… runs the Detroit Free Press headline. But as Drew Sharp points out, at Ohio State University the football coach isn’t the only fraud.
When reporters asked university president E. Gordon Gee during that comical news conference Tuesday night whether he contemplated firing the head coach, Gee smirked that he hoped Tressel wouldn’t fire him. It was meant to be a joke, but there was nothing funny about it.
That remark told you all you need to know about the barefaced corruption and misplaced priorities of major college athletics.
A newspaper reader describes the leadership of the University of Alabama:
For the person that called about Jim Tressel running Ohio State: Who do you think runs the University of Alabama? It’s definitely not any of the presidents or trustees or board members or anyone else like that. His name is Nick Saban. He runs everything at the University of Alabama.
So true. And so seldom said. We’re supposed to weep for coaches who recruit upstanding young scholar athletes who turn out to be criminals. How could the coaches have known?
Their rap sheets?
“You can’t win big in college sports unless you’re corrupt and lawless,” Steve Rosenbloom goes on to explain.
One thing you gotta say for holy roller hypocrites like Gordon Gee and Jim Tressel: They inspire really good sports writing.