Jim Tressel: Defending Your Life

i’m trying to decide which shakeperean tragedy this whole saga least resembles. right now leaning toward romeo and juliet but troilus and cressida might make a run. one of them his-and-hers, anyway.

Really well put Scip.

Anybody who bothered to take a cursory look at Tressel’s background at Youngstown St. could see this coming. Ohio St knew what they were getting in Tressel and probably see this a the “Price of Doing Business.”

Aside from petty NCAA rules which, as we all know are designed to increase the profitability of the NCAA and not necessarily to promote a culture of ethical behavior, to my mind Tressel is the only one in this scandal that really behaved unethically. (Not counting the drug dealing alleged murder witness).

The players sold their own stuff, which even in China has gained acceptance as ethical behavior.

Tressel on the other hand, new of the NCAA violation and did not inform anyone about it on at least two separate occasions. Once when he signed the statement of compliance, and again when the information about the players came out from other sources.

Rick Neuheisel and Jim Tressel prove the age old adage “never trust a man in a sweater vest.”

egad new = knew

I am thinking more along the lines of a Greek tragedy such as Oedipus. No matter how much Tressell wants to move away from what he really is at heart the more the pain at the end.

It’s gonna be more like Jason and the Argonauts when he has to hightail his ass outta there.

Suppose you had a switch on your car’s dashboard that allowed you to turn on or off the capability to inform your friendly neighborhood government anytime your speed exceeded the posted limit… would you turn it on, or turn it off? Would you consider yourself to be unethical if you turned it off? Would it make any difference if you didn’t know whether you would be punished or not? Would it make any difference if you didn’t know whether or not the car kept track of both your speed and the state of the switch? Suppose it did keep track – would you consider it justifiable if punishment for “hidden” speeding were much greater than if you allowed the car to rat you out?

texlong: do i get 3 mil a year if i do?

Do which?

well i guess it matters which conference territory i’m driving through. but the self-monitoring includes a paycheck right?

Wrong.

Great article. Also, includes a clever comment by vasherized.

Going with the Hemingway attire on your bio page, I see. Nice touch.

Wearing a blue shirt might make you look like a dick, but credit goes to the white dude who gets away with Williewear.

Good analysis, Scip, and well-written. The crux of the matter is your point 4.

Observation certainly suggests that winning – especially winning the Big One – is the universal detergent. On that point, since MNCs seem to come about as the result of good fortune + discrete windows of opportunity, I wonder whether Tressel’s ethical compass would have found true north had tOSU perceived itself as (merely) a BCS-quality team last year and not a legitimate MNC contender?

“Suppose you had a switch on your car’s dashboard that allowed you to turn on or off the capability to inform your friendly neighborhood government anytime your speed exceeded the posted limit… would you turn it on, or turn it off? Would you consider yourself to be unethical if you turned it off? Would it make any difference if you didn’t know whether you would be punished or not? Would it make any difference if you didn’t know whether or not the car kept track of both your speed and the state of the switch? Suppose it did keep track – would you consider it justifiable if punishment for "hidden" speeding were much greater than if you allowed the car to rat you out?”

Yes, I would also consider stealing 14 billion dollars the same as stealing a pack of gum;
toking a joint: and selling 14 metric tons of coke; electing your government officials and getting run over by a tank for expressing your displeasure with your government; water boarding a terrorist and cutting off the head of an infidel reporter.

Of course that’s just me, I probably didn’t score very well on the SAT.

I probably didn’t score very well on the SAT.

I’ll bet you did – you’re what it’s looking for: straight monochrome..

I’m convinced Tressel is falling on his sword in order to protect tOSU from an institutional control charge. At least he was before the car imbroglio guaranteed an institutional control charge anyway. I cannot fathom a coach failing to verbally inform his AD and president that his star players may be wrapped up in an FBI drug ring investigation. If he really sat on that information they would have already canned his ass.

They’ve got a nice Big Ten Channel gig lined up for him next year. The only question is whether or not Carl Pelini will get the Nebraska job.

Loved the Zimmerman Note reference.

Is that Drew’s hand on your shoulder? Did you crop that out of some larger photo? I would have thought an eye patch would have looked good. It worked for #2 on the Bond films.

KB,

It is hard to believe any head coach would be so stupid to get involved with a Federal investigation of a star player.

Hey, anyone know if Lacewell has headed out of town on that recruiting trip yet or not? I ummmm…have an errand to run.

Have we not learned yet the futility of the “he/she can’t be that stupid” defense?

Yes. Yes, they can.

I think OSU’s cool with all of this, until the NCAA makes them not cool. See: USC-Garrett versus USC-Hayden. I see a lot of similarities in the institutional response. Frankly, press conferences that go that badly and that require that much post-PC PR usually indicate people living in enormous reality bubble in the process of going “poof.”

I’m more interested in the “how does the NCAA walk away from this” side of things. This would seem to be that rare NCAA case where the facts are rather cut and dried and the principle involved crystal clear. They can’t just pop the basketball team instead and wave the “nothing to see here” again, can they?