Meyer ESPN Article With A Quote From a Buckeye Fan

Submitted by CincyBlue on September 26th, 2018 at 4:56 PM

ESPN Front Page article on nothing has changed at OSU

Classic OSU fan on a question on Zach Smith:

"You want everyone to forget about Zach Smith?" an eavesdropping fan interjected from two rows back. "Beat Tulane today. Beat Penn State next week. By the time we stomp Michigan's asses, people will be asking, 'Zach who?'"

Jeff09

September 26th, 2018 at 7:47 PM ^

What is the meaning of the "Urban Legends Never Die" shirt? I get it's a play on his name, but is there some old saying about urban legends not dying? I'm not sure I get the reference

simplymarv97

September 26th, 2018 at 9:25 PM ^

So I'm supposed to take in whatever a random article on ESPN as fact that OSU fans are ignorant to this case. Screw that! As a fan of OSU football, all I want is to watch our football team win. There is nothing wrong about that...that's whys we all cheer for our favorites sport teams. From my standpoint and many people I know, the situation was hard to deal with, because it was difficult to parse hit pieces against Urban's past from his handling and knowledge of domestic violence allegation against Zach Smith. If this was any other job, Urban would have been fired for keeping a guy with so much off the job issues (not including the allegations)... but I believe it was fair that he was suspended those game (we all know sports is very unique from regular job positions). I wish Urban had done a better job with handling Zach's behavior. The one part that still leaves me conflicted is the abuse claims. I still don't get how the police gets involein nand find to reason to place charges or arrest Zach...which tells me it was not as simple as a abuse going. The thing is we don't know and we may never know. I know some of you with always hate Urban, our school, and our fans regardless, I just ask that realize that OSU fans are not some filthy people with nor morals ot our program is the same. We're all human, and seeing the post from espn really hurts because it attempts to blame the OSU culture as a evil one. 

micheal honcho

September 27th, 2018 at 12:03 AM ^

Evil is a bit harsh. I’d say OSU fans mostly just perfectly complete the word. Fanatic. They are consumed with their football team, to the point of rationalizing everything they need to in order to get their desired result. Winning. Look only to M’s response to the Ed Martin/ fab 5 scandal. We didn’t enjoy it but we took our medicine as a program and as a fan base, knowing deep inside that we were wrong. Forces within UM took their eyes off the big picture and got led by shiny things. What circumstance would you assert that OSU as an institution and a fan base would provoke the same type of priority recalibrating? 

Eng1980

September 27th, 2018 at 6:37 AM ^

WE didn't do anything wrong (other than giving Martin free basketball tickets).  Martin gave money to players as Martin was holding cash from gambling operations and was looking for a place to invest it.  Martin funded players that went to Illinois, Missouri, and mostly Michigan.  The onlyl real problem was that Fisher gave Martin free basketball tickets which made Martin a Michigan booster and therefore Michigan was on the hook for the funding even though it was after the fact. The resulting penalty was attrocious as has been noted on this blog.

Tom Bombadil

September 27th, 2018 at 12:08 AM ^

1. Hating Urban is justified because he kept on someone he knew to be an abuser (or at least who he knew to be a bad example for impressionable young men) because he thinks he's some arbiter of second chances. He lied about knowing because he thought he could, and continues to lie ("it was a medication that affects my memory!" "does this medication ever affect your memory in terms of coaching?" "no it never has... it only helps me forget things I need to have not known about for plausible deniability!"). Also, he sees himself as a victim thus his "apologies" seem insincere.

2. I, for one, don't hate the school per se, in that I think there are good people affiliated with tOSU and it's not all bad. But at some point you have to look at the report they released, the day-long meeting ordeal and what they didn't look into (the text messages) and realize that they approached the whole thing with the ends all but decided - a suspension to give the impression of a punishment for pr purposes - rather than a process to determine the best course of action. Also, I worry the lesson will be a continuation of the Tressel culture where there's an implicit understanding that the head coach shouldn't know about things in order to avoid facing real consequences. The culture won't change until you guys make the difficult choice to change it. Keeping Urban was the easy choice.

3. When you guys come up to AA for the game, I always strive to be friendly to OSU fans even after we lose. The one time I went to Columbus, your fans largely came across as antagonistic and rude, and sore winners at that. I can handle some trash talk, that's part of sports fandom, but having been to other away environments (MSU, UW, PSU), it was by far the least welcoming. Just my experience. I'm sure you have some nice fans, though.

KO Stradivarius

September 27th, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^

That's the thing - I'm sure most THEEEE Ohio fans take pride that we don't enjoy attending games there. I get that no one likes to see rival fans at games, but you should at least treat them like fellow humans.  It's like they cannot resist reverting to the lowest common denominator (LCD) behavior when it comes to M fans, and there isn't any desire to do anything nice for us out of the goodness of their hearts (if such a thing exists).  

I wonder what it will take before the fanbase realizes they are only perpetuating the bad LCD perception and it's not something to be proud of.  Probably will take something bad to happen, like usual, before anything changes.