Ex-Michigan assistant Chris Partridge files lawsuit over 2023 firing from Wolverines

Chris Partridge, an assistant coach who was fired by Michigan weeks before the Wolverines won the 2023 national championship, is suing the university, its board of regents and athletic director Warde Manuel for violating his right to due process, alleging he was a “scapegoat who was wrongly fired simply because he told a player he had the right to have counsel.”

Michigan fired Partridge in November 2023 amid an NCAA investigation into Connor Stalions and a sign-stealing operation that resulted in significant sanctions for the program. Partridge’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, states that Partridge’s firing was “based on pressure from the commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, who used Partridge as a pawn in an eleventh-hour maneuver” to get Michigan and former coach Jim Harbaugh to drop their legal challenge to a three-game suspension imposed on Harbaugh by the Big Ten in connection with the sign-stealing investigation.

Partridge has spent the past two seasons in the NFL, where he won a Super Bowl ring in February as the outside linebackers coach for the Seattle Seahawks.

“It is past time for Chris to have the opportunity to tell the truth about what happened to him and clear his name,” Partridge’s lawyer, Liz Abdnour, said in a statement to The Athletic. “He is a talented, dedicated coach and advocate for young athletes, and his career in college athletics was cut unjustly short due to the unprincipled and self-interested decisions of an institution that prioritized politics and image over doing what’s right for its students.”

In the lawsuit, Partridge says his only transgression was advising a player to retain a lawyer before the player was interviewed by the NCAA. He recounts a meeting in which Michigan’s assistant general counsel told coaches not to discuss the sign-stealing investigation with anyone, a directive that Partridge describes as confusing and at odds with coaches’ responsibility to provide support to players.

Partridge argues he did nothing wrong by advising a player to talk to his father and retain a lawyer before being interviewed by the NCAA. In its public report, the NCAA Committee on Infractions said it did not find evidence to support the allegation that Partridge interfered with the investigation.

Partridge says athletic director Warde Manuel fired him without due process and accuses university officials of spreading false information about him, including a claim that he destroyed evidence related to the investigation. Partridge argues that his hasty firing was “squarely at odds” with Manuel’s handling of allegations involving other coaches, including former coach Sherrone Moore, who was fired amid an outside investigation into allegations that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.

Michigan declined a request for comment.

Partridge says that, in testimony to the Committee on Infractions, Manuel said the NCAA and the Big Ten were “leading Michigan administrators to believe that there were multiple people involved in the ‘sign stealing’ operation” and, as a result, Manuel testified that he made “hasty decisions.”

Partridge also accuses Manuel of “blacklisting” him by discouraging another college football program from hiring him. Partridge recounted his struggles landing another college job in an interview with The Athletic last month ahead of the Super Bowl.

“The interview process went all the way through, where I got to the end, and it was like, ‘OK, great. Let me just get this signed off with the AD,’” Partridge said. “And then it was like, ‘Well, we can’t do it. They won’t let you get hired right now, until the investigation is over.’”

The lawsuit states that Partridge experienced depression, anxiety, damage to his professional reputation and economic loss, among other damages. He is seeking an amount to be determined at trial.