OT: Oh Look Grantland Has An Ohio Article
So apparently Grantland has a college football guy, and he's a prick, but he's fairly funny as far as people who are pricks go.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6891889/dear-coach-tressel
Decent writer though I hope this conceit is an anomaly. Spencer Hall and our own Dear Leader are much better for my money/reading time.
His mockery of student athletes wanting to get paid because people are making money off them is pretty cynical.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:47 AM ^
It'd be cute to how the bucknets and eleven warriors and saint tressel supporters react when they read this.
Seriously, the author puts very well the folly of justifying your own wrongs. He also nails the reality that Tressel is neither a saint nor a demon, but just a football coach who was willing to turn a blind eye to many things, as long as he won. The author also doesn't let fans off the hook, who really don't care that much about integrity and clean play and academics, but want to see "their team" win all the games they play.
Thanks for the link.
August 25th, 2011 at 1:06 PM ^
Well, since you asked:
I thought the guy writing the article is going for the "I write for Grantland, cuz I'm too cool to write actual ESPN articles." I love Simmons, I love that he is the one guy at ESPN that can not fear ESPN and Disney firing him for speaking out or not towing the company line. But I hate most of his frat-guy-well-into-their-40s crew.
I'm not a "Tressel is a Saint! Leave him alone!" kinda Buckeye fan. I knew he had to be fired/forced to retire-resign after it was shown that he emailed Sarniak, but not the AD. That kinda paper trail = death to your job. But I'm also not of the opinion that this was just the first time he got caught, it has been happening since Clarrett or even YSU, blah blah blah, like I know many around these parts think.
So Tressel wasn't a demon, but he wasn't a saint, that point is true. That Tressel wasn't trying to mold young men away from the highway to Assholeville is crap. Tressel had years of experience in dealing with Terrelle Pryors, but TP was the king of them all. So Tressel knew it was mostly a lost cause, he would try to get him to stay clean for 3-4yrs and with the minimum amount of effort and would focus on the other 124 players. Obviously he failed with TP, and a hand full of others, but again, the king asshole probably had great influence over the hand full. So yeah, Tressel made some mistakes. Big mistakes. Does that mean he was a terrible guy, hell bent on winning at all costs? Not necessarially. But that's his (the writer's) opinion.
I don't hate ESPN like a lot of the OSU fan base does right now. I do think they over reported our story to an extreme, but that's because that is their job. They drum up pageviews and viewers by doing what gets attention. Be it Brett Farve, LeBron, the OSU scandal, whatever. That's what makes them the most money, so that's what they do. I expect it and accept it.
I think Ray Small is an idiot. I think most of the kids who get caught taking money tend to be the least simpatheic. Not because they don't need it, but most of the time it's because they get caught spending it on stupid shit: nine cars in nine months, diamond earrings, hooker abortions, etc. Ray Small may come from a bad background, poor childhood, etc. and football was clearly going to be his meal ticket. He should have been patient like the rest of college football playing world (or I guess 90% of it) and waited til his paid day came, after his eligibility was up. Those rings would have sold for just as much a year later, dude.
I'm still not sure what my opinion on whether we should pay players is, because in college football only the BCS football teams, a small portion of basketball teams, make money. And you can just pay the ones that make money, cuz that wouldn't be fair. I also know I hate pro football cuz they get paid so much. So I'm not sure I would like college still if they were making millions too. But BCS football teams like OSU, etc. do make a lot of money off those kids, and it does really border exploitation if you ask me. So I don't agree with the writer's "it's their choice, they get an education, etc." argument. Cuz most of them don't get degrees, they are only there for the minimum amount of time it takes to get them to the NFL. Cam Newton has no choice but to play college ball for awhile til he can go get his millions, and that is all college football is to him, a means to an end. So yeah.
August 25th, 2011 at 1:20 PM ^
I don't really understand what you're saying about Grantland. I think the author of this piece was very indulgent with Grantland's super-loose editorial standards where they just don't make people cut stuff very often. He was certainly snarky. I'm not sure where the frat boy part comes in.
I think you're still seeing the world through Tressel-colored glasses if you think this TP thing and the related tattoos is the extent of his corruption. There's evidence of more than that and there's claims that can't be verified as easily of a lot more than that.
You and I both know that the vast majority of the kids who come through even a huge program will never make it to the NFL. The trade for most of them is a great shot at a degree.
August 25th, 2011 at 1:22 PM ^
Yeah, and I agree, but they aren't the ones trading autographs and tickets for tattoos and cars. It's the Cam Newton/Terrelle Pryor/Chris Webbers of the world that break the rules, because they are only being forced to wait on their pay checks by the NCAA/NFL/NBA.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:47 AM ^
Grantland just made the 11W and OSU fanbases list.
