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Jeff Gordon, ST Louis PD: Cheating didn’t bring down Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. Arrogance did.
Like former USC athletic director Mike Garrett before him, Tressel dismissed the work of Yahoo! Sports staffers as they poked around his school's business and uncovered NCAA violations. In Garrett's case, the issue was lavish benefits bestowed upon running back Reggie Bush.
In Tressel’s case, details of clumsy cover-up were revealed. As colleague Bryan Burwell observed, dogged reporting on OSU football exposed Tressel to the world as a liar.
This isn’t John Calipari we’re talking about. Calipari is comfortable working the margins of the NCAA rulebook while building basketball juggernauts. For Coach Cal, recruiting is what it is.
No, this latest NCAA “scandal” took down Tressel, an alleged paragon of integrity.
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports: “You can disagree with the significance of the original mistake by the players: Why can’t you sell your own stuff? There is no debating that a head coach must follow the NCAA rules, a major one being that he must turn over credible information of a violation. The NCAA has a lot of questionable statutes. Demanding the truth from multimillion dollar employees isn’t one of them. When Tressel didn’t live up to his responsibilities, it was one of the most significant mistakes in recent memory. This wasn’t a shadowy booster or a rogue agent. This wasn’t a circumstantial case against an assistant coach. This was the head man, caught with an electronic paper trail of email.”
Ray Ratto, CBSSports.com: “Tressel's contemptible arrogance dwarfed the weight of the crime, just as USC's insufferable smugness in the Reggie Bush fandango contributed to its punishment. But that leads to another problem, which is the NCAA. To this day, it doesn't understand the letter vs. the spirit of the law, and prefers to punish those administrators who resist arrest far more than those who say they're sorry. The NCAA, in short, puts great stock in the perp walk, and far less than in running a fair shop.”
Greg Couch, FanHouse: “For some reason, the sweater-vest is bugging me most. Jim Tressel resigned Monday morning as Ohio State’s coach, and while I’m not sure it really was inevitable, there is no shock. The guy had been covering up rules violations and lying to the NCAA about it. But he wrote a book that promoted his own integrity, knowing that you’d buy. In his quiet moments, was he laughing at you? That sweater-vest was in on the lie, part of the charade. He dressed himself up like a man of integrity, but you know, we dressed him up that way, too.”
Andy Staples, SI.com: “If the three highest profile players of a big-time coach's career all got dinged by the NCAA, you would think that coach might be dirty. So why, after Maurice Clarett, Troy Smith and Terrelle Pryor all faced NCAA sanctions, did people still think Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was squeaky clean? Why, after Tressel admitted in March that he played ineligible players and lied to the NCAA about it, did people still rush to his defense, claiming him an otherwise perfect coach who made one little mistake? Because Tressel, Ohio State and a compliant media . . . sold that narrative so well. He was The Senator. The light in the darkness. The one who didn't have to stoop as low as his peers. Even Tressel's choice of signature garment screamed piety. A sweater vest says, ‘I'll have your daughter home by nine, sir.’ A sweater vest says, ‘I'll be in the first pew in church on Sunday.’ A sweater vest says, ‘I'll abide by my contract and the rules that govern my profession.’”
Pat Forde, ESPN.com: “The fans rejoicing around the Big Ten on Monday makes clear how thoroughly Tressel had dominated the league. His tenure was a spectacular success on the field. But there will be an enduring and justifiable taint to Tressel. This is a guy who has always talked skillfully about doing all the right things, but hasn't walked it very well. He won big and was dogged by NCAA violations at Youngstown State in the 1990s . . . And now Tressel has been forced out of his dream job, one of the top five in America. If he's honest with himself, Tressel must wonder today how much easier life would have been if he'd just done the right thing when he got that first email warning him that his players were breaking the rules. But this has been a lie-and-deny operation from the beginning, and now it ends with Jim Tressel's meticulously polished reputation in tatters.”
Like former USC athletic director Mike Garrett before him, Tressel dismissed the work of Yahoo! Sports staffers as they poked around his school's business and uncovered NCAA violations. In Garrett's case, the issue was lavish benefits bestowed upon running back Reggie Bush.
In Tressel’s case, details of clumsy cover-up were revealed. As colleague Bryan Burwell observed, dogged reporting on OSU football exposed Tressel to the world as a liar.
This isn’t John Calipari we’re talking about. Calipari is comfortable working the margins of the NCAA rulebook while building basketball juggernauts. For Coach Cal, recruiting is what it is.
No, this latest NCAA “scandal” took down Tressel, an alleged paragon of integrity.
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports: “You can disagree with the significance of the original mistake by the players: Why can’t you sell your own stuff? There is no debating that a head coach must follow the NCAA rules, a major one being that he must turn over credible information of a violation. The NCAA has a lot of questionable statutes. Demanding the truth from multimillion dollar employees isn’t one of them. When Tressel didn’t live up to his responsibilities, it was one of the most significant mistakes in recent memory. This wasn’t a shadowy booster or a rogue agent. This wasn’t a circumstantial case against an assistant coach. This was the head man, caught with an electronic paper trail of email.”
Ray Ratto, CBSSports.com: “Tressel's contemptible arrogance dwarfed the weight of the crime, just as USC's insufferable smugness in the Reggie Bush fandango contributed to its punishment. But that leads to another problem, which is the NCAA. To this day, it doesn't understand the letter vs. the spirit of the law, and prefers to punish those administrators who resist arrest far more than those who say they're sorry. The NCAA, in short, puts great stock in the perp walk, and far less than in running a fair shop.”
Greg Couch, FanHouse: “For some reason, the sweater-vest is bugging me most. Jim Tressel resigned Monday morning as Ohio State’s coach, and while I’m not sure it really was inevitable, there is no shock. The guy had been covering up rules violations and lying to the NCAA about it. But he wrote a book that promoted his own integrity, knowing that you’d buy. In his quiet moments, was he laughing at you? That sweater-vest was in on the lie, part of the charade. He dressed himself up like a man of integrity, but you know, we dressed him up that way, too.”
Andy Staples, SI.com: “If the three highest profile players of a big-time coach's career all got dinged by the NCAA, you would think that coach might be dirty. So why, after Maurice Clarett, Troy Smith and Terrelle Pryor all faced NCAA sanctions, did people still think Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was squeaky clean? Why, after Tressel admitted in March that he played ineligible players and lied to the NCAA about it, did people still rush to his defense, claiming him an otherwise perfect coach who made one little mistake? Because Tressel, Ohio State and a compliant media . . . sold that narrative so well. He was The Senator. The light in the darkness. The one who didn't have to stoop as low as his peers. Even Tressel's choice of signature garment screamed piety. A sweater vest says, ‘I'll have your daughter home by nine, sir.’ A sweater vest says, ‘I'll be in the first pew in church on Sunday.’ A sweater vest says, ‘I'll abide by my contract and the rules that govern my profession.’”
Pat Forde, ESPN.com: “The fans rejoicing around the Big Ten on Monday makes clear how thoroughly Tressel had dominated the league. His tenure was a spectacular success on the field. But there will be an enduring and justifiable taint to Tressel. This is a guy who has always talked skillfully about doing all the right things, but hasn't walked it very well. He won big and was dogged by NCAA violations at Youngstown State in the 1990s . . . And now Tressel has been forced out of his dream job, one of the top five in America. If he's honest with himself, Tressel must wonder today how much easier life would have been if he'd just done the right thing when he got that first email warning him that his players were breaking the rules. But this has been a lie-and-deny operation from the beginning, and now it ends with Jim Tressel's meticulously polished reputation in tatters.”
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