Beneath the sheen and glitter that layers the sports world is a dark reality. Tampering can be a loosely thrown-around umbrella term. But trying to cut corners on the recruitment front is pretty prevalent across the varsity sports landscape. It’s so prevalent that it has almost become the norm. Even those who abuse malpractice perhaps lament it morally. However, they can’t cease their actions, to stay competitive. The cut-throat nature of sport facilitates those involved to try and find loopholes. One coach, instrumental in molding 2024’s no.1 overall recruit Bryce Underwood, has found solace after 2 years of meandering in the abyss for similar “crimes”.

Back in 2022, the Michigan High School Athletic Association probed an inquiry into a head coach within their jurisdiction. The reason? A high school student informed the MHSAA that the coach contacted him while he was still a 9th grader. In fact, he even picked him up from home and drove him to summer practice during this time. Look man, being a stand-up, proactive guy is one thing. But that’s obviously not permissible, and you’re quite evidently angling for something there as a coach. Somehow, said coach took his proactivity a step further than this.

2 of his players used to live in his house. You’d wonder how something like that even comes to light. Sensationally, it was revealed during an episode of the TV show, “Sports Stars Of Tomorrow”. In totality, this case came under breach of the “undue influence” rule. These were grounds for heavy reprimand, and the MHSAA came down with quite the hammer. 2 years of being barred from coaching at the high school level. But one could say that Jermain Crowell had it coming. The ex-Belleville head coach flew too close to the sun and has just found respite from his actions. One school has offered this marred figure a clean slate.

Now that his 2-year suspension has expired, River Rouge have hired Jermain Crowell. Initially, the River Rouge board voted 5-1 against this hire. However, they’ve come around to it. “Even as a district with students who we recruit, we’ve always been a place of second chances,” said school superintendent Derrick Coleman to the Detroit Free Press.

“I thought that in speaking with [Jermain Crowell] there was a high level of contrition. He owned those things that he had done wrong. He talked about lessons learned from it.” It’s not too difficult to add 2 and 2 and discern why River Rouge are comfortable in taking this controversial step.

His transgressions aside, Jermain Crowell is quite the hire from a purely footballing perspective. He won the D-1 state championship in 2021 with a freshman Bryce Underwood at quarterback. Crowell made the state playoffs in each of his 8 seasons at Belleville. He garnered an 84-10 record. This is somebody who can set a culture that your program can thrive within for sustained success.

River Rouge will just have to hope Crowell is setting a culture akin to Belleville, sans the more illicit aspects of it. They’ll need to stay vigilant though. You see, these aren’t one-off incidents. Jermain Crowell is part of a bit of a tampering syndicate. Plus, his general coaching ideology also rubs his contemporaries the wrong way. Scratch the surface and this controversial persona runs deeper. 

Trouble has followed Jermain Crowell both on and off the gridiron

The Sound Mind Sound Body football academy in Detroit is allegedly a breeding ground for all sorts of malpractice. It sees hundreds of athletes every year, from various schools. Crowell himself is a part of it and has been mentioned to use the opportunity of being around all these players to talk to and lure them to transfer to his team. If true, that tells us why the MHSAA came down that hard on Crowell. They perhaps needed to send a subliminal warning to others in this faction.

This stuff runs onto the grass as well. Jermain Crowell has quite a bad rep within fellow coaches. He’s been known to run up the score even though the game is beyond his opposition. Exercising Belleville’s superior muscle and stature over other schools instead of showing “mercy”. Now you can have your opinions of whether that’s a good or bad thing since running up the score has been a question within sports ethics for eons. When you’ve got a QB like Bryce Underwood, a little show-boating comes with the territory.

“[I respect] the issues that people may have with Crowell,” said the aforementioned Derrick Coleman. “But I don’t feel that we’ve done, as a district, anything wrong in hiring the gentleman.” It’ll be intriguing to see the character changes that 2 years of self-reflection brought about in Jermain Crowell. Second chances aren’t afforded often, much less third ones.