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March 8, 2011The Chiz Kid – Why Not Now?
March 8, 2011Twitter exploded last night with the posting of this article by Yahoo’s Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel.
In the piece, Robinson claims that the Buckeye coach knew about the memorabilia scandal well before the Athletic department, which if true would be a major violation of NCAA rules-
Tressel received information that players were selling items to Edward Rife – the owner of Fine Line Ink Tattoos in Columbus – as early as April 2010, according to a source. However, neither Ohio State nor the NCAA investigated the transactions or the players’ relationship with Rife until December 2010, when the school claims it was informed of the situation by the local United States Attorney’s office.
Neither the NCAA, The Ohio State University or Coach Tressel responded to the article last night. In fact, there was some dispute as to when the University was even contacted about the story. Yahoo claims they informed the University 3 hours before they published the story, while the University says it was 30 minutes.
According to a source, a concerned party reached out to Tressel last April, alerting the coach that memorabilia transactions had taken place between Rife and a handful of Buckeyes players, including Pryor. The selling of items violates NCAA eligibility rules. The source said Tressel was troubled by the information, and the coach indicated that he would investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
Whether the coach initiated an investigation of the accusation is unclear, but all five players remained on the field in the coming months, playing out the 2010 regular season.
Here’s the deal- if Jim Tressel did know about the violations and failed to report it to the Athletic Department in a timely manner, the program could face major sanctions. This would be akin to “sweeping something under the rug”.
Make no mistake about it, many fans would like nothing better than to see Tressel and the Buckeye program brought down. Even some that claim to be Buckeye fans apparently would like to see Tressel “knocked from his high horse” as someone on twitter commented. Expect to see the worst written about the Vest today.
However, judgment on Tressel will need to be suspended until he addresses the charge and evidence is brought to the league.
The report was written based on the information given by one unnamed source. Regardless of the credibility of the source or reporters in the case, proving that Jim Tressel actually knew about the incident ahead of time would be difficult. There would have to be multiple witnesses or emails, phone messages or letters stating such.
Strap yourself in Buckeye fans, this could be a long road.
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
28 Comments
People are mind-numbingly stupid if they claim to be OSU fans and also want to see Tress go.
agree Denny.
I need to see more proof other than a writer claims Tressel knew about it.
And what exactly did Tressel know? Was it a random person saying TP was getting free tats, or someone more likely to actually know something factual? I could call OSU and make accusations, doesn’t mean they’re credible. There’s a lot more info we need before anyone should make judgments.
It’s realistic – and quite likely – that the players were selling merchandise long before they were caught. The first time you get caught is rarely the first time you did something wrong.
But when Tressel and the school knew is a different matter. If that’s true, it seems like it would have come out when this all broke back in December, it’s not like OSU is a low-profile school with no media attention.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
this will turn out bad. anytime the national media can dump on ohio, it will.
If the NCAA actually wants to press this, the source won’t be “unnamed” much longer. I’m fairly certain that they would have to go public with the source’s identity in order for OSU to face their accuser, right?
This is the point when we all find out that Tress has his entire back covered in tats he got for free.
I am not ready to get all worked up just yet. This is piling on an existing incident. This incident has already been investigated once. Unless there is a fingerprint on the gun, so to speak, I just don’t want to think too hard about this.
If Y! had the emails, they would have said so already. The fact that they filed a freedom of information act request to get them means they don’t have anything yet.
I’ll wait it out before I start panicking over the Buckeyes’ future.
According to Rizzo on WKNR this morning, when this story hit last night, it was like Hanukkah in March for Goldie “Aaron Goldhammer”. ALL he does is look to tear down our Buckeyes. There is ONE UNNAMED source on this story and it is not even on ESPN yet. Then again, Goldie thought the OSU hoopsters “got lucky” beating Wisconsin Sunday by getting hitting an NCAA record 14 three pointers in a row and only missed one for the entire game! They beat the #10 team in the country by 28 and it was a fluke!? OSU will survive this AND Goldie being on the air in Cleveland – time to head back to Denver and let Rizo read his own e-mail!
P.S. – I will say that Rizzo did one heck of an interview with Peyton Hillis the other day…
For you media-types and graduates of the “MSU School of Journalism,” is there a law that requires you seek comment on a pending story before publishing?
I seem to hear “they didn’t give me time to comment” used as some form of a defense to a scandal; but it doesn’t seem to jive with me.
Um, Joe: radio is drivel.
