With the NCAA’s now formal recognition of Jim Tressel’s unrepentant - as confirmed by Ohio State AD Gene Smith recently - commission of the governing body’s mortal sin, lying repeatedly to investigators after covering up NCAA violations, Ohio State Jim Tressel football coach has a choice going forward.
He can resign, retire or be fired.
From refracting the NCAA Notice of Allegations from every possible angle the past 24 hours, that fact is clear enough. What isn’t so straightforward though is what more the NCAA wants from Ohio State. That is, how far it is willing to go to make OSU an example for other programs in the strikingly non-compliant world of college football.
The NCAA may have left a clue though in its interesting decision to include the mystery “Player G” revelation in Friday’s NOA:
Player G: Sold Big Ten championship ring ($1,500), two “Gold Pants” awards ($250 each), helmet ($150) and pants ($30) from Michigan game and Rose Bowl watch ($250) for $2,430. Received $55 discount on two tattoos. Paid $100 to obtain team autographs on two helmets. Received $2,420 discount on purchase of used vehicle and $800 loan for vehicle repairs. (November 2008 to May 2010).
A former player, Ohio State curiously did not mention “Player G.” in its original tattgate self-report in December, though the player was with the Buckeyes through the 2009 season and confirmed to have committed NCAA violations during his time as an Ohio State football player.
Who is he? While no one officially knows outside the NCAA and OSU, the attorney who allegedly first tipped off Tressel to the NCAA violations committed by DeVier Posey and Terrelle Pryor may have provided the answer.
In ESPN’s March 13, 2011, Outside The Lines report Columbus lawyer and former Ohio State football player Christopher Cicero told ESPN correspondent John Barr that memorabilia from two former Buckeyes, T.J. Downing and Ray Small, was also found in the possession of now-notorious Columbus tattoo parlor owner Edward Rife.
Per ESPN’s Barr, Cicero noted that fact to Tressel in at least one of the emails in question, though Downing and Small were redacted from the communique by Ohio State officials.
Downing left the Ohio State football program in 2006, but Small played through the 2009 season and currently has several items from his playing career available for purchase online. Some of those items correspond to the “Player G.” description.
Though Cicero identified Downing and Small, he did not expound on at least two other significant claims in his emails to Tressel that indicated there was more to the memorabilia-for-extra-benefits story than Ohio State has reported.
In one of his emails to Tressel (excerpt above), Cicero described additional Ohio State player-only items Rife owned:
He told me he has about 15 pairs of cleats (with signatures), 4-5 jerseys - all signed by players …
He told me he has about 9 rings Big 10 championship…
[Redacted] National Championship Ring (no surprise here either)
Now compare that to what the NCAA cited in its sanctions against five Ohio State players in December, 2010:
- Mike Adams must repay $1,000 for selling his 2008 Big Ten championship ring.
- Daniel Herron must repay $1,150 for selling his football jersey, pants and shoes for $1,000 and receiving discounted services worth $150.
- DeVier Posey must repay $1,250 for selling his 2008 Big Ten championship ring for $1,200 and receiving discounted services worth $50,
- Terrelle Pryor must repay $2,500 for selling his 2008 Big Ten championship ring, a 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award and his 2008 Gold Pants, a gift from the university.
- Solomon Thomas must repay $1,505 for selling his 2008 Big Ten championship ring for $1,000, his 2008 Gold Pants for $350 and receiving discounted services worth $155.
So where are the “15 pairs of cleats“? The other 3-4 Ohio State jerseys? The other five Big 10 Championship rings? And the National Championship ring?
And …
- What about the Daniel Herron 2009 game-used helmet that was recently sold online? (That wasn’t mentioned in the December, 2010, Ohio State self-report to the NCAA.)
- What about the 2008 gold pants with the initials “D.W.” most recently seen on the television show Pawn Stars?
