Eleven Warriors piece on Tressel

He is a liar and cheat. This has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Many have done this before and they had to deal with the consequences of their actions. He will do the same. They will cry on each others shoulders about how much of a good guy he is, but we all know that I will not ask my children to model thier lives after JT, and I doubt the majority of Buckeye fans would either. It is funny that TSIO has had a bad guy as coach for the past 100 years. They hire filth and cover it up as long as possible. I hope the school gets the death penalty, but 20 or 30 schollies wouldn't be too bad either. NCAA knows it has to get this shit undercontrol. The media circus surrounding this will ensure that some form of harsh punishiment is issued.

I am sure he aspires to be a good person and in most accounts likely is.  However, win if you can, lose if you must, but cheat all the time, cannot be the core of a coach's psyche.  Two decades of shady practices show more than just a few poor decisions...it is either intentional or the man needs some serious therapy.

cmon you guys, everyone knows that breaking the rules is somehow necessary for helping kids.  and god told him to do it, ncaa rules dont apply to god.  duh

/buckeyelogic

I'm sure Tressel is a great person to all the people on his inner circle-but does that make him an overall great person? Not in my opinion.

He deserves all the flack coming at him. The cover up, not the infraction, led to his demise and crushed his friendly guy image. I used to admire him, despite his allegiance and employment at TSIO, but this is something that cannot be forgotten. 

The program was on fire,and as Eleven Warrior states, Tressel wasn'r there.  The sad truth is, he should have been.  He is 100% responsible for this mess and it will live with him forever. Good riddance, hypocrite.

facebook comments below.

"In the morning he would read the Bible with another coach. Then, in the afternoon, he would go out and cheat kids who had probably saved up money from mowing lawns to buy those raffle tickets. That's Jim Tressel."

There you have it, in a bucknut shell.

I posted these comments under Brian's post.  It just doesn't add up that he is looking out for the best interest of others.  

I listened to Herbie, Spielman and Smith speak (I'm assuming) after sweatervest resigned but before the SI article came out.  

I would love to hear their opinions now.  They were stating how he is still a good upstanding person and just made a bad decision on not forwarding the email etc.

But the SI article showed he made arrangements with boosters, signed memorabilia to be sold, fixed raffle's, had an open door policy with the equipment room, let his kids hang out in a shady area of town, lied and turned a blind eye to everything else.

This is not the definition of a good person, moral person, leader, father figure or mentor.

Tressel has had a positive impact on many people. Ramzy's completely right about that. 

Tressel lied, then lied again about his lying, then lied again about the lying about his lying. And he has feigned ignorance and gotten away with it on several known occasions. 

When the announcement came out yesterday morning, early on Memorial Day, I was angry. I wrote a reply to a post a couple of days ago on this very blog where I praised Tressel for the care he's shown our military (while, of course, simultaneously beating up on him for his flaunting of the rules.) Now, in what appeared to be an effort to sneak his resignation out on a slow news day, he made a day that should be about our heroes into a day about Jim Tressel.  

I'm glad people can find good in his works. I hope they can focus on that part of his lesson. The scale has tipped for me now to where the errors and omissions completely overwhelm the good he's tried to do.   

I call bullshit. He's clearly been involved with shady dealings at his last two stops and was able to sweep them under the rug because he was winning. Given that there's at least a partial correlation between recruiting classes and success on the field, him turning the other cheek during this "Money, Cash, Hoes" fiasco while the five stars continued to commit leads me to believe he's just a weasel coach who is a master at fabricating a false image. 

No one denies that Jim Tressel and Ohio State football players didn't do (or are doing) some amazing things for the local communities and for young fans (both healthy and sick). They certainly did and are. And Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa and other football players also visit local children's hospital wings with little more than presence, a smile and an ear.

It's meaningful stuff and it pull the heart-strings.  Of course it does.

But the argument was ruined the moment Ramzy wrote about ESPN applying the same investigative resources anywhere else and finding similar or equivalent dirt there too. 

