MLB Trade Rumors: Beltran To The Tribe? Gammons Says We Tried
July 27, 2011Could This Be The End of STO?
July 27, 2011You only get one chance to make a first impression. For Terrelle Pryor, that first impression came on National Signing Day in 2008. That was the day Pryor held a Press Conference to announce that he was not going to make an announcement that day. At that moment, almost everyone’s mind was made up. Pryor was cast as a selfish prima donna who was trying to have the spotlight all to himself.
Never mind that NSD is just the first day players are eligible to sign. And even though most players do sign on that first day, it’s far from 100%. Never mind the fact that Pryor didn’t break any rules or any real etiquette by postponing his decision. Never mind the real reason why he delayed the announcement. Few people cared. It was all about perception.
And so it is that perception seems to carry a lot of weight with The Ohio State University football program these days. In the eyes of public opinion, perception is reality. Perception trumps fact.
For example, consider the whole ordeal with Pryor and his car. When Ohio State coach Jim Tressel announced his resignation, a big deal was made of the fact that Pryor showed up to team meeting driving a Nissan 350z. People immediately jumped to conclusions that this was shady and a dumb thing to do.
Tom Fornelli wrote on CBS Sports’ college football blog that this car was way too expensive for Pryor to be driving. He wrote:
While I can’t be sure of the year model that car is, a quick Google search for a 2010 Nissan 350z showed the price to generally be in the $30,000 range. I also found some 2009 models for about $27,000. Good thing the car’s registered to his mother, Thomasina Pryor; so that settles all controversy, right? Right? Oh boy.
Fornelli should have done himself a favor and stopped with “While I can’t be sure of the year model that car is”. Instead, he made assumptions, wrote them in public, and led plenty of readers to assume those figures as fact.
A couple days later, the truth was revealed. The car was actually a 2007 model with 80,000 miles on it. On June 2nd, Jim Halley of USA Today wrote:
The purchase agreement shows the vehicle cost $18,404.50, But after a trade-in, the remaining balance was $11,435 with monthly payments of $298.35. James said Pryor’s mother can afford the payments.
A far cry from the $27,000-$30,000 that Fornelli was passing along as fact. Of course, the damage has been done. The media couldn’t help themselves, and they went crazy with assumptions about the story and let the rumors lead the story rather than waiting to get the facts first and then reporting a truthful, accurate, and responsible story.
Even just yesterday, Yahoo! Sports’ Drew Wetzel wrote a somewhat bizarre article blasting Pryor, but then used the 2nd half to defend his right to enter the Supplemental Draft. Regardless of the point or sentiment of the article, the eye catching quote was:
“You gotta remind him,” Tressel said he would tell ted Sarniak, “that he’s under a microscope.”
It was advice that never took. Pryor, after all, was the guy who pulled up in a nice Nissan 350Z to the team meeting following Tressel’s resignation.
It truly is stunning that someone can be so selfish as to drive their own car, purchased legitimately at a reasonable price, to a team meeting. Of course the media blames Pryor for driving his car that day, rather than blame themselves for looking at the tinted windows and shiny black exterior of the car and spreading the false assumption that this car was some extreme luxury. Pryor wasn’t wrong for driving his own car. People were wrong for jumping to the wrong conclusions about the car.
It’s not just Terrelle Pryor, though. This applies to the reporting of the Ohio State scandal as a whole. The media has been leading the charge all along in assuming that the NCAA was going to come down harder on Ohio State than they did on USC. This wasn’t based on fact (as witnessed by their ignoring the fact that OSU was never charged with failure to monitor or loss of institutional control, which USC was). This was based on assumption and perhaps wishful thinking.
Even after the NCAA came out and announced that Ohio State was not going to be charged with anything further than their initial Notice of Allegations, meaning Ohio State was safe from the ever frightening FTM and LOIC charges that generally are prerequisites to postseason bans, media outlets like ESPN continue to push the false narrative built around assumption.
Check out this flow chart by Page 2’s DJ Gallo. To get to Terrelle Pryor, you follow this path:
“Do you need a QB?” –> No –> “But do you still want to make a splashy deal?” –> Yes –> “Are you OK bringing in a player who has been surrounded by criminals the last few years?” –> I guess so –> “We’re not talking about you average criminals. We mean the dogs of society.” –> Sure. Fine. –> “Get Terrelle Pryor.”
If you say ‘No, thank’ to the “dogs of society” line, you get “Sign Plaxico Burress.” Yep, the Plaxico Burress who was in prison and, you know, actually surrounded by criminals. But yet it’s Pryor who is the tainted one for being surrounded by those ‘dogs of society’ at Ohio State the last few years. I guess spending time in jail is preferable to spending a few years at Ohio State.
Of course, nobody wants to acknowledge that the NCAA was unable to prove most of the allegations in George Dohrmann’s now infamous Sports Illustrated article. Nobody wants to acknowledge that at the end of the day, the only thing Ohio State is guilty of is having a handful of players selling their own personal property, and a coach who was made aware of this and who chose not to report this to Ohio State’s compliance office. For this, Ohio State has already lost the best QB in their history, the greatest head coach in their history, all of their wins from last season, and some of their best players for the first 5 games of this season.
Ohio State has paid a very heavy, heavy price already for this, both for those losses mentioned above and in terms of their reputation and public perception. So again, this is all about perception. USC went before the NCAA kicking and screaming like a petulant child, thumbing their nose at the whole process. They hired a head coach in Lane Kiffin who, just recently, was charged with failure to monitor for his role at Tennessee. But because USC fought the system, perception was that the NCAA was out to get them.