1. Herbie
2. Spielman
3. ESPN/SI
4. Bruce Hooley
5. Grantland
Take a number buddy they have alot of coolers to fill before this is over.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:26 AM ^
6.) Joseph Lister
7.) Whoever invented mittens
8.) Their own OC
9.) Geographical differentiation
10.) Toledo (it's like a love-hate type thing).
11.) The gays
12.) Lebron
13.) Kyle Kalis (until he inevitably de and then re-commits, right guys?)
14.) Brady Hoke ("cuz he a fat boy...herr herr")
15.) Anti-beastiality legislation
August 25th, 2011 at 11:47 AM ^
Is 10 a reference to Jim Tressel actually reaching out to the LGBT community in Columbus (which is significant)?
August 25th, 2011 at 11:56 AM ^
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/03/03/ohio-sb-5-includes-anti-gay-marriage-language/
Jim Tressel is not OSU, despite what he thinks. Was just highlighting that it's not exactly the most progressive community down there. But I could be wrong, sorry if I ruffled any feathers.
August 25th, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^
Fair enough. We should drift away from this before it devolves into the verboten.
August 25th, 2011 at 2:30 PM ^
You know who else used the word "verboten"?
Hitler.
/Jumps to last page.
August 25th, 2011 at 1:07 PM ^
You should put Jim Bollman, their OL coach.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:58 AM ^
Thanks for posting...I've really been trying to like Grantland (with no luck whatsoever...it SUCKS) so maybe a college football writer is what I need to start liking it.
Or maybe it just sucks - like you said, Orson and our Brian are much better. I wasn't ever a Bill Simmons fan so I don't know why I had expectations. Guy is a douche who writes articles without real meat and half-baked pop culture references people eat up.
Anyone else been greatly disappointed by Grantland compared to the amount of hype the internetz was giving it when it opened?
August 25th, 2011 at 11:04 AM ^
I agree - Grantland sucks. And I was a huge Simmons fan until he tweeted, "Barca-Real Madrid is the greatest rivalry in sports" a couple weeks ago.
I do enjoy Jacoby's fantasy league scorecard - but I only watch two of those shows, so depending on what they focus on, the quality varies week-to-week.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
There is no chance that a Boston homer such as he doesn't think Red Sox - Yanks is the greatest rivalry in sports.
Or he was just trolling hard. Or it was one of his stupid reverse jinx things, but I'm not sure how that would apply here.
August 25th, 2011 at 12:01 PM ^
I'm pretty sure he doesn't think Sox-Yanks is the best rivarly. So overblown. Maybe Lakers v. Celtics but not anymore because the NBA doesn't let bad blood brew.
Madrid v. Barca isn't a bad shout. I'd mention Celtic v. Rangers for the religious element to the rivalry. Until recently Boca v. River was huge but River has taken such a downturn.
I also appreciated his shoutout to the Wings v. Avalanche rivarly of the 90s or so after the Draper incident. Those were some tense games.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:11 AM ^
I actually was excited about Grantland because I was hoping it maybe would add some quality writers to the ESPN staff. I really can only stand Rick Reilly and Bill Simmons, but at times both of them write articles that just piss me off.
I am disappointed because often the articles are just boring filler.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:12 AM ^
No. Actually I think it's one of the best sites on the internet. I was a big SImmons fan before for what it's worth. I almost never go to espn.com now except for the fantasy football stuff.
The site consistently has a couple articles a week that are really very good.
Chris Jones is excellent. Wright Thompson is excellent. Klosterman is good if you care about what he's writing on. Simmons is great. Jacoby's Reality Fantasy League is great. They have some great baseball nerd stuff from Jonah Keri that's very interesting. I like Barnwell and am looking forward to reading about his Vegas adventure.
I only don't like maybe 10% of what I read on the site, though I only read some of the entertainment stuff. All in all it's great.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
I've been reading Simmons since 2002. The best thing about Simmons' articles is that they provide sometimes entertaining and interesting perspectives on a number of things the 18-45 year old male sports following demographic enjoys (i.e. sports, gambling, Vegas). They used to phenomenal to print out and sit on the hopper to push out a growler while wasting a half hour at work. That all stopped around 2006, roundabout the time he started working on his 700 page history of the NBA and was only pushing out a column a week. Once his focus became more and more diffuse (likely due to influence from the money grubbing execs at the 4 letter and perhaps also some of his own ego), his writing became less and less entertaining.
