H*****r
发帖数: 764 | 1 By Bruce Hooley
FOXSportsOhio.com
Thursday could be the most interesting day yet in the ongoing Tattoogate
scandal that continues to fester and ooze troubling headlines for the Ohio
State football program and head coach Jim Tressel.
NCAA president Mark Emmert will hold a press conference that day at the
Final Four in Houston. It‘s an annual event for whoever holds the top job
at the NCAA. The question-and-answer session is sure to pin Emmert down on
matters related to the investigation of Tressel for lying on an NCAA rules
compliance form and for not being truthful with Ohio State investigators
when details of the football program’s rule-breaking came to light.
Also Thursday, the Buckeyes will start spring practice, which means Tressel
will be facing reporters for the first time since The Columbus Dispatch
reported that he indeed forwarded the emails he received in April 2010
notifying him of likely NCAA violations by quarterback Terrelle Pryor and
teammate DeVier Posey.
The reported recipient of the emails forwarded by Tressel raises the
question whether he’ll still be coach at Ohio State by the time his players
put on the pads later this week.
According to the Dispatch, Tressel forwarded the emails to Ted Sarniak, a 67
-year-old businessman in Jeannette, Pa., Pryor’s hometown.
Sarniak accompanied Pryor on his official recruiting trip to Ohio State. He
also is the man who Scout.com reported loaned Pryor a Corvette to drive to
his senior prom. Multiple other outlets have reported that two Buckeyes
assistant coaches ate dinner with Sarniak the night before Pryor made his
official recruiting visit to Michigan.
Doug Archie, OSU’s director of compliance, said Sarniak was a person of
influence during Pryor’s recruitment but that Sarniak is only someone the
quarterback has “reached out to for advice and guidance throughout his high
school and collegiate career.“
As poorly as Tressel came off at the March 8 press conference OSU called to
confirm that he lied to the NCAA in September about having no knowledge of
pending NCAA violations in his program, and that he deceived OSU
investigators twice in December, Tressel looks even worse now.
If true that he forwarded the emails to Sarniak — the Dispatch cited
multiple sources and has a track record of being dialed into the inner
sanctum of OSU politics — Tressel appears boxed in by everything he said on
March 8 in attempting to justify his actions.
Tressel said March 8 that he did not contact the NCAA, OSU’s compliance
department, athletic director Gene Smith, school president E. Gordon Gee or
any of OSU‘s in-house legal counsel with details of the troubling emails
about Pryor because he felt he was restricted by “confidentiality” between
himself and the Columbus attorney who emailed him details of the players’
probable rule violations.
He did acknowledge during the news conference that he had forwarded emails,
nodding saying "um-hmm" when asked if he had. Smith interceded at that point
, ending that line of questioning, so we didn't know who else saw them until
the Dispatch's report about Sarniak.
Tressel said he kept the details private, after learning of them in April
and after receiving three more detailed emails from the same attorney in
June, because he did not want to impede a federal investigation into drug
trafficking at the tattoo parlor where Pryor and Posey sold their team
awards and memorabilia in violation of NCAA rules.
Both those excuses are out the window if Tressel forwarded the emails to
Sarniak.
How would letting Sarniak know about Pryor’s activities preserve the
confidentiality Tressel was purportedly so concerned with?
How could the sanctity of a federal investigation be preserved if Tressel
was contacting Sarniak, presumably to get him to do something to rein Pryor
in?
Tressel’s confidentiality excuse and his sanctity-of-the-investigation
excuse already appeared questionable. If blown asunder by forwarding the
emails to Sarniak, that would mean Tressel lied twice more at the press
conference Ohio State called to announce he had already lied three times
about not knowing anything in advance of the Tattoogate scandal blowing wide
open.
Such behavior is mind-blowing for a coach who has always had the squeakiest
of squeaky-clean reputations, but the head-scratching questions don’t end
there.
The NCAA is sure to ask Tressel, as are reporters if they ever get the
chance:
• Why would Tressel let Sarniak know the details of Pryor’s
activities if he didn’t expect the quarterback’s “mentor” to do
something about it?
• What kind of influence did Sarniak have over Pryor that Tressel didn
’t have?
• How would a 67-year-old businessman hold more influence over Pryor
than the coach who determines playing time for every player on the roster?
Gee and Smith both locked themselves to Tressel and threw away the key at
the March 8 press conference, lauding his integrity and insisting that
firing him was never considered. They maintained that he will remain Ohio
State’s coach going forward.
That was before the Dispatch broke the Sarniak revelations, which might not
be the last bit of mud to splatter against the scarlet-and-gray wall.
Numerous media outlets have filed Freedom of Information Act requests to
pore through the coach’s emails and phone records.
Further communication with Sarniak or the Columbus attorney whose emails to
Tressel put him on notice about the violations in April, or any other
embarrassing matters, have the potential to surface as each news
organization’s investigation deepens.
