Fox Sports: The incovenient truth about Tressel
Bruce Hooley (Fox Sports Ohio) lays out the facts, in detail, in the case against Tressel. The story that is being spun in Columbus that Tressel is actually a man of integrity who just made an inadvertent mistake is the casualty. IMO, Tressel is done at OSU.
http://www.foxsportsohio.com/msn/04/27/11/Buckeyes-standing-by-their-co…
April 28th, 2011 at 12:35 PM ^
"No one reads a mystery novel by starting in Chapter 9, jumping to Chapter 2, ahead to Chapter 20, then backward again to Chapter 6."
It is clear that Mr. Hooley has never been introduced to the Choose Your Own Adventure series! Amirite? Clutch reading material in 4th grade.
April 28th, 2011 at 12:40 PM ^
R.L. Stine- The Tarantino of children's literature
April 28th, 2011 at 12:57 PM ^
Thanks for the memories(and shivers) of that series.
Such high praise for a Buckeye alum. That's right he's one of us, sorry to ruin your childhood haha.
Congratulations, Ohio State gave the world Eureeka's Castle.
April 28th, 2011 at 12:51 PM ^
Search for Champ and the one about the Statue of Liberty were riveting reading.
Well played sir.... well played.
I'll probably never, ever be able to hear the crinking sound of an opening library book and not think of this story.
You have destroyed my innocence.
I've seen that video like five times over the last couple years, and the part at the end still makes me laugh out loud.
I never took the time to watch the end of this vidoe-holy crap that was funny-TY!
Peewee Herman is a Buckeye.
The dude losing it is great, the transition back to the broadcaster is classic – just another day in Ohio.
I haven't laughed that hard in looong time. thank you.
That vid is very disturbing. Mom in robe with curlers, Dad sticking it in ( i mean up) for JR and JR jacking off at the library all day instead of, you know, his bedroom?!?!
Ohio needs to be fenced in with escape routes to Cedar Point allowed.
Just another buckeye keeping ohio classy.
Life in the Ohio Valley is certainly not for the faint of heart.
April 28th, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^
Isn't this the same guy who was voluntold to leave his job at an Ohio radio station?
Nothing like dismissing a guy for not being a homer and then seeing his opinion reach the masses anyway...
April 28th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^
It is.
On another note, where did you find your avatar? That's one of my favorite pieces of Michigan iconography.
April 28th, 2011 at 12:49 PM ^
It's one of my favorite as well- it's basically what was printed on a shirt given to me at a very young age...that's what started me on the path to becoming a Michigan fan.
Anyway, I basically tried to find the best image of it that was available online which ended up being a picture of a t-shirt on M-Den I believe... I took a screen shot and then touched it up in MS Paint until I had just the logo with no distortions...
On yet another note- I live in GR, MI but I'm from Dayton (specifically Trotwood)...
I go there sometimes for work...Yet another area in and around Dayton that has seen its better days.
My dad has that image on a clock in his garage. Only thing different is the label "MICHIGAN WOLVERINES" at the bottom.
He bought the clock in 1971 and it's been hanging in his garage ever since.
April 28th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
may be my favorite of all the Tressel articles. I especially like the bonus that it comes from Columbus. Mr. Sweatervest is living on borrowed time.
April 28th, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
I've played devil's advocate and defended Tressel multiple times on this board. I still think he's a guy who's done a lot of good. I have a former co-worker whose grandson, now a player at Toledo, Tressel helped out with no real gain to himself.
That said, Tressel's response to OSU on Dec. 9 and 16 that he didn't really know anything about the situation seems implausible given what we know now. The only arguably good reason I can think of for saying what he said would be to keep Cicero from being outed as someone who broke attorney-client privilege while trying to help the team.
April 28th, 2011 at 12:51 PM ^
And he was, you know, scared for his players...
April 28th, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^
For me it really all starts to come apart once the FBI contacted OSU. At that point there was nothing to protect (other than, again, the identity of Cicero).
Cicero did not ask for confidentiality in the first email. And do we know Cicero was representing Rife? Just because he is a lawyer and talked with a guy doesn't make the guy his client. Lawyers interview people all of the time. Unless he was actually engaged to represent Rife or was discussing representing him, there is no attorney client privilege, and Cicero would not be "outed" as having done anything improper.
I think that one of the emails says something like, "I just had him in my office."
It's possible that I'm mis-remembering that.
Rife, but the mere relay of information in a police report is probably not breach of the privilege, since its an indpendent fact. Of course, Rife could easily have given him permission, even if he represented the guy.
mI don't want to go down this road again, but we discussed this ad nauseum back when it came out. And by "we" I mean the board, including a bunch of lawyers. Let's not go down the rabbit hole again. I think it can best be summed up as this: we have no proof that a fiduciary, attorney-client relationship was in place at the time of said communications. I'm a lawyer. People come into my office all the time. Sometimes as prospective clients, sometimes not. Sometimes as actual clients.
