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Michigan Stays Mum On Emails Allegedly Sent By Dave Brandon, One Tells Fan: 'We Will Be Fine Without You'

By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

CBS DETROIT - Embattled Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon allegedly sent a series of snide, condescending emails to fans who contacted him expressing their displeasure with the current state of the program.

The emails included lines such as the following:

"I suggest you find a new team to support. We will be fine without you. Have a happy life ... "

"I suggest you find a new team to support. I really don't care about your opinions. Have a happy life."

"If your wife's message was her way of criticizing, then perhaps she needs to work on her people skills ... I rarely receive hateful email like the one your wife sent."

"Quit drinking and go to bed."

The emails were posted on a local fan site MGoBlog, which writes that it believes the emails it has received, purported to be written by Brandon, are authentic, but the website noted it could not verify with 100 percent certainty that Brandon sent them.

When questioned about them Tuesday after an event in Ann Arbor, Brandon reportedly told MLive, "I don't read blogs so I think it's nonsense."

Brandon did not respond to numerous requests from CBS Detroit to either confirm or deny the email exchanges.

The emails allegedly sent by Brandon are the latest in a chain of seemingly trivial incidents that highlight larger issues at Michigan; earlier ones include Coca-Cola giving away tickets and the Wolverines planting a stake in the turf of rival Michigan State.

Contacted for comment about the validity of the emails, Michigan athletic media relations told CBS Detroit that university public relations was handling that matter. University public relations, after saying on the phone that it would "quickly" respond to the inquiry for information, sent an email that the university had no additional information to share.

Asked what initial information Michigan had provided, the university replied, "Sorry. Meant to say we have no information to share."

It seems difficult to imagine the athletic director of a major university sitting at his computer composing snippy responses to angry Michigan supporters who have emailed him in fits of typical fan ire. At the same time, it seems odd the venerable university has not issued a stern statement of denial if Brandon did not send any of the emails in question.

John Bacon, who worked at the Ann Arbor News and the Detroit News and penned a book about Michigan football under former head coach Rich Rodriguez, stated succinctly his opinion of the origin of the emails.

ESPN's Dan Murphy and Adam Rittenberg appeared to be taking the emails seriously as well.

Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports also regarded the emails as authentic.

The Michigan Daily reports that Craig Kaplan, a senior in public policy who helped lead the rally calling for the university to fire Brandon, plans to distribute 2,000 T-shirts with the hashtag #FIREDAVEBRANDON before the Indiana game Saturday. Kaplan told the Daily that a donor paid for the T-shirts.

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