I hate to say I told ya so, but I told ya so. Here's what I posted about Tressel back on March 9th:
Bahtendah Wisdom - Pay Attention!
Ohio State has handed down a two game suspension and a $250,000 fine to coach Jim Tressel. It's a joke. Tressel is supended for games against lightweights Akron and Toledo and trust me, the $250k won't hurt him at all. This is a guy that makes an estimated $3.5 Mill per year. Yahoo! Sports first reported that Tressel was aware of the memorabilia scheme that his players pulled, exchanging swag for tattoos for months and didn't notify the NCAA.
This is a preemptive strike by Ohio State, hoping to slap Tressel's wrist before the NCAA comes in and lowers the boom. News flash: This shit happens all the time at major college sports programs. The violations are so rampant and widespread that the NCAA probably catches about 10% of the crap goin' on out there. I had a friend who played basketball at Boston College. He told me that there were envelopes of cash in every player's locker after each game. The amount you received was proportional to how you performed in that day's game. Score a lot in a big win and you get a little more. But everyone on the team had a postgame envelope whether you even got off the bench or not. Cash money. Untraceable.
Here's what I think: Where there's smoke, there' fire. I'm betting that if Tressel is put under more intense scrutiny, lots of other dirty little secrets will be uncovered. First of all, he's under incredible pressure to win. Not his fault, but he took the job and cashes the checks. And pressure makes people make stupid decisions. Secondly, and this is just a gut feeling, but Jimmy Boy just looks a little too smarmy and self-righteous for my liking. Mr. Prim-And-Proper-Dresser has some skeletons in the closet and the bone collectors are coming.
Wake up people, it's time to pay these top D1 athletes in revenue-producing programs over the table, because all the shit that's under the table is startin' to stink to high heaven. Until you do, the scandals will just keep comin'. Bang. Pay atention!