What might come out if Edward Rife — the owner of the tattoo parlor where
Pryor and Posey eventually ensnared teammates Mike Adams, Daniel Herron,
Solomon Thomas and Jordan Whiting in the scandal — decides he would like to
talk on the record or to the NCAA?
The NCAA is also digging into Tressel’s concealment of key details in the
Tattoogate scandal. The bylaw Tressel broke, 10.1_(d), forbids "knowingly
furnishing the NCAA or the individual's institution false or misleading
information concerning the individual's involvement in or knowledge of
matters relevant to a possible violation of an NCAA regulation."
SI.com reported Sunday that since 1989, the NCAA has ruled on 177 cases
involving a violation of bylaw 10.1. In those cases, 172 included coaches or
athletic administrators accused of unethical conduct.
“Of those,” the website reported, “159 resigned or were terminated.
Eighty-one cases involved coaches or athletics administrators accused of
providing false or misleading information to NCAA investigators or
encouraging others to lie to investigators. Of those, 78 resigned or were
terminated.”
The reason so many coaches get cut loose in those situations is because it’
s the best way to show the NCAA that schools won’t tolerate such behavior
in their athletic departments.
The NCAA doesn’t have subpoena power. It can’t make a booster or a former
player testify or answer questions from its investigators. The only hammer
the NCAA wields is its heavy and certain punishment for anyone caught lying
or misleading its investigators.
To go easy on Ohio State in this situation, given the deception OSU has
already admitted Tressel engaged in, would be to tell every coach at every
school that they are no longer under any burden to tell the truth, because
the penalties for lying won’t be that severe.
It’s difficult to see the NCAA going soft for that reason, and because it
took such a public relations hit in December upon allowing the Buckeyes to
play Pryor, Posey, Herron, Adams and Thomas in the Sugar Bowl and delay
their five-game suspensions until 2011.
The NCAA didn’t know then, but knows now, that Tressel was aware or had a
strong suspicion Pryor and Posey were in violation of NCAA rules as far back
as April.
The NCAA also knows Tressel concealed that information not only in September
, when he signed the NCAA’s rules compliance form that he knew of no
possible violations in his program, but twice more in December when OSU
investigators asked him about it and the NCAA was making its Sugar Bowl
eligibility ruling.
Most people outside Ohio — and many within the state — thought that was a
sham of a ruling brought about by lobbying from Big Ten commissioner Jim
Delany and Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan.
Delany’s influence as a former NCAA investigator could be crucial to the
hopes of Tressel and Ohio State for lenience. Delany, though, may be boxed
in by his statements regarding the NCAA investigation of Cameron Newton at
Auburn.
Delany said the NCAA “missed an opportunity to stand up” when it allowed
Newton to play, despite discovering that his father shopped him to a rival
school for as much as $180,000.
“There ought to be accountability, Delany said. “There ought to be
consequences.”
It’s not hard to envision an NCAA staff member looking across the table as
the Big Ten commissioner pleads for understanding in the Tressel case and
asking why it should forgive a coach who lied three times to an organization
famous for cutting coaches absolutely zero slack when they lie even once.
Still, Tressel has piled up far too much power and influence during his 10
seasons in Columbus to sell short his ability to withstand this scandal.
His exemplary won-loss record is a powerful ally in his corner, because
winning coaches get far more leeway than losing ones.
Tressel is also a favorite of well-heeled donors and the titans whose
influence shapes decisions in both the City of Columbus and the State of
Ohio.
All that may insulate him, and convince Ohio State it’s worth the risk of
defying previous cases, where coaches lose their jobs to lessen penalties
against the school going forward.
The decision Ohio State must make is this: Is Tressel so irreplaceable that
retaining him the face of his misdeeds is worth the risk of the football
program being hit with severe sanctions — scholarship limitations,
recruiting restrictions and a ban on either future bowl or television
appearances?
If the answer is yes, then it appears that Tressel has become bigger than
the future of the program he directs.
Follow Bruce on Twitter @BHOOLZ | g*********d
发帖数: 8125 | 2 does brmj has a website called www.fireJT.com yet?
【在 H*****r 的大作中提到】
: By Bruce Hooley
: FOXSportsOhio.com
: Thursday could be the most interesting day yet in the ongoing Tattoogate
: scandal that continues to fester and ooze troubling headlines for the Ohio
: State football program and head coach Jim Tressel.
: NCAA president Mark Emmert will hold a press conference that day at the
: Final Four in Houston. It‘s an annual event for whoever holds the top job
: at the NCAA. The question-and-answer session is sure to pin Emmert down on
: matters related to the investigation of Tressel for lying on an NCAA rules
: compliance form and for not being truthful with Ohio State investigators
|
|
