Jim Tressel Tenders Resignation
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Whitlock article:
Tressel product of flawed system
Jason Whitlock
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Jason Whitlock writes about the sports world from every angle, including those other writers can't imagine or muster courage to address. His columns are humorous, thought-provoking, agenda free, honest and unpredictable. E-mail him or follow his Twitter.
Updated May 31, 2011 4:28 PM ET
There’s a best-selling book out about ESPN, “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World Of ESPN.” Most people think it’s about Keith Olbermann’s ego, Michelle Beadle’s loathing of Erin Andrews, and wild sex and partying in Bristol, Conn.
Real Talk with James Miller
Tune in Wednesday for Jason Whitlock's Real Talk podcast with James Miller, author of the best-selling book, “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World Of ESPN."
It’s not. At the book’s outset and at its best, authors James Miller and Tom Shales document how a group of businessmen and entrepreneurs built a multibillion-dollar TV network from the foundation of broadcasting tape-delayed college football games and live NCAA tournament basketball games.
NCAA shamateurism birthed the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports.
It should come as no surprise that in 2011, even with big-time college athletics grotesquely sick with corruption incubated by the lie of amateurism, no major media outlet will mount a serious, consistent call for an overhaul of NCAA rules.
We owe our existence to the exploitation of shamateur football and basketball players. We must support the lie.
And today that means we all fall in line and go along with the charade that there’s something unique about the lies that undid Jim Tressel at Ohio State. According to Sports Illustrated’s narrative, Tressel is the Jimmy Swaggart of football coaches, a willfully ignorant, pious hypocrite.
Tressel pretended to have virtue when all he really cared about was winning football games.
I naively thought that act was a requirement for all college coaches. But Tressel’s critics are outraged because he pulled off the act better than Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer, Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Bill Self, Pat Summit, Vivian Stringer, Bo Pelini ... I could go on and on.
I like coaches. I respect coaches. They taught me several life lessons that remain with me to this day. But I’m not stupid about what motivates them. They want to win. They want to earn. And they hope they help more kids than they hurt while they’re winning and earning.
Jim Tressel is not special. He’s not particularly sinister or fraudulent. He’s an executive in a major industry who is taking the fall so the lie can continue long enough for the major players to come up with a new batch of lies.
Tressel, Bruce Pearl and probably a few coaches I can’t remember right now lied to the NCAA about NCAA rules.
Oh, the horror.
A prostitute lied to her pimp.
Kids on a football team traded memorabilia for tats, weed and cars. We already knew or suspected all of this, but Sports Illustrated repackaged all of this information, painted the picture that Tressel called himself “Jesus,” and then the magazine pretended that Tressel’s demise wasn’t sealed until it informed Ohio State administrators about his horrific pattern of corruption.
Kids traded their possessions for things they wanted, and Tressel feigned he didn’t know anything about it.
Oh, the horror.
Tressel would appear more honorable if he recruited kids and then jumped from Bowling Green to Utah to Florida in a span of three or four years.
NCAA rules, the myth of amateurism and television money turn college coaches into liars.
The rules are worse than the people.
Why does the story keep getting framed around the people? Why do we keep demonizing the people rather than rules that NCAA architect Walter Byers chastised in his 1995 book, “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting the Student-Athlete?”
“Today the NCAA Presidents Commission,” Byers wrote, “is preoccupied with tightening a few loose bolts in a worn machine, firmly committed to the neo-plantation belief that enormous proceeds from college games belong to the overseers (administrators) and supervisors (coaches). The plantation workers performing in the arena may only receive those benefits authorized by the overseers.”
You can tell the Ohio State tattoo story without making Tressel the main target of vitriol and scorn. You can blame the myth of amateurism and how that fable breeds corruption.
Are coaches really supposed to interrupt the moneymaking machine by monitoring how their players are paying for tattoos, weed and cars? If coaches took the time to hunt down what their players were really doing away from the field or court, the coaches would never have time to coach, feed the media hype machines and make sure players occasionally attend classes.
College athletics is big business. Read the ESPN book to get an understanding of how big sports businesses operate.
