By May Jim Tressel Will Be A Pakistani Shepherd
hope you like sweatervests made from your own wool, sheeps
I mean, right?
When Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel learned last spring that some of his current players were in trouble, he shared the information with someone he thought could help his star quarterback even though he said he didn't tell his bosses.
Tressel forwarded the information to Ted Sarniak, a mentor to Terrelle Pryor, after the coach received emails warning that Pryor and at least one other player had sold memorabilia to a local tattoo-parlor owner who was under federal investigation for drug trafficking, multiple sources have confirmed to The Dispatch.
Sarniak is the "shady, cop-bribing handler whose glass business suddenly blew up" when Pryor materialized in Columbus according to Slow States. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I stare at "glass business suddenly blew up" a link does not appear under it. He's also the guy who spurred the most wackily conspiratorial post* in the history of MGoBlog since it was his Corvette Pryor infamously borrowed—seriously, how many cars can Terrelle Pryor drive that he does not own?
I'm not sure this particular item tightens the noose in the eyes of the NCAA, but if Sarniak got a forward that doesn't help any case they're going to try to make about the emails not being credible or Tressel not taking them seriously or forgetting about them. It's also hard to imagine an email worth forwarding to your sketchy Pryor advisor that doesn't get sent to, like, compliance. At best Tressel was trying to end-around the system to keep his guys eligible. At worst the stuff at the press conference about how Tressel was the only one who knew was as true as everything else.
*[One that now stands a 50-50 chance of being correct despite being essentially message board drivel.]
March 25th, 2011 at 12:27 PM ^
Those Pakistanis have some weird looking sheep, man.
I'm glad someone finally had the guts to say what's really on everyone's mind.
Let's stay focused on the problem people . . . those sheep are fucked up.
March 25th, 2011 at 12:33 PM ^
What's up with your rabbit-sheep Pakistan?
EDIT: Whoops, supposed to be a reply to the above, I'm struggling badly today.
March 25th, 2011 at 12:36 PM ^
March 25th, 2011 at 12:36 PM ^
March 25th, 2011 at 12:39 PM ^
You know damage has been done when OSU fans begin infiltrating the board.
March 25th, 2011 at 12:45 PM ^
but the dispatch article says
"OSU officials said Pryor took the car, which the salesman said was for sale, for an extended, 48-hour test drive. Because some car dealers occasionally allow customers to borrow cars for extended periods, Ohio State and Big Ten officials concluded that Pryor had not violated NCAA rules.
The salesman has told The Dispatch that Pryor didn't buy the 2004 GMC Denali because he couldn't afford it."
I'm sure it is normal to give people extended test drives but wouldn't it also be normal to do a credit check FIRST?
March 25th, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
Why is Pakistan for liars? Why you gotta pick on Pakistan? Unless you're saying Tressel can get out of this by NCAA Reg 10.1(b): "Blood Money Payment to NCAA"
EDIT: I dig the rabbitt-sheep hybrids
March 25th, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
Hang 'em by thier balls!
March 25th, 2011 at 12:48 PM ^
(81.93 touches on this above.)
To me, the real issue here isn't whether Tressel associated with a shady character.
The NCAA, like any tribunal, hates to be lied to. What we have here is not only the first round of lies regarding whether he had knowledge of the improper benefits before the story broke, but a new layer of lies regarding his excuse that he believed he had to withhold the e-mail info because of a weird "confidentiality" theory.
Today's story evidences that Tressel didn't stop lying about this even when his prior (Pryor?!) knowledge came to light.*
I'll be interested to see if the NCAA picks up on this pattern of dishonesty. Until Tattgate broke, I had a grudging respect for Tressel. Now, not so much.
* Unless he wants to argue that the Feds, acting through an ex-player friend sending him e-mails, wanted him to keep the story under wraps except to glass dealers.
March 25th, 2011 at 12:52 PM ^
Adam Rittenberg has it up in his blog: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/24681/more-troubling-news-for-…
AND in his column. Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6257370
It is becoming the story that won't go away. Too bad for tOSU. Let them enjoy the crap we had to go through-- over excessive stretching, for crying out loud.
March 25th, 2011 at 12:55 PM ^
Honestly, I'm surprised someone as wily and slimey as Tressel wouldn't have a prepaid cell phone registered under John Smith to make phone calls to the correct people when he needs to communicate something discretely. Doesn't he realize email is as good as a paper trail, and NOBODY LIKES PAPER TRAILS?
At this point there's not a lot of plausible denials so the NCAA is going to have to just plug their nose, give them a wrist slap, and deal with the bad PR.
Unless they actually did something but that would be ridiculous.
March 25th, 2011 at 12:57 PM ^
he lied about the lie he lied about - and now a booster involved.
That and the repeat violator for O$U is going get them hammered like our basketball:
vacate games
1-2 years no bowl
scholarship losses
staff losses
Tressel's firing will have to be done to show a "cleaning of house" to avoid stronger measures.
Oh No...
