Terrelle Pryor on Improper Benefits - "I felt like I was doing God's work."

Submitted by Michael Scarn on

Well, um, I'm not sure what to say other than to quote and link this article.  Terrelle Pryor details the story of selling his Gold Pants for $3,000, money he says he used to pay his Mom's rent and heat bills.  

Whenever I write my book the proof will be in there, the receipt that the money I gave my mother was to pay the electric and heat bill. The truth is going to come out one day when the time is right. I don't think I deserved (being punished) in that way, because of the reason I was doing it. I felt like I was doing God's work in a way, and I was getting driven into the ground.

Strangely, he mentions nothing about tattoos, loaner cars, etc.  Some people are just crazy enough to believe their own nonsense.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/jim_trotter/05/09/terrelle.pryor/

HopeInHoke

May 9th, 2012 at 2:33 PM ^

I would love a book by Pryor penned by the man himself.  I just don't get why he'd want to write one.  The stry will get old soon- kind of like how people rarely if ever bring up that Rose cheated on his ACT's and effed over the Memphis program.  If I were him I'd just let it all go and let it die down and hope that he can develop into an NFL player- but he seems to want to write one...

jackfl33

May 9th, 2012 at 1:24 PM ^

It still baffles me that Aaron Craft was on a higher academic All-American team than Novak was.  What could an underclassman at Ohio possibly be doing that is more challenging than what Novak is doing at Ross? Those lists are crazy.

WolvinLA2

May 9th, 2012 at 4:37 PM ^

Do you know anything about Aaron Craft's academics? Just because he chose a lesser academic school than Novak, doesn't mean he's a lesser student. Just because Michigan is better than Ohio State doesn't mean that our smartest basketball player is always smarter than their smartest basketball player.

jackfl33

May 9th, 2012 at 11:15 PM ^

I'm sorry but Ross is a premier institution, Novaks peers are the best and brightest. Craft seems like a very smart kid, but he's presumably taking 100 and 200 level classes (as he should be as a true soph). I would be, as I said before, baffled if Craft's workload was comperable at this point.

tasnyder01

May 10th, 2012 at 1:37 AM ^

I don't know how the schools are in OSU and UM's Ross, but I'm an econ major who switched from microbiology.  Kraft is pre-med and Novak is business.  I think I can offer some insight.

O-Chem for pre-meds is WAY harder than any econ class besides perhaps econometrics.  (Caveat: for me at least.)

rbgoblue

May 9th, 2012 at 12:37 PM ^

If you want to help your mom pay her bills, trade in your sports car for a rust bucket.  Selling equipment from the locker room and receiving free tattoos is not considered God's work.

RakeFight

May 9th, 2012 at 1:31 PM ^

Did you read the article, by chance?  She had lost her job, was 3 months behind on the rent, and using the gas oven to heat her place for her and his little sister.  I'm not defending what that guy did, but let's show a little class before you start dragging family into the smear campaign.

Duck4President

May 9th, 2012 at 2:38 PM ^

There might be some sympathy if this was the first thing we had heard about TPs finances. The problem is that TPs mom was supposedly the one signing all the new leases for his many cars. You can't have it both ways. If he was driving around in a beater, and wasn't wearing gigantic diamond studs in his ears, this misght almost be admirable... if still against the rules. Instead it looks like a meaningless ex post facto justification of his behavior.

RakeFight

May 9th, 2012 at 3:30 PM ^

My sincerest apologies.  I did not realize that you guys were all in the omniscient position to know every detail about this guy and his family's life, background, finances, etc... and I did not realize that you had been put in a place to judge him and his family's decisions based upon your omnisicent knowledge of those details. 

Sure he made some bonehead decisions and maybe he's not a Rhodes Scholar, but I'm not sure I see why he and his family deserve the vitriol that his been spewed forth on this board. 

And maybe this is where I differentiate myself, but everyone deserves a chance to grow from their past mistakes... even ex-buckeyes.  Personally, I hope the guy gets his act together and makes a successful career for himself.  I hope he and his family can get to a point where he doesn't feel he has to sell his pants to pay bills.

wolverine1987

May 9th, 2012 at 3:39 PM ^

I think the issue is that it's Terelle Pryor we are talking about. If this was some random Buckeye football player, while I'm sure the board would still make fun, IMO more benefit of the doubt might be given to his explanation regarding his family. You must admit that Pryor doesn't exactly have a track record of being a truthful stand up guy of great character.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

May 9th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^

Sorry, but that's just bunk.  There's a lot of factual public information out there and it pretty reliably points to the idea that Terrelle Pryor is a lying shithead.  He deserves the vitriol.  If we can't make judgments until we know "every detail about this guy and his family's life, background, finances, etc" omnisciently, then we'll never form opinions on anything, ever.  And frankly we'll end up in a lot of dangerous situations if we ignore the amount of evidence such as we have on Terrelle Pryor and sit on a high horse not making judgments until we know more.

jtown8378

May 9th, 2012 at 12:39 PM ^

God wanted him to lie and break rules. Sounds like to me he is starting already to promote a book that will probably be a picture book of tattoos and cars that someone else did and he put his name on it.

coastal blue

May 9th, 2012 at 12:41 PM ^

Honest truth:

I could care less if Terrelle Pryor used the money to buy whatever he wanted. He could have bought 3000 dollars with of cheetos, multiple lbs of medical marijuana, 30 cases of Patron, a human foot on ebay, etc. and none of that should matter.

He earned those awards and should have the right to do with them what he wants. The NCAA rulebook is full of shit. 

The only part of that scandal that bothers me is Jim Tressell acting holier than thou when he banned them at the start of 2011 as long as they could play in the Sugar Bowl. He should have stood by his guys and started a revolution against the NCAA. Instead he proved what an incredible moral fraud he was.