Secretaries were turning tricks at ESPN. Drugs were being sold and used. Sexual harassment was the norm. Executives looked the other way because there was too much money riding on the success of the network.
Read the ESPN book and imagine what it would read like if Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Stuart Scott and the other on-air talent were being paid in broadcasting classes.
You think anyone would care about a rule book?
You think Jim Tressel is special because he lied to NCAA investigators?
The system is the evil lie. The system is the problem. But the system dangles the promise of creating new worldwide media leaders so the farce continues.
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mikeyP72 said:
The system is broke though, just as broken as Pryor and friends are.
These schools and NCAA officials get rich from kids playing a game and they are entitled to nothing but a hope they can turn pro?? The Bowl system is bullsh*t and income driven and skewed towards the biggest college programs (financially) who will generate the most money for the NCAA. Coincidence?
The NCAA should be on trial just as much as anyone else, Tressel, Pryor, Carrol, etc.
Yet recently it was determined the dollar amount of what it takes to send a scholarship athlete through college for four years, including tuition, perks, food, clothing, etc etc.... $212,000.
Spare me the bullshit of nothing but a hope they can go pro, when the majority of us pay for our kids to go to college. I'd love if I never had to pay a dime for my kids to go to college.
Yet recently it was determined the dollar amount of what it takes to send a scholarship athlete through college for four years, including tuition, perks, food, clothing, etc etc.... $212,000.
Spare me the bullshit of nothing but a hope they can go pro, when the majority of us pay for our kids to go to college. I'd love if I never had to pay a dime for my kids to go to college.
It is a state owned university and not a private college we are talking about here.
Public four-year colleges charge, on average, $7,605 per year in tuition and fees for in-state students. Source
There are 6.9 million high school athletes, how will you stand out" - “There are 254,000 seniors who play high school football. There are only 5,042 athletic scholarships awarded at the D1 level. Your odds are 1-50 that you get a scholarship.”
If you are a D1 athlete you may not have time between studies and practice to afford a job.
Head or Gut? -
I get tired of hearing it is a stupid rule, whether it is from guys like Mike and Mike or local hacks. The bottom line is the rule is in place so shady boosters can't give a kid 50k for a mouthpiece or some shit.
I have way deeper feelings on everything that is going down there but as far as this rule goes, it is there for a reason
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I get tired of hearing it is a stupid rule, whether it is from guys like Mike and Mike or local hacks. The bottom line is the rule is in place so shady boosters can't give a kid 50k for a mouthpiece or some shit.
I have way deeper feelings on everything that is going down there but as far as this rule goes, it is there for a reason
I get tired of hearing it is a stupid rule, whether it is from guys like Mike and Mike or local hacks. The bottom line is the rule is in place so shady boosters can't give a kid 50k for a mouthpiece or some shit.
I have way deeper feelings on everything that is going down there but as far as this rule goes, it is there for a reason
Yeah, but can they tell him you can use my car, as long as you put gas in it? I'm beginning to wonder- Dear Mr. Tressell- this isn't don't ask don't tell. If my boss' daughter noticed Pryor tooling around in cars like this, you're going to tell me Tressell didn't? And didn't bother to ask him where the $$ came from?
Of course the dealer said it was all on the up and up. Sure, like maybe no payments and no interest for three years? About as legit as LeBron driving a Hummer in High School.
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Yet recently it was determined the dollar amount of what it takes to send a scholarship athlete through college for four years, including tuition, perks, food, clothing, etc etc.... $212,000.
Spare me the bullshit of nothing but a hope they can go pro, when the majority of us pay for our kids to go to college. I'd love if I never had to pay a dime for my kids to go to college.
It is a state owned university and not a private college we are talking about here.
Public four-year colleges charge, on average, $7,605 per year in tuition and fees for in-state students. Source
There are 6.9 million high school athletes, how will you stand out" - “There are 254,000 seniors who play high school football. There are only 5,042 athletic scholarships awarded at the D1 level. Your odds are 1-50 that you get a scholarship.”
If you are a D1 athlete you may not have time between studies and practice to afford a job.