That was a very dumb thing to write and not a little bit insulting to teams who lined up against Ohio State (especially when one removes Michigan from the list).

People get pissed off about getting a speeding ticket, and flail about yelling at the police officer saying "well, everybody does it!".  Yes, everbody speeds.  But you got nabbed. Deal.  A lot of schools probably turn a blind eye to improper benefits and official equipment theft.  But Tressel's feigned ignorance finally caught up with him so that OSU was nailed going 95 mph - and as luck would have it -in a freaking construction zone.  Now a very thick book will be thrown at their heads, and everyone will watch.

OSU fans like Ramzy are pissed off and disappointed, but they fail to realize that there are teams that really do follow the rules or at the very least follow the rules considerably more ardently than OSU.   Are they stupid to do so?  The NCAA is their own worst enemy , and one can debate the fairness of the rules all day long, but even OSU, Smith, Gee and Tressel signed up to the same rules as everybody else.

But children and families with terminal illness, facing cancer and death? Yeah, it's a helllish blackhole that I don't even like talking about.  But I can kind of understand why an OSU fan this week would try to reconcile his current emotions and draft up something related to darkness and lack of hope.

RRod (and Carr before him) did a ton for Mott's.  The Michigan players did and continue to do a ton of work for Mott's.  Surely that means we can overlook some extra practice time, doesn't it?  They aren't cheating... they visit kids at the hospital!  On their own time!! 

that the guy felt so untouchable that he knowingly let so many loose ends open to his deception.  There's no way he could conceivably control every person involved in all of this mess, so as far as I could tell he either a.) put it in the hands of someone else, who let him down, b.) simply believed that none of it was going on as long as he didn't know about it (yeah right), or c.) put all his faith in the "sacred brotherhood" philosophy, which sooner or later breaks down at the foundation.

Either way, guy had to know this day would come if it's been so widespread.  Or is it a case of believing your own lies, to the point that he felt he was immovable?

A Buckeye has high personal regard for another Buckeye.  What was that bible passage: "Even sinners love those who love them".

(I probably violated a board rule by interjecting religion into my comments.  Sorry.)

To me this whole fiasco has revealed Tressel to be the worst kind of public figure that we produce with alarming regularity in America. He's a God and Country loving, values-espousing good guy who lets those exterior facets hide his pure, cold ruthlessness. He is hardwired into both of America's shiny, moral certitude and its metallic capitalist urge to compete and dominate.

Honestly, someone should make a movie about the guy.

NARCISSIST

That 11W finally put all of the Buckeye wailing and gnashing of teeth over the top - way over the top. If I hear or read one more Tressel apologist try to excuse what the coach did in the name of sick kids, or troops over seas, or washing up before dinner, or helping old ladies across the street, I just may flip my sh-t.

The irony of ironies is that writer after writer has been quoting Tressel's line, "Discipline is what you do when no one is looking." Actually, Jimbo, (can I call you Jimbo?) the line is from Hugh B. Brown, and it goes, "Character is what you do when no one is looking." Yours - at long last - has been exposed for what it is: conflicted, at best.

Let's take the extreme example (hypothetical) and say Tressel pays (from his own pocket) his starters $1000 each month.  Now, he is a good guy in the sense that he is helping out others (legally) and yet he knowingly violates the rules to gain a competitive advantage and profit from that advantage.  Do these OSU posters think that would be OK?  

Because it's not that far removed from what was actually happening.

I understand that this "looking away" from improper benefits for players likely goes on at a number of places but that does not mean it's OK.

And all I been hearing is that this was his only mistake and he shouldn't pay the price for this mistake.  They are throwing the SI aritcle out as fiction and painting Braxton Miller as their messiah and Pryor as judas.  The lunacy and denial down here is sicking...

Tressel did not establish the great tradition of visiting the Children's Hospital the day before a home game.

Woody Hayes started it. Kudos (I guess) to Tressel for not stopping these visits, but it should not be used to prop him up as a saint for following a Buckeye tradition.