@Ben: You have an ethical responsibility to seek both sides of the story.
How long you want to give someone time to respond is up to individual news organizations. To keep your credibility you don’t want to call someone for comment as your finger hovers over the “send” button, but you can’t let someone stonewall you obviously.
If 30 minutes is accurate, I would say that’s a bit rushed and could mean the writers were nervous about the authenticity of their reporting.
If its 3 hours, I think that’s plenty of time for OSU to craft a response. With something of this magnitude, what would be more important?
If this ends up being true, and Tressel is a liar/cheater, it will pretty much take the cake for me as far as sports disappointment goes. Jim Tressel and OSU football, even with all of their imperfections, has been my gold standard for excellence and integrity in the sports world.
If this is how the Tressel era ends at OSU, it will be devastating to me as an alumni and a Buckeyes fan. Jim Tressel is the last person I would expect to be a liar or a cheater. I hope this isn’t true, or at least there is a REAL good explanation…
Denny, hard to argue that! For me it is like a wreck, you know not to look, but sometimes you just can’t help yourself. I also like LOCAL sports. The entire NATION finds new and creative ways to rip Cleveland and OSU. It would be nice if we could listen to “our local radio guys” support our area and teams once in awhile. GOLDIE (Aaron Goldhammer from Tony Rizzo’s show} will NOT let that happen. He just has to be the burr under the saddle all the time. I like Rizzo and I will keep complaining about it…Goldie talks about Denver all the time and wonders why people do NOT consider him a Clevelander, hangs up on pretty much every caller, talks about being a metro-sexual, constantly clears his throat on air, stuffs his face with free food on air, mocks Cleveland as an area where 25 year olds always leave the area once they hit that age and screens ALL of Rizzo’s e-mail and texts all the time leaving Rizzo a cuckold host with no guts. He just complains…on air to Goldie over and over and NOTHING changes – ever! Craig Karmazin, the station owner, said to complain directly to Rizzo because it’s his call how the show runs. CONSIDER THIS A PUBLIC COMPLAINT ON A HIGHLY VISIBLE LOCAL SPORTS SITE WITH CREDIBILITY, RIZZO!!! Straighten out or get him off your air – NOW!
I’ve met Jim Tressel (just a brief conversation many, many pre-OSU years ago), and I honestly believe that he’s a really decent, honorable man. Having said that, decent honorable men sometimes do dumb, and sometimes dishonorable, things. On the dumb/dishonorable scale, I’d place this (if true) on the just “dumb” spectrum – but there is obviously a throng of wolves looking to tear the man, and his program, apart. Unfortunately, this might be the open wound that allows them to do it.
My homerism says that there’s nothing to this anonymous Yahoo! story, but I guess if OSU can be dragged through the mud on jerseysfortattoosgate, I guess I won’t be surprised if the soiling continues with sortofknewaboutjerseysfortattosbutdidntsayanythingformonthsgate.
Still, I need more evidence (because, in case you didn’t know, I am the sole tryer of fact in this case).
Sorry, “trier.”
It is hard to believe that Tressell would do something like this. However, it was hard to believe — for me at least — that Tressell would go along with that sham Sugar Bowl deal earlier this year.
I really hope Tressell and OSU aren’t heading down the SEC path, where NCAA sanctions are as traditional as homecoming. But I still have faith that they won’t.
It really has become amateur hour on Rizzo’s show. Goldhammer will always be nothing more than an intern to me, because no one that stupid should talk sports. Chris Feodor while negative at times at least knows sports. As far as OSU goes until proof comes out I will believe OSU.
(Raises hand.) Excuse me, but is that d-bag at Auburn whose school bought Cam Newton after Newton’s father literally pimped him from school to school for the highest bidder still working? And don’t both that coach and Newton have shiny, happy hardware for their efforts?
If the answer to both of those questions is “yes” — and it is — then I’m sorry, but there is no way in Hell that Tressel or any of the Buckeyes should be punished at all for swapping jerseys for tattoos. Maybe that’s me being a moral relativist, but there are degrees of corruption, and compared to what Auburn has been allowed to get away with in plain sight of the entire country, that becomes the standard by which all other scandals in the NCAA need to be compared to. If they got away with it, so should Ohio State.
