osu players respond to small
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/27136/ohio-state-players-respond-to-ray-small
A few quotes
Mike Brewster- He isn't a part of the sacred brotherhood anymore...never on time, never accountable, never sacrificed for the team. Can you trust his word?
Brian Hartline- Stop crying and lieing... Just bc u didn't play as much as u wanted to doesn't mean u can talk now...
Beanie Wells- The nerve of some cats!! It's one thing to bite the hand that feeds, but to go and lie about what u were being fed???? Really?!
Mike Adams- Crazy how people change...thanks a lot man! hope you got paid to do that interview
Small's rebutle- Lol Ima snitch now that's the verdict got it up! Snitch on what?
Kind of similar to stretchgate where we had "bad apples" out UM
Is a jerk.
Doesn't mean he isn't telling the truth.
...this guy:
OSU's reign will soon be over, then their brotherhood can weep on each others shoulders. Seems like the are all mad for Small telling the truth. Thank you for helping bring down the ever so crumbling OSU Small!
osu players: "You're killing me Small!"
Remember how Jose Canseco's credibility was under attack after he outed everyone on the steriods? People said that because he himself broke the rules he couldn't be believed. Others, however, said he of all people was the MOST credible, because he admitted to doing it himself before outing others.
I'm thinking this situation is very, very similar.
Pretty funny how they stand by the liars (tress, tp "i paid for my tats, etc) but attack the guy who is probably telling the truth (okay 'everyone' is a bit f hyperbole)
was antonio pittman lying too?
I'm sure Small was kind of a headcase at OSU, but considering he told his story to the local school paper and doesn't seem to gain any financial benefit from this, I'm inclined to take his word on the matter. And yeah, when Bennie Wells is calling you out for being a jerk, I wouldn't put too much credence in it. As I read somewhere else, Wells probably injured himself writing that tweet.
I think the reason Gene Smith is still supporting Tressel is that he has no choice. He KNOWS how pervasive the lack of control is in the OSU athletic department. The only way it is going to end is to clean house and start with new leadership. That would mean he would have to go first.
Either keep the house of cards intact - or collapse with it.
I just think OSU would save some face if they fired Tressel before the sanctions came out. It would show the NCAA they recognize the severity of the allegations and are ready to move forward with a new era of OSU football. By keeping Tressel, the NCAA will probably give them heavier sanctions because Tressel will be staying on and they want to punish HIM as much as OSU.
That being said, I think Smith and Gee haven't fired Tressel yet because Tres has some dirt on them. I wouldn't be surprised if Smith and Gee knew everything that was going on. By firing him Tressel holds the leverage and could rat out the entire athletic department, not just the football program.
It would be interesting to see it play out...
My belief, given Gee's comments about hoping Tressel doesn't fire him and their fan bases insistance that this isn't a big deal/Tressel didn't do anything wrong, is that Smith and Gee won't fire Tressel before the sanctions, but that he won't be the head coach come 2012. Whether that means they fire him after the sanctions, or after the season I don't know, but I just don't see either of them having the backbone to make the call on their own.
Gee may have made his comment in jest, but it either shows that he is a spineless little worm or that Tressel does in fact have some dirt on him and he is a spineless little worm. Regardless I believe Gee will try to bail out the ship with a little tin pail, unfortunately for him, he's not trying to save "The African Queen", he's trying to save the Titanic.
I'm not trying to be an ass or anything, but if you "know firsthand" that all of this was going on for "years before Tressel became coach" I think that someone else would have known it too and it would have been brought up already in the press and the allegations would have been made.
My point is that if it's one person doing a cover up it could totally be LOIC because the Vest is taking the punishment whereas if they fire him, he blows the whistle on the entire athletic department and then all the programs are in trouble because Smith and Gee knew the whole time....in my mind, which is clearly not fact.
We don't know how long this has been going on at OSU. We have an idea because of the Clarett fiasco along with the alleged handshakes involving Troy Smith, AJ Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, and Nick Mangold, but we can't say this has been going on for years because there's no proof. If you know firsthand, provide the evidence and turn it over to the authorities, it's only gonna benefit UM.
But let's not get John Cooper in trouble, he was the best coach Michigan had since Bo.
George and Smith I hated when they played us because they were good, but respected as players and for what they said about the booster involvement when they responded to the Clarrett allegations on ESPN I believe it was. They said that the "hundred dollar handshakes" as they were called, and other booster influence absolutely went on while they were at OSU. But they chose not to take the money or get involved and they let it be known to other players/friends that they did NOT want to know about it or be involved in it in any way. A teacher at OSU was fired either shortly before or shortly after the Clarrett allegations because she spoke of preferential treatment of players in classes and the laughable academic standards or lack there of held for student athletes (particularly football players). Chris Spielman spoke of the need for players to not accept anything from boosters or to sell anything on Ohio radio stations. All of the aforementioned OSU players played years before Tressel became coach. And you want more proof? I could care less what you think of what I saw or heard while at OSU, but if proof to the press is what you want take a look back - the proof has been there all along, just wasnt given over with smoking gun written testimonies of players, recordings to the school paper and media in detail, or emails from/to the coach. Wake up fellas- any athlete or anyone that wasnt in absolute denial of what was going on knows it has happened for years in Columbus.