This is the character that Gene Smith was trying to hide from everyone when he jumped in front of St. Tress during the press conf. I would be worried more about this fellow if I were an tOSU fan.
Tress is done IMO but the Sarniak dealings, *if there are any, could bring a whole lot of pain.
I wasn't paying attention at the beginning of "practice-gate", but was the evidence piling up like this for our "major" infractions?
From the comments section of that conspiratorial Pryor/Sarniak article:
"This whole article is complete crap....from someone that personally knows how upright and moral Jim Tressel is....this is retarded!!!" -buckeyesonny
lol
If I had a bunch of extra free time I might go get the tax returns for the glass guy to see how his business has changed in the last 5 years. Compare it to similar business's to see if there is a spike in business that is out of the ordinary.
My guess is that even though the economy has been less than awesome, the glass guys business has dramatically improved. Not sure if you could correlate the two into a case against Pryor and the glass guy, but the appearance would be there.
If you look a the history of players that have stayed for their senior seasons, even though they were first round draft picks, it raises an eyebrow or two as to what is going on down there. I think there is an excellent locked down system where these players are being taken care of enough, that jumping to the next level isn't an urgency.
OSU is literally all many of these people live for down there, it is the only good thing they have going. They would walk in front of a bus to protect their beloved Buckeye's. Right or wrong.
I am so happy TP decided to attend college (and play football) at an institution other than the University of Michigan. Sarniak + TP = Major Problems.
are vacated, are the players going to have to give back their Gold Pants? Other awards? Are they still at the tatoo parlor?
I don't understand why the school doesn't say, "Congrats you earned some gold pants pins, a championship ring, etc. You can pick them up at the front desk when your eligibility is up." Or where does the line stop on selling your personal items? If Pryor sells his used car and inevitably gets a better price just because it was his car and the buyer will forever drive around saying, "This used to be Pryor's car," does that mean he's violating a rule? I mean obviously selling his jersey, awards, autographs, etc. is a violation, but that stuff was his property, where's the line?
I'm a little curious about this too. Though I also admit that there may well be a rule in place that even speaks to a student-athlete's ability to seek the Pryor Premium when selling his/her '02 Kia. But outside of the extremely poor taste/ethics/optics of selling what are ostensibly treasured personal mementos, is there a rule that restricts such actions? I can't decide how I feel about OSU athletes so quickly and completely devaluing battelfield honors - are they undervalued because they've become so common? Or are they undervalued because OSU athletes have no respect for their university or its traditions? I just don't know.
Brian brings up a great point I've really been wondering about, and that is: how many freebie cars can T. Pryor be busted driving before someone takes notice? Should that not have released the NCAA hounds upon tOUS immediately? I've said it before and say I'll say it again, tOUS must have some REALLY good dirt on the NCAA.
Also, and I'm sure it's been mentioned above although I didn't go through all the posts, but this "handler" seems to blow the "confidentiality" concern Tressel had straight to hell.
Lastly, as the evidence mounts, it become harder and harder for the NCAA to turn their customary blind eye to Buckeye transgressions. BUT-- I still have doubts as to whether they will man up and take tOUS to task.
They have noticed. They investigated, apparently found no violations. Not against the rules to test drive cars, as long as it is normal that customers sometimes test drive cars for 48hrs or more. I have personally been allowed to test drive a car for a week before. I have a pretty good relationship with my dealership though (I live across the street, my step-dad has bought every car he's ever owned from there, 25+yrs.) Sometimes players get loans from the bank that are in anticipation of their NFL/NBA draft stock that are legal, because they aren't income since they have an offsetting obligation to pay them back. But there is a fine line between what's a violation and what's not. Bottom line, the NCAA has so far concluded that Pryor driving the Denali, was not a violation.
What number did you wear when you played for OSU?
Tressel stays and finishes his career at Ohio State. He made a big mistake. But he didn't kill anyone (everyone kills). It's hard to decide what punishment fits the crime in this case, and I'm glad I don't have to judge him.
I want to see Hoke and The Team, The Team, The Team beat OSU straight up, no excuses. I think they can and I believe they will. The Team shouldn't need the help of the NCAA to accomplsh that. It would cheapen a sweet victory.
I remember seeing lots of Bucks post on other forums over the past few years that they wanted to see Michigan come back and play them tough. Turnabout is fair play. I'd like to see tOSU remain a worthy rival for the good of The Game and for the good of the Conference.
A few players sold their knicknacks, and Tressel tried to protect them. So my thought is let the NCAA make the call as to the right solution, but let's not pile on. I see no overarching need to cast the first stone.
I kind of lost track of the conversation when I started to see a buckeye fan on this blog.
For a second I thought I was following a B1G blog on ESPN.
What gives? Can anybody just come on here and blog. Where's the quality control of blog members.
My point is that if you go through the comments, the conversation changed from one topic to the next because the buckeye fan inadvertently tried to offer the buckeye perspective, which I am all for, but not in this blog. This is Michigan for God's sake.
March 30th, 2011 at 10:16 AM ^
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