Funny Excerpt About Tressel

[WANG]

From elevenwarriors.com:

What will be more interesting is to see how Jim Tressel reacts to being the scapegoat. To save its own hide, OSU has turned Tressel into a pariah, and which would be a bitter pill for anyone to swallow. But that's the thing about Jim Tressel; we already know what he's going to say and how he's going to act. Because he's the hero Columbus deserves, but not the one it needs right now.

So we'll vilify him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian. A watchful protector in a sweatervest. A dork knight.

For those of you who don't know it, that is a parody of the last line from Dark Knight...pretty funny.

Now I am not saying that Tressel didn't make his own bed with his actions, but I will always be curious as to whether or not Tressel DID turn over the information to higher ups, and subsequently fell on the sword in order to protect the University. It might not be likely, but I also don't think that would be out of his character. Nevertheless, his willingness to be, for lack of a better term, shat on by the University, not say anything in response, and beyond that show up at the hearing to say it WAS all his own doing is a big reason I still respect the man. He is a Buckeye to the core and I will truely miss him as the HC.

And yes I know that in return for showing up to the hearing OSU officially changed his status from "resigned" to "retired".

[buckeyebikerbabe]

I have very mixed feelings about Tressel right now. On one hand, he's the primary reason this whole mess got so out of hand and brought the scrutiny of the NCAA and the CFB world into our house. Part of me has very little sympathy for him if what we think we know is the actual truth at the heart of the matter. I feel like he duped Buckeye Nation for a long time, building a saintly reputation with a false image that he constructed very carefully in the public eye.

On the other hand, part of my gut reaction is that he was used as a scapegoat by his superiors and we're only getting a sanitized version of the actual facts. He's a Buckeye to the core and he's taking the hit to save his beloved university from an even worse fate. I look to all the good he did off the field and in guiding other troubled players onto the straight and narrow and just don't know which version of Tressel is the true one. It took a long time for the "real" story about both sides of Woody to emerge form all the rumors and innuendo flying around after he was fired. Maybe we'll all know the real Tressel story one day, maybe not.

[WANG]

My feelings on Tressel aren't mixed at all, but I guess that is apparent.

The way I look at it is this:

There are two ways this really went down, either the way that we all are seeing it, or a more cloak and dagger way where Tressel martyred himself for the the program.

If it's the latter, then EVERYONE involved with Ohio State football from Gene Smith to your casual fan owes Tressel a lifetime of thanks.

If it is the former, I don't think it shows that Tressel was actually a shady guy with no integrity or morals. I think it shows that he is more human and prone to mistakes then his public persona let on, but that is hardly a reason to crucify the man. I think Clarett put it best (which is hard to believe) when he recently said (about Tressel):

"You can't be a fraud for 30 years. It's impossible, you know what I'm saying? People could smell a fraud within the first few months. You're going to be exposed. But for 30 years that man has been respected by the people who are very respectable throughout the country."

It may not be the most eloquent of statements, but it rings true. You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Tressel may have been a lot of things, but to think that he was putting up a front for THIRTY years and this is the only slip up he had is a bit more of a stretch than believing he is a man of integrity who made a mistake.

But that's just my $.02

[angrybaldman]

Agreed Wang. bl4u

[buckeyebikerbabe]

Jul 12, 2011 8:42:08 GMT -5 WANG said:

My feelings on Tressel aren't mixed at all, but I guess that is apparent.

The way I look at it is this:

There are two ways this really went down, either the way that we all are seeing it, or a more cloak and dagger way where Tressel martyred himself for the the program.

If it's the latter, then EVERYONE involved with Ohio State football from Gene Smith to your casual fan owes Tressel a lifetime of thanks.

If it is the former, I don't think it shows that Tressel was actually a shady guy with no integrity or morals. I think it shows that he is more human and prone to mistakes then his public persona let on, but that is hardly a reason to crucify the man. I think Clarett put it best (which is hard to believe) when he recently said (about Tressel):

"You can't be a fraud for 30 years. It's impossible, you know what I'm saying? People could smell a fraud within the first few months. You're going to be exposed. But for 30 years that man has been respected by the people who are very respectable throughout the country."

It may not be the most eloquent of statements, but it rings true. You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Tressel may have been a lot of things, but to think that he was putting up a front for THIRTY years and this is the only slip up he had is a bit more of a stretch than believing he is a man of integrity who made a mistake.

But that's just my $.02

But it's not his only slip-up, it's the only one where his feet have been held to the fire and he's had to pay a price. There were quite a few at YSU, and then there was the whole MoC issue, and quite a few more with various other players. Maybe the signs have always been there in subtle ways that we, Buckeye Nation, have been able to ignore because we were too rapped up in his saintly image. He may have been just good at spin doctoring the way things came down so we wouldn't put two and two together.

