A bar in Ann Arbor, Michigan has removed the name of disgraced former University of Michigan head football coach Sherrone Moore from one of its menu items.
What once was “Sherrone Moore’s Sampler Basket” is now “Devin Gardner’s Sampler Basket” at The Brown Jug, a popular student bar next to campus. Gardner, 34, is a former Wolverines quarterback.
The sampler basket costs $13 and comes with jalapeño poppers, chicken tenders, onion rings, cheese sticks and two sauces, according to the menu on the restaurant’s website. Each menu item is named after a different University of Michigan figure, mostly athletes and coaches.
“Names change all the time on the menus,” the owner’s son, Niko Porikos, told MLive in a story published Monday, December 15. “There’s hundreds of staff and coaches and players.”
Moore, 39, was fired on Wednesday, December 10, after an internal investigation revealed he allegedly had an “inappropriate relationship” with a staff member.
“This conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior,” athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement. (Manuel, 57, has a Greek gyro named after him at The Brown Jug.)
Moore was also arrested that day for allegedly forcing his way into the staff member’s home and threatening to kill himself in front of her. He fled when the staffer called police and he was arrested at a church nearby.
“The totality of the behavior is highly threatening and highly intimidating,” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kati Rezmierski said at his arraignment on Friday, December 12. “She was terrorized.”
Moore, who is married to wife Kelli, with whom he shares three daughters, has been charged with one count of third-degree felony home invasion, one count misdemeanor stalking related to a domestic relationship and one count misdemeanor breaking and entering. He faces up to six years, three months in prison and $3,500 in fines if found guilty on all counts.
This isn’t the first time The Brown Jug has made news for its menu items. In August, it attempted to trademark the phrase Buckeye Tears for one of its beers, only for Ohio State University to file a notice of opposition, arguing that the name would “cause confusion” and suggest affiliation with the university. (Ohio State’s sports teams are known as the Buckeyes, and are Michigan’s biggest rival.)
“No one in their right mind would ever think that Ohio State is the source of goods inviting the consuming public to feel schadenfreude over the losses of Ohio State athletic teams and the disappointment of Ohio State fans,” a reply from The Brown Jug filed in October reads, according to MLive.
Ohio State also claimed that the name would “dilute the distinctiveness” of the Buckeyes brand, though the restaurant argued in its replay that “Buckeye” is also used to describe residents of Ohio and it could refer to 5,700 Ohio businesses.
Porikos noted to MLive that Ohio State’s “silly and comical” challenge and the publicity that came with it caused a boost in sales of Buckeye Tears. The trademark case is ongoing.
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