Ohio State self reported Tressel’s transgressions and have worked closely with the NCAA throughout this entire process. Because of this partnership, there’s a perception that Ohio State is getting off easy.
As I have been saying since the moment this story broke back in December, everyone should take a deep breath, sit back, and let this process play itself out. Ohio State still has to go before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions in August, and it will be months before we ultimately know whether the NCAA accepts Ohio State’s self punishment. Until that time, it would be nice if everyone would ease up on all the rumors, wishing, and general assumptions. The truth will reveal itself, we just have to have the patience to let it play itself out.
For Ohio State, though, it’s too bad. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and in the case of the Jim Tressel scandal, that impression has been made through the media’s reporting of assumption and a lack of factual reporting. Even if the NCAA doesn’t bring the hammer down on Ohio State, the public perception already has.
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Photo Credit: (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
16 Comments
Please. Ohio State “self reported those transgressions” only after it was obvious that the Dispatch was going to do a story on ’em, after a FOIA request that they couldn’t stonewall any longer. They then “worked closely with the NCAA” to scapegoat Tressel — and, oh by the way, we’re not going to fine him any more and in fact will give him a nice little bonus on the way out the door.
Also, congratulations on partially explaining one car. How about the other seven?
And don’t forget that Coach Tressel once committed the unpardonable sin of letting a recruit’s mother make a $7.93 long distance call from a phone in the athletic department. I don’t know why he wasn’t sacked after that!
Great article, Andrew
Tapin, way to get your facts wrong. Ohio State self reported the incident, then called a hasty press conference in light of Yahoo Sports’ impending story about the incident. The news outlets were tipped off because Ohio State self reported. They weren’t the ones who discovered the transgressions.
The other cars were explained by the Ohio BMV, who found that all sales were above-board.
Congrats on falling right into the realm of rumor-mongerers and sensationalists that Andrew was pointing out in his article.
“Ohio State has already lost the best QB in their history”???? He never was the player Troy Smith was. Troy was much more accurate and while not as fast in a straight line, was more elusive. A little perspective is in order.
There’s no question there have been QBs at OSU with better arms. Nobody can deny that. But Pryor would have shattered almost every single QB record at OSU had they not forced him out this year. His ability to keep drives alive by gaining 15 yards with his legs on 3rd down, his physical dominance over defenders, his mentality to win at all costs….he had so many intangibles at the QB position that we have never seen at OSU before. It’s easy to write off his skills and abilities because people didn’t like him personally. Much of this was perception, but plenty of that was certainly his own doing as well. But just in terms of on field production, there’s never been a better QB at OSU.
Krenzel won a championship, so he’s above Troy Smith who got us to national championship games (and won a Heisman) so he’s above Pryor (for the more recent QBs).
I know it’s not all on the QB, but that’s generally how QBs at Ohio State get judged, so, as amazing as it seems for a QB who beat Oregon and Arkansas in BCS games (at least the Razors in our memories if not the record books), Pryor is the 3rd best QB the Buckeyes have had in the last 10 years 🙂
Dear Oregon,
You’re next.
Love,
The Marauding Pack of Media Wolves.
as far as all the hate the Buckeyes are getting, i’m actually enjoying it a bit. Cleveland teams generally haven’t been universal villains, so it’s a bit of a change of pace and it’s fun.
(90s Tribe wasn’t really a villain-team because of the dominance of the Yankees. LeBron-Cavs never got to villain status outside of DC because the media was too busy rumoring him out of town. I don’t see any argument for villain-status at all on the 80s Browns or Cavs and no other teams were good enough to get there nationally).
@Andrew – I was actually responding to tsm, and I do not disagree with what you say about his onfield production. Only disagree that since he didn’t win or get us to a national championship game that his on-field legacy is still smaller than Krenzel’s or Troy’s (as unfair as that might be but that’s the life of the QB)
All this and the NCAA still let them play in that bowl game. All I need to know about the NCAA right there.
so…what does it mean when you read the following tweet (via Adam Rittenberg/Bryan Bennett at the ESPN Big Ten desk?
“ESPN_BigTen Rittenberg/Bennett
RT @wilnerhotline: Scott said he called NCAA prez Emmert after tOSU news last week; Emmert told him “misperception in media about finality”
26 Jul
Whats that they say about lights at the end of the tunnel and oncoming trains?
@11 – It says what everyone already knows. It isn’t final because the Aug. 12th hearing hasn’t happened yet.
or, that new charges for golf, stolen sports equipment, etc are forthcoming. The NCAA says it isn’t done with Cam Newton yet wither
A Michigan fan can dream I guess. Just as they dream of one day beatng the Buckeyes again.
Thanks for the article. I am so happy to have some great writing I can go to in Cleveland and get away from the garbage that ESPN, yahoo, etc. spew out on a daily basis. I don’t know how those “news outlets” pass as actual journalist reporters. You are totally correct. It seems like the “four letter network” and the like always jump to conclusions just to make a name for themselves and they do not care who or what they take down on their way.
Most people, including the OSU fans who claim to have an emotional investment in OSU, are far too dumb to come to their own educated conclusions, so need media to spoon-feed them the b.s. that sells newspapers/pageviews/magazines/ESPN. At the end of the day, OSU did not actually do anything that could negatively impact the integrity of the game of college sports, like buying players (Cam Newton?).
But stories about the school’s class don’t sell newspapers, so let’s slander people/OSU instead. Sigh.
To be fair, I don’t know if one can objectively say Pryor and Tressel were the best QB and coach in OSU history ever. Maybe they were, maybe not, but I think that should be phrased with “who I think are”…cause that snippet sounds about 1000% less well reasoned than the rest of this article.