I'm not saying he's a monster, but I am beginning to see that he's not and has never been a saint either. He's done very good things and now we know that he's done very bad things for the program as well. Only time and perspective will reveal which outweighs the other in terms of his tOSU legacy.

[WANG]

Jul 12, 2011 10:31:24 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

But it's not his only slip-up, it's the only one where his feet have been held to the fire and he's had to pay a price. There were quite a few at YSU, and then there was the whole MoC issue, and quite a few more with various other players. Maybe the signs have always been there in subtle ways that we, Buckeye Nation, have been able to ignore because we were too rapped up in his saintly image. He may have been just good at spin doctoring the way things came down so we wouldn't put two and two together.

I'm not saying he's a monster, but I am beginning to see that he's not and has never been a saint either. He's done very good things and now we know that he's done very bad things for the program as well. Only time and perspective will reveal which outweighs the other in terms of his tOSU legacy.

I guess I just don't see his "alleged" slip ups as that big of a deal when looking at CFB as a whole.

I severly doubt he was ever implicitly involved in anything along the lines of paying a player, getting them fake jobs, hooking them up with boosters, etc.

At worst his has been guilty of turning a blind eye, and I don't think it kills the mans integrity.

This is the same man who has countless stories told about how he wouldn't "negatively" recruit, and most of the times talked about things outside of football. The same man who had players write in a journal every single day what they were thankful for. The same man who made countless visits to hospitals without letting the media know, because he cared more about giving back than getting recognition.

He may have done some less than saintly things around football, but IMO it doesn't remotely come close to negating all of the positive things he has done, both on and off the field. I have a hard time believing it was all an act to garner support because all he needed for that was to win and keep winning (which he did).

I think Tressel is a good, honest man who was in an inenviable position of making very difficult decisions that directly affect his career. He didn't always make the right ones when it came to that part of his life, but it seems he has always made the right decisions for the things that really, truely matter.

Look at it like this. If you had a kid that was lucky enough to play at a BCS school, can you think of many coaches you would want mentoring him than Tressel? I certainly can't.

[buckeyebikerbabe]

Jul 12, 2011 11:23:07 GMT -5 WANG said:

Jul 12, 2011 10:31:24 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

But it's not his only slip-up, it's the only one where his feet have been held to the fire and he's had to pay a price. There were quite a few at YSU, and then there was the whole MoC issue, and quite a few more with various other players. Maybe the signs have always been there in subtle ways that we, Buckeye Nation, have been able to ignore because we were too rapped up in his saintly image. He may have been just good at spin doctoring the way things came down so we wouldn't put two and two together.

I'm not saying he's a monster, but I am beginning to see that he's not and has never been a saint either. He's done very good things and now we know that he's done very bad things for the program as well. Only time and perspective will reveal which outweighs the other in terms of his tOSU legacy.

I guess I just don't see his "alleged" slip ups as that big of a deal when looking at CFB as a whole.

I severly doubt he was ever implicitly involved in anything along the lines of paying a player, getting them fake jobs, hooking them up with boosters, etc.

At worst his has been guilty of turning a blind eye, and I don't think it kills the mans integrity.

This is the same man who has countless stories told about how he wouldn't "negatively" recruit, and most of the times talked about things outside of football. The same man who had players write in a journal every single day what they were thankful for. The same man who made countless visits to hospitals without letting the media know, because he cared more about giving back than getting recognition.

He may have done some less than saintly things around football, but IMO it doesn't remotely come close to negating all of the positive things he has done, both on and off the field. I have a hard time believing it was all an act to garner support because all he needed for that was to win and keep winning (which he did).

I think Tressel is a good, honest man who was in an inenviable position of making very difficult decisions that directly affect his career. He didn't always make the right ones when it came to that part of his life, but it seems he has always made the right decisions for the things that really, truely matter.

Look at it like this. If you had a kid that was lucky enough to play at a BCS school, can you think of many coaches you would want mentoring him than Tressel? I certainly can't.

You make some very good points, but I don't think the whole, balanced picture of Tressel is out yet. I guess I will need some time and some perspective once we get through this current bad period to make a final judgement on where on the balance scale he stands in my eyes. I'm still a little too shell-shocked to make the definitive call now.

[WANG]

Jul 12, 2011 11:51:31 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

You make some very good points, but I don't think the whole, balanced picture of Tressel is out yet. I guess I will need some time and some perspective once we get through this current bad period to make a final judgement on where on the balance scale he stands in my eyes. I'm still a little too shell-shocked to make the definitive call now.

Oh, I can completely understand that and it makes perfect sense. Can't blame anyone who is a little shaken by everything that has transpired.

I don't think we will ever get the WHOLE story, every once in a while you will hear whispers from the shadows but I doubt anything concrete will ever surface.