EDDIE GEORGE

I remember the day like it was yesterday. The day was a Monday November 6, 1995. I was working with my Dad at a company whose name I wont use out of shame. I was hiding in his office trying to avoid working. I picked up the Columbus Dispatch sports section and I saw a little article that said there were tickets still available for an OSU football game. I called the number and told them I wanted to buy 2 tickets to the game. The nice lady on the other end of the phone asked me for my Credit Card # and I politely said lady I am 20 years old and I don’t even have a bank account. I then looked at my dad and begged him to give me his CC. After 5 minutes of begging he conceded. The nice lady sold me 2 tickets at a cost of 26 dollars each tax and fees included. She told me I could pick up the tickets at the Will Call window any time I wanted. I decided to fake an illness and go home early where I picked up my friend and roommate and we drove down to the office and got our tickets.

The tickets turned out to be in the South stands when they were those old erector set of recycled aluminum soda cans. The day of the game we went down early to soak up as much atmosphere as we could after all it was our first game ever. We went to Skull Session and we drank alcohol at several places that didn’t care how old we were. I remember walking into the gates of the ‘Shoe and crying my eyes out. I was living a dream I had had for years as a child. I remember wearing shorts and a T-shirt and not caring what the weather would be that day. Turns out it would be a fricking horrible weather day it was windy and cold and rainy and snowy. We arrived at our seats feeling very warm I assume from the alcohol. We then watched as TBDBTL performed and they dotted the “i”. We booed when the Illini team took to the field. We Cheered when OSU came out of the tunnel louder then I had ever heard anything in my short life. Then something magical happened Eddie George took over the game he ran for 314 yards that day and OSU crushed Illinois 41-3 on the back of Eddie. That is my greatest memory of Eddie George and just possibly the greatest running game any OSU player has ever had. Eddie won the Heisman that year but really he won it that day. He also won a lifetime fan…… That day was November 11, 1995.

Today is May 16th, 2011 it is my Fathers birthday it is also the day that the College Football Hall of Fame announced Eddie George will be inducted to the HOF. There is no doubt in my mind that my father helped me to become the Huge OSU fan I am today and without him I wouldnt have been able to sit in those rickety old metal stands in the South End of the ‘Shoe and watch my first game there and witness what is to this day the greatest day ever for a Buckeye runner. It is very fitting for me personally that today on my Dads birthday we both get to talk about the greatest RB in my lifetime as an OSU football fan. Thanks Dad for the tickets that I promised to pay for but never did. Thank You Eddie for memories I will never forget. Congrats to both of you for a truly wonderful day to celebrate for 2 completely different reasons that will forever be intertwined in my life.

Ted Glover at Off Tackle Empire (formerly known as The Rivalry, Esq.) lets loose with both barrels, and it’s a beautiful thing. Be advised, the language is a tad NSFW but given the subject matter, highly acceptable if you ask me.

I demand that you read it in its entirety.

First he establishes that anyone who is a fan of a college football team outside of Ann Arbor joins us in our (completely justified) hatred of a certain school disturbingly close to Canada:

When I identify myself as an Ohio State fan, most people think ‘as a college football fan this guy is probably 95% asshole, but I can get along with the 5% of him that hates Michigan.’  First off, way to be a judgmental ass because you don’t know a thing about me, but it’s okay.  Secondly, I’m cool with that, because the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

He goes on a bit (seriously, read the whole thing) and then he wraps it up with a sentiment only too many of us can understand.

And OSU fan, don’t give me this horseshit that ‘the rivalry is lacking’, and ‘it’s not fun anymore’. Really? Fuck you and your ‘it’s not fun anymore’. This is a bacon orgasm, and I don’t ever want it to end. I don’t know about you, but I’m having so much fun over Michigan’s current run of suck I’m singing zippity-doo-da out of my ass.

Why? Because I remember the Cooper era; it’s burned into my soul and will never go away. Some people talk about war vets that have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), I have PTCED–Post Traumatic Cooper Era Disorder. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night screaming in cold sweats because RB Tim Biakabdfosdfasasdfsdcvcsdflguxfvbjkzxdfgtuka just scored again, or Shawn Springs fell again, or Desmond Howard did the Heisman pose again, or John Cooper pooped himself on the sideline–again. No, what’s happening to Michigan now can happen for another 100 years for all I care.

