http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7148630&categoryid=2378529
I understand that this isn't anything new, but I hadn't seen it and to my understanding the audio version hadn't been released until now. I can't help but think more fondly of Jim Tressel after hearing this. Of course, the ESPN guy rips Jim Tressel (in a "politically correct" way), but what else is new? The part were Jim Tressel talks about how relieved he was that it was only NCAA violations really stands out to me. I don't mean to fawn over the man but he's pretty obviously an awesome dude and its a shame the media are such tools.
He doesn't beat around the bush. He answered quickly and honestly. I think he comes off as sincerely more concerned about the federal criminal side of things.
vacuuming sucks
C'mon dude, Tressel only cared about winning... I mean did you hear those lip smacks? What about that body language? (even though its only an audio recording, ESPN dumb asses.)
/sarcasm
October 20th: National Kenneth Guiton Day
From the comments on ESPN, looks like we Buckeye fans aren't the only ones sick of their mission to destroy tOSU and the BIG.
"It's just another case of there you are". ~ Doc (1918-2012)
Yes, the lip smacks comment was fantastic investigative journalism...............HA!!!!!
vacuuming sucks
Was wondering if anyone else saw the OTL "report" yesterday afternoon. When i was watching it, i wanted to say "EFF ESPiN!!" and switch channels..... then i remembered they monopolized the TV sports world a long time ago. I truly don't want to watch ESPiN, but am pretty much forced to in a way. Anyone else feel the same?
That reporter came off as a total dickhead. Basically being completely biased in his "journalism" and condemning Tressel without any regard to Tressel's true intentions. The reporter dogs Tressel for thinking that a federal investigation is more important than NCAA rules, which of course the NCAA and the reporter look at it the other way. They think the NCAA is above all. I'm not saying Tressel covered that mess up SOLELY for his player's safety (i think he knew he had a great chance to win it all, and didn't want to jeopardize those chances by suspending key players.) But the more that comes out about him in general, and about him pertaining to this mess, the more the respect that i had lost for the man when this all came out starts to build back up.
My attitude towards him has changed many times recently. It went from "who is this guy?" to "he's awesome, he won us a MNC!!" to "he wins a lot, AND he does many great things off the field" to "i know he wins all the time in the Big Ten, but when will he show some emotion and creativity in game-planning" to "i can't believe he did this.... his presence is killing this program, i want him gone" now to "damn, i miss him a lot, and may actually have more respect for him now, than i ever did when he was the HC".... and i had A LOT of respect for him when he was here.
It pisses me off how he STILL gets slammed by outsiders, but i try not to let it bother me b/c i choose to believe all the good the man stood for. All of us, including me, took for granted his time here, not just on the field, but what he did for an entire community and for hundreds of "young people."
Gene Smith and ESPiN can suck it.
Oh, and i got even more pissed when right after the Tressel segment, ESPiN ran an ad for the Longhorn Network. They were basically saying to me: "Texas and Mack Brown never break ANY NCAA rules! Take that you idiots from Ohio!!"
Tressel is smart. He stuck to his guns and never changed his story. He took an affirmative defense and never once did he say he regreted not going to compliance. They pressed him and he didn't give in. These quotes say it all:
"But I’ve also had a player murdered. I have a player incarcerated. I have had a couple guys get sucked into the drug culture. I’ve had a player who served a ten-year suspension for obstruction of justice, you know? And those things, just like games, you remember the bad play in the game that cost you the game. You don’t remember the 77 good plays. And so, I mean, I – you know, I was frightened."
"If I fastforwarded to today, I think I have the answer to what I would do. I would go to the university legal counsel because it’s a federal issue. I wouldn’t go to the athletic department legal counsel. I wouldn’t go to the compliance office."
Suck it NCAA, And suck it ESPiN.
I will not be surprised at all of JT doesn't get a show-cause. In fact, if anything, this shed light on issues which coaches are generally unprepared to deal with, and now the NCAA and coaches have a precedent and I believe they will provide education in the future of how to properly deal with a situation like this.
Agree so much it hurts.
It boggles my mind how eager some Buckeye fans are to turn their backs on this guy...
Real fans stay for Carmen.
Menexenus, I don't think anyone is turning their back on the guy.Its called moving on, Tressel has moved on, and the fanbase needs to move on..
OMG Menexenus, its over. Tressel isn't coming back. We didn't turn our backs on him. His era of excellence ended. Its happens with every coach. We all love coach Tressel. He needed to go for the sake of the program, and now Gene Smith does too.
October 20th: National Kenneth Guiton Day
I don't understand why some people think that repeating the conventional wisdom over and over again is likely to convince someone who is questioning that very same conventional wisdom.
I have asked why the media (as well as the people on this website) have been ignoring the possibility of rehiring Tressel as the head football coach at the Ohio State University. He resigned to protect the program. If he loves the program enough to resign, why wouldn't he love it enough to come back? He still has a home in Columbus, and he has taken what amounts to a part time job in the NFL. So there are no circumstances in his life (job/life/family) preventing his return. And he's only 58 years old. He has at least another 7-10 years of excellent coaching ahead of him (if not more).
The NCAA will make its judgments soon. If Tressel's penalty is one year or less, as I and TheHumbleBuckeye expect it will be (see his post above), then he will be eligible to resume his old position effective at the end of this season/beginning of the next one. If you love Coach Tressel as much as you say you do, then explain why you are not in favor of rehiring him.
