| 08 March 2011
I am sure a good number of you have seen the latest installment of Tattoogate. For those of you who have not seen it you can find it on Yahoo. No, I will not provide a link to that piece of garbage.
In a nutshell what it says is coach Tressel "was informed" about the players selling their memorabilia back in April, "A source" tells the writer of this accusatory piece. Supposedly "a concerned party reached out" last April.
Who? "A source" says "a concerned party reached out" and Jim Tressel is supposed to take their word for it? He is supposed to go down and confront his players because somebody said they were doing something wrong? Let me ask you something. If some anonymous somebody just walked up to you and told you your wife had a boyfriend or your oldest friend and business partner was cheating you out of money, would you believe them? Take it for gospel? It is the nature of relationships to give that person the benefit of the doubt. Jim Tressel knew these players for quite some time. I think he gave them the benefit of the doubt.
The "concerned party" says Jim Tressel was troubled by the information and would investigate. How could he go about gathering evidence? Despite what some may think, there is some limits to Jim Tressels power. He could ask some questions of the players. If you think they were going to tell the truth then you have neither been a 21-year old who has been in a jam or been around 21-year olds in a jam. My Dad was the first Director of the J. Ashburn Jr. Youth Center on the Hilltop. When there was a dispute, and there were going to be disputes when you are talking about youths from the Hilltop area, my Dad said he knew one thing before he went into the office to deal with it. One of them was going to lie to him.
Recall Terrelle Pryors tweet when this first went down. I don't remember the exact wording but it came down to him saying he paid for all his tattoos. We know how he paid for them now. If Jim Tressel bothered to confront the players when this "concerned party reached out", what do you think these players response was?
The article goes on to say that Federal investigators informed coach Tressel of what their investigation turned uo on December 7th. On December 8th the athletic department launched an investigation. Are you serious? The athletic department had the audacity to wait until they had some evidence before acting on it?
Jim Tressel has no enforcement powers. He cannot order search warrants. He cannot subpoena anyone. He cannot order transcripts of phone records or tax returns. He is the football coach. Until there is more evidence that the "concerned party" is someone who had the gravitas to be believed, this has no substance. Even then with only the limited powers bestow upon a football coach, all Jim Tressel could do was ask the players in question about the issue and hope they tell him the truth. We know that they didn't. When he had the evidence he did something about it. If that does not end this for you, if it does not make sense to you, then you have an axe to grind.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