Some people like the podcasts. I have written him before to tell him that writers should write. I wasn't interested in hearing him interview random people about stuff I generally didnt care about (although his weekly NFL pod with Cousin Sal guessing the lines can be helpful).
Klosterman is a helluva writer. Im hoping the short form of Grantland doesnt dumb him down too much. Bill Barnwell is someone I had never heard of, but he has moved to Vegas and is going to have a running column about trying to be a professional sharp in Vegas for a year. Seems like an interesting premise.
But the TMZ and Gawker type content is just terrible. He has always written about the MTV-ish shows, so that comes with the territory. However, there is also a lot of Hollywood-esque coverage that I now just ignore, because I dont freaking care. I never read an article by the "Sports Guy" so I could find out about Hollwood gossip. If I wanted to know about that drivel, Id watch Extra with my wife (I think she has a crush on Slater, dating back to 1994)
August 25th, 2011 at 11:57 AM ^
While you are of the opinion that writers should write, Simmons decided to try something new there as well as produce 30 for 30 and has ended up being one of ESPN's most valuable talents to the tune of millions in compensation.
I have no problem with someone trying something new. I love the podcasts. I listen to them at work religiously because I can do that with less guilt (because I can work) than reading something.
The great thing about the internet is you can skip stuff you don't want to read and you're not even paying for it like you would in a magazine.
August 27th, 2011 at 10:46 AM ^
Excellent answer and a longer Simmons reader than I am. Also, wow....great name Benoit BALLS...
August 25th, 2011 at 11:04 AM ^
...the read. Thanks for posting.
"The big, bad university system is making money off of me!!" Welcome to the real world, young man. I feel so sorry for your plight.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:22 AM ^
I did enjoy the article, especially when they talked about Pryor being on the road to Assholeville (and the mention of him driving cars nicer than his professors).
Edit: That final paragraph about taking the deal for what it is as opposed to other possible options listed is just gold.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:54 AM ^
That last paragraph is cynical as hell though, right? I mean yes, people in power can force people lower on the power chain to accept a deal that benefits the people in power disproportionately because they have other things to fall back on.
Obviously there aren't really too many other options for kids in the labor market for 18 year old promising football players. It's pretty odd that it's worked out this way (as opposed to the academy system of european soccer, for instance) but it has.
At the end of the day it's the institution's right to offer whatever they want to offer to these kids who have the choice to accept it or not. It's also the media's right to stand up for the kids and tell the insitution they're being hypocritical dicks if that's what they're being. This doesn't mean they can force the institutions to make any changes but they can call a spade a spade.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:21 AM ^
Just incredible
August 25th, 2011 at 11:28 AM ^
on the Grantland bangwagon. I get my fill of articles for the inevitable post-lunch downturn in productivity.
Also, if someone with the points wants to post OT: UM may declare 12 ineligible.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/25/2373887/miami-hurricanes-may-declare-investigated.html
And before I get hammered or give anyone a heart attack, UM = Miami.
The September Miami-Ohio (not the Redhawks) will be an interesting game of suspended and ineligible players.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:31 AM ^
That was amazingly pedantic. I think most of those points could've been put across with half the word count. There were some good lines in there that got totally buried.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:50 AM ^
I agree. Like I said I hope this is part of a one-time schtick and not the way the guy normally writes.
August 25th, 2011 at 1:10 PM ^
I feel like that is half of Grantland's MO. Like Bill Simmons and all the stuff he contributed is good, funny, worthwhile. But did he have enough to start a whole spin off and have all these kind of articles and writers tag along? I don't think so. This guy could have just as easily said all this stuff, like you said, in half the word count, by being on a podcast for 15mins or something instead of being given his own article.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:37 AM ^
Shut the fuck up.
August 25th, 2011 at 3:53 PM ^
I have a low opinion of Tressel, and I have no doubt he is guilty of far more than he's been nabbed for. But this Grantland piece is a hatchet job. Attack Tressel's many faults and flaws by all means, but be fair. One thing that has been true of Tressel from the outset is an apparently genuine concern for the development of his players as human beings. (Even with former players like Clarett - nobody would blame Tressel for washing his hands of Clarett long ago, but Tressel seems genuinely invested in Clarett's rehabilitation.)
August 25th, 2011 at 5:03 PM ^
Yeah, you are right. I'm sure Tressel wasn't squeaky clean up until Pryor, but he wasn't a total demon hiding tons of NCAA violations, or honestly, he would have been better at it by now.
But yeah, he stuck up for Clarrett, got him back into classes, etc. Hell, he's even sticking up for Terrelle still. He was at TP's pro day handing out his phone number to the scouts.