It seems like every year now, we are beginning to hear about major college coaches or players violating the NCAA rules in some way. Whether it's accepting improper benefits or coaching violations, college sports has created a sideshow where players and coaches are trying to see how much they can get away with.
This is what leads me back to Tressel. So he mislead the NCAA and withheld information regarding his players selling memorabilia to get free ink. That's not the worst thing a coach has done over the last few decades, so accept the five game suspension, serve it, and go back to winning championships. But, to the people of Columbus and everywhere around America, Tressel was seen as more than just another football coach. He was the gentleman in the red and gray sweater vests on Saturdays in the fall who led a CLEAN and UNTARNISHED powerhouse football team... the right way.
That is why it amazes me that he was forced out the way that he was. Many people are saying that there had to have been more for him to be feeling this much pressure from the school to step down. But, even Athletic Director Gene Smith has backed Tressel through the thick and thin of this controversy, as well as many current and former players.
This is the third time in Tressel's coaching career that his program has encountered NCAA sanctions, once when he was at Youngstown State and an earlier time at Ohio State. Both of the previous times he was found to have no knowledge of the events. For the thousands of players that have gone through Jim Tressel, it is hard for me to believe that for a man with as great a track record that Tressel has had, that after one incident that can barely even compare to some violations of the past, there better be something more that we don't know about.
As much as I like Tressel, I really hope that this was on his own concerns and not someone else's.
*All images courtesy of Google Images*
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