(Note: WFNY doesn’t have a singular editorial voice. Today we will obviously have a lot of Ohio State posts as it is such big news. Remember that each writer’s opinion is their own.)
Terrelle Pryor will probably go down in history, at least in some fans’ minds, as the guy who ended Jim Tressel’s career at Ohio State. Fact is, Pryor was one of a few whose actions were the catalyst for this whole mess. Being the catalyst isn’t really a reason for blame as much as it is just bad luck, though. Being the catalyst will end up causing Pryor to go down in history as “the guy,” but putting all or even most of the blame on Pryor is far too simplistic.
Obviously, blaming Pryor relieves Jim Tressel of his part in lying to the NCAA. That is unacceptable all by itself, obviously. Tressel made his bed by how he reacted to the situation. I want to focus on Pryor though.
Like many things, I have been on a journey with the Terrelle Pryor situation. I have learned over the years not to always trust my most reactionary of thoughts, especially when something makes me angry or sad. Over time, my opinions become far more substantial when they are firmly planted in between intellect and emotion rather than swimming exclusively in the latter.
When this went down, I was angry with Pryor and his teammates for putting Jim Tressel in that position. I was smart enough to keep it off the front pages of WFNY, but in email exchanges with fellow writers, I blamed him for the trouble. I mistook the catalyst for trouble as the trouble itself. What I have arrived at over time is that Pryor is just one of many in a long line. If you believe the latest from Sports Illustrated it is at least 28 players since 2002. If you believe what most of us believe about the state of NCAA football in this country you will probably assume that number is far far too low.
I don’t give Terrelle Pryor a pass, by the way. At the end of the day, I don’t have a very high opinion of Pryor. All the way back to his announcement to attend Ohio State, Pryor engaged in a self-centered, attention-grabbing exercise in junior media manipulation. The signs were all there about what kind of character Pryor had. The fact that he was more interested in financial gain from trophies and awards rather than tradition is just another small indicator. His misguided defense of Michael Vick is another.
In this case, his offense is selling memorabilia. On the surface I find his actions detestable. What sense of tradition can you have when mementos are just cast aside for money? It is all just money that most assume Pryor will make boatloads of in the future, which makes it seem all the worse.
Then again, when I was a kid, I used to play the lottery every time I opened a pack of sports cards. With my Beckett Price Guide in my hands, I would look to see what my cards were worth on a monthly basis. I hoped to someday have cards worth tons of money. I didn’t earn those cards the way Terrelle Pryor earned his stuff, yet I was obsessed with the financial value of it as a kid.
How can I possibly sit in judgment having never been in Pryor’s position? Who’s to say I wouldn’t have signed every shirt I could get my hands on in order to make some cash? Do you know what it’s like to have golden goose-like abilities with a Sharpie marker in your late teens? I don’t. This isn’t even to mention all the people making millions and millions off of players’ images while not sharing it with the “stars” themselves.
Point being, even if there are a lot of reasons to look down on Terrelle Pryor, he still isn’t to blame for Jim Tressel resigning his post atop Ohio State football. You can blame every player like Terrelle Pryor who has ever played college football in the history of the nation and be more accurate at assigning culpability than to look at Pryor individually. Bottom line is this can’t be about Pryor, really. It is so much bigger.
This is about a game where money flows like water. Yet there is a giant dam in front of the locker rooms to keep any of the players from drinking. Then we get angry and judgmental when they find a drink wherever they can. Some guys are thirsty. Others are greedy. Regardless, the goals and benefits aren’t really aligned.
In the end, I find that there are no simple answers. Obviously Jim Tressel needs to ultimately take the blame for his own actions no matter who put him in the spot. Unfortunately for Terrelle Pryor, I think he will always have a scarlet letter on him among Buckeye fans. Just make sure you think it all the way through before you help perpetuate that line of thinking. If it hadn’t been Pryor, don’t you think it would have been another player in this falsely puritanical athletic system the NCAA is running?