- What about former Buckeye Thaddeus Gibson’s claim to the Ohio State student newspaper THE LANTERN that OSU football players were adequately appraised of the NCAA rules regarding selling player-only football memorabilia - contradicting an earlier claim by school athletic director Gene Smith?
- What about the other Ohio State player-only merchandise tattoo parlor owner Rife previously displayed on his personal Facebook page that wasn’t included in the school’s self-report to the NCAA?
- What about former Buckeye Antonio Pittman’s claim that football players selling Ohio State player-only swag for tattoos has been going on since 2001?
- What about this line in a Cicero email to Tressel:
“I will try to get these items back that the government wants to keep for themselves. Which is screwed up in an of itself. I know who specifically in the District Attorney’s office that is working on this matter and know both of them well so I will try if the opportunity presents itself.”
If the feds are indeed in possession of Buckeye player-only memorabilia that could further incriminate Ohio State with the NCAA, shouldn’t those items be promptly turned over to the NCAA?
- Finally, what about the the current and former Ohio State football players previously listed as “friends” on Rife’s personal Facebook page?
On the latter, the NCAA will require Ohio State to detail all relationships between Rife and Buckeye football players - past and present, per this passage from Friday’s NOA:
Though the NCAA has yet to charge Ohio State with the dreaded “failure of institutional control” or “failure to monitor” penalties, if the governing body wasn’t going to continue to plumb the depths of what might be additional, significant Ohio State impropriety, why did the NCAA cite the “Player G.” violations in the Notice of Allegations?
With Tressel’s web of deception sufficiently confessed, it appears the future of the Ohio State football program as a near-term, viable enterprise is more tied to the NCAA’s discovery of a “Player H.” or a “Player I.” than its current coach’s assured demise.
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10:55 am on April 26th, 2011
Excellent report. I’m guessing Ohio State won’t fire Tressel, especially after the initial presser when AD Smith and OSU prez Gee scoffed at such a notion. Now it’s a question if Tressel will muster the intestinal fortitude to do the noble thing and resign. If he doesn’t, I see NCAA lowering a boom on them similar to the penalties USC received.
11:45 am on April 26th, 2011
Amen Brooks! You covered EVERYTHING. Ohio State needs to burn.
12:04 pm on April 26th, 2011
Hey Dan, I am having trouble reading ALL THOSE WORDS — Can you help me? I am just a simple ignorant SEC fan.
Thanks Brooks! This just gets better and better.
12:09 pm on April 26th, 2011
issued an apology?!?!? That’s it?! If he isn’t canned within a week I’m going to be PISSED!
12:10 pm on April 26th, 2011
UGH not AGAIN do you have nothing else to write slow news day I see…Tress isn’t going anywhere.
1:27 pm on April 26th, 2011
I’ve seen this before. Terry Bowden has a lot of dirt on Auburn, as well as Tommy Tuberville. Both were forced out under the guise of voluntary resignations and both signed confidentiality agreements and received golden parachutes. I think Tuberville’s parachute was in the neighborhood of $6,000,000.
Expect the same for Tressel. tOSU doesn’t want that “not as wise counsel” Tressel received going public. He may even return to tOSU in another role, much like Pat Dye at Auburn.
1:34 pm on April 26th, 2011
When all is said and done, Jim Tressel will not be coaching tOSU at all in 2011, whether due a resignation or full year suspension. Ironically, the right move for any man of integrity in a situation like this, is to resign. Tressel’s integrity will really be put to the test over the next six months.
1:52 pm on April 26th, 2011
It gets even worse if you start bringing in all the things that Clarrett, Troy Smith, AJ Hawk, etc. are guilty of in their time at tOSU.
Oh and then there’s the Ray Isaac thing at Youngstown State.
Cheating and lying is not the exception for Tressel, it is the rule he lives by.
1:59 pm on April 26th, 2011
We must look up to this coach.