If I didn’t make it clear before, READ THE WHOLE THING. It’s beautiful, there’s a bacon reference, and I think it fits in with our new John Kreese, “strike first, strike hard, show no mercy” philosophy for OSU football going forward. Take an opponent who has been scuffling as of late and rather than offering a hand up, smack him in the face with an iron gauntlet. Then pee on him like R. Kelly.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to start this one with the good, the bad, or the ugly. But it’s been a rough couple of months for Buckeyes fans. So let’s go with this. The GOOD:

WE’RE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! Ohio State’s Mens Volleyball team won the 2011 NCS (Net Championship Series) Championship with wins over the Nittany Lions (in their own backyard, LOL) and those dirty hippies from the West Coast.

In what is becoming an increasingly common experience, I watched the final sets against UCSB with my kids and nothing is better than seeing them jump around with excitement when the Buckeyes score. This started manifesting itself strongly during the Mens Basketball and I can’t wait for it to continue this fall.

The BAD:
So long, farewell: Dorian Bell, we barely knew thee. What with his problems with staying out of trouble and what I imagine to be crushing expectations, maybe a change of scenery will do him good. Plus, being closer to home is usually a good thing. Since there’s a pretty good chance we’ll never cross our paths with Pitt, we can wish Bell good luck.

And now there are rumors that Kenny Guiton may also be transferring. Again, these are just rumors. But I don’t think it would surprise anyone if he decided to take his talents elsewhere. And if that was the case, we’ll wish him well wherever he may go.

And The UGLY:
Used Cars. And then there’s the Car Scandal. (I will now refuse to refer to any scandal by -Gate. Someone must take a stand.) At first, I thought things were really starting to look bad. Almost Fab Five-level bad. So I really don’t want to think about it. For now, I am putting myself in a holding pattern. We won’t know anything substantial until August. We can speculate and we can hem-and-haw and we can fret. We OSU fans are going to be piled on by fans everywhere (and they’re all hypocrites, don’t let them tell you otherwise). We’re thick skinned and we can take it.

Instead of going on and on, I’ll just direct you to Ramzy’s post over at 11W:

Two former NCAA enforcement officers anonymously told the Dispatch that there was cause for concern. There are exactly two causes for concern in the article as far as I’m concerned: One, obviously Gibson’s $0 car. Two, the fact that four of the Tatgate players also bought cars: That they were willing to part with trinkets at the tattoo parlor is precedent enough to be suspicious at the dealership or anywhere else. It’s circumstantial at best, but unfortunately Ohio State has earned the burden of circumstantial evidence being fishy enough to stink.

With all the trouble and issues surrounding our beloved the Ohio State University lately, I have been thinking a lot about which is better. I must add this caveat: I firmly believe from the bottom of my broken sports heart that bending the rules or breaking the rules happens at every institution where sports is played from pee wee football to the NFL. In college sports only two schools have never had a major violation against their athletic program. Penn State is one and (I think) Standford is the other. Let’s be honest though: over the last 10 years no school has had more player arrests then PSU in the Big Ten. And if you have ever been to State College, PA you know there is little for those players to do to get caught in and if they are getting cars or cash there is no real media out there to dig deep to find it for the NCAA to investigate. This is neither here nor there really. I am not here to accuse other teams of anything. I am not even here to defend OSU for what they are accused of.

I am curious as to what you, the reader, believes. Would you rather win games no matter what the cost? Would you rather be a mediocre team that plays by the rules as often as possible aka BYU?

The one thing in common for all the winning programs in college football from the beginning of time is the constant of being accused of or proven to be cheaters. You don’t need to look much farther back then the last 5 years to see this to be true. Oregon is under investigation. LSU is under investigation. Auburn is under investigation. Alabama has been under investigation. Florida is lucky the NCAA doesn’t care about players being arrested. Add to that the Miami’s and UNC’s and USC’s and every other winning program and it is clear all of these schools could care less about morals and only care about wins. It is safe to assume the fans of these schools feel the same way or they wouldn’t feed the schools billions of dollars in revenue each year. No matter how much media outlets scream about how they hate the way schools are behaving they still pay them a premium to be able to show their games and criticize them.

