| 13 May 2011
My fellow Buckeyes, you are broken. You are beat down and you have been pummeled within an inch of your life. You are clinging on to that whisper from Woody in your ear like Mickey to Rocky telling you to get up and keep fighting. Only problem is, there is a line around the block to take turns winding up and kicking you in the junk. What’s worse, even your friends are playing along. I realize that’s how every single one of you feels. Even at times I feel like that myself. Like a cornered dog you are biting and growling and pouncing at anyone who comes near you, even with people who mean no harm, because at this point you can’t separate friend from foe anymore. You’re alone in the college football wasteland. You are cold, scared and all you want is to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The truth my friends, there is a light. But it’s nothing like what you imagined.
Do you feel betrayed Buckeyes? I think most of you would say yes. The obvious name to throw on the table is Herbstreit. Buckeye Nation is almost unanimous in his elimination from the “friend” label. What about with other Buckeyes like Spielman, Carter, Robert Smith or Eddie George? Have they betrayed you? Every one of them has spoken critically of OSU in the past and of Tressel. While perhaps their statements are not on the same level as Herbstreit, they are certainly equally as critical. Spielman thinks Tressel won’t even be our coach this coming season. Even Herbie hasn’t said that. So should they too be persona non grata?
Today I see Buckeyes quick to lash out at any opinion that does not keep Jim Tressel coaching in Columbus for years to come. But Buckeyes, you are soon going to have to face the reality that as each day passes, this may be what you discover when you emerge through that tunnel into the light. When you emerge from Plato’s “cave” my friends, things are never what you expect or what you want. They are different and they are new. And you can never go back into the cave and be the same person you once were.
How can we as a culture of like-minded individuals grow if we cannibalize our own? All we can do is devour ourselves. Yet you can go to any message board with an unfavorable opinion of what is to transpire from our recent transgressions and can fully expect to be attacked (“flamed”), personally insulted and maybe even banned. Any writer with the stones to suggest that Jim Tressel may not keep his job from this is immediately labeled an enemy and a no talent “hack” writing a scathing piece taking a cheap shot at our program.
That’s going too far Buckeyes. Pull your heads from the sand. These things happened. Jim Tressel admitted to it. There is no going back. We have emerged from the cave and like it or not this is our new reality. It’s a reality where our coach, who we have put on a pedestal, has compromised his morals publicly. And in turn his actions have punished not only himself, but every single player and coach and fan of OSU football.
We can choose to forgive Jim Tressel. I do. We can choose to consider him a good and moral man. I do. But what does it serve us to turn on every single person who dishes out a little tough love?
Time to man up Buckeyes. Time to be adults. Time to forgive and move forward. And I’m not talking about Tressel. I’m talking about forgiving everyone, even Kirk Herbstreit. And that goes for Herbie too. I suspect he has some anger in his heart. He’s going to have to let that go. We can’t endure this alone. And I’m not just talking about the penalties. I’m talking about everything. We can’t push people away. We can be critical, but we can’t continue the status quo. In all of these years of fighting back against anyone who dared to be critical, what have we gained? We have only been hurt. And now we are reaping what we sew.
Jim Tressel’s actions pale in comparison to what USC did. Yet more and more indications coming out are suggesting that a USC type punishment is precisely what we are getting. How can that be? It's because every single person outside of Columbus wants to see us burn. Every single media outlet wants this. And why not? Because of our actions, they gain more by attacking us than by playing nice. They gain nothing from cooperating with Jim Tressel. His career has demonstrated years of refusing to cooperate with the media. So instead they are going to focus every effort on pressuring the NCAA to bring us down. And they are creating a circus along the way. They are manifesting news at every corner so they can milk this cow dry. We are the best offseason they ever had. And why not? What reason have we ever given them to do otherwise?
Buckeyes complain about the double standard in reporting on SEC schools or USC. But refuse to accept that we are the reason why we don’t enjoy any favorable journalism. We’re standing on a bomb that we built and gave the trigger to the people that we regularly spit in the face of. We might as well kick a grizzly cub in front of its mother. What’s worse is while we are doing this we actually have the audacity to consider ourselves the smart ones. Look around Buckeyes. We have no friends outside of the program. We have nobody who will help us. And the people close to the program with national influence we are pushing away. Not only that, but most of us are on the prowl looking for more people to hate. Some of you are ready to wash your hands of anyone and everyone because somehow you think you know the definition of what it means to be a real fan.
Let’s just say no more. We don’t have to ask for forgiveness because I don’t believe that’s necessary. But neither does anyone else. We just have to forgive in our hearts. Let it go. Herbstreit is a Buckeye whether we like it or not. He just sees things differently like most of us. He’s made mistakes. Like all of us do. Like Tressel did. Let’s finally be the bigger people. And maybe we can start moving forward. I would love to be able to enjoy Ohio State football without waiting for the next media attack or cheap shot. Despite what many think, we are not the enemy because we are good. Most of the nation actually believes we aren’t as good as our rankings. We are the enemy because we made it popular to demonize us. That’s our doing.
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