If you are a D1 athlete you may not have time between studies and practice to afford a job.
Dude, they are debt free out of college. Bullshit. They get free room and board. Your numbers show tuition only, room and board for the season is twice as much as the tuition. Tell that to our own Ben Watson (rumored to have a 172 IQ), Robert Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Alex Smith, Matt Birk, Steve Young, etc. They had time to study and play football?
Luck is Tim Couch. Big, Dumb Goofy, slow thinking QB - Ghoolie, 2-28-12 -
Tressel is a fine head coach in the college ranks. but the idea that "the system" is broken escapes me..
Yes, he's a fine man. But, there's a lot of pressure on the big college teams, with huge attendences at every game.
it isn't anyone else's fault, but Tressel's. If he had recruited players with a solid work ethic, and character - he could easily have avoided
Pryor and the several others who figured they got away with stuff in hs, so.... on and on it goes.
The system isn't broken - the valuation of character is, all too often. Why on earth Tressel picked up Pryor and started him so soon, when he
wasn't ready, ... ??? If Tressel had been a GREAT COACH - he would have chosen his players differently, and handled situations differently.
I mean, if Tressel had been a great coach, he could have recruited and signed a classy real qb, I think - instead of a super athletic goof
who just helped ruin his career?
I mean, Pryor has received three traffic citations in the past at Ohio State - all in a different car he was using in a dealership. Now, how dumb can ya be,
driving someone elses' cars, and you get traffic citations, and you don't quit screwing up? Well, Tressel covered for him and others, again and again and again...
what does that teach your players? Nothing good.
It does buy you a more expensive sweater though. Isn't that how the prima donnas who think they never have to go by the rules since hs keep surfacing?
It seems to me, that any player who is THAT athletic, and keeps getting away with nonchalantly breaking rules, is the creation of coaches who are so self-absorbed and
self-interested, that they are greedy and corrupt beyond what a real coach is supposed to be.
It isn't the system, it's the people who want to break the system's rules for their own benefit. And that isn't anything that started just recently.
I'm not buyin "everybody else does it too"... that's baloney. Tressel's made his fortune, whatever. But the lesson will be repeated eventually by some other coaches
who think it's all about the benefits they get for breaking rules. And, their players think that flies in life in the pros, and in everyday life.
Which makes, in the end, Tressel only a fine coach. He was successful, while failing his players and his college. That isn't greatness.
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Ya but players make that 200,000 ish grand threw rent and tuition but it still doesn't pay to put cloths on their backs and a lot come from poor families. Yes they should be happy they are getting the education but they are alos being told to dress nice for banquets and shit but then told they have to pay for their own damn suit. I'm just a normal college student and I spent about 2+ grand out of pocket last year just on things like gas and clothes that I needed for school. I'm lucky enough to have a summer job to pay for it while these guys can't be hired by a lot of places in the towns they play for because of the pay for play rule. I think I know of half a dozen guys on the football team at BG who get summer work in the area by bailing hay for 24 hours a week and thats only for about a month of the summer. At the same time even small schools like BGSU make a shit ton of money off of game and merchandise that the players never see. I'm not saying they should make 100,000 grand a year, but 2-3 grand shouldn't be out of the question in just free range do what you want with it money.
Ruining threads since 1897. -
Ya but players make that 200,000 ish grand threw rent and tuition but it still doesn't pay to put cloths on their backs and a lot come from poor families. Yes they should be happy they are getting the education but they are alos being told to dress nice for banquets and shit but then told they have to pay for their own damn suit. I'm just a normal college student and I spent about 2+ grand out of pocket last year just on things like gas and clothes that I needed for school. I'm lucky enough to have a summer job to pay for it while these guys can't be hired by a lot of places in the towns they play for because of the pay for play rule. I think I know of half a dozen guys on the football team at BG who get summer work in the area by bailing hay for 24 hours a week and thats only for about a month of the summer. At the same time even small schools like BGSU make a shit ton of money off of game and merchandise that the players never see. I'm not saying they should make 100,000 grand a year, but 2-3 grand shouldn't be out of the question in just free range do what you want with it money.
