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| Tressel suspended for two games |
On Tuesday, Tressel was suspended for the first two games of the 2011 season and fined $250,000 for violating NCAA rules by failing to notify the school about the players' involvement. He also will receive a public reprimand and must make a public apology.
Now the question that I have is this, "What did you expect him to do?" Did you expect him to go to the A.D. and the Ohio State compliance department and tell the whole story or did you expect him to try to handle the situation internally like most coaches would do? I'm not surprised that he didn't tell anyone about it. He thought that he could handle the situation with his players and it would go away. Now obviously that didn't happen.
People don't realize how difficult it is to keep more than 100 players in line at a major university. That's why the recruiting process is so hard. Not only are coaches trying to find the best players from across the country; they've got to find a balance between them being able to play and perform in and out of the classroom as well. Many times it's a twenty four a day job. You can't imagine the amount of phone calls that these coaches get about players being involved in things that we as the public never even hear about.
Jim Tressel thought that this would go away like the other 300 emails that he's gotten about a player being in involved in something stupid. When he got that email in April of last year he probably did get right on it. He probably called his assistants, especially the strength and conditioning coach and told him to handle it. Those five players were probably put on "Dawn Patrol" for a couple of weeks. For those of you that don't know what "Dawn Patrol" is, it's when players are punished for acting a fool or missing or being late to meetings or class etc and have to meet with the strength coach at 5:00 am to run and do various strength and conditioning drills.
It's a beast and nobody wants "Dawn Patrol" because it's so early. Not only do you have to report for the morning workouts but you're not exempt from the normal workouts with the team later that day. So I'm not mad at Tressel because he probably assumed that he had handled it and it was in the rear view mirror. It just happened to rear end him. Now I will say this, I thought that he was way over the top in making the "Tat 5" commit to staying in school next year or not playing in the bowl game. Which, in my opinion, they shouldn't have been able to play in anyway, especially if he knew about it. He went too far in giving the company line if he was involved. The minute he found out about it and kept it low he was involved. So I understand what he was trying to do but he took it too far. That decision should have been left up to the players and families to make. Now he looks like an idiot.
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| "Snake Eyes" |
Jay Graves
jaygraves@thejaygravesreport.com
Follow me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As a leader, irrespective of whether or not you lead at a major university, a Fortune 500 company, a high school or the local youth baseball club, there are always compliance rules and regulations that exist and must be complied with. Not to be critical but, the media is full of leaders who decided to take maters into their own hands by taking on risks and not complying with rules and regs. Understandably so, some risks are worth taking based upon the capacity you have to address the issue causing the risk but, others are not. Leaders must make their own decisions and discern wisely. If the risk will cost me my job or a significant monetary fine then I might want to rethink whether or not to take the risk. I am sure Jim Tressel knew the rules and regs around the school's compliance laws and decided to move forward with outsourcing the handling of his decision. We now see that was not a wise decision. So, in answer to the question, I expected him to go to the AD if for nothing else, for the record which, as we have all come to understand, is a part of his job...as a leader. I must say though, where I personally esteem Coach Tressel is in the way he is handling this unfortunate situation. He has made it clear he is the leader of a world class organization and is willing to comply with the consequences of his decisions. He is not hiding behind someone’s desk or playing the blame game. My respect for him and his character has grown significantly.
ReplyDeleteIan
Ian, when you get in your car today and drive faster than the rules and regs say I want you to call 911 and report yourself because you are putting other drivers at risk. As a leader of your household be sure to act responsible and turn yourself in. Now I know you won't because unless they catch you it is ok. Tressel just got caught, you are no different. You are not in the public eye so you get away with breaking some rules like we all do. I am sure many will say it is not the same and I say to those people that is a justification for being wrong. I agree with you that Tressel will take it like a man but I can't judge his character don't know him well enough. I try to be really caution when it comes to judging because I have been judged by people that don't know me and well let's just leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteNow, how are you and the family? Love you Dawg!
Coach G
It's not about how he complies NOW. In my opinion, its a gash on his character. He ridiculed and embarrassed those kids in a press conference when it came out...he played like he had NO knowledge of it knowing FULL well what had happened. He made those KIDS come back for another year and put their careers in jeopardy for selfish reasons. The attorney who sent him the emails in April asked him to keep it "confidential" meaning only to hide the fact that he himself sent the email. He never asked him not to handle it. His reply was "I'll take care of it ASAP". ASAP in my book isn't months later right before the bowl game when the season is over. I could go ON AND ON...but I don't want to sit here and type a book about this scenario. :)
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