BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
I watched Brian Bosworth's eyes fill with tears. I watched the great Boz humbled before a room full of fans, admirers, media and cameras.
All of us watched an admitted steroid user announced as a member of the 2015 College Football Hall of Fame here Friday. It was as fantastic as you can imagine.
"It took my breath away," the Oklahoma great said. "I started to cry."
I also watched Bosworth be blissfully unaware of the situation regarding fellow inductee Jim Tressel. Fifteen players and two coaches were inducted into the 2015 class. The former Ohio State coach was among them.
A few eyebrows were raised.
The same Jim Tressel who lied to the NCAA. The same Jim Tressel who is serving a five-year show-cause order for lying to the NCAA.
It had to be explained to the Boz, but it eventually hit him square: He had to wait through 20 years of eligibility and 10 nominations by OU. All sides admit his steroid use was a factor in the wait. Barry Switzer dismissed Bosworth after he tested positive in late 1986. He never played in college again.
His time -- as they say -- has been served. Meanwhile, Tressel is still serving his. It turns out a sitting university president convicted by the NCAA of unethical conduct can be inducted into the hall of fame, too.
The outrage goes back to Tressel being Youngstown State's president in the first place despite lying to the NCAA. The same Jim Tressel whose former program -- Ohio State -- last won a national championship when he was there in 2002.
"That's really what the College Football Hall of Fame is looking for," Bosworth said. "They want quality character. They want human beings with passion. And they want those truthful human beings ..."
For those of you too young to remember, Bosworth was one of the greatest linebackers in college history. For all his fame, the only two-time Butkus Award winner (best linebacker) in history, though, has paid a steep price.
He may have taken enough Deca-Durabolin to choke an army. A typical college kid, he once said he consumed Domino's pizza and the Three Stooges in equal doses.
But he also graduated in 3 1/2 years and was an academic All-American.
Bosworth also apologized, to his former teammates for his foolishness. Publicly. Watch this compelling video.
Sometimes the hypocrisy of college athletics defies belief. What was the rush? Could the Hall of Fame maybe have waited a year or two on Tressel during the weekend when his former team is playing for a championship? The Buckeyes are here despite him, not because of him.
Part of the issue is the hall's confusing and complicated election process. The eight-person divisional honors court that forwarded the names of the inductees was aware of Tressel's transgressions according to National Football Foundation president Steve Hatchell.
"Everybody looked at it closely without a doubt," Hatchell said. "I also think there were a lot who felt he was a heck of a coach who cared for his guys."
He told the media Tressel was nominated by Youngstown -- not Ohio State -- where the coach won four Division I-AA (now FCS) national championships.
"I don't think there were any issues at Youngstown State at all, that's for sure," Hatchell said.
Except there were. Significant ones. Tressel's star quarterback says he took $10,000 from a local booster at Youngstown. The school admitted to lack of institutional control, but the NCAA's four-year statute of limitations ran out before more serious violations could be investigated.
Tressel's name was never tied to any of it.
By part of that same logic, the coach is in the Hall of Fame. Hatchell said Tressel's entire record was considered (including Ohio State) despite the nomination coming solely from Youngstown.
Doesn't matter. That makes a Hall of Famer in charge of two programs penalized by the NCAA.
For the Hall, wins won out at an inconvenient and uncomfortable time.
"I think it's a reflection of the culture of the industry we're dealing with," said Ellen Staurowsky, sports management professor at Drexel and expert in college sports reform.
"Where there's such an enormous tolerance for contradiction, what appears to be misbehavior is really perhaps more a reflection of the cost of doing business."
On Friday, the only difference between a once-disgraced linebacker who played 30 years ago and a university president on the NCAA blotter is perception.
Bosworth made youthful mistakes. He once wore a T-shirt calling the NCAA "National Communists Against Athletes."
The NCAA's show-cause is a scarlet letter for coaches. It effectively renders them unemployable because of major NCAA violations. Tressel's show-cause order expires Dec. 20, 2016.
Tressel compromised his reputation, a school and a program at the height of his career. At age 64 when he gets out of NCAA jail, don't be surprised if Tressel coaches again. The Hall of Fame just enhanced his resume.
Will we forgive in the same way we have Bosworth?
The Tattogate violations themselves have paled in comparison to bigger scandals and the NCAA enforcement department's waning credibility. But the cover-up is always worse than the crime.
That's what damns Tressel's rep for the moment. He valued obstructing an investigation over transparency. In hindsight, a few Buckeyes may have been suspended a game or two had Tressel come correct with the NCAA.
Instead, the fallout resulted in a crushing bowl ban after an undefeated season. That's a lot to forgive.
Ohio State got lucky when Urban Meyer was available. Meanwhile, on Friday I watched Brian Bosworth's eyes fill with tears. I watched the great Boz humbled, his demons and two surgically repaired shoulders in life's rear view.
"This College Football Hall of Fame, I understand, is not just on the merits of what you do on the field," Bosworth said. "To be the face of college football and have people refer to you as '[That's who] I want my son to be like,' … I know I wouldn't have appreciated it as much as I do now."
