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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > June > 01 > Entry
Editorial: OSU’s mistake was moving too slowly
One reason Jim Tressel is special (and was treated accordingly) is that sports attract a lot of talented people who aren’t so likable or impressive. You know their names, their offenses and their phenomenal arrogance.
Ohio State University’s Tressel cut a different image and, in very many ways, lived up to that reputation. He genuinely cared for his players; he was sincerely interested in giving back; he showed class and humility.
None of these qualities, though, excused his failure to turn in his players and go immediately to authorities when he was alerted that they were violating NCAA rules by selling or trading OSU football memorabilia for cash and tattoos. That decision led to another fateful decision, lying to the NCAA on a form in which he attested that, to his knowledge, his players were clean.
With the NCAA investigating media reports that there is a culture among players of accepting discounts and being treated to favors, the accumulation of mistakes became too damning. What Coach Tressel knew and didn’t address amounted to an indictment of his leadership; and what he didn’t know — or turned a blind eye to — was piling up.
Given the public scrutiny that players are under and given the hand holding that colleges impose on athletes in order to keep them and their schools out of trouble, it’s pretty hard to believe that somebody didn’t know, for instance, that star quarterback Terrelle Pryor was driving cars that he deserved to be questioned about.
A lot of critics of Ohio State — and there are many — have good points when they say that the scandal has been handled badly by persons above Mr. Tressel. After all, it was not he who initially meted out just a two-game suspension when his players got busted and several were going to have to sit out five games. It was not just Mr. Tressel who was charged with keeping an eye on the players and their off-the-field behavior.
Moreover, both Athletic Director Gene Smith and OSU President Gordon Gee have been exceedingly deferential to Mr. Tressel, with President Gee going so far as to say early on that he stood behind Mr. Tressel and hoped that Mr. Tressel wouldn’t fire him. In April, Mr. Smith said that, as part of his punishment, Mr. Tressel was supposed to apologize publicly for his actions at a press conference and that he only did so after he was pressed to do so.
Over the course of events, the impression OSU officials have left is that they have been afraid of losing their spectacularly winning coach, that holding him accountable for his dubious decisions was a secondary consideration. (Mr. Tressel said that one reason he didn’t tell his bosses about the players’ infractions is that he was worried for their safety. The tattoo parlor owner was being investigated by the feds.)
The alternative theory put forward by critics is that Mr. Tressel didn’t want to jeopardize his winning record by having players ruled ineligible.
What’s unmistakably clear is that the pressure Ohio State came under to sack Coach Tressel has come from outside the college and the state. The national sports media have been totally unforgiving and have fairly noted that in other instances where a coach has lied or been this tainted, he’s almost always been fired. And then there was the NCAA’s investigation, which has been informed by impressive reporting by The Columbus Dispatch.
The take-away from the truly sad embarrassment is that, at some point, a spiral happened. It took too long to pull out of it.
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