AJ Hawk endorses NCAA's decision to not punish current Michigan players in sign-stealing investigation: 'It rips those dudes off'

The NCAA made its ruling on the 2023 Michigan sign-stealing case Friday, handing out multiple disciplinary measures to the University’s football program. This included four years of probation, multiple financial penalties, an additional game suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore (2026 season opener) and show-causes for former head coach Jim Harbaugh and former staffers Denard Robinson and Connor Stalions.

Former Ohio State linebacker and Green Bay Packers all-time tackler AJ Hawk made his voice known on the situation during Friday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show.” While many expected him to be disappointed with the decision not to strip the 2023 National Championship and not implementing a bowl-ban, Hawk felt sympathy for the current Wolverine players.

“I can speak for myself, I guess. I think there’s definitely people that are fans of Ohio State that expected something like this,” Hawk said. “Especially when we had Pete (Thamel) come on yesterday, and Pete basically told us, it’s not going to be some gigantic situation where they, you know, there’s a postseason bowl ban or anything like this.”

“Like, I’m, personally, like, torn on it, because I don’t think you should — I don’t want the players there now to get punished. I don’t think you should punish players that are there now for something that happened before they even got to school. Like, I don’t — I think that’s stupid. It rips those dudes off, and the head coach is gone already, coaching in the NFL. Ten-year show-cause, might as well be 100-year. Like, who cares? That doesn’t matter.”

The ruling comes two weeks before Michigan’s season opener

The decision comes after the NCAA’s investigation into Michigan began in 2023, when news broke of an alleged sign-stealing scheme orchestrated by the aforementioned Connor Stalions. He later resigned from his position and then-head coach Jim Harbaugh served a suspension handed down by the Big Ten under its sportsmanship clause to end the regular season.

A hearing took place in June regarding the Stalions case, and the former analyst made an appearance. ESPN’s Dan Wetzel reported Michigan faced 11 violations, including six Level I – the most serious according to NCAA rules. The expectation was a ruling would come down before the 2025 season officially started.

In the time since the investigation started, Michigan won the national championship and Harbaugh left for the Los Angeles Chargers, leading to Sherrone Moore’s elevation to head coach. He is preparing for his second season at the helm following last year’s 8-5 record, though he is already serving a self-imposed two-game suspension.

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this article.