Deadspin: Following allegations made in February 2015​ by a woman who claimed she carried on a lengthy affair with then-Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan, the university conducted an investigation into his conduct and ​concluded in May​ that Ryan did not misuse university resources. According to a statement from university chancellor Rebecca Blank, Ryan’s unexpected resignation seven months later was “entirely his decision.”

Obviously by this point you’ve probably read Deadspin’s report on Coach Ryan, and most of you had probably heard rumors of this for quite a while. I haven’t said anything about it for a long time even though it’s been passed around every message board and sports bar in Wisconsin, and it’s for the same reason that I’m not gonna get too far into it now – Like I’ve mentioned here before, three of Coach’s kids have become very close friends of mine since I was a manager with the team. Like talk every day close. So obviously this has been an awkward thing that’s been hanging over everybody’s heads for a long time, and now the cat’s out of the bag. I didn’t feel comfortable bringing it up before this Deadspin thing came out because it wasn’t my place as a blogger/journalist/whatever you wanna call this, and it definitely wasn’t my place as a friend. If that’s a lame excuse for not mentioning this story earlier, then I’m sorry. It’s the only one I’ve got.

This has been an awkward situation because I’ve been feeling like I’m cheating TVL by never acknowledging this story that seemed like it was so obviously something I would normally post about, even though I’ve always said that I’ll be honest and blunt about everything – which is one of the reasons I think people like reading this site in the first place. But this was something totally different because it was personal. No real friend would try to break a story about something so sensitive, and I felt like everyone knew I was awkwardly avoiding it – because I was. People have tweeted and emailed me asking why I hadn’t said anything. Somebody new asks me about the rumors every day. Hell, every few weeks this chick has a new anonymous Twitter handle tweeting stuff like this about Coach’s family.

And check the comment section on this post about Brenna with Steven Avery’s lawyer Jerry Buting at the Badger game. It’s been floating out in front of TVL for a very long time, but there was no way I could address it. I’m not trying to apologize or make an excuse or pat myself on the back, that’s just the situation.

I feel awful for Coach’s family that this is something they have to deal with all over again, and it sucks that this happening during what should be a great stretch for the Wisconsin basketball program. All we can do is hope that this is the last we really hear about something that would be a private family matter for any other family in the state, but it never could be because of everything Coach Ryan has done. Unless something more is said about the story I probably won’t mention it again, but I just felt like I had to acknowledge it now that it’s so public. Going forward, I’ll do my best to go back to shooting straight about everything I can. The End.