The rage is understandable. No matter where the criticism of Ohio State is levied from, it’s understandable. As the 19^th century poet and philosopher, Bill Clinton, once so eloquently said: “I feel your pain.”

Ohio State has been good for the last decade. Sure, OSU has had some debacles against the Southeastern Conference in some national title games—but at least we were there.  And if OSU isn’t in the national title game, they’re collecting trophies in premiere BCS Bowls. Honestly, what fan wouldn’t be satisfied with OSU’s success under Jim Tressel?

It’s a success that not many programs in the country can equal. If I were an objective fan—and make no mistake, I’m not—then Ohio State would be a very easy target to hate. Very, very easy.

This of course, was all before the “Tat Five”, which, depending on whom you talk to, may or may not have been the greatest crime syndicate since Enoch Johnson was flooding the eastern seaboard with bootlegged liquor in the 1920’s.

The narrative is helped along by the fact the central villain in this saga was/is Terrelle Pryor, a heralded recruit, who could’ve changed any segment of his bashers’  opinions on him by choosing to go to their respective school at the end of the media circus that was his recruitment. Terrelle Pryor is an easy guy to dislike, I get it. But don’t we love it when athletes end up being just who we always thought they were? (Again, I’m not above this. I ran outside naked, chanting, “BEER WE GO BROWNIES, BEER WE GO!” when I found out Hines Ward got a DUI).

The second villain in this is Jim Tressel, who, up until six months ago, was en route to canonization in not only Ohio State dioceses but also the NCAA church. And sure, there have always been whispers about Tressel. “BRO IF ONLY U KNEW WHAT WENT DOWN IN  YOUNGSTOWN”. Then, the greatest muckraking journalist since Upton Sinclair held the mic, George Doorhman, turned up every rock up and down the I-71 corridor digging up dirt on Tress. You know what booty he plundered? An anonymous source pontificating on a fixed raffle in the 80’s. “IT ALL IS SUDDENLY STARTING TO MAKE SENSE,” they said. Jim Tressel’s famous Sweater Vest (which may have been made out of Kevlar threads) had finally been ruptured. The hunt was on.

It’s also not like Tressel was a good guy who was overachieving with a feisty Purdue team every year culminating in an Outback Bowl win over the 4th ranked SEC team. He was taking everybody’s chain and he did it the worst way possible—with pure class. Sure, some foes snuck up on us from time to time, but Tressel was winning at historical margins.

And now, Ohio State has been “caught” by the NCAA breaking the asinine rules in their asinine rulebook. These people have been waiting impatiently in the shadow of Jim Tressel & Ohio State, and now that Judgment Day is here—-the Rapture they always so desperately wanted to happen—OSU’s death must be something out of the Bible.

It’s how I felt when USC basically got caught running a minor league system in two sports.  (And then stonewalled the entire investigation—unlike Ohio State). I remember wondering, “Why isn’t ESPN covering the Reggie Bush scandal?” (Yahoo! was the only one reporting on it basically until Reggie’s Heisman was stripped).  Again, they had an extra charge on their jacket that OSU doesn’t (at least right now). I always knew USC was dirty, and unlike Ohio State, they were pretty fragrant; and even though there will be freshman on USC’s team who were 3^rd graders when the investigation started—I was disappointed that Pete Carroll wasn’t stoned to death. (Instead, he chuckled at the NCAA, moved 600(?) miles north and got few million dollars for his trouble.). I was wrong then just as people who write articles like this are wrong now.

People are demanding that the NCAA bludgeon OSU even more, even though their crimes are nowhere similar. (And if you disagree with that, then I’m sorry, but you go into that argument armed with zero facts and even less logic).

Folks in the media/blogosphere are basically trying to set the bar now with their populace, so when the NCAA’s punishment doesn’t come close to living  up to their ridiculous standards, they can write another six articles on how the fix is on for Ohio State.  Trust me, people want to read about conspiracies and things that appeal to their negative emotions much more than they want to read something reasoned and thoughtful. And in a world where places are driven by ad revenue (aka how many people they get clicking the mouse)… it doesn’t take a genius to see what’s going on here.

Still, the outcries are understandable. I’m not really surprised when people, especially from places like Michigan, write articles which sound like a diatribe your younger brother would give to your mother about how you punched him over a pickup basketball game.

Are we supposed to be surprised Ohio State defended itself in a letter where the sole purpose of the letter was to deliver Ohio State’s defense to NCAA allegations? Are we supposed to be mad because OSU didn’t cop to every scenario in their drummed up fantasies? Because that’s what the crux of this argument seems to be.

