H*****r
发帖数: 764 | 1 On Dec. 23, 2010, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith sat at a news
conference announcing the suspension of five Buckeye players for selling
memorabilia and declared the case was closed.
Terrelle Pryor and four teammates would miss the first five games of the
2011 season but “thankfully” would receive a politically lobbied and
highly questionable one-game reprieve to play in (and save the television
ratings for) the Sugar Bowl.
Other than that, there was nothing to see, no more questions to ask.
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The case that Ohio State AD Gene Smith said was closed in December keeps
coming back to haunt the Buckeyes.
(Terry Gilliam/AP photo)
“There are no other NCAA violations around this case,” Smith declared. “
We’re very fortunate we do not have a systemic problem in our program. This
is isolated to these young men, isolated to this particular incident. There
are no other violations that exist.”
Smith had overseen an 11-day investigation into Ohio State players dealing
memorabilia and receiving extra benefits. That’s it, 11 days.
On Dec. 9 the athletic department was made aware that a local tattoo dealer
was in possession of a mountain of Buckeye memorabilia that he claimed he’d
bought from players. On Dec. 19, Ohio State self-reported to the NCAA that
five players had sold the items.
And that was good enough for Gene Smith and president E. Gordon Gee.
Hundreds of Buckeye players and ex-players were potentially involved. There
were thousands and thousands of items, jerseys, cleats and so on available
to be profited off. There was a player’s parking lot full of cars mostly
bought from just two used car lots. There were question upon question over
behavior that shouldn’t pass anyone’s smell test waiting to be answered.
Yet Smith said the Buckeyes had checked it all out in 11 days flat.
No other NCAA violations …
Sitting next to Smith was coach Jim Tressel, who in fact had committed other
NCAA violations all by himself. Eight months prior he’d been made aware of
the memorabilia sales but stayed quiet and covered it up. He then knowingly
played ineligible players for the entire 2010 season and then let his
athletic director lie for him that December night.
We do not have a systemic problem …
At the time, Twitter spun with a number of former players detailing various
deals and how the tattoo parlor had always taken care of Buckeye football
players. “Cats been getting hookups on tatts since back in 01,” ex-player
Antonio Pittman tweeted.
This is isolated to these young men …
Stories emerged of the jerseys of current players hanging in car dealerships
around town. These same lots that the Columbus Dispatch would later report
had sold around 50 cars to Buckeye players or family members. One of the
lead salesmen had previously received free tickets and guest passes from
players. The school has since said it’d look into it.
… isolated to this particular incident.
Smith’s 11-day investigation apparently didn’t go as deep as one run by
The Lantern, the school’s student newspaper. Thursday it quoted former wide
receiver Ray Small (2006-2010) who declared, “I had sold my things” and
“it was definitely the deals on the cars” and “they have a lot [of dirt]
on everybody cause everybody was doing it.”
While other Ohio State players have come out to challenge Small’s
declaration of “everybody” the fact remains this was one more bit of proof
that Gene Smith didn’t have any idea what he was throwing out there in
December.
Wait, nobody talked to Small? Even though his name was in the original email
sent to Tressel over a year ago?
There are no other violations that exist …
Earlier this week, former Buckeye basketball player Mark Titus wrote on his
blog that he’d long been curious of how football players kept driving cars
beyond the means of most students, let alone scholarship athletes. “I’ll
be shocked if the NCAA doesn’t find anything when they look into this car
scandal,” he wrote.
Titus implied anyone paying attention would feel the same way.
“Anyone who spent any time on Ohio State’s campus while I was there (2006-
2010) could tell you that there were an unusually high volume of brand new
Dodge Chargers driving around on campus, and just about all of them had
tinted windows and rims on the outside with Ohio State football players
behind the wheel on the inside,” Titus wrote.
Anyone, apparently, except Gene Smith and Gordon Gee, campus leaders for the
Little Sisters of the Blind.
No one expects an athletic department to control all of its players all of
the time. If a guy wants to break a NCAA rule he is going to break a NCAA
rule. Players are understandably going to seek extra money or a flashy ride
or a fancy downtown condo. It is human nature and the current NCAA system
attempts to fly in the face of that – constantly jamming the square peg of
amateurism into the round hole of capitalism. All while the administrators
make millions, of course.
The NCAA is actually lenient on programs that discover and self-report
violations. If Tressel had done that back in April of 2010, this wouldn’t
be much of a scandal.
The real issue for a school isn’t that a violation occurs. It’s how it
responds once it does. Throughout this case Ohio State has acted with
bizarre defiance.
It has attempted to move on when there’s no earthly way it could claim that
it had a thorough grasp of what had occurred. As this case has morphed from
individual players selling their own items, to a coach allowing it, to a
case of how the institution conducts its business (which is what the NCAA
most cares about), the Buckeyes’ response becomes increasingly problematic.
It keeps acting like a little kid under the delusion that wishing things
aren’t so bad means they won’t be.
When Tressel’s rule breaking was finally acknowledged publicly on March 8,
the news conference came across as a pep rally for the coach. The school
offered up a weak two-game suspension for Tressel which Smith declared hit
“the sweet spot.” Just a week later it was increased to five games. It
still may not be enough for the NCAA.
Tressel was even allowed to present a ridiculous “confidentiality” defense
that Smith and Gee, if they had done even a cursory look at his emails, had
to know was a lie. They stood there and let him do it anyway, playing fools
for the vest.
That night Gee was asked if he ever thought of dismissing Tressel.
“No, are you kidding me? I’m just hopeful that the coach doesn’t dismiss
me,” Gee said, trying [we think] to be funny.
Increasingly it looks like the most truthful statement made to date.
Thirteen months after Tressel first got word and five months since Smith
claimed this was over, the daily grind of new allegations, new stories and
new testimony keeps coming and coming.
It’s long past time for Ohio State to get serious. In spots, it’s done an
admirable job trying to police itself. We’ve seen no indication from the
top, however, that the school is willing to open everything up, dig deep,
overturn every stone and find out exactly how its football program is
operating.
Until the school seeks the full truth, others will – media, ex-players,
students. It’ll be more of the same … drip, drip, drip … tweet, tweet,
tweet … story, story, story … embarrassment, embarrassment, embarrassment.
Ohio State is desperate now for true leadership, desperate for a real
internal investigation, desperate for this to end.
Its proud legacy, its decades of honorable rule-abiding players and its many
reasonable fans deserve a lot better than Gene Smith and Gordon Gee
continuing to close their eyes and wishing this thing away. |
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