In the middle of all this March Madness, a big-time college football coach for one of the most prominent programs in the country was suspended on Thursday by his school for the first 5 games of the 2011 college football season. You might be saying: "What? How did I not hear about this? That's almost half their football season!" Well, once the rest of the sports world had diverted its attention to college basketball on Thursday and Friday of this week, Ohio State announced that Jim Tressel would not coach in the first 5 games in 2011. It was barely even a line item on TV news ticker. It was barely even a story on ESPN Sportscenter. But on Thursday night Ohio State announced that Jim Tressel's original 2-game suspension was extended to 5 games (at his request) for not notifying the NCAA, the OSU athletic department, and his school's compliance department that he was aware for more than 9 months - including the entire 2010 football season - that 5 of his players had received improper benefits for selling autographed memorabilia and receiving discounted tatoos. The 5 players were suspended in December for the first 5 games of 2011 because they had admitted to receiving the improper benefits in the Spring of 2010. Inexplicably, the NCAA ruled they were eligible for OSU's January BCS Sugar Bowl appearance against Arkansas (which OSU won) even though it is still a possibility that OSU may have to forfeit their entire 2010 season because at least Coach Tressel knew he was playing ineligble players.
Clearly, the announcement that was released towards the end of the first day of March Madness was a two-pronged public relations move: 1) The original 2-game suspension for Coach Tressel was met with significant public backlash not only because it didn't meet the 5-game suspension his players received from the NCAA, but also because the 2 games he would be missing would be against 2 of the easier opponents on their schedule (Akron & Toledo); 2) By announcing the extended suspension on a day where the nation's attention towards college sports is at the arena as opposed to the field, OSU saved itself additional public scrutiny as the layers of the Ohio State "Tat-gate" onion are peeled back layer by layer - no public backlash if everyone is worried about their brackets.
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Ohio State's quarterback, Terrelle Pryor, is one of 5 players
who are suspended for the first 5 games in 2011 for
receiving improper benefits. |
But those can't be the real reasons Ohio State extended Tressel's suspension, can it? Oh no, we should also remember the NCAA has yet to rule on Tressel's punishment (the now 5-game suspension was "self-imposed" by Tressel and Ohio State). The real reason Ohio State's announcement was released on Thursday was because it was made shortly after the NCAA denied Ohio State's appeal that the punishment for the 5 players be reduced or removed entirely. The real public relations move was Tressel jumping behind his punished players immediately after the appeal was denied hoping that the NCAA won't impose any additional suspensions or sanctions on him or his program. What makes it worse is that Tressel never came forth on his own and he has hid behind his players the whole time! Ohio State discovered Tressel was aware of the benefits received by the players only as they were preparing the players' appeal to the NCAA.
I have lost all respect for Jim Tressel. I'm sure he is a good man. I'm sure he is a good coach. But he is also a terrible leader. His "leadership-from-behind" approach since April when he received the first email regarding the players' infractions has been both hypocritcal and unacceptable in a world where sports athletes and coaches are put on a public pedestal. I'm not even going to draw comparisons between Jim Tressel and Brandon Davies and how they handled their individual situations, but it is something to keep in mind as we await the finality of the Tressel / Ohio State situation.
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Jim Tressel has tarnished his name and his coaching
legend by not coming forth with knowledge
of his players' infractions in April 2010. |
In 2008, Tressel wrote a book entitled "The Winners Manual For The Game Of Life". I have not read the entire book, but in the Prologue, he writes:
"To many people, winning is everything...I've seen the positives of setting a goal and pushing a team of players to achieve it, working together and striving for something as a team. But I've also seen the destructive force of that kind of ruthless search and what it can do to young people and the coaches who try to win at all costs...So how can you know if you're a winner in life? Must we redefine the word? And if your life's game ended this second, would you consider yourself a winner? How can you measure such a thing? The book you're holding is my attempt not only to answer those important questions but also to distill the heart of a nearly four-hundred page handbook we give to our football players as they enter each new year at The Ohio State University."
Kids make mistakes but those who are set up to "coach" these kids in both football and life need to actually follow the manual, not just write about it.