So to sum it up I would like to hear from you the fans. Do morals in sports matter to you? Are you less of a fan now knowing what you know about all that is going on at OSU? Would you be willing to give up being a top 10 school annually to a team with a good year every now and then but mostly you are a middle of the pack school with great morals and plays by the rules?

I have said before, I don’t care about morals on my teams and I expect them to bend and break every rule they can to get more wins. I want them to cheat just a little more then the others so they have a better shot at winning NCs. I know this is not something many of you will agree with publicly but in private it is a different story as evidenced by supporting teams that are known to break rules. I will give you all a chance to respond now.

You most likely didn’t miss it, but just in case…

2011 NFL Draft Recap: A lot of people were saying how amazing it was that Tressel won 11 games with just one first rounder. While I think that’s a little short sighted (there will probably be 2 or 3 first rounders next season) but it does make you think. Tressel doesn’t get enough respect. (And that sentence would have been A LOT easier to type (and defend) just 3 months ago.)

It’s always bitter sweet to see a beloved Buckeye go to the Hated Pittsburgh Steelers, but it was great to see Cameron Heyward get the call in the first round, even if it was to the Steelers. It will be nice to see him get to work with former Buckeye Dick LeBeau. The next to go was Chimdi Chekwa to Oakland in the fourth round. Jermale Hines to Rams. Ross Homan to the Vikings in the sixth round is going to work out well for Minnesota and Brian Rolle is headed to the city of Brotherly Love (and Morimoto) that same round.

We’ll add our incredulous voice that Dane Sanzenbacher went undrafted and we’re beginning a letter writing campaign to the Cleveland Browns HQ up in Berea to sign his as an undrafted free agent post-haste.

OH! Almost forgot: Lawrence Wilson went in the second round of the UFL draft to Las Vegas.

Dorian Bell: When it rains, it pours. I don’t even know what else to say.

Speaking of suspended linebackers: Oregon is having their issues, too. Alonso should be fine, though. I’ve heard SEC schools have a thing for Oregon criminals.

BEE ONE GEE! BEE ONE GEE! The Big Ten is the premier player development conference going to the NFL.

Oh and Herbie leaves Twitter — he did know he could block people, right? Someone showed him that feature?

I’ve had a few days to mull on the topic (read: I was lazy in getting this post up over the weekend and then fell into a food coma on Easter Sunday) so these may seem disjointed, but maybe being a few days removed from the Spring Game will do good.

Let’s just jump right into the bullets:

• Some might not like the comparison but I thought Braxton Miller looked like a young Donovan McNabb. Very similar shape and build, with quick feet and good at changing directions. He also looks strong and compact. I think he’s going to do just fine behind center in Ohio State’s offense. He’ll be the starter by the Miami game.
• If I had to rank the QB’s base on their performance, I would say Miller, Taylor Graham, Kenny Guiton, the waterboy, Brutus, the last guy to dot the I and Joe Bauserman. Sorry, Joe. I love the guy, he has put in his time to be a Buckeye but I just can’t see him leading this team to a 4-1 or even 3-2 start.

  Which means, of course, he’ll be the starter, no questions asked.

• T. Y. Williams has to be the most intriguing new guy to me. His size has me dreaming of a 2011 version of another tall, lanky wide receiver. (I feel the Holy Spirit every time I watch that clip.)
• On defense, there weren’t a lot of surprises to me. It’s nice to know that once again Ohio State will be fielding another defensive line. That line is going to be fine, anchored by John Simon in the middle and Nathan Williams on the edge. And of course we all love Hungry Hungry Hankins. They are going to be called upon early and often to keep us in games.
• Linebackers? Yeah, we got them. We are Linebacker U, after all. While I was impressed with Etienne Sabino,
  who seemed to be around the ball everywhere the ball was, Jordan Whiting really surprised me. He seemed to have a second and third gear and was flying everywhere. Very silver-bullety.