The proof regarding OSU has just never been given over with federal investigations/interviews from players detailing things/smoking gun emails like it has been in the past many months. But I assure you it went on before I went there, while I went there, and after Tressel took over. Look it up man, it was always just blown off as a disgruntled player and a teacher making stuff up because they were let go or did something wrong (Clarrett and the teacher whose name escapes me right now). OSU's administration had to have been aware when a Heisman trophy winner (George), probably the best LB to ever play for them (Spielman) and another of their all time great RBs (Smith) flat out admitted they were offered money, etc while they went there but chose to not accept it. Don't be sucked into the OSU denial never never land. The truth is finally being exposed on OSU just like it was with us and with USC- just a lot bigger rabbit hole and a lot more twisted for OSU. The brotherhood spoken of is nothing more than not to speak of any wrong doing by players-boosters or preferential treatment because it would hurt the team and the school.
I did some sleuthing and I was unable to find it anywhere that Eddie George spoke about hundred dollar hand shakes and booster influence. All I'm trying to say is that if someone of George's stature would have come out and said something like that, don't you think the NCAA would have immediately launched an inverstigation into it? Or how about that "sacred brotherhood?" Don't you think he would have gotten the boot from it for exposing his fellow teammates and his university?
Look, I'm not caught up in their denial at all here. But when someone says they have information firsthand, I want legitmate proof. IF what you are saying is true, Eddie George wouldn't be a venerated individual here in Columbus, and the statements you speak of would have already resurfaced in the national media by now.
George and Smith I hated when they played us because they were good, but respected as players and for what they said about the booster involvement when they responded to the Clarrett allegations on ESPN I believe it was. They said that the "hundred dollar handshakes" as they were called, and other booster influence absolutely went on while they were at OSU. But they chose not to take the money or get involved and they let it be known to other players/friends that they did NOT want to know about it or be involved in it in any way. A teacher at OSU was fired either shortly before or shortly after the Clarrett allegations because she spoke of preferential treatment of players in classes and the laughable academic standards or lack there of held for student athletes (particularly football players). Chris Spielman spoke of the need for players to not accept anything from boosters or to sell anything on Ohio radio stations. All of the aforementioned OSU players played years before Tressel became coach. And you want more proof? I could care less what you think of what I saw or heard while at OSU, but if proof to the press is what you want take a look back - the proof has been there all along, just wasnt given over with smoking gun written testimonies of players, recordings to the school paper and media in detail, or emails from/to the coach. Wake up fellas- any athlete or anyone that wasnt in absolute denial of what was going on knows it has happened for years in Columbus.
The proof regarding OSU has just never been given over with federal investigations/interviews from players detailing things/smoking gun emails like it has been in the past many months. But I assure you it went on before I went there, while I went there, and after Tressel took over. Look it up man, it was always just blown off as a disgruntled player and a teacher making stuff up because they were let go or did something wrong (Clarrett and the teacher whose name escapes me right now). OSU's administration had to have been aware when a Heisman trophy winner (George), probably the best LB to ever play for them (Spielman) and another of their all time great RBs (Smith) flat out admitted they were offered money, etc while they went there but chose to not accept it. Don't be sucked into the OSU denial never never land. The truth is finally being exposed on OSU just like it was with us and with USC- just a lot bigger rabbit hole and a lot more twisted for OSU. The brotherhood spoken of is nothing more than not to speak of any wrong doing by players-boosters or preferential treatment because it would hurt the team and the school.
Instead of Tressel having dirt on them, I think they fear the backlash of all those crazy Buckeye fans. Look at all the death threats that have been issued against people who have spoken against Tressel and/or the football program.
So at what point does OSU dump Tressel? After the NCAA states its case (in August, I believe)? And what are the odd, if any, that Tressel falls on his sword before then -- for both his sake and OSU's? Of course OSU may not so gently urge him to Spend More Time With The Family.
their coach wrote a book on how to win at life
......simply damns OSU that much more. It's almost as if they are responding with, "You didn't have to tell EVERYONE!" each time they speak. I hope the meteor which SI is supposed to drop falls right on the "O" in that damn horseshoe.
Would a newline kill ya?
That said, I agree with most of what you stated in regards to the fact that this had been going on long before the vest got there. However, I think where a lot of people get the idea that tressel is actively involved in some of this (or comfortable with ignoring it) is from his history at Youngstown where the exact same things were going on.
I can't help but notice that for all of the anger in those tweets, nobody is actually disagreeing with him or denying anything. They call him a snitch, yet not one of them comes out and says that the substance of his interview is untrue. Kind of seems that his crime was blowing the whistle, not lying about what happened.