Reminder: simply saying "it's over" again and again does not constitute an argument.
Real fans stay for Carmen.
Menexenus,
For tOSU to re-hire Jim tressel, means re-hiring an employee who lied and peprpetrated a cover-up. This has caused tOSU untold embarrassment. Re-hiring Jim Tressel says tOSU doesn't care about its reputation and is willing to overlook dishonesty and deception.
Think there's been too much negative press, to this point? Rehiring Tressel would invite enough negative press to compel ESPN to air a new weekly show, "The Sports Reporters: Ohio State Edition."
Ohio State is bigger than any one man. Betcha Jim Tressel would agree, 100%.
'If you love Coach Tressel as much as you say you do, then explain why you are not in favor of rehiring him.'
Everyone has. You're just plugging your ears and shouting 'I can't ear you, lalalalalala'.
Taquitos.
Shocking! There were issues possibly as important as a bunch of guys selling their own stuff? But I did not read about it in the paper and ESPN said nothing about it. I think Tressel is cleverly trying to distract the NCAA with all this talk of violent criminals, federal investigations and disbarred lawyers. What is that stuff compared with the NCAA's right and duty to bring the hammer down on some players who sold their own stuff.
JLP36
I listened to this while getting ready for work today; One of the guys I work with brought it up, and some jackass decided that he spout out the "Tressel is dirty, he's been dirty everywhere he's been, like Calipari"...seriously, I fucking lost it; I started to talk, be realized I am in an enviornment where it would've been really bad to get into a shouting match and lose my composure. I waited until my buddy who brought it up and I where alone, and I calmly told him that I wasn't going to waste my time debating facts with someone who had no idea what they where talking about.
Again, what is lost is that it was a federal investigation that the lawyer had no right to discuss.What Tressel did wasn't right, by any means, but let's not act like him and Pryor where killing and robbing people.
"Don't put syrup on shit, and tell me it's pancakes"
No matter how sh*tty the tour is, it's always tough to leave.
@Denny I get the feeling that you might really have some intelligent things to say if you could just overcome your penchant for snarky two sentence posts. Sadly, we'll probably never know...
@Hoody Wayes If you believe what you wrote about Jim Tressel, then you've been watching way too much ESPN. Turn the channel and step away from the remote.
Obviously, I have no chance of convincing anyone who actually believes all the misrepresentations about Tressel and his motivations that have been propagated by ESPN and their ilk. If you're that far gone, I have no hope of convincing you to rehire Tressel. Because after all, if you believe all that crap, then you must really think he is a bad guy - a conniving, cheating liar. Of course, you wouldn't want someone like that back as head coach! Why would you?
But on the other hand, if you've actually done the work necessary to get outside the media bubble and you believe that Tressel's primary motivation in this whole episode was protecting the welfare of his players, then I submit that you should want Tressel back as head coach.
Hoody Wayes's primary argument seems to be that rehiring Tressel would harm OSU's reputation. Honestly, I don't give a damn about OSU's reputation. If I have to choose between doing the right thing and caring about what other people think, I'll do the right thing every time. If we know the truth about Tressel (i.e. we know that he is a great man and a great coach who violated an NCAA rule in the course of trying to protect his players), then we shouldn't care what ill-informed ESPN-watchers think about our coach or our program.
Real fans stay for Carmen.
Espin tells lemmings to believe that tOSU's transgressions were horrible...they were not.
@MENEXENUS -- But isn't Tress perceived as a "cheater" by those other than diehard Buckeye fans now, and even by some, maybe the majority of Buckeye fans? And by that I mean most of the US and those abroad who are aware that college football exists. Why would the school want to put effort into "fixing" that issue when they can either hire the current "Bro" or some other. I love using """""" marks fyi.
Menexnus, the problem is hiring Tressel wouldn't be sending the right message it would be sending the worng message. What you fail to acknolwedge is that Tressel was later informed by Cicero that his players were not involved in drug trafficking and that they were safe, at that point he should have reported to compliance, but he didn't, he kept quiet. Explain his reasoning for that. He lied, its that simple don't make it into something that its not. We all appreciate what he did, but its time to move on whether that is the Fickell, Meyer or whatever era.
Amen Biggy.
Funny how none of the Miami transgressions are being addressed anymore... anywhere. Anyone care to place a bet that our penalty will be more severe than Miami's when it's all said and done?
SI, ESPiN, even Yahoo have been despicable thru this whole thing. Especially ESPiN. I'd have a hard time collecting my check if I were Spielman and Smith. Herbie, of course, has turned in his Buckeye Nation passport.
#fistpumpgobuckeyes
All the others get a pass for far greater troubles. I heard espin was complimenting LSU for winning with their distractions. I guess getting high and pummeling the local town folks is much better than selling your own belongings that you earned.
@William Thanks for your legitimate question. You ask me to explain his reasoning. I don't have all the answers, but if you really want to know the answer, I would refer you to the link at the top of the thread. Surely, Tressel can explain his reasoning better than I can.
I have admitted that Tressel violated NCAA rules. He has accepted responsibility for that mistake and has resigned to try to protect OSU from further harm. But once Tressel has served whatever penalty that the NCAA eventually imposes, there cannot be any further penalties imposed for rehiring him.
Let me put the question another way. Once he has served his penalty and is eligible to coach again, do you want to see him hired by another program? Do you want to have to play against him? Think about that.
Real fans stay for Carmen.