When it comes to the new Netflix documentary “Sign Stealer”, it’s worth remembering the story is told, as director Micah Brown notes, through “Connor Stalions’ point of view.”
If you are waiting for a gotcha moment where Stalions admits to a slew of NCAA violations concerning the advanced scouting of Michigan opponents — let alone that Jim Harbaugh ordered the Code Red (or Scarlet and Grey) — it’s not going to arrive.
Stallions said he acted alone but leans on the NCAA’s vague wording of its scouting rule as an explanation.
Stalions won’t even say if that was him on the Central Michigan sidelines — in possible spy sunglasses — during the Chippewas’ infamous game against Michigan State last season (although Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy does sort of out-him on it).
The strength of the documentary is in a different kind of reveal — mainly in the first public words by Stalions, who went from anonymous Michigan staffer to the central character of one of the biggest stories in recent college football history, yet never spoke to the media.
It’s also about a glimpse into the murky world of sign stealing itself, which is legal by NCAA rules but only when the signs are stolen in a particular manner.
Really, though, it’s the story of Stalions and that’s what interested Brown the most. Who is this guy and how the heck did all of this happen?
Stallions grew up in Metro Detroit and took on his mother’s love of all things Wolverines. As a kid he dressed as Bo Schembechler for Halloween and can recite Bo’s famous “The Team, The Team, The Team” speech on demand. He aspired to become U of M’s head coach. Winning was everything.
He would have attended Michigan but studied the best coaches and found a common thread from Woody Hayes and Bear Bryant to Mike Krzyzewski and Gregg Popovich — a military background. So Stalions enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy and as a freshman walked into the football offices looking to volunteer. Next thing you know, he was assigned the task of deciphering the opponents’ play signs.
Navy’s first opponent that year? Ohio State. Of course.
By the time Stalions got out of the Marine Corps and became a full-timer under Harbaugh, he was clearly quite adept at decoding play calls.
Perhaps, as the NCAA alleges, that was because he was sending his friends and family out to film opponent’s signals. Or perhaps that was because, as Stalions states, he poured his entire life and his analytical mind into the task.
It was likely a combination of both, but it was the advanced filming scheme — uncovered by a private investigative firm (who hired that firm is a big part of the doc) — that caused mayhem in the 2023 season as Michigan rumbled to the national title.
Some people will walk away liking Stalions. Some will always hate him. That he is a fascinating figure is unquestioned.
“What I love about college football and what I love about Connor is that so many people want the world to be black and white,” Brown, the director, told Yahoo Sports. “But life, and especially college football, isn’t so black and white. It’s pretty damn gray.”
Micah Brown knows college football. His father Todd was coached by Tom Osborne at Nebraska and Micah played four seasons at Kansas, including in the 2007 Orange Bowl. He later served as an assistant coach at KU and is currently embedded for another season at Colorado with Deion Sanders.
“Connor is everything I expected from a Marine sergeant turned coach; he talks about everything very seriously,” Brown said. “He is very, very smart. His life is football. He knows as much about football as anyone.”
Part of Stalions’ defense in this case is that even if, hypothetically, he was receiving videos that friends took of opposing sidelines, he didn’t need them. He stole all the signs via television footage and by sharing information with sign stealers on other teams. He was just really good at it.
This is unlikely to appease his critics.
How much did all of this matter? It’s hard to say. It seems everyone has everyone’s signals — so does it really matter, competitively speaking, how they were obtained? And it’s worth asking, if being able to call out the plays was the difference between winning and losing, wouldn’t every program in a cutthroat sport have a team of 15 staffers assigned to the task?
Those questions remain unanswered, and likely always will. This is either the biggest thing in the world or it isn’t. Either way, the 2023 season was about Michigan and the unlikely center of a scandal.
Getting a little more information about all of it — in often entertaining fashion — and the man in the middle of it makes “Sign Stealer” worth 90 minutes of your time.
Dan Wetzel and Ross Dellenger broke the original story that the NCAA was investigating Michigan for an advanced scouting scheme. Wetzel was interviewed and appears in “Sign Stealer.”
