Di-Vesting an Asset

The nearly 6 month long soap opera that is Jim Tressel and the Ohio State University Football program continued today with it's biggest plot twist yet---The head coach himself announced his resignation on Monday, sending shock waves throughout the college football nation. Tressel's decision to step down amid an investigation into the program that seemed to worsen with each passing news cycle came on the heels of the dreaded "vote of confidence" from Athletic Director Gene Smith. In the end, the program and university proved to be bigger than the wildly popular coach, a thought that as recently as 6 months ago would have been borderline blasphemous in Columbus, Ohio.

Before the story broke during Sugar Bowl preparations last December, Jim Tressel was untouchable in every sense of the word. He won the overwhelming majority of his football games, including regularly beating Michigan, and had been to 8 BCS games in 9 years, with one of those being a National Championship in 2002. Perhaps more importantly, he was the model citizen, openly promoting a respectful and disciplined lifestyle based on his closely held Christian beliefs. He urged his players to do live accordingly, even writing a book detailing how to do that. He was big on charity and public service, and the people of Columbus loved him for it, as they should. He could have run for governor and won......in a landslide.

Now six months later, the parallels to politics are striking. There is the story, with deception and manipulation and questionable characters on the periphery. There is the initial denial and expression of disappointment, plausible deniability, if you will. There is the media investigation that uncovered further inconsistencies by those involved, including the head coach, and then there is the final, inevitable resignation amid rumours of harsh punishments and indictments by the governing body, the NCAA. Even the resignation smacked of politics, with it's Memorial Day timing, not unlike the "putting out the trash" Friday protocol popular in Washington. It was just one last effort to stay ahead of the story.

In the end, the same rules apply to Jim Tressel as they do to any other powerful figure caught in a scandal---The Truth Always Comes Out. You see, I believe that Jim Tressel is a good man. I believe that all of those respectful and charitable acts he has done throughout his career have been genuine and sincere. I believe he is a phenomenal teacher of men and that he will almost certainly use this to make a difference in the lives of young people, just as he always had. I believe he made a horrendous error in judgment, and that error precipitated a chain of events that led us to today. I also believe that you cannot lie and mislead people without consequence. The cover-up is always worse than the crime.

I've heard all the reasons and excuses---"They were the players' things to sell", "He was just protecting them", "Somebody else HAD to know...." I've heard them all. The bottom line is this: All that matters is Jim Tressel was complicit in a violation of NCAA rules on some level. The "Why" is irrelevant.

Jim Tressel Resigns

The New Sweater-Vest?

Winning isn't everything.  Ohio State football found itself at the top of the Big Ten during most of the Sweater-Vest era, as well as one of the best programs in the country.  So now at the top of his coaching career, Tressel has decided to step down. Why? Because athletes did things and he did not tell on them.  Think about it for a minute. What do you do for work? If investigators showed up with intense media scrutiny to look for every fib or covered up dirt that involved you, would they find less than they did with Tress?  I doubt it. I know the NCAA still isn't done, but it's obvious that we as fans demand more perfection of coaches than we do of ourselves.

Steroid Era... in track

David Oliver

When I ran track in college, it didn't take long for me to realize why many of the top athletes were so much faster than me. The first answer: God didn't give me that much speed.  The second: Most D1 sprinters were on performance enhancers.  I would hear coaches tell the team that Nationals were three weeks away and that they should all stop taking anything that might show up on a test.  Now, I was really naive. My thought was that there were perfectly honest athletes who had been taking legit medicine.  During the season a disgruntled Bahamian sprinter told me what I failed to pick up between the lines.  Almost all of the sprinters were on the juice.  As a walk-on at a D1 Christian university, I was a bit surprised.  How could these athletes justify cheating? Well apparently the coaches were the ones administering the drugs and convincing them that it was ok.  In fact, one athlete who was banned, was still running under a fake name to continue his training.
This all took place in the mid-90's, and as I understand, they only tested at Nationals in that time.  These days there is more testing going on.  So, why are records still being broken?  The cynic in me says that the drugs are more advanced than the testers, and that one day they will be found out like Marion Jones.  I mean explain how David Oliver can look like he does when he's a sprinter, not a tight end.  There is still that naive side of me though that says humans can do things that were thought impossible if we only put our mind to the task... well that is if God gives us the ability.  (No matter how hard I tried, I could not have run a 45 in the open 400m)
The other question is how many other track and field athletes were juiced and we'll never know whether their numbers are legit?  Try to explain Allen Johnson. He was the seasons fastest the 110m High Hurdles in 1995 when he was 24 just as he was 6 more seasons the last was in 2003 when he was 32.  Not only was he running really fast at the age of 32, but he was the fastest of anyone in an event that requires crazy speed and is hard on the hips, knees and shins.  I'm not indicting Allen Johnson, but this is one example of how Track and Field looks a whole lot like Baseball did in the Steroid Era.

Yes, There's Another Sports Blog...

Here on the Sports Sked Blog we'll have input from several casual sports fans and even a guru.  As we all contribute, we ask you the readers to get involved and give us some feed back.  However, if you expect us to know the latest on cricket or why soccer players keep falling down, you may get ridiculed... just sayin'.  Hopefully the authors will will pick up steam and keep updating with our opinions, no matter how wrong they may be.   One fact that is not up for debate for me is: Dan Marino is and always will be the greatest quarterback to ever live.  Other than that, I can handle being wrong from time to time.