It’s not quite a bronzed statue, but Ohio high school coaches are looking to honor former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel in the best way that they know how.
Wearing white shirts and ties for their season openers.
No sweater vests, though; it will be August.
The idea originated last week, when Tressel was inducted into the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame, by Solon HS coach Jim McQuaide. The OHSFCA spread the idea to its over 750 coaching members.
Word of the tribute is still making its rounds and coaches are currently trying to get others on board.
Now, given Tressel’s unceremonious departure from the Buckeyes in the wake of one of the biggest… nope, the biggest… scandal of 2011 thus far, this might seem like an odd idea.
McQuaide, along with several other state coaches, doesn’t feel that way at all. Below are some quotes from the story, courtesy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“Whether he was he right or wrong, that’s not our place,” McQuaide said. “This is not to say he was fired wrongly. This is purely an appreciation for what he did.”
…
“I don’t do ties, but I would do it for him,” Shaw coach Rodney Brown said. “I would jump at the opportunity to honor Coach Tressel. He’s a great man who fell on the sword for his players. He’s an honorable man. I have T.Y. Williams there, and I have no regrets.”
…
“I guess you could say that, but I look at what he did for the kids and Ohio State in a lot of ways,” Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno said. “I don’t think he did anything majorly wrong. He’s still a great man and people shouldn’t forget that.”
…
“I don’t want to see a fragmented effort,” Longtime Kent Roosevelt coach John Nemec said. “I would do anything I could to honor Coach Tressel. He’s one of the finest men I’ve met in this game.
“I don’t think anyone is happy with the events that took place, including Coach Tressel,” Nemec said. “We all make mistakes. He has done such a remarkable job, I haven’t got a problem forgiving him for his mistakes.”
Honestly, and despite my disagreement with some of the above comments, this is 100 percent appropriate. Tressel may have chosen winning over ethics, and lied to the NCAA in the process, but that doesn’t make him a bad guy who didn’t mean a lot to his players and the high school coaches in the state.
Those coaches are honoring Tressel for what he meant to, and did for, them.
Apparently there is no monopoly on stupidity in Ohio
Let’s see Ohio high schools can really get this honoring fallen heros going in the right direction:
Wk 1–coaches wear ties in honor of Tressell
Wk 2–star player gets a free tat and drives “free” new black Escalade all week in honor of Terrell Pryor
Wk 3–a 2nd star player gets to commit an armed robbery with the automatic weapon of his choice in honor of Maurice Clarett
Do they do this all 10 weeks of the high school season and continue the insanity…….roflmao
Yep… OSU and Tressel are the biggest scandal of the year.
I mean, Oregon paying a man $25k for influencing recruits and the school along with Kelly covering that up even though they sent him thank you cards and paid him with a university check isn’t a big deal.
Auburn still being investigated for buying Cam Newton for $180,000 isn’t a big deal. (Not to mention other things still not mentioned)
UNC having every star player and about 30% of their team suspended for cheating and dealing with agents isn’t a big deal.
Notre Dames new coach put a kids life in harms way and allows a player to play all the games but yet he endangers peoples lives while drinking and driving multiple times isn’t a big deal.
Numerous players from numerous schools getting arrested and doing things AGAINST THE LAW isn’t a big deal.
Nope, you are totally right. OSU is such a horrid university and that Tressel guy is scum. Even though they are the only school in this WHOLE list to self report what happened and everyone else lawyers up and denies everything.
They kind of had to self report because the info was going to come out regardless following the case of Eddie Rife.
Wow. Just … wow.
Two thoughts came to mind reading the article …
First, I hope some day Tressel does a no-holds-barred interview explaining his thought process on the Tat5 situation. He’s held in such high regard and reporting the infraction would have cost the team so little. I’d like to know if he’s thought about why he made those fateful choices.
Second, if the coaches are going to do this, it might be nice to wait for a week in cooler weather so they can wear the vests, too. Just a thought …
Didn’t the info come out about all of the other schools but yet all of them (well except Notre Dame cause you can’t deny those things happening) lawyered up and denied everything??
Again, everyone see’s OSU as a horrid school but yet no one bats an eye at anyone else for worse infractions. I don’t think what OSU did was right, but come on… lets wake up get some reality people. Buying kids services or dealing with agents is less of a scandal then some kids getting some discounts or selling some trinkets? Really??
Are we having our own logical thoughts on this or just buying into all the media hype cause they say its worse cause OSU is a bigger brand and a more popular story?
What people need to do to gain some logic on all of this is take out the school that is attached to each infraction… list the infractions and figure out which one is worse?
Is it what the school or what the schools players did that upsets you or is it just the school itself cause you hate them no matter what?
If Tressel got fired and OSU forefitted last season… then every school/coach listed should too.
I hope the Ohio State Coaches don’t really do what they plan. We’ll know the real scumbags; they’ll be the ones wearing white shirts and ties. If your a parent whose kid is playing for one of them, change schools if you can and if you can’t, see if you can get the coach fired for supporting unethical bad behavior. No wonder coaches do stuff like this, they get support from other cheaters. Wear the white shirts and ties so we know who you are.
“Tressel may have chosen winning over ethics, and lied to the NCAA in the process, but that doesn’t make him a bad guy who didn’t mean a lot to his players and the high school coaches in the state.”
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So it’s okay for a coach to lie and cheat and get caught if he’s well liked but it’s not okay for a coach, who has the media falsely accusing his school of paying for a kid, to ask the NCAA when they are going to close their case because he’s playing for a school that is well despited by jealous fans both in and out of the media.
Yep, our media is now made up of fans who simply don’t now the meaning of unbias
journalism.
And @ swcoach, “Are we having our own logical thoughts on this or just buying into all the media hype cause they say its worse cause OSU is a bigger brand and a more popular story?”
