news of his resignation yesterday<\/a>.\u00a0 What does this mean?\u00a0 I dunno.\u00a0 Everyone has an opinion.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what they\u2019ve found, what they will find, or what is happening.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to wait and see.\u00a0 When it comes to digging up dirt, the NCAA is about as efficient as one can get.\u00a0 So I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll know what happened down the road.\u00a0 If the Sports Illustrated story I\u2019ve heard about comes close to being true, it was not just a single event but an unfolding \u201cculture of corruption\u201d (blah, I hate that term) that had gripped OSU.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there will be things and characteristics we\u2019ll never see focused on, but there will be enough to tell if it was really that bad, or just overblown.<\/p>\nIn any event, no matter how widespread or not, Mr. Tressel appears to have handled it the way you never should.\u00a0 He covered up, and then when it hit the fan, he attempted to twist the truth (dare I say, lie?) about his role in the events.\u00a0 And that appears to be the big sin for which the NCAA is focusing on Tressel.\u00a0 Did others know?\u00a0 Did the athletic department?\u00a0 Did those whose jobs it is to follow the ethics of the players know?\u00a0 Did Mr. Gee?\u00a0\u00a0 Who knows.\u00a0 We\u2019ll just have to wait and see.<\/p>\n
But I do know this.\u00a0 Why would a man who, by all accounts, is a grounded man with high ethical standards and strong moral convictions bale when something like this was going down?\u00a0 My guess is two reasons.\u00a0 First, the money.\u00a0 There\u2019s lots of money in college football, especially at a school like Ohio State.\u00a0 And money is the focus.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure Tressel didn\u2019t mind the hefty paycheck he got.\u00a0 But he was also aware of the burden placed on him to deliver winning seasons.\u00a0 Over and over and over again.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And this was important, because it was clear that this was increasingly the focus of the school.\u00a0 As an Ohio State alumnus, I was given the chance to get two tickets a year to a home game (and it used to be, multiple tickets to away games).\u00a0 Basically, the seats were never great, but they often weren\u2019t bad.\u00a0 Some seasons they were better than others.\u00a0 But as the years went on, the seats tended to get better.\u00a0 Well that was then.\u00a0 A few years ago, everything changed.\u00a0 Gone were your guarantee of tickets after being out of school for so long.\u00a0 Now it was a lottery.\u00a0 Gone were chances for away games at all. And gone were seats that weren\u2019t looking down on the flagpoles along the top of the stadium.\u00a0 You would have to go down a hundred feet to get to the nosebleeds where these seats are.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Need you ask.\u00a0 To make room for the big money, that\u2019s why. Hence, it\u2019s not hard to see that the emphasis on money expressed before the fan base must have reflected and equal, if not more passionate, focus on money behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
Second, you have the Buckeye fan base.\u00a0 I once knew a fellow from Indiana who said he would like to be a Buckeye fan, but he\u2019s not angry enough.\u00a0 Buckeye fans want, well, beyond winning.\u00a0 Tressel already wasn\u2019t liked by those who liked Cooper before him, by many who didn\u2019t like his puritanical\/religious ways, and\u00a0 by those who just don\u2019t like any coach no matter how many games he wins.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Last year, after one of the games we won (I think it was the game against Penn State, though I could be wrong), a caller called into the after game show on 610 radio to suggest that: Tressel be fired.\u00a0 Earl Bruce, former Buckeye football coach who followed Woody Hayes, came down on him like white on rice.\u00a0 What do you want!, Bruce asked.\u00a0 Tressel has had how many Big 10 titles?\u00a0 He\u2019s won a National Championship, been to a BCS bowl every year, had how many winning seasons in a row, has beat Michigan how many times?\u00a0 And he just won another game today!!\u00a0 And you want him to go?\u00a0 That attitude has to play a part.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Also, the tendency of the national sports media to criticize and downplay OSU\u2019s accomplishments\u00a0might also be a factor.\u00a0 From saying the National Championship game we won was stolen because of one call (ignoring other calls that game), to insisting that OSU\u2019s problems in the BCS were proof that the BCS is working, while criticizing the BCS whenever OSU won, had to diminish that feeling of security in the team, as well as the coach.<\/p>\n
In all, that\u2019s too much pressure for any man.\u00a0 You must win, win, win.\u00a0 You must more than win. You must bring in tons and tons of money.\u00a0 And on the other side, no matter how much you win or how well you do, there will be a sizable part of the sports media and even the fan base calling for your head on any given Saturday.\u00a0 Yeah, I can see why he did it.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t excuse him.\u00a0 Wrong is wrong and you have to pay the piper.\u00a0 Though I hope anyone found to be to blame will be equally dealt with.\u00a0 I also hope we don\u2019t let the players off the hook, as some have suggested in the last 24 hours.\u00a0 They were old enough to know what they were doing, and it\u2019s worth looking long and hard at them and the character of these players we offer the world to in order to bring in the big bucks.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
But I will hate to see him go.\u00a0 I hope the next coach brings the same pride in OSU and its traditions.\u00a0 And the same character we saw so often in Tressel, from charities to helping the troops to focusing on the students\u2019 well being. I hope the new coach doesn\u2019t make the mistake of Michigan\u2019s ex-coach Rodriguez who came in proud to dismiss its storied history.\u00a0 But it won\u2019t be the same.\u00a0 By all accounts, Tressel was a good man.\u00a0 Maybe too good.\u00a0 Good enough to let his players get out of control, and then not strong enough to stand up to the rabid fan base and naysayers of the media and say \u2018we\u2019ll take the losing seasons to do what is right, and if that costs me my job, so be it.\u2019\u00a0 Who knows.\u00a0 In any event, farewell Jim Tressel, wherever you fair.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As an Ohio State Buckeye football fan, and a fan of Jim Tressel, it saddened me to hear news of his resignation yesterday.\u00a0 What does this mean?\u00a0 I dunno.\u00a0 Everyone has an opinion.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what they\u2019ve found, what they will find, or what is happening.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to wait and see.\u00a0 When it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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