Hillis-iz-Boss said:
Ya but players make that 200,000 ish grand threw rent and tuition but it still doesn't pay to put cloths on their backs and a lot come from poor families. Yes they should be happy they are getting the education but they are alos being told to dress nice for banquets and shit but then told they have to pay for their own damn suit. I'm just a normal college student and I spent about 2+ grand out of pocket last year just on things like gas and clothes that I needed for school. I'm lucky enough to have a summer job to pay for it while these guys can't be hired by a lot of places in the towns they play for because of the pay for play rule. I think I know of half a dozen guys on the football team at BG who get summer work in the area by bailing hay for 24 hours a week and thats only for about a month of the summer. At the same time even small schools like BGSU make a shit ton of money off of game and merchandise that the players never see. I'm not saying they should make 100,000 grand a year, but 2-3 grand shouldn't be out of the question in just free range do what you want with it money.
Bullshit. Boo hoo, they come from a poor family, then that should be all the more reason they should understand the value of that scholarship and free room and board. Quit your whining and get to studying.
Luck is Tim Couch. Big, Dumb Goofy, slow thinking QB - Ghoolie, 2-28-12 -
Hillis-iz-Boss said:
Ya but players make that 200,000 ish grand threw rent and tuition but it still doesn't pay to put cloths on their backs and a lot come from poor families. Yes they should be happy they are getting the education but they are alos being told to dress nice for banquets and shit but then told they have to pay for their own damn suit. I'm just a normal college student and I spent about 2+ grand out of pocket last year just on things like gas and clothes that I needed for school. I'm lucky enough to have a summer job to pay for it while these guys can't be hired by a lot of places in the towns they play for because of the pay for play rule. I think I know of half a dozen guys on the football team at BG who get summer work in the area by bailing hay for 24 hours a week and thats only for about a month of the summer. At the same time even small schools like BGSU make a shit ton of money off of game and merchandise that the players never see. I'm not saying they should make 100,000 grand a year, but 2-3 grand shouldn't be out of the question in just free range do what you want with it money.
Bullshit. Boo hoo, they come from a poor family, then that should be all the more reason they should understand the value of that scholarship and free room and board. Quit your whining and get to studying.
Bullshit. Boo hoo, they come from a poor family, then that should be all the more reason they should understand the value of that scholarship and free room and board. Quit your whining and get to studying.
Exactly. The athletes got what they were promised in their scholarship, free education, room and board, etc. They are not entitled to make a living. These athletes should be banned from sports for life in my opinion greedy cock-------er's.
"You planning on having a long relationship with that glass or are you going to drink it? Drink up, man. Maybe we can get another.” - Janis Joplin, 1970. -
Bullshit. Boo hoo, they come from a poor family, then that should be all the more reason they should understand the value of that scholarship and free room and board. Quit your whining and get to studying.
Exactly. The athletes got what they were promised in their scholarship, free education, room and board, etc. They are not entitled to make a living. These athletes should be banned from sports for life in my opinion greedy cock-------er's.
Exactly. The athletes got what they were promised in their scholarship, free education, room and board, etc. They are not entitled to make a living. These athletes should be banned from sports for life in my opinion greedy cock-------er's.
It's seems me and Die Hard are agreeing on everything lately. I think I am getting old.
Luck is Tim Couch. Big, Dumb Goofy, slow thinking QB - Ghoolie, 2-28-12 -
If you are a D1 athlete you may not have time between studies and practice to afford a job.
Dude, they are debt free out of college. Bullshit. They get free room and board. Your numbers show tuition only, room and board for the season is twice as much as the tuition. Tell that to our own Ben Watson (rumored to have a 172 IQ), Robert Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Alex Smith, Matt Birk, Steve Young, etc. They had time to study and play football?
Dude, they are debt free out of college. Bullshit. They get free room and board. Your numbers show tuition only, room and board for the season is twice as much as the tuition. Tell that to our own Ben Watson (rumored to have a 172 IQ), Robert Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Alex Smith, Matt Birk, Steve Young, etc. They had time to study and play football?