It’s funny that you should make that statement in defense of your school. Yet you sit there and believe every piece BS put out by the same media against Auburn. The difference is, there is no paper trail showing Auburn’s guilt but there is with OSU.
Funny how what those 5 atheletes did at OSU is “no big deal” and the coach simply was looking out for his athletes and school but you’re eager to believe Auburn should be punished to the max with not a stitch of evidence to back up the media’s accusations against them but a con artist and his former friends who never met Cecil.
Something tells me unlike Tressel, Cecil was upfront with the NCAA.
How much do you hang with Cecil, whatsthehate? This seems to be a big point in all your BS posts … that no one knows Cecil like you know Cecil.
The NCAA had the Newton people on tape. Yeah, I’ll give him credit … he didn’t lie in the face of overwhelming evidence, as some do. But why should he? The NCAA/SEC ignored their own bylaws to give Cam a pass. And they couldn’t do anything to Cecil. I mean, they said they’d keep him away from the championship game and didn’t even do that.
The wording of the bylaws makes clear that when an agent (including a family member) acting on behalf of a player solicits money, it renders the player ineligible whether money changes hands or not. Nothing is said about whether the player must know of the solicitation. But Cam was never stopped from playing. Rather than constantly whining that your darlings have been mistreated, you should be kissing the ground these people walk on for giving Auburn special treatment they don’t normally give.
You conveniently keep pretending Cecil’s confession never happened, that he didn’t break the rules by soliciting $180,000 from Mississippi State, that MSU never reported him, that there’s no ongoing NCAA investigation–despite having an NCAA executive tell Chizik directly that the school is still under investigation. You just keep inventing nonsense about journalistic bias and Alabama–which has had zero involvement in any of this. Saban has a legendarily bad relationship with the press.
Why would the NCAA investigation be ongoing? Hmmm … let’s think about that. Newton admitted demanding $180,000 for his product from his old friend Dan Mullen, then went to visit complete stranger Gene Chizik and gave him the product for free? Really? Yeah, that rings true. People always give away products worth six figures.
What the Tat5 did (based on what’s currently known) was penny ante and not on a scale with pay-for-play. What Tressel did was wrong and it cost him his career. The media hasn’t given him a pass. He’s been raked through the coals by the press and ESPN is suing to get his private e-mails so they can rake his carcass a little more.
For you to comment on the subject of bias is absurd. It’s a wonder lightning doesn’t strike your keyboard.
Ditto my big sister Deb
You Tressel haters should throw your own baby out with your bathwater.
Tressel continues to be an incredible man and coach. Even as a Michigan man, I’d honor him in a heartbeat.
Wow, Deb. I don’t always agree with you, but I must commend your absolute domination with that post. Brilliantly done.
@ Deb
I respect your opinion, but I think if Tressel reported the tat5 it would have cost him something, mostly his season. The Vest wanted another shot at the National Championship and he considered Pryor his best chance, just like he pinned his hopes on Troy Smith years earlier despite his character flaws. Tressel needed to beat an elite (SEC) team in a bowl game to get the respect back he lost by being outscored 79 – 38 in the BCS NC. So ya he could have turned them in and he should have, but like any coach that came up short when it matter most in Big games he wanted to prove he still could compete on a National level. In some ways Tressel’s situation should make college football fans appreciate Bob Stoops even more, after losing the title 3 times he never broke the rules to win the title again.
Forefitted= loss of credibility.
I’m not saying those other schools are innocent by any means, but there is not the paper trail that was connected to a federal case either.
Those schools also did not fight to have players reinstated for a bowl game under the condition that they serve a suspension in the coming season.
And as far as I know the coaches of those schools did not break one of the two ncaa commandments, “thou shall not lie to the ncaa”. The other commandment being “thou shall not fuck with scam we’ve got going.”
Tressel did not fall on his sword for his players. He lied to keep his best players on the field in order to keep winning. Then he lied again to try and save his job.
There is no honor in being forced out of your job after it becomes clear you have no other choice.
Two head coaching jobs, two NCAA scandals. The guy is no saint.
@whatswiththehate
I do believe what is written about Auburn and it will come out sooner or later… no doubts on that.
@Deb
Brilliant post!
@everyone else who thinks I’m just an OSU homer
Oregon IS on record for paying a former Chip Kelly player from his New Hampshire days that now coaches a 7-on-7 team for “scouting services”. Same thing they did with Willie Lyles. Funny how both men had kids they coached or “mentored” that went to Oregon. Scouting services or pay for play??
Good for them!!! Jim Tressel is a good and decent man that made a career ending decision to hide some minor violations and then lie about it. I will never understand why he did it for it would have only cost us 2 or 3 game suspension for the Tat5 at the beginning of the season. I doubt if that would have made any difference in the outcome of those games!!!
He has done an amazing amount of great and selfless deeds that have had a tremendously positive impact on the community, the university, the program, and his players’ lives that far outweigh his last great act of stupidity. Like Deb, I can only hope that one day Tressel will come clean as to what he was thinking when he made the decision to do what he did.
It will be a very strange season this year without the Vest on the sidelines!
Oh this is just precious,
The Ohio coaches are going to give the liar vest a special honor night. Hopefully the liar vest will speak on morality, honesty and integrety.
Maybe he will talk about his corrupt days at Youngstown State as well?
Hey Luke Fickell…”Dead Man Walking”
Was it just me or did anyone else notice that the other biggest liar in the country “Casey Anthony” was photographed numerous times wearing O$U buckeye appearal? hmmmm
@tdub
is it funny to say “dead man walking” for luke fckell? Everyone knows he’s gone after this year for someone superior
oh wait did I just spoil that for you? Dang, now you will hafta come up with a new joke
please make it better than the last one dana carvey