It got so detailed in that other thread (too lazy to look it up), that we got into citing the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Can we just say that more conjecture without knowing* facts is really jumping the gun and invites a shit-ton of assumptions and disinformation? We just don't know enough to cast aspersions on a guy. Furthermore, in some jurisdictions, accusing someone of professional misconduct (which accusing Cicero of breaking his fiduciary duty would definitely be) is defamation per se. I actually have a case right now involving this in Illinois and the medium in question was, in fact, an internet message board. . . like this one. The commenter is being sued. (FTR, we represent the guy's employer, who had no idea his employee was using the internet to spread falsity's about a third party's professional reputation and, yes, we will get out on summary judgment).
* I use "knowing" loosely; there's certain to be an argument over whether an attorney-client relationship ever existed, and really, a court would likely have to decide if it were fleshed out. Or at the very least, the Ohio board governing attorney conduct
According to this report, Rife went to Cicero looking for advice but then chose another attorney: http://www.10tv.com/live/content/osufootball/stories/2011/03/11/story-columbus-ncaa-ohio-state-investigation.html?sid=102
What (if anything) Cicero learned that was privileged and that he passed on to Tressel, we of course don't know.
I should have been more clear about what I meant: Tressel could have been concerned about the appearance of impropriety by Cicero, whether there really was any or not. He also could have wanted Cicero not to have to deal with being part of a public story, which could of course happen regardless of whether Cicero did anything improper himself.
Just to say it one more time: Tressel could have felt the need to protect Rife even if Rife did nothing wrong. I have no idea whether Rife did or didn't.
I agree with you, and I wasn't trying to call out your post per se, but sort of add a tangential point.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the justification he gave for playing the five suspended players in the bowl. Because they promised to come back and serve their suspensions later (conveniently enough, against a bunch of weak opponents), it was OK for them to play in a BCS bowl?
It doesn't make sense but it was with the blessing of the NCAA. Oddly, they may end up with every game but the Sugar Bowl win vacated. They may end up with a record book that says, "2010 OSU: 1-0, Sugar Bowl Champions."
That sets a dangerous precedent. We'll probably see more "delayed suspensions" from schools in the coming years. Letting players who have broken rules to play in the most important games and then sit out unimportant ones makes a mockery of the whole process.
A theory I've heard tossed around is that the NCAA is likely to be pretty wrathful toward OSU b/c the NCAA let the players play in the bowl with the understanding that they (the NCAA) knew everything about the situation and that OSU was fully cooperating...Of course, that could be complete crap.
The only reason that the Sugar Bowl win is safe is b/c the NCAA specifially declared the five players eligible for the game- there's some weird rule that lets them postpone the suspension if it's a championship game or bowl game.
If the NCAA had not ruled them eligible for the bowl game, that could be vacated as well
But wasn't the NCAA's decision based on false information?
I think it would be "2010 OSU: 1-12, Sugar Bowl Champions." Those games are forfeits, no?
No, they don't do that anymore. They'll be vacated.
I'm pretty sure all games involving ineligible players are vacated, whether won or lost. For example, our all-time basketball record against MSU is 93-74 counting all games, and 86-71 counting non-vacated ones.
The idea is to pretend that the ineligible players didn't compete at all, so even in games they lost, they can't record any statistics.
Maybe i'm just that cynical and jaded but I don't think he had to do a thing to get those players to play in the bowl game. I'm pretty sure the Sugar Bowl execs probably just said "okay, so Posey, Herron, Pryor are all going to be out for OSU? How exactly to you plan to compensate us for our ratings you've just murdered? They'll play or we're going to have a problem."
and in reality how can the NCAA have any jurisdiction over players playing in a bowl that they don't govern?
Would ratings have gone down that much without them? Pryor was the only one with any kind of a national profile at all. I really don't watch college football to see any one individual player, or handful of players. I just like watching the games. To me, a team trying to win shorthanded is arguably more compelling, if anything, than them playing at full stretch.
Surely 'The Vest' is well aware of his reputation of choking in big games against the SEC. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe they (tSIO) were 0-9 before the win against Arkansas in bowl games against the SEC.
Posey also has some recognition, but I think the important effect on the game would have been along the lines of "With tOSU's starting qb and other players out, they won't even be competitive." So, with tOSU out a bunch of guys, why watch what becomes a boring game?
...Even I didn't make it to the end of MSU/Bama.
It was the B1G and Sugar Bowl lobbying. Basically the story went like this: players suspended by OSU, B1G/Sugar goes to the NCAA and lobbies for reinstatement, that happens, OSU asks seniors whether Pryor & Co. should play, they say yes, whole team says yes, Tressel goes with team sentiment.
And the NCAA has jurisdiction in two ways:
- They license the games, and an NCAA team can't play in a bowl that isn't authorized by the NCAA.
- Same reason we have a de facto legal limit of .08. Feds can't mandate that, but they sure as hell can pull highway funding. In other words, if they can't control the bowls, they can bring raining fire on the schools who thumb their noses at a ruling regarding bowls.
I remember that was the big issue around Christmas. Jim Delany found a loophole in the rules so the players could play. Then the NCAA left the decision up to Tressel and OSU. And many thought that was a joke since a decision like that should not be left up to Gene Smith and Tressel. Obviously they were going to let those guys play in the bowl game.
How convenient that Tressel's solution (come back next year and sit out the first 5 games - against opponents who had a combined 39 losses last year) left him with those players in the Sugar Bowl.
This makes his image stay clean because he had "ethics," when in reality, he had already been keeping secrets for 8 months by then.