MaxBuck;1931856; said:
The tone of the articles written by Dohrmann, Hooley et al would have been much less gleeful and smug had Tressel been a coach who provided tasty quotes and full access to the media. There would have been far less enthusiasm in throwing words out like "cheater," "hypocrite," and "self-righteous."
The wording would have been different, but the digging for more bombshells would still have been widespread and frantic.
Rich Rodriguez, for all his faults, was pretty friendly and agreeable with the media and they absolutely destroyed him for incredibly tame violations.
Journalism doesn't consider kindness or character when ratings are within reach.
Tressel might well have been treated more as a victim and less like a perpetrator.
So you're telling me that a coach with a history of these issues (at YSU, Clarett, Smith) now gets caught on the record hiding violations like these, with a superstar as the biggest perpetrator, and doing so repeatedly at a local hook-up separate from a series of questionable vehicle hook-ups (which predated the march press conference)...
...would be portrayed as a victim?
There was an enormous amount of blood in the water. No amount of politeness or openness would have stemmed that onslaught of sharks.
In short, the tone of the articles was nearly as responsible for the ensuing cluster as was Tressel's malfeasance. IMO only, of course.
No it wasn't. The nature of the violations was the driving force behind this. Pryor didn't just get a discount on some big ticket items, he was illegally selling items, doing so with incredibly unsavory fellas, and then had the whole thing covered up by the program (yes I know what Gene is trying to claim).
