Here's part one of a 13-minute interview this morning:
He said he had no initial reaction to Tressel?s resignation.
Asked about what has gone on at OSU with all the problems, he said:
"I definitely believe it's more of a cultural problem. Young guys, myself being one of them, who come from inner cities are basically in poverty situations, places where we glorify ignorance and nonsense and just not being responsible. When we go inside universities, be it Ohio State, Penn State, Miami, USC, anywhere, I just don't think the way guys are raised, the way we?re brought up, the things we glorify, the things we prioritize are not conducive to what goes on at the university. Then when you begin to bring the dynamics of what the NCAA expects of you, what the university expects of you it just kinda doesn?t correlate. I think there has to be a more responsible system put in place to help guys succeed."
"A lot of guys come from nothing. When Coach Tressel goes out to recruit these guys from inner cities, people don't realize their family is depending on you and your athletic ability. That's the only way you can make it out because when they wake up every day, every day in their lives they don't see anybody who's going to college or graduating and had success on a scholastic level, so they don?t believe in it. People only believe in what they see, so when they come to college and they're used to having nothing then trying to live on $1,100 in Columbus, Ohio, if you want to stay in a reputable place you're going to pay $750 for rent, then you're going to pay $4 gallon for gas, that's another $100-150 per month. If you have a girlfriend and want to live a normal life, $1,100 is not enough, but in Columbus, Ohio, you're treated like a celebrity, so it's not a Terrelle Pryor problem. It?s not a Jim Tressel problem. It's just a culture not of inner city youth but a culture of the whole system."
problem with guys trading stuff?
"The problem is why don?t they keep it? Who wouldn't want to keep that stuff they earned? Why are they even in that position? The university can profit $25, 30, 40 million and put them in a position that they have to sell their memorabilia, the only thing they have of value at that point, that's the argument to me. Why are they even in that position to do that when there's enough money to go around?"
He didn't sell his stuff
?"There was no need to. I was on a different level just from playing. Everything I needed I could just go out and get through conversations and relationships I had."
different level? what's that mean?
"There's no secret regime, no secret congregation of people who sit around at Ohio State and give young guys money, who say, 'Let me give you X amount of dollars or thousands of dollars,' nothing like that. Anything that any players goes and gets is all based on him and who he meets in the community. When he goes out and meets a fan or he meets somebody, he's going to meet that person himself and create a relationship himself and do what he does. A coach has no control over what the young guys are doing, know what I'm saying?"
people are helping you because you're a star for a championship team?
"No, no, no. Absolutely not. I'm saying there is nobody there. There's nobody there at the university saying..."
What about boosters?
"No, there's no boosters. It's the community. If you come to Columbus, Ohio, the whole community, the whole city, loves Ohio State football. I'm not sure if anybody can name a booster of Ohio State. I don't know these guys. Nobody knows these guys."
He's not sure who boosters deal with. He's never seen one.
You're taken care of, you're on a different level?
"Different guys have different notoriety on the team so I can go in the community and meet somebody and they know who I am because they watch the games, so the same recognition I may have another may not have, so I'm going to be on a totally different level so I don't have to sell any memorabilia to try to get somebody to help me out to try to facilitate some need that I feel I may have. It doesn't happen."
but people did reach out to help you?
"No, I reached out to people. People didn't reach out to me. Just traveling around in the community, I say, 'Hey, I'm struggling with this. Hey I need help with this.' I do those things.
"I don't know how it goes on anywhere else, but at Ohio State there was nobody who said, 'Hey, go talk to A, B or C and they'll help you out.' That's not true. If you put those guys through a polygraph test they would tell you the same thing. There wasn't any coach or booster or any member in the realm of Ohio State who helps you get a car or things like that. That doesn't go on. It's just guys doing what they want to. People will do what they want to. It's nothing more than just young guys making mistakes.
"The things I did to take me to prison were crimes and things that people need to be taken off the street for and get help and rehabilitate and get a whole new perspective on life and everything like that, but these young guys are just making mistakes. We're talking about tattoos and just minor things, they are not that serious to get people to put all this energy into hoping something negative comes out of this whole situation.
