The start of the post-Jim Harbaugh era in Michigan has left a lot to be desired for Wolverine fans.
Sitting at 4-2 with a tough second half of the season impending, Michigan needs something to change after a loss to #1 Texas in Week 2 and a two-score loss to unranked Washington last week with a few close calls in between.
But it’s not just their on-field play that’s drawn criticism.
A video of someone on Michigan’s sideline aggressively approaching and cursing out a Washington fan has gone viral. The man, later identified as Christ Bryant, a former Wolverine’s offensive lineman and the current Director of High School Relations, can be heard threatening the fans in the stands:
“Whatever you got going on you better chill the f*ck out before you get f*cked up.”
Others chimed in saying that it’s not the first time Bryant got into it with people in the crowd, with two commenters on On3 recalling their experiences with the staffer:
“He was doing this to Illinois fans the last time we played in Champaign.”
“I always wondered who that was. Ohio st 2022 he was going after at the crowd all game long and I was in the 2nd row behind the bench”
At first there was no formal announcement of Chris Bryant’s employment status but his biography on Michigan Football’s website was completely wiped clean shortly after the video went viral, giving the impression that he may have spent his last afternoon on their sideline…
Chris Bryant, the Michigan staffer seen yelling at fans during Saturday's loss to Washington, had his entire bio wiped clean pic.twitter.com/b03mNOXoOf
— Andrew Mies (@andrew_mies) October 8, 2024
Sure enough, the university was forced to address the incident, saying in a statement to Angelique Chengelis of The Detroit News:
“We became aware of an interaction between Washington fans who were harassing our players by using over the top and offensive language. It was an unfortunate situation and should not have happened.
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. This is disappointing and we will handle the matter internally as a program.”
Michigan response to sideline situation between staff member Chris Bryant and fans at Washington that was caught on video pic.twitter.com/tGKyrbhH2F
— angelique (@chengelis) October 8, 2024
It’s certainly a fair question to ask what exactly happened in the lead up to that couple second clip. I’m sure this didn’t come out of nowhere and the statement references the fact that fans were chirping first but it’s still unacceptable for a representative of Michigan’s football team to act like that.
While it looks like he’ll remain with the program, there were a lot of people online who were calling for his firing.
Chris Bryant needs to fired. Classless. This is a Michigan man?
— DuchesneEast (@CrixusEsq) October 8, 2024
As a coach you have to shut out all the noise and focus on what you have to do
— Jeff green sr (@Jeffgreensr1) October 8, 2024
Not a representation of our team or culture, fire this man
— Andrew Hayward (@umfball1999) October 7, 2024