And if you have a problem with it, go after the NCAA, because they’re the ones allowing this cesspool to be created.
we just need to hire the crack pot of investigators that the SEC uses… if Cam Newton and father can be found innocent despite even trying to get money is illegal i think we shall be just fine.. besides our players have already gotten punishment and had to pay money to charity
This is what College Football is. It is coaches and university officials looking the other way when it’s players/ program do something improper. It doesn’t make Tressel a bad person or coach, he is just doing what the rest of the country is doing, keep a respectable program while winning. Alot of these coaches are in a no win situation, they need to bring in top recruits and in a lot of cases, those players have baggage. There are some scum bags out there but there are still a lot of good coaches in college athletics. I feel it is the nature of the beast. I found a old issue of SI about a year ago and it was dedicated to off field problems in college football. It was written in 1989, but if you put 2011 on it I would not have known a difference. This has been a persistent problem for a long time and it will not go away. Coaches like Tressel do what they can control, but anything short of babysitting, things will happen. So what if Tressel is not as honest as everyone thinks, that should be no surprise to anyone. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, fornicated with said slaves, but he also made the Louisana Purchase and wrote the Declaration of Independence. He has done far more for the greater good.
As for Rizzo, at least the show is entertaing, last June I moved to Chicago and gave ESPN1000 a try on a couple of occasions, KNR runs circles around them. What a bunch of monotone dullards. I’m happy I subscribe to XM.
OSU alum…OSU fan…and if Tressel did know and didn’t report it then he should be fired. The excuse that every NCAA program does this kinda thing should never fly at OSU. Wetzel has a pretty solid rep as a reporter from what I gather. One unnamed source does sound shady but they have to be on to something to run with it and request records under the Freedom of Information Act.
Sure Tressel seems like a good guy but he has a history dating back to YSU of star players who get into trouble with the NCAA. Jim O’Brien seemed like a good guy too but he was fired for the same infraction Tressel is accused of….not reporting an NCAA violation. All O’Brien did was try to give a few thousand dollars to a recruit from a war torn country. Not only did Andy Geiger fire him but OSU went to court to keep O’Brien from getting the rest of the money owed to him. Even when the university lost it appealed the case. If he’s guilty (and it’s a big if right now based on what little we know) then OSU won’t hesitate to cut the cord with Tressel because no man is bigger than the university.
If it turns out Tressel really did cover this all up, they can just suspend him for the first 5 games next season. I mean they already set the precedent with the players.
I’m sure if this is all true OSU will figure out a way to avoid dropping the hammer on him. It’s not as if he punched an opposing player during a bowl game or anything.
Columbus Dispatch reporting that Gordon Gee was spotted at Kasich’s state of the state speech. When asked he said that OSU has reported a “perceived” violation. Strap yourselves in and hold on tight Buckeye Nation…this may be a bumpy ride.
Peace out Tress, you aren’t going to survive this one. Was a good decade.
Gotta love all the spin job from OSU fans so far.
“Everyone else does it..we’re not worse than other programs!”
“Everyone is out to get Ohio and dump on our state!”
“These Yahoo! writers went to Michigan!!!! Clearly this is false!”
Give me a break, you over-sensitive ninnies.
This is the same coach that has looked the other way with Maruice Clarett, Troy Smith and Pryor. Who knows who or what else the Sweater Vest has swept under the rug while here.
We can trace this back all the way to his tenure at Youngstown State if you want.
I don’t see OSU firing Sweater Vest unless they have no other choice. But the hammer should be thrown down on him and the University.
I wouldn’t be surprised either if this has been going on for longer than what Yahoo! is reporting.
You know how it was LeBron’s “right” to leave Cleveland – it was just the WAY he did it. With Aaron Goldhhammer, it is the obvious GLEE he is taking in tearing down the Buckeyes as we deal with this situation currently going on in Columbus. What a joke that OUR local Buckeye affiliate lets this happen – an out of towner tearing down OSU and ENJOYING the hell out of this tough situation because a few knuckleheads got greedy for their precious “ink”. This will NOT be forgetten, Goldie – I hope you enjoyed your run. Then again, you are over 25 so it’s time for you to leave Cleveland (as you say always happens)…how about going back to Denver?! Don’t let the door hit you in the A _ _!!!
For everyone asking and hoping that the great and powerful NCAA “hammer” be brought down, please. It will be, but don’t take such delight in it. The NCAA is such a corrupt and laughable organization that it makes me ill whenever they get up on their high horse and talk down to ANYONE.
Wins talk and BS walks!!!! Bite, kick, or scream, you win! The NCAA leadership see dollars signs everyday, except when it feels threatened, then it lashes out! Got to keep the masses in check! Now, if tressel was black???? Im just saying?