Continue reading...
All of us watched an admitted steroid user announced as a member of the 2015 College Football Hall of Fame here Friday. It was as fantastic as you can imagine.
"It took my breath away," the Oklahoma great said. "I started to cry."
I also watched Bosworth be blissfully unaware of the situation regarding fellow inductee Jim Tressel. Fifteen players and two coaches were inducted into the 2015 class. The former Ohio State coach was among them.
A few eyebrows were raised.
The same Jim Tressel who lied to the NCAA. The same Jim Tressel who is serving a five-year show-cause order for lying to the NCAA.
It had to be explained to the Boz, but it eventually hit him square: He had to wait through 20 years of eligibility and 10 nominations by OU. All sides admit his steroid use was a factor in the wait. Barry Switzer dismissed Bosworth after he tested positive in late 1986. He never played in college again.
His time -- as they say -- has been served. Meanwhile, Tressel is still serving his. It turns out a sitting university president convicted by the NCAA of unethical conduct can be inducted into the hall of fame, too.
The outrage goes back to Tressel being Youngstown State's president in the first place despite lying to the NCAA. The same Jim Tressel whose former program -- Ohio State -- last won a national championship when he was there in 2002.
"That's really what the College Football Hall of Fame is looking for," Bosworth said. "They want quality character. They want human beings with passion. And they want those truthful human beings ..."
For those of you too young to remember, Bosworth was one of the greatest linebackers in college history. For all his fame, the only two-time Butkus Award winner (best linebacker) in history, though, has paid a steep price.
He may have taken enough Deca-Durabolin to choke an army. A typical college kid, he once said he consumed Domino's pizza and the Three Stooges in equal doses.
But he also graduated in 3 1/2 years and was an academic All-American.
Bosworth also apologized, to his former teammates for his foolishness. Publicly. Watch this compelling video.
Sometimes the hypocrisy of college athletics defies belief. What was the rush? Could the Hall of Fame maybe have waited a year or two on Tressel during the weekend when his former team is playing for a championship? The Buckeyes are here despite him, not because of him.
Part of the issue is the hall's confusing and complicated election process. The eight-person divisional honors court that forwarded the names of the inductees was aware of Tressel's transgressions according to National Football Foundation president Steve Hatchell.
"Everybody looked at it closely without a doubt," Hatchell said. "I also think there were a lot who felt he was a heck of a coach who cared for his guys."
He told the media Tressel was nominated by Youngstown -- not Ohio State -- where the coach won four Division I-AA (now FCS) national championships.
"I don't think there were any issues at Youngstown State at all, that's for sure," Hatchell said.
Except there were. Significant ones. Tressel's star quarterback says he took $10,000 from a local booster at Youngstown. The school admitted to lack of institutional control, but the NCAA's four-year statute of limitations ran out before more serious violations could be investigated.
Tressel's name was never tied to any of it.
By part of that same logic, the coach is in the Hall of Fame. Hatchell said Tressel's entire record was considered (including Ohio State) despite the nomination coming solely from Youngstown.
Doesn't matter. That makes a Hall of Famer in charge of two programs penalized by the NCAA.
For the Hall, wins won out at an inconvenient and uncomfortable time.
"I think it's a reflection of the culture of the industry we're dealing with," said Ellen Staurowsky, sports management professor at Drexel and expert in college sports reform.
"Where there's such an enormous tolerance for contradiction, what appears to be misbehavior is really perhaps more a reflection of the cost of doing business."
On Friday, the only difference between a once-disgraced linebacker who played 30 years ago and a university president on the NCAA blotter is perception.
Bosworth made youthful mistakes. He once wore a T-shirt calling the NCAA "National Communists Against Athletes."
The NCAA's show-cause is a scarlet letter for coaches. It effectively renders them unemployable because of major NCAA violations. Tressel's show-cause order expires Dec. 20, 2016.
Tressel compromised his reputation, a school and a program at the height of his career. At age 64 when he gets out of NCAA jail, don't be surprised if Tressel coaches again. The Hall of Fame just enhanced his resume.
Will we forgive in the same way we have Bosworth?
The Tattogate violations themselves have paled in comparison to bigger scandals and the NCAA enforcement department's waning credibility. But the cover-up is always worse than the crime.
That's what damns Tressel's rep for the moment. He valued obstructing an investigation over transparency. In hindsight, a few Buckeyes may have been suspended a game or two had Tressel come correct with the NCAA.
Instead, the fallout resulted in a crushing bowl ban after an undefeated season. That's a lot to forgive.
Ohio State got lucky when Urban Meyer was available. Meanwhile, on Friday I watched Brian Bosworth's eyes fill with tears. I watched the great Boz humbled, his demons and two surgically repaired shoulders in life's rear view.
"This College Football Hall of Fame, I understand, is not just on the merits of what you do on the field," Bosworth said. "To be the face of college football and have people refer to you as '[That's who] I want my son to be like,' … I know I wouldn't have appreciated it as much as I do now."
Continue reading...