And who said Pryor has a high IQ?
Head or Gut? -
Ya but players make that 200,000 ish grand threw rent and tuition but it still doesn't pay to put cloths on their backs and a lot come from poor families. Yes they should be happy they are getting the education but they are alos being told to dress nice for banquets and shit but then told they have to pay for their own damn suit. I'm just a normal college student and I spent about 2+ grand out of pocket last year just on things like gas and clothes that I needed for school. I'm lucky enough to have a summer job to pay for it while these guys can't be hired by a lot of places in the towns they play for because of the pay for play rule. I think I know of half a dozen guys on the football team at BG who get summer work in the area by bailing hay for 24 hours a week and thats only for about a month of the summer. At the same time even small schools like BGSU make a shit ton of money off of game and merchandise that the players never see. I'm not saying they should make 100,000 grand a year, but 2-3 grand shouldn't be out of the question in just free range do what you want with it money.
Hillis-iz-Boss said:
Ya but players make that 200,000 ish grand threw rent and tuition but it still doesn't pay to put cloths on their backs and a lot come from poor families. Yes they should be happy they are getting the education but they are also being told to dress nice for banquets and shit but then told they have to pay for their own damn suit. I'm just a normal college student and I spent about 2+ grand out of pocket last year just on things like gas and clothes that I needed for school. I'm lucky enough to have a summer job to pay for it while these guys can't be hired by a lot of places in the towns they play for because of the pay for play rule. I think I know of half a dozen guys on the football team at BG who get summer work in the area by bailing hay for 24 hours a week and thats only for about a month of the summer. At the same time even small schools like BGSU make a shit ton of money off of game and merchandise that the players never see. I'm not saying they should make 100,000 grand a year, but 2-3 grand shouldn't be out of the question in just free range do what you want with it money.
Problem is (not every time) poor families= poor money management skills, or none at all. Pretty sure scholarship athletes @ OSU and other D1 programs get free food too- all they can eat. Sadly, Pryor & Co. weren't spending that extra cash on clothes- they were spending it on ink and weed.
IMHO Pryor is in a heap of trouble, and ditto that for the guy who was supplying him with cars. Eight? cars in three years? He would have had to have been upside down on every car loan he had. Hmmmmm..... Joe car dealer gives him a super good deal on his trade (way over Blue Book) and cuts the price of the new wheels to below cost. Boosters like this deserve the Death Sentence- permanent revocation of their ability to get OSU tickets- we don't need your stinking money that bad, and there's a waiting list for your seats. The truth will come out- it isn't Rocket Science to go down to the BMV and pull the transaction records, and the local bank to check out the loan arrangements.
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yeah, there are plenty of kids who grow up in compton, don't have a hat to piss in and they make it out without doing dumb shit and better themselves and society without be able to shoot a world b. free rainbow jumper or running a 4.0 40.
we as fans (fanatics) are half the problem. sure we want our teams to run things ship-shape but we also demand the best in talent. what was the cry here after mangini got fired? "i don't care if the guy has some character issues as long as he can catch the ball or take off someone's head!" blah blah blah. hence the terrell pryors' of the up and coming generation of thug athletes.
ps: espn has to stop this post high school/college commitment specials (i.e. the lebron james decision) where they show these doofusses putting on the ball hat of the college they decided to 'give their talents to'. i knew pryor was a douche as soon as i saw him. fall on your sword tressel. i would of sold those mfer's out in a heartbeat.
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Dude, they are debt free out of college. Bullshit. They get free room and board. Your numbers show tuition only, room and board for the season is twice as much as the tuition. Tell that to our own Ben Watson (rumored to have a 172 IQ), Robert Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Alex Smith, Matt Birk, Steve Young, etc. They had time to study and play football?
And who said Pryor has a high IQ?
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Tressel did the right thing, you don't snitch on your players or you'll never recruit and good talent and then you're fired anyways. You never ever ever snitch to the corrupt NCAA. xxxx em.
Anyways it's too bad the guy that puts him out has to be a huge douche like Pryor...but you get what you recruit i suppose.