I’ll bring the poll back for this post, with Braxton currently in the lead. What did you see in the Spring Game that has you anxious? Excited?

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(if you’re reading this in a feed reader, you’ll have to come to the site to participate in the poll)

Before everyone goes completely nuts on me because of the title of this particular post please wait until I finish. I love Coach Tressel. I KNOW he is the best coach I will ever see at OSU and he is an even better man. I honestly believe he just made a mistake and one that he didn’t do to win more games. I don’t know what he was thinking when he didn’t forward the emails to the correct people. I won’t pretend to understand how hard it must be to do what he does for a living. I will say this though: I am a father of 2 children and I stress to them every chance I get that if they do something wrong own up to it and admit what they did. Never try to cover it up with a lie and then compound it with more lies. There is nothing that makes me more angry then when I know someone is telling me a blatant lie.

So now as more and more comes out about what actually has happened over the last year it is clear to even the biggest supporter of Coach Tressel that he has lied over and over and over. Even if some of the accusations are circumstantial at best i.e. the FBI special agent he called a few days after hearing the FBI had info on OSU players hardware. Any person with 2 ounces of common sense will put together that Tressel wasn’t calling to get a friend a job. Even if you believe Tressel was acting in the players best interest or even if you believe he was just keeping the lawyers emails confidential. It is clearer now he was doing none of that. He was telling everyone except the people he should have been telling. If he had done so the players would have missed maybe 4 games and had a party with AJ Greene and Marcel Darius and all of the UNC Tarheels team during the pre-season. Instead he made the decision to not do his job. He then made the decision to lie about it in September when he signed the no compliance issues paper. Then he made us all feel he was shocked and disappointed in his players decisions to sell the gear when it became public. Then he led us to believe he was doing the moral thing by making the 5 guys promise to come back next year in order to play in the Sugar Bowl. All the while he tucked his own morals to bed and forgot to wake them up for nearly a year. At the news conference and subsequent pressers since he had me convinced he was who I thought he was: an upstanding honest guy who would do anything for his players and his school. To the point where I actually believed he might be taking one for the team and protecting his bosses and the University.

Now comes today’s news that the NCAA is looking to hammer Tressel and maybe not so much OSU as a whole. Will OSU suffer because of what he did? Of course. Will OSU suffer because of the 5 guys who broke the rules? Of course they will. It would have been so much easier if they would have gone Pro and Tressel would have resigned after the Sugar Bowl. Instead though they stuck around to go through the rough times together with the school and team they love. I commend them for doing this. It is refreshing to know Tressel is no Pete Carroll.

Having said that though there is nothing left for Tressel to do at OSU. He has won everything he possibly could except for the B1G COY award which angers me to no end :). He has his legacy that will always be there for OSU fans and eventually for CFB fans over time. I don’t think anyone thinks Tressel would have coached past 2014 when his contract ends as he has all but stated that was his last season he wanted to coach. So now the NCAA wants Tressel’s head on a platter for every other coach in the NCAA to see. They want to make an example out of him even though they know it wont stop this stuff from happening at every school like it currently is. Jim Tressel is not bigger than OSU and he won’t be able to save face now that the evidence keeps piling up pointing to the multitude of lies on top of lies.

So I say now is the time for him to retire and try and save his reputation and save OSU from harsher penalties then are deserved in this case just so the NCAA can hold up his head as an example to all other coaches. If it were my children who made up this many lies and covered up what they knowingly did wrong I would punish them more harshly then if they just came clean when they got caught to begin with.

This is a sad day for me as I can no longer justify Jim Tressel being the coach of OSU. I want to crawl into my bed and cry myself to sleep tonight as I have done the unthinkable: called for my football hero to step away from the game for the betterment of everyone.

I hope some of you can convince me I am wrong. I just need a really good valid point of view from someone to talk me off this ledge. I have been trying to come up with a reason why he shouldn’t be fired or resign and can’t come up with any that doesn’t sound biased and stupid.

Now you may respond to my thread with the vitriol that normally accompanies my posts.

We’ve got some late Spring Game observations, but in the meantime, a little poll: Who impressed you the most with their performance in the Spring Game?

If you don’t see your choice listed, feel free to add them in the comments.

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