tOSU Apologies from yesterday...

Submitted by Michiganguy19 on

A few thoughts on the apologies that DeVier Posey and TP gave yesterday and ESPN played heavily...

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5963734

1. It could not have been more annoying during DeVier's comments that he kept referring to "the ohio state university" - really took away from his apology and sounded conceited to me and someone should have coached him to avoid saying it (Buckeye Nation references, ESPN counted 9, where also annoying, but not as bad).

2.  As for TP, how weird was it when he described OSU as "the greatest university in the nation"... he said it in complete apathetic monotone, clearly he barely meant it and it made it more obvious that the only thing he is sorry about is that he is getting punished. I gave the same apologies all the time when I was eight years old. 

3. I was completely disappointed that TP refrained from saying something obviously stupid. He usually puts his foot in his mouth, so this must have been a coached apology. Yet, in the ESPN article OSU spokesman Shelly Poe told the AP that she did not know if it was part of their punishment or if they were compelled by coaches to do the press conference. Seems like this was decently organized and she didn't check her email/missed the memo.

4. TP may be apologizing, but on 12/22 at around 9pm he was tweeting "I paid for my tattos. Go Bucks." You would think he would be well aware that this punishment and stuff was coming down the line the next day and that he wouldn't need to tweet anything about a minor infraction like the Tattoos. His twitter account has as many deleted posts as saved posts.  http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Yes-Ohio-State-is-probing-the-NCAA-s-first-tatt?urn=ncaaf-299540

Zone Left

December 29th, 2010 at 4:40 PM ^

"I didn't mean to hurt nobody at all and I didn't mean to bring anything down or embarrassment to our university because this is the greatest university in the nation," Pryor said"

He's a college junior and a native English speaker reading prepared remarks, that's embarrassing.  

medals

December 29th, 2010 at 5:05 PM ^

when I read that in the paper this morning.  I'm sure that you can pick many Wolverines who would slaughter the English language in an impromptu interview, but for a prepared statement, on a big stage, and in light of some serious allegations, one would expect that the grammar would be above a 6th-grade-level.  (Maybe I'm giving too much credit?  When does one learn that double negatives are a big no-no? 4th grade?)

Zone Left

December 29th, 2010 at 5:42 PM ^

I still think it's a faux pas--especially for Presidents...

Frankly, a lot of the inbred moonshine distillers that play for OSU and the warrior-poets that play for Michigan couldn't write a proper paragraph to save their lives.  It's an indictment of a university system that places such a high value on athletics over its stated mission of educating young people.  It's more surprising for a guy like Pryor because starting quarterbacks tend to be better spoken at this level.  Maybe the publicist knew anything he/she wrote would be obviously not Pryor's words.

Not a Blue Fan

December 29th, 2010 at 6:14 PM ^

I'm not sure I agree with that. There's a strong case to be made that there is no connection between intelligence (and prima facie assume that there is a link between intelligence and linguistic ability) and football ability. Anecdotal evidence being what it is, one can still point to the success of, say, Terry Bradshaw and the failure of Joey Harrington. Perhaps there is a putative link between quarterbacking and oratory ability, but if there is then it couldn't be very strong.

In any event, nobody is going to argue that Terrelle Pryor is a well spoken young man.

dennisblundon

December 29th, 2010 at 6:20 PM ^

I was just driving home and listening to Sirius on ESPN and heard that the OSU seniors had voted to suspend the offending players for a part and possibly the whole game. The reporter went on to say it looked bad and wondered who had control of the team,Tressel, or the players.

Have you heard anything like this? This was the first I have heard of this.

UAUM

December 29th, 2010 at 4:42 PM ^

I was completely entertained watching that stunt this morning.  It was hilarious how disingenuous they all sounded.  Thanks for making my morning guys. 

BlueintheLou

December 29th, 2010 at 4:51 PM ^

I also noticed that he refrained from echoing Posey's remarks regarding coming back his senior year and being a leader.

