By Larry Durstin
With the Cleveland Browns involved in yet another search for a head coach, most observers knew that sooner of later the name of disgraced former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel would bubble up as someone the Browns should jump on for their vacant coaching position.
But what turned out to be somewhat surprising was the eagerness of Tressel himself to put his own name out there. Since he resigned in shame three years ago, Tressel has managed to earn money as a video booth guy for the 2-14 Indianapolis Colts and as a fund-raising shill for Akron University.
Now it appears that he has turned into some kind of vested Willy Loman, begging for that one big sale that would save his once sterling but now sodden reputation. Perhaps Tressel will soon be setting up shop next to Pete Rose at small-time memorabilia shows. After all, if you’ve frittered away your good name over something as stupid as lying about discounted tattoos, how much of a future in coaching do you really deserve?
Tressel won the hearts of the cultish OSU fans when he was first hired by announcing to the crowd at a basketball game the exact number of days it was until the Michigan football game. Starting with that too-cute-by-half bit of grandstanding, the love affair of Tressel and OSU Nation was highlighted by a national championship (courtesy of a late penalty flag) and continued to float merrily along despite some lopsided bowl losses and a number of program hiccups via Maurice Clarett, Troy Smith and others.
Throughout his coaching tenure at OSU, Tressel remained the king of smiles, appearing to be perpetually benevolent, even as he covered up marked-down inkings for his players. And all the while, as they have done for the past 50 years, Buckeye boosters – succored by a suck-up media machine – boasted as to how superior OSU’s program was to, say, the cheaters in the SEC or, for that matter, everywhere else in the football world besides Columbus.
And anyone who deviated from the party line about Tressel’s scarlet and grey sanctity was suppressed by an ever-vigilant and powerful alumni “brotherhood” that surreptitiously makes and breaks careers while goofily swaying along to the brainless tune of “Hang on Sloopy.”
Even until the very end, with the entire program under scrutiny and Tressel having admitted to withholding information about ineligible players from his bosses and lying to the NCAA, there were only a few who urged the coddled coach to do the right thing and resign. Most remained close to the Vest, defending him with the claim that he loved his players not wisely but too well; that he just simply cared too much for his “kids” welfare both on and off the field; and that his lifetime of unmatched goodness (and victories over Michigan) vastly outweighed his totally understandable, selfless peccadillos.
Nonsense. The message Tressel sent to those players who broke the rules and saw him cover up their misdeeds with a pack of lies was “No matter what you do, I’ll cover for you. I’ve got your back and I’ll out-and-out lie if it means helping OSU win football games.” And, had he kept his job, the message he’d be sending to the parents of kids that he might recruit would be, “Don’t worry mom and dad, if your son messes up, I’ll keep my trap shut and sweep things under the rug. You can count on me.”
That’s the legacy of this prim prevaricator who finally threw in the towel but only after spending months and months of seeming to be willing do anything to hold on to his position, no matter what that did to the Ohio State football program.
Rebate huckster Jimmy Haslem and the Browns management pair of Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi have justifiably been referred to recently as the Three Stooges. Should they decide to take on a fourth stooge, they could hardly find a more apt candidate than the disgraced Tressel, a guy who threw away his Ohio State glory and personal integrity because he wouldn’t come clean regarding cut-rate tats.
As Sports Illustrated wrote in its exhaustive investigation of Tressel’s entire coaching career, “His integrity was one of the great myths of college sports.”
Put another way, sports do not build character — they reveal it.
[Photo via Johntex]
Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com
One Response to “DURSTIN: Bumbling Browns Don’t Need Disgraced Tressel”
Bob Keesecker
Excellent piece. Excellent. No equivocation there, and rightly so.