"People respect Jim Tressel because he's a man. He's a man's man, you know what I mean? The guy has integrity. He has class. I look at Jim Tressel every day and just Google his name and see articles come up with reputable people sticking their necks out for him. He's a good man who got caught up in a bad situation. You can?t be a fraud for 30 years. It's impossible, you know what I'm saying? People could smell a fraud within the first few months. You're going to be exposed. But for 30 years that man has been respected by the people who are very respectable throughout the country. It's not right for that man to get done like that."
More to come...
PART 2
what about NYT story in 2003?
"That was something I did. That was me lying and manipulating a professor in order to get them to help me. It wasn't anything that anybody did for me. It was me being young and ignorant. I can admit it now because I'm a little more experienced with life. I have a family, I am responsible. I see life in a different life. It was me lying to a professor to try to get preferential treatment, trying to play the system against itself."
DP: if you wanted a car could you get one as a freshman?
"If I went out and did it myself. If I went out and went to a car lot and created my own relationships. This is nothing the institution has done. I said things in the past that weren't true because I was trying to cause trouble. If I was in this situation with Jim Tressel five years ago, I would have been jumping up and down. I'd have been so elated this happened to him, but being more responsible, going to prison, being in that whole environment. Go talk to Plaxico Burress. He'll tell you his perspective on life has changed because once you're down to a core of a man with nothing but your thoughts and the love that you get from your family, your whole perspective changes. I don't feel the same way."
DP: Part of problem is people of Cbus love the team too much and don't care about the rules? They want to get close, they want to be your friend, but they're also hurting the program in the mean time.
"We could sit here and do tit for tat and break this down to a trivial thing that the people of Columbus are doing wrong, but you can't stop them?
I was at Outback Steakhouse the other day and there was a lady who came out with the most normal look on her face and she asked, 'Are you Maurice Clarett?' and I said, 'Yeah,' and this lady got so happy. How can you steal her joy? She doesn't understand the rules. The NCAA rules are not popping up in her head."
DP: But if she buys you a meal when you're a freshman or if somebody loves you and says, 'Here's a car for you to drive', they love you, but you could get in trouble. You could pay the price. That happens.
"People don't just offer up cars. People ask for cars and then they see what they can work out. If you love a woman, you give them gifts, you give them things to stay around you. This is not athletics problems. This is human nature. You give people things to keep them around you, to make them happy, to facilitate their emotional needs and stuff like that. That is what fans do. Fans want to keep you around. They've been watching the team since they were kids. Their uncles took them to games. Their fathers took them to games. This is just the community. There are Buckeye coffee shops, Buckeye stores, Buckeye memorabilia. That is Columbus, Ohio, you know what I'm saying? It's not just some guy saying, 'We're going to give this guy a car.' Nobody says that. Thse guys say, 'I don't have a ride.' So then someone says, 'Well for me to facilitate this guy getting a car is nothing.' That's how things take place. It?s not that somebody hooks you up and says, 'Hey, can you facilitate this need?' or, 'I see you have a need, I'm about to give you somebody to put that in place.' That doesn't happen."
DP: But you can ask for it and get it and that's against NCAA regulations
"Let me ask you this: Is it that wrong for a guy to get transportation from A to B? Is he pulling guns on people? Is he riding around with guns in his car? Is he molesting kids? Is he raping people? No."
DP: Morally it's not wrong, but I don't make the rules of college sports. The NCAA views this as wrong
"Absolutely, but I ask you, can we sit down and can we talk to the NCAA with people who have been effected both positively and negatively, can we sit down and assess what's going on?"
DP: Where is your national championship ring?
"It's at my mother's house. There is not one piece of memorabilia that I don't have. Just to set the record straight with that Sports Illustrated article, I have no idea where that Dudley's place is at. They said I went down there to get a tattoo but I have no idea where Dudley's place is at."
DP: Do you consider Coach Tressel a cheater?
"No, absolutely not. He cares about people. Does he get caught up in the political realm of things? Absolutely. But while I have this time and he is off I want to spend as much time around him to gain a better understanding on how he came to be where he is and how he helped people and be an extension of that. Coach Tressel is not a cheater at all."