It ignores how things have gone in reality for the past 60 years of college football.  Sorry, but this is the world the NCAA has built for us. Jim Tressel knew all of this, however, and that’s why he committed seppuku like the loyal dog he is. In the end, Jim Tressel was who we thought he was. One bad decision will not define his career. Ohio State fans will never forget Jim Tressel’s loyalty to The University and that’s why he will always be revered in Ohio State circles. Loyalty, it seems to be often forgotten these days, is a sword that cuts both ways.

That’s what you get when you don’t hire ambitious mercenaries like Rich Rodriguez: a culture.

Did Jim Tressel deserve to be fired? Yes. Yes, he did. He broke the NCAA laws, as asinine as they are, and the decision he made cost him his career at a place where he would’ve been employed for as long as he wanted to be. Sure, Tressel has two commas involved in his bank statement, but he didn’t get the 21-gun salute that he should’ve gotten. I think the severity of that is lost on a lot of folks, especially considering, he lost his career due to a couple of young kids—who aren’t getting paid what they’re worth to begin with—succumbed to the inevitable desires around them.

I’m also sure Tressel’s suspicions were aroused by Terrelle Pryor changing his cars like he changed his underwear. Hell, I’ve been in Columbus since Pryor got here. Let’s just say… I’m not surprised to find out he had some extra cash in his pocket. At the end of the day, Tressel decided not to sacrifice his team’s national title hopes (and his kids’ dreams) over something like free tattoos, rounds of golf, and loaner cars. (Which, by the way, no wrong doing has been proved with the car deals, but hey, it makes the story that much sweeter, doesn’t it?) It was a decision that ultimately (and rightly) got fired for.

Ohio State, of course, is going to put this on Tressel. And hey—has there been proof that anybody above Jim Tressel knew of this before everybody else? Could that possibly be the reason that Tressel silently fell on his sword—because he knew, ultimately, the buck stopped with him?

If new emails leak that show Tressel informed Gene Smith or the compliance office, then the whole game changes. Then, you would have an institutional problem.  I’m sure the vigilantes in Ann Arbor and elsewhere would let us know if that were the case—would they not?  As they say in east Baltimore, (or as so well-crafted dramas on HBO and Jason Whitlock tell me): “There’s got to be dope on the table.”

Unfortunately for the haters, when this case is distilled to its essence, there isn’t much there. Just manufactured outrage created by journos trying to poach a Pulitzer, writing as if they’re investigating a corrupt 3^rd world dictator. 

Despite all the special reports narrated by Joe Schaad, the sabre rattling, and the tears, what really does the NCAA have here? A coach who was probably willingly asleep at the wheel (aka 95% of big time college coaches), some free tattoos hooked up by a convicted felon, and some shady (but so far, legal) car transactions?  Trust me when I say, Ohio State will handle these waters like a seasoned captain with an eyepatch on a fishing boat. And they will be hated for it.

The coach has resigned. The players have all been punished, with “ringleader” of the group losing his senior season and jeopardizing his entire NFL future and costing himself a few million dollars in draft position. Again, all of these punishments were just—but really, who is there left to punish? As it stands now, everybody involved has taken their L.

Brian Kelly and George O’Leary, like Tressel, made a terrible decision. Their decisions, unlike Tressel, killed a man. Chip Kelly was giving burlap sacks to a street agent for influence with 18 year old kids from Texas. (And LSU and Cal both had ties with this man—but I’m sure they were just paying him for 3 year old scouting reports). How did Butch Davis “build” UNC? He had an army of agents ferrying his star players to penthouse parties in Miami, then, when those players got caught plagiarizing papers (and who has time for papers when you’re balling in Miami?), their AD inanely tried to defend the plagiarism. (But hey, UNC, Notre Dame, UCF, and [to a lesser extent] Oregon haven’t been dominating the college football world like Ohio State has for the last decade). They don’t generate the collective hate, and thus mouse clicks, like Ohio State does.

And, yes, you’re damned right Ohio State lowballed ‘em on their self-sanctions. That’s how this game is played. This will be handled behind closed doors by a bunch of guys who make a lot more money than any of us, just as it has always been since college football came to be.

Will Ohio State escape with their self-induced penalties? Probably not. But will OSU’s penalty satisfy the tear-rage which has been accumulating over the last ten years? No, it will not. And it shouldn’t.

The rage, still—it is understandable. In fact, as an Ohio State fan, I get great amusement out of all the tears. In fact, I’m currently collecting tears from all over the country. I keep them in jars, marked by school, on my shelf. It’s quite a fun little hobby. Sometimes I bathe in them, sometimes I drink them. It all depends on how I’m feeling when I wake up that day.

I just hope these haters don’t expect us to hold their tissue box when the sentence doesn’t satisfy their bloodlust because the facts never lived up to something everybody collectively wanted so desperately to believe in. Was that a run-on sentence? Perhaps, but when you ride behind a banner of facts and logic, you leave the small flags like grammar to your enemies.

TRESSEL IS DEAD

LONG LIVE JIM TRESSEL