Schembechler statue vandalized with paint
Maybe the NFL teams set to play on Thanksgiving got caught looking ahead to the holiday extravaganza.
All six squads playing today lost in their lead-up to the Thanksgiving game, marking the first time since 2001 that every team playing on the holiday dropped its previous contest.
Back then there were two Thanksgiving games, with Detroit hosting Green Bay and Dallas hosting Denver.
This year there are six teams — Detroit, Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas, New Orle- ans and Buffalo — looking to get rid of the bad taste of a loss so they can enjoy their holiday. Four of those are on winless stretches of at least three games.
Detroit (0-9-1) hosts Chicago (3-7) in the first game, a matchup between a winless team and one on a five-game losing streak. The Bears and Lions are familiar Thanksgiving foes, with this being their 19th meeting, two shy of the record held by Detroit and Green Bay.
That game will be followed by the slumping Raiders (5-5), who have lost three straight, visiting the Cowboys (7-3), who
A statue ANN ARBOR, MICH. — on the University of Michigan campus of legendary football coach Glenn “Bo” Schembechler has been vandalized with paint and a message supporting sexual assault victims of a former sports doctor has been scrawled on the steps beneath it.
A crew was working Wednesday to remove red paint splattered on t he statue outside the Ann Arbor school’s football building, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Written in black on the steps was: “Bo knew (hash) have dropped two of three.
The nightcap features another team on a threegame skid, with New Orleans (5-5) hosting Buffalo (6-4).
The final two games are hailtothevictims.”
The university said Wednesday in a statement that the vandalism was under investigation.
A law firm hired by U-M found that officials failed to stop the late Dr. Robert Anderson, despite hearing reports that he sexually assaulted student-athletes. The university is in media- tion with lawyers who are seeking a financial settle- ment for 800-plus people, mostly men.
Former Michigan football players have said they told Schembechler in the 1970s about Anderson’s behavior
part of a record nine this week between teams that don’t have a losing record, the most in NFL history in Week 12 or later.
Road warriors
The Arizona Cardinals have become the NFL’s road warriors.
The Cardinals have won all six road games, with each victory coming by at least 10 points.
The last team to do that was the Cowboys in 1968, when they won all seven road games they played that seaduring physical exams.
Schembechler’s son, Matt, has said he told his father Anderson assaulted him as a child. Another son, Glenn, does not think his father was aware Anderson was doing anything unaccept- able during exams.
An email sent to the Free Press Wednesday morning read, “This action is done in solidarity with the Hail to the Victims campaign,” according to the newspaper.
“Bo pulled strings and bent over backwards to ensure that Anderson could keep his job,” the email contin- ued. “It is time for the world
son by double digits.
Arizona is off this week butcan match the mark the following week at Chicago.
Playing from ahead
The Minnesota Vikings have had a knack for playing with the lead.
The Vikings are the 20th team in the Super Bowl era to lead each of their first 10 games by at least seven points.
Despite having that kind of cushion each game, Min- nesota is still only 5-5 on the season.
know that Bo is respon- sible for the abuse of innumerable Michigan football players.”
Some have called for Schembechler’s statue to be taken down and his name
removed from the football building.
Anderson retired in 2003 and died in 2008.
Schembechler, who died in 2006, is hailed as the greatest coach of college football’s winningest program. He led the Wolverines from 1969- 89, won 194 games at the school, and had 234 victories including wins over six seasons at Miami University.