Jim Tressel

Happy Memorial Day friends and blog followers. I truly am grateful to the Men and Women who have given their lives to ensure that my family and I can enjoy the freedoms we have today. Both of my Grandfathers served in the military. My Grandpa Leon Sours served in WWII and Korea. My Uncle Sam Sours served 5 tours in Vietnam. Yes you read that correctly; 5 tours, in the Army special forces. The last 2 tours were served trying to find POW/MIA individuals and bringing them home. These family members are true American heroes. I'd also like to remind everyone that there are individuals who are daily laying their lives on the line on foreign soil in service to our great country. Whether we agree with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan or not, these individuals deserve our honor and respect. I've helped treat several veterans from these conflicts at the alcohol and drug treatment center I work at and I can tell you that Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome is a legitimate diagnosis. Some of the most heart wrenching things I've witnessed is watching these individuals screaming out in their sleep, wrestling with night terrors that you and I will never have to know. As my family and I prepare for the pool party and cook out we are going to attend we will say a prayer thanking God for these folks. Hug a veteran today would ya?

That having been said I'm extremely disappointed in the fact that Ohio State made the decision to announce Jim Tressel's resignation today. I'm probably one of the biggest Ohio State Football fans in Northwest Ohio, yet I feel it was in poor taste to announce this on Memorial Day. I'm sure that somewhere along the line a publicist thought this would benefit Ohio State to make this announcement on a holiday. Memorial Day should be about honoring our veterans, not about watching newscasts dominated by a football coach resigning amidst allegations of wrong doing.

Now about those allegations. Let's be real here folks. Jim Tressel hasn't been accused of recruiting violations, nor has he been accused of financially supporting his players. His biggest wrongdoing was simply not reporting his knowledge that his players were selling their own personal property to attempt to make ends meet. I'm not exonerating the players at all. What they did were wrong. What Jim Tressel did was wrong. They all broke the rules and should suffer some consequences. I do however find it difficult to stomach that men who have become millionaires on the backs of college football would be the ones allowed to judge these athletes who grew up extremely poor in urban areas. Terrelle Pryor is an exceptionally gifted athlete who felt the need to sell some of his own hard earned college awards. I'm not Terrelle Pryor, but I've been broke and I understand the desperation that can bring. College athletes do not receive compensation for playing sports. They are provided an opportunity to receive a free college education. In comparison Mark Emmert the current CEO of the NCAA was paid nearly a million dollars a year as the President of the University of Washington. Do any of you truly believe that Mr. Emmert has ever been financially desperate enough to pawn his belongings?

I don't know what the solution is to the dilemma of college athletes hustling. I do feel like the NCAA has to do something. You simply can not take individuals out of urban areas, make them some of the most famous athletes in their respective states and expect them to eat ramen noodles and ride bicycles around their respective campuses. It's a broken system that somewhere along the way needs to be repaired.

Back to the topic of Jim Tressel. He is one of the most wildly successful football coaches college football has ever seen. It's worth noting that almost every single individual who has ever played for him admires him. He seems to be loyal to a fault to the men who play for him. Until this past year he was widely viewed as an honorable man with impeccable integrity. We now know that he was covering evidence of wrong doing from his players and it feels a little foreign using words like "integrity" and "honor" when describing him. I don't see any other way around him having to leave as Ohio State football coach simply for the fact that he has lost the trust he once had.

I had the honor and privelege of meeting Jim this past spring. As a matter of fact if you watched Channel 13 ABC's noon newscast you would have seen footage of Jim Tressel and I sitting at Sylvania Country Club. Jim gave a speech that day apologizing for what had happened to Buckeye Football and he took responsibility for those things that he did wrong. It's worth noting that I learned that day the Jim Tressel and his wife had donated millions to Ohio State University Hospital and their new cancer center. I believe he is a good man at heart. I don't think the footage we saw of Ohio State football players volunteering in poor neighborhoods in New Orleans before the Sugar Bowl were for public relations only. I think he legitametly attempted to make the athletes he coached better men. I don't know why he did the things he did but I know that Ohio State lost a really good football coach today.

Did you hear the rumor that Urban Meyer recently purchased a home in Columbus, OH? Boy wouldn't that be something! Go Bucks.