Oh8ch said:
Great post Clarity - you have made us all feel better. However, since this thread is well on its way to a recrod for posts/minute on BP I just have to play Devil's advocate and try to stir it up again.
One argument is that you have the disenfranchised 'out to get' OSU players making up stories while the solid 'program' guys are defending an innocent program.
The counter argument is that the guys who have left OSU aren't part of the 'club' and have nothing to lose by telling the truth. While the players who have stuck with - and benefit from - the program are part of a vast conspiracy and don't want to break ranks.
I'm not saying that is the case - just trying to encourage fear and panic.
Carry on.
Oh hey, I'm not going to blindly claim there's no merit to his new suggestions. I have no idea, there may well be. If there is, it's sort of surprising that the NCAA could dig around back when it was all fresh, and come away without anything. I mean, I think we all know that the bigger a secret gets, the less secure it is -- but maybe our team is just an incredibly disciplined bunch. And they'd have to be, because it would have to be all of them that knew about it and gained from it in some way. Then all the assistants and support personnel would know. The groupie girls would know, the non-players they hang out with, etc. etc.
Again, honestly, I'm not saying it isn't possible. I willingly acknowledge the ugly truth that is behind the "don't ask, don't tell" NCAA approach to "inappopriate" goings on in every program. I would never come out and say that I guarantee Tressel has never done anything the NCAA would call wrong. In fact, I'd be much more willing to come out and say that he probably has. I just have no reason to believe it was anything more than something like suspending a player who has tested positive for marijuana on a piss test, rather than launch a full-blown public investigation into where he got it, from whom, how he paid, who else smoked, etc., and report all his findings to the NCAA and Dispatch.
Shit happens, and like I said, the most I feel I can ask of Tressel and Geiger is that they act in good faith, and with the best interest of OSU in mind. Some will read that as me condoning 'dirt', and I'm not. I was simply 18-20 once, as we all were, and I remember some less than perfect decisions being made during that period. Gather a group of folks from that age group together, tell them they're stars and heroes, expose them to a culture where people want to meet their needs -- and yeah, some dirt is going to happen.
Anyway, I'm not trying to sell anyone on this. Just typing out my own process as I come down from this. Believe me, my first reaction involved a discussion about lead pipes and a butane lighter. My second was prepaid bitterness towards the shit we're going to take from this. And somewhere several reactions later, I'm left with; "Maurice who? So what."
Meh. I guess I just don't feel like I have any more reason today, to believe that we are so massively corrupt as suggested. I've seen the story, and am left feeling a little surprised that they even ran with it.
