Most Ohio State players content to avoid temptations of French Quarter
The Associated Press
Friday, January 4, 2008
NEW ORLEANS: Just a few blocks from Bourbon Street, where partying was perfected, the Ohio State Buckeyes are getting primed for their national championship date with LSU by staying in their hotel and staying out of trouble.
It's almost like they're in a monastery. No, wait - that happened almost 40 years ago.
So that his players were walled off from all the distractions - or, as some would put it, fun - of going to a bowl game, coach Woody Hayes used to make his Buckeyes spend the nights before their Rose Bowl games in a monastery.
"Have you ever been to one?" laughed Rex Kern, the Buckeyes quarterback in 1968 when Hayes first conceived of putting his linebackers in with the monks. "It's really peaceful, which is obviously why Woody wanted us there. I remember walking among the olive trees, all the shrubbery and the landscaping - it was great for meditation."
cont'd...