Because it actually comes down to who gives a flying xxxx..they should have the right to sell some signatures on the back end. ( the fact they don't is a whole other mess)
All coaches have to go to bat for their players, they live and die by them anyways so what the xxxx is the point of snitching?
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Exactly. The athletes got what they were promised in their scholarship, free education, room and board, etc. They are not entitled to make a living. These athletes should be banned from sports for life in my opinion greedy cock-------er's.
It's seems me and Die Hard are agreeing on everything lately. I think I am getting old.
It's seems me and Die Hard are agreeing on everything lately. I think I am getting old.
It's inevitable.
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LOL at guys arguing that the scholarships are payment enough. The main offenders on breaking the rules are guys that are going to play at the next level. To them the scholarships are next to worthless but they have to play the game because college football is their only audition for the pros. They end up making millions for these universities while not getting hardly any compensation. I wish I could start a business using the same model as the NCAA and the universities.
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Bullshit. Boo hoo, they come from a poor family, then that should be all the more reason they should understand the value of that scholarship and free room and board. Quit your whining and get to studying.
Exactly. The athletes got what they were promised in their scholarship, free education, room and board, etc. They are not entitled to make a living. These athletes should be banned from sports for life in my opinion greedy cock-------er's.
Exactly. The athletes got what they were promised in their scholarship, free education, room and board, etc. They are not entitled to make a living. These athletes should be banned from sports for life in my opinion greedy cock-------er's.
The bolded is the problem. You are correct, they are not entitled to make a living because there really isn't a secondary way to get into the NFL except for going through the monopoly of the NCAA in which they aren't compensated. If you don't think that this system is broke then you should probably pull your head out of your sphincter.
It would be like someone telling you that you couldn't be a bricklayer until you performed 3-4 years of bricklaying services for them in which you would get a lovely education in basket-weaving for your troubles. It is bullshit.
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There is a very small fraction of players that ever make it to the NFL out of D1 Football, and when they do, the average career is 3.5 years or close to it. For players to bank on having NFL careers---and then not plan on their futures afterward----is asinine.
They have an opportunity for a free education and all the amenities, including room and board, food, perks, BJs from hot cheerleaders and overall adulation to play a game. These same kids are not ready to play pro football when they are 18 years old, it is documented and would be inhumane even if they could stick on a team. Hence, the reason for the three year rule before they can come out. Another words, college ball is their only ticket to the pros.
Let's get real here, these kids do have spending money, even the ones without parental help. They get cash that supersedes what most living quarters they choose actually cost over the course of a semester or quarter. They are also supplied a pretty nice wardrobe of sporting gear to wear, and most of them do.
Now I am not saying the system can't be tweaked, especially for the smaller scholarship sports, but let's not pretend these kids are starving or living on the streets. Face it, most of the money they get by illegal means (as in the case of OSU), is used for non-essential items---ie tats, weed, booze, fancy cars, swag, bling and a bunch of other bullshit.
Many college students have no cars, very few clothes, live in dumps with little food and have to pay back enormous student loans. Beyond that, they generally are the same people supporting the superstar athletes with affection because they play for their school.
I'm getting a little tired of the poor scholarship athlete BS going around in this country, it is simply not true. Sure the system needs tweaked, but if these kids are not doing a bunch of extra curricular crap with money, they could live just fine, get an education and set themselves up for what's ahead in life. I'm about as tired of this as I am the poor NFL player shit they are trying to sell.
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mikeyP72 said:
Steve Spurrier submits signatures in support of plan to pay college student-athletes:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6616618
I guess it's not just people like us that think this is ridiculous.
No doubt. I have long thought it wouldn't hurt to pay players a stipend for living expenses.
But that doesn't mean the system is flawed. It is what it is and still doesn't deflect the choices Tressel made.
Say you pay the players a few hundred extra a month....you are still going to have the Pryor's of the world who want the car, or more than a few hundred.
Human nature dictates no matter what you have, you will always want more.
.jpg.a1a2b9a0c33008fdaf4097d8fe2cfd64.jpg "Riffer X"){kind=avatar}
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