I thought Posey's apology, while annoying for that stated reasons, seemed semi-genuine. Pryor's on the other hand seemed quite 'I am out of here in 2 weeks, but to appease the figure heads I'll mumble some garble' to me.

StephenRKass

December 29th, 2010 at 4:55 PM ^

Obviously, there are various permutations on what is meant by an apology. When someone says, "I am very sorry," it could mean the following:

  1. I am sorry, but I am being forced to say this, whether I want to or not.
  2. I am sorry I got caught (and not about what I did.)
  3. I am sorry this upsets you (but really, it is your problem.)
  4. I am sorry I did this, because what I did was wrong.

It seem in this tattoo/merchandise sale case that the contrition and sorrow largely has to do with items 1, 2, & 3. The hope (of the team, and tOSU, and those involved,) is that after several news cycles, it will all just blow away. However, unless there is some version of 4 expressed, many will never be satisfied.

Interestingly, there are two factoids that go into whether or not #4 really happened.

First, more than 50% of communication is non-verbal. What this means is that astute observers often have a clue whether or not an apology is genuine.

Second, some politicians, and salesmen, and those with no moral compass whatsoever, can effectively fake #4. In our culture, this is becoming increasingly problematic. To apologize for wrong-doing assumes that there is agreement on whether or not something is wrong, i.e., a moral right and wrong. The statement of one mother supporting her son (jes' helpin the family) suggests to me an entitlement mentality and no sense of right or wrong. Given the current state of society, I'm not surprised.

StephenRKass

December 29th, 2010 at 5:44 PM ^

But didn't articulate this very well.

Honestly, I don't think the guys thought what they were doing was wrong. And I've heard plenty of people suggest that either something is yours, or it isn't. And if it is yours, you should be able to sell it.

All I'm suggesting is that because there is a legitimate disagreement on whether or not what they did was really 'wrong," there will never be agreement on an apology.

Geaux_Blue

December 29th, 2010 at 5:08 PM ^

is he sprinted through it. his apology was about 30 seconds long from the clip i heard and could/should have been 2-3 minutes easy. he also used "and umm" about 17 times. everything i've heard from people is it hurt more than it helped because it sounded labored and pushed the "he doesn't get it" element that was started with selling gold pants. to say how deeply you care about tOSU and then sprint through an apology with zero emotion really pushed people over the edge.

i'm surprised nobody has mentioned the fact they all played the "i made dumb mistakes as an 18 yr old" card and not the, you know, "i didn't know i did anything wrong bc rules hadn't been taught to us" and "besides, they did it for their families" cards that the university played. which is it?

Tater

December 29th, 2010 at 6:36 PM ^

Glad you mentioned the gold pants award.  This, if anything, might turn the OSU fans against Pryor more than anything else.  Pryor really insulted the rivlary and every OSU fan who values it so much by selling those pants. 

Basically, Pryor has put his "Pryor-ities" on display for all of his "fans" to see.  I don't foresee a favorable outcome for him.

Go Blue Eyes

December 29th, 2010 at 5:18 PM ^

Frankly, I don't believe apologies coming from anybody any more, particularly those with the resources to hire PR specialists (in this case the players obviously can't pay - unless they sold more merchandise - the PR team were paid for by tOSU).  I like the point made above regarding the long sleave shirts as that was certainly factored into the press conference.  This whole press conference or apology was part of a long range plan for one ending: getting the suspensions reduced.  Nothing more/nothing less.

hvsiii

December 29th, 2010 at 5:53 PM ^

I am upset TP cut his hair.....the Bobby Brown old school fade was excellent.

On the apology....it doesn't matter, he isn't sorry...just lip service.

bluebyyou

December 29th, 2010 at 6:23 PM ^

These are a bunch of dumb college kids...not unlike a lot of other kids who do stupid things along the way.  They would probably like to go hide, but they can't; that's the way it is with big sports programs.

You can dissect this all you want, but to me, the bigger question is why are they being allowed to play in a bowl game?  In spite of its assertion to the contrary, dollars drove the NCAA's decision.  But what about Tressel?  I have always respected him in the past, now I wonder.