ESPN REPORT: Sad News, Ohio State Buckeyes football head coach has been issued a…
That Japanese saying appears on page 193 of Ohio State coach Jim Tressel’s book, “The Winners Manual For The Game of Life.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has this pearl of wisdom eight pages later: “It takes less time to do the right thing than to explain why you did it wrong.”
Coach Jim Tressel of Ohio State missed the first two games of the 2011 campaign due to suspension. Bartram Greg/US Presswire
Over his ten years as the head coach of the Buckeyes, Tressel has frequently demonstrated to us that his teams are incapable of winning crucial games.
Tressel also proved to us on Tuesday night that he is not a winner at the major press conferences.
Tressel wanted us to think he was any different from other successful head coaches, despite leading the Buckeyes to seven Big Ten titles and the 2002 BCS national championship.
Tressel wanted us to think of him as a straight shooter who plays by the rules, and this was evident in everything from his character-based novels to his conservative sweater vests.
We discovered on Tuesday night that Tressel is much like many college football coaches. It seems like winning games and titles is more important to him than abiding by the law and doing things the proper way.
Tressel may even be worse than other college coaches at tainting collegiate athletics. Even after being exposed, he refuses to accept that he is incorrect.
In the midst of his worst crisis to date, Tressel never once expressed regret for willfully violating NCAA regulations at a press conference held on the Ohio State campus on Tuesday evening. Even worse, Tressel never acknowledged that he failed to disclose to NCAA investigators or his superiors that he knew at least two of his players may have accepted unlawful perks from the owner of a Columbus, Ohio, tattoo parlor.
Tressel claimed he has always been his harshest critic when asked if he was concerned the incident would damage his reputation.
Tressel stated, “I don’t think less of myself right now.”
That’s how staring in the mirror goes.
According to Ohio State officials, Tressel violated NCAA regulations by failing to notify the school’s compliance office or athletics director Gene Smith about emails he received in April 2010 from an attorney claiming Buckeyes athletes were receiving unlawful perks.
Nine months later, in December 2011, the NCAA punished five Ohio State players, including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, for the first five games of the 2011 season for selling awards and memorabilia from the owner of the tattoo business. Tressel never even brought up the emails at that point.
Tressel’s penalty? Ohio State penalized him $250,000 and suspended him for the first two games of the next season.
The already depleted Buckeyes should be able to make it through home games against Toledo and Akron without their coach, and I have no doubt that Tressel will find a way to make ends meet with the remaining portion of his $3.5 million pay.
On Tuesday, athletic director Gene Smith and president Gordon Gee defended Jim Tressel. By Terry Gilliam/AP
In the most recent college football scandal, Ohio State appears even more reprehensible than Tressel. The university, which has always taken great pride in its intellectual and athletic achievements, doesn’t seem any different from the football factories it has long despised.
Though it’s obvious that Ohio State won’t hold Tressel responsible for his behavior, the NCAA may still punish Tressel and the team.
E. Gordon Gee, the president of Ohio State, stated that he never thought of firing Tressel.
“No, are you kidding me?” said Gee. “Let me explain exactly. All I can hope is that the coach doesn’t let me go.”
Smith offered the same level of assistance.
“Wherever we end up at the end of the day, Jim Tressel is our football coach,” Smith stated. “Any conjecture on his termination is just that—speculation. In my opinion, this case is not worthy of it.”
Tressel had already tricked the NCAA into letting Pryor and the other penalized players play in the Allstate Sugar Bowl rather than immediately initiating their five-game penalties. Jim Delany, the commissioner of the Big Ten, even batted for the OSU five who were punished.
The Buckeyes most likely wouldn’t have had a chance against Arkansas without them. The Buckeyes won a thrilling 31–26 game with them.
The Buckeyes defeated an SEC team for the first time after nine straight losses. Tressel apparently picked up on cheating just as well as they do.
If you believe Tressel, he never said anything because the lawyer who emailed him requested him to keep the details private. According to Tressel, there is a federal drug trafficking case involving the tattoo parlor, and he didn’t want to risk it.
Tressel stated, “It was obviously extremely concerning.” “Quite honestly, I was scared.”
However, Tressel lacked the courage to bring up the issue with his superiors. Even worse, he never met with athletes who were being improperly benefited by a man who is at the core of a federal drug prosecution.
“If you all of the sudden sit down some players who have earned the opportunity to play, there are a whole set of new questions which are going to be asked,” Tressel stated.
Tressel appears to have misled the compliance officers at his own university in addition to hiding possible infractions of NCAA rules.
The report states that on December 16, OSU representatives conducted interviews with the suspended Buckeyes players. Tressel was questioned about the tattoo parlor and asked if he had been approached after those interviews. According to the report, Tressel acknowledged that “he had received a tip about general rumors pertaining to a certain [number] of his players, [but] that information had not been specific, and it pertained to their off-field choices.”
Tressel covered up a controversy and then deceived investigators, two of the cardinal offenses of collegiate athletics.
Tressel’s contract could have easily been canceled by Ohio State.
Rather, OSU’s message was very clear: keep winning Big Ten titles and defeating Michigan; we’ve got you covered.
For the record, it has taken Michigan’s football team 2,663 days to defeat Ohio State.
But on Tuesday, the Wolverines prevailed.
At least their cheating coach had been fired.
