of the year without Jim Harbaugh, at the end of the regular season with all sorts of things swirling, and they’ve been able to just kind of operate business as usual,” Sayfie explained.

Ahead of the Netflix documentary release, off-the-field news continued to follow the Wolverines. With Harbaugh getting hit with a four-year show cause for recruiting violations after becoming the Los Angeles Chargers head coach. Along with a draft of the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations for Michigan regarding their sign-stealing investigation being leaked in the same week.

“So when some news came with the NCAA last week, you’re talking to players during fall camp and they all say they’re just used to it,” Sayfie said. “And they said, ‘Hey, next week, it’ll be something else, right?’ They’re used to it at this point, they’ve gone through offseasons where people are saying Jim Harbaugh is going to leave. Then obviously he eventually did and they had a coaching change. So these players have had a lot thrown at them, I think they’ll handle it pretty well.”

Sayfie doesn’t expect anything off the field to heavily impact Michigan’s football program. But for the viewers of the Sign Stealer documentary, there’s no question that there’s plenty of room for more potential dialogue and opinions surrounding one of the most talked about incidents in recent college sports history.

“As far as the contents of the documentary, I think it’ll probably be positive from a Michigan standpoint, where it’ll shed some more light on what exactly does go on in college football. Stealing signs is obviously part of the game,” Sayfie said. “You can’t do certain things that are alleged in terms of having people go to games and scout in advance, but I think it’ll add some more information in context to the entire story.

“But do I think it’s going to change the minds of people who don’t like Michigan, like Ohio State fans?” Sayfie asked. “No. But do I think it’ll change the minds of Michigan fans? Maybe it’ll embolden their position, but nonetheless, I think it’ll be interesting maybe for the casual fans to kind of understand a little more context about the situation.”