The University of Michigan has confirmed it parted ways with football staffer Alex Yood after a video surfaced in September in which two men confronted Yood over accusations that he solicited an encounter with a 13-year-old girl.
The news of Yood’s firing was first reported by 247 Sports, and confirmed in a statement by Michigan’s athletics department to the Daily Mail.
“Alex Yood is no longer part of the athletic department,” the statement said.
“An issue was brought to our attention and we immediately moved to handle the matter with our HR department. We are unable to comment further regarding this employment matter.”
Yood was described by 247 as a “low level staffer” for Michigan’s football program.
The video was posted to Instagram at the end of September by Boopac Shakur, the alias of a Michigan man Robert Wayne Lee who has gone viral for luring alleged child predators.
In the video, the man alleged to be Yood is wearing Michigan gear and seen carrying a bottle of alcohol at a store when he is confronted by two men.
At first, Yood appears to believe he has been caught by the police, but the men inform him that they are not the authorities.
When the men ask Yood what he is doing, he answers that he bought the liquor for a graduation party that he is hosting in a couple days.
Yood is asked how old he is and says he is 22.
The men ask him what he’s doing at the store and how far he drove, and Yood responds, “I’m not looking for trouble.”
The men then present Yood with photos of his online exchange with the person he allegedly thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Yood says he didn’t know she was 13, and they respond that he had been told her age twice in the exchange.
The two men then start screaming in the store: “This man is here to meet a 13-year-old girl!”
According to 247, there are no court records in Ann Arbor associated with Yood.
Shakur was later killed in an unrelated incident.
The Michigan football program meanwhile has been caught up in recent weeks in a sign-stealing scandal involving former Marine Connor Stalions.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh has denied knowledge of wrongdoing in the sign-stealing case as other Big Ten coaches push for the program to be disciplined by the conference.
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