Grand Marshal Chizik
3:04 pm on April 26th, 2011
I’m a huge Buckeye and this saddens me!! I’d like to see Tressel do the right thing and retire/quit but we all know that won’t happen! Same as Woody not wanting to step down after punching a kid. Ohio State will have to fire him and it’s the right thing to do! Someone needs to be held accountable and Tressel is that person!!!
3:43 pm on April 26th, 2011
I have no idea why anyway cars about what a football coach does when we just put the most corrupt men and women on the planet, the Republican Party back in power. It is hard for me to get riled up about about a few dudes making a few bucks for selling a jersey or a worthless trophy and the coach lying about it when the Republican Party and Bush led us into two illegal wars and destroyed the economy while now blaming the black Preident for everything.
I have to say for those that do care, this is top notch work by your website.
3:44 pm on April 26th, 2011
Vinny B ! You think just like an good AUBURN man. Bless you.
Grand Marshal Chizik
7:48 pm on April 26th, 2011
This is astonishing NOT! I had buddies who lived right off of high street in columbus from 85-88. Next door neighbor dealt to everyone including players. He would show them rose bowl rings , osu football and bball memorabillia etc. he had bartered with from current and former players. The neighbor was from youngstown as well! OSU is and has been the one of the most corrupt programs in the nation for as long as I’ve been watching sports so it’s NO suprise Tressel has been lying in this and probably many more situations.
Keep digging I bet tat’s weren’t the only thing players were getting in return for their gear.
8:43 pm on April 26th, 2011
@ MoonDog => Your assuming that Sweater Vest doesn’t get Kelvin Sampson’d in this case. You know the NCAA says that you cannot be a coach or anything else in the NCAA for X number of years (in Sampson’s case it was 5 years). And look what that did to Indiana’s basketball program.
8:44 pm on April 26th, 2011
Sorry that should be You’re not Your (before the grammer nazi’s hit me on that one).
11:40 pm on April 26th, 2011
SEC #1,,,If your going to call out other schools for cheating,,,,,might want to take down the avatar you have of the biggest cheater of them all. The only coach I ever heard of that was quoted in his biography that he paid players. Thats like calling out mass murderers when your charlie manson…except he wasnt a drunk like the Bear was,.,..Alabama biggest cheaters is college football history….
9:34 am on April 27th, 2011
As a former University Athletics Administrator, I know that the majority of athletic programs preach to their athletes in their preseason meetings of what can and cannot be done in reference to the selling of items among many other rules and regulations. The problem lies that you are dealing with athletes who have been spoon fed all their life and believe they are above the rules. If they are caught, somebody will bail them out of the situation. It happens with grades, trouble with the law, etc.
3:33 pm on April 27th, 2011
Brooks,
What about the player who said his ring was stolen from the athletic facility, which ended up at the Tatt-shop? Probably stolen by one of these guys…
5:47 pm on April 27th, 2011
The whole thing is small potatoes. This is not a big recruiting violation and nothing here served to improve the OSU team on the field. Tressel didn’t necessarily lie; he checked off a box on a standard form that crossed his desk like millions before it. He should not have done that and a 5 game suspension is sufficient. Face it, the only ones calling for his head are 1. media figures trying to hype a story 2. OSU haters in the NCAA fan base who would call for Tressel’s resignation no matter how slight the infraction.
7:06 pm on April 27th, 2011
Johnny Drama Queen - The name of the autobiography is “Bear: My Hard Life & Good Times As Alabama’s Head Coach.” I’ve read it and nowhere does Coach Bryant say he paid players. LMFAO! You barners are such ignorant stupid sluts. You’d think after all of these years of lying you’d be halfway good at it. LOL.
As far as drinking goes, at least he never lost his pants like Pat Dye!!! Fucking moron! LOL.
10:42 pm on April 27th, 2011
D. Quail you got it right! Tressel isn’t going anywhere, despite what all the OSU haters think, including Brooks!
1:22 pm on May 2nd, 2011
Aubarn fans should not even post here, you have the most corrupt program in the country, and a inbred fanbase..