Yahoo, Tattoos, and tOSU (1-year bowl ban, 82 scholly limit for 3 years)

[Bill Lucas]

JT says himself in the press conference that he had to get advice on how to proceed and that the was a FEDERAL DRUG TRAFFICKING CASE.

Show me where he got "advice" between April and December when everything came to light. Please. Then I'll agree with your point.

I'v never been disappointed to BE a Buckeye but I've been disappointed WITH Buckeyes and I AM disappointed with one now.

 

[Cicero]

If Tress did the right thing then we wouldn't be going through this mess right now. He is in the wrong and the school tried to give him a suspension and a fine, but I don't think that will be enough. Tress has given off an aura of being completely ethical and follows the rules for years, and now he has broken them and we will deal with them accordingly. But he was in the wrong.
Funny how if this was another team, like say Wisky, and we'd be all over their coach, but it's Tress and people are blindly defending him. Like holding informatoin about your players isn't wrong when they were doing things that would most definitely get the school sanctioned

If this were a perfect world I might agree. But there is a strong possibility that coach Tressel could have been breaking federal law for reporting the confidential information in a federal drug trafficking case. If it were scUM or Whiskey or any other school I would say the same thing. He got caught in a legal and ethical gray area. It happens. Sometimes people are forced to make hard choices, that is the nature of life.

He did the right thing in a tough situation and took responsibility for it. He took a humble posture with the media and NCAA.

 

[matcar]

I read the e-mails and still think he did exactly the right thing. What in these e-mails says anything that makes this look somehow worse? Please enlighten me because you really seem to be making some leaps of logic here.

I don't know how you can read those emails without it appearing like covering tracks for players. Not sure where he was forced into confidentiality either....just a line in an email saying something is confidential (which is NOT the same as a confidentiality agreement).

 

[Cicero]

Show me where he got "advice" between April and December when everything came to light. Please. Then I'll agree with your point.

I'v never been disappointed to BE a Buckeye but I've been disappointed WITH Buckeyes and I AM disappointed with one now.

It is in the press conference transcript. Look it up.

I can't imagine being put in a similar situation. Either way he loses. He chose to protect the university and the student athletes instead of himself.

I am proud to be a fan of the Buckeyes and even prouder of their head coach.

 

[BayBuck]

I read the e-mails and still think he did exactly the right thing. What in these e-mails says anything that makes this look somehow worse? Please enlighten me because you really seem to be making some leaps of logic here.

Compliance, compliance, compliance. Always ask Compliance. Tressel messed up because he kept eligibility-affecting information to himself; he was under no obligation to this "concerned party" to maintain the confidentiality that was requested, and he was in fact obligated to share the tips regarding his players to the department. Tressel even emailed that he would look into it, and if he did so, that apparently didn't include Compliance.

I definitely stand with Tressel, but he made an error on this one, so he's got to take his medicine--and fortunately he's got bosses who stand with him too, so once the price has been paid it's back to the job of being a head football coach. And right now, Tressel isn't hiding from this, the university seems to be doing the right thing in terms of self-reporting and compliance, and eventually life will return to normal. And so forth.

 

[joefoshow]

the one thing i wish was different was the press conference. It seemed like he only had maybe an hour to prepare for it. The media here in texas is going to town on his sayings like they were George Bush quotes. But hey whatever they are just trying to forget that they had a terrible season this year.

 

[Cicero]

I don't know how you can read those emails without it appearing like covering tracks for players. Not sure where he was forced into confidentiality either....just a line in an email saying something is confidential (which is NOT the same as a confidentiality agreement).

You have made up your mind and will only see the fact of the case in a way that fits your view.

This attorney was essentially leaking this info to Tressel. You don't sign confidentiality agreements when what you are doing is possibly illegal.

He wasn't covering their tracks he was trying to make sure they were not in any danger or legal trouble. He also even mentions staying after these "knuckleheads" to make better decisions.

Again I think JT deserves the benefit of the doubt here. If you are ever put in a position to have to make such a difficult decision I hope the people that support you don't make hasty judgments based on limited facts.

 

[Cicero]

Compliance, compliance, compliance. Always ask Compliance. Tressel messed up because he kept eligibility-affecting information to himself; he was under no obligation to this "concerned party" to maintain the confidentiality that was requested, and he was in fact obligated to share the tips regarding his players to the department. Tressel even emailed that he would look into it, and if he did so, that apparently didn't include Compliance.

I definitely stand with Tressel, but he made an error on this one, so he's got to take his medicine--and fortunately he's got bosses who stand with him too, so once the price has been paid it's back to the job of being a head football coach. And right now, Tressel isn't hiding from this, the university seems to be doing the right thing in terms of self-reporting and compliance, and eventually life will return to normal. And so forth.

HOLY CHRIST. What part of FEDERAL INVESTIGATION is escaping your attention here. Of course there was a fucking obligation to keep quiet. He could possibly be committing a FUCKING FELONY if he revealed what he knew.

If you can possibly turn off the sports radio chuckleheads for a bit and actually think critically for a moment you might actually grasp the fact that Jim Tressel was put in a really bad spot and did what he thought was best for his student athletes and his football program.

 

[matcar]

You have made up your mind and will only see the fact of the case in a way that fits your view.

This attorney was essentially leaking this info to Tressel. You don't sign confidentiality agreements when what you are doing is possibly illegal.

He wasn't covering their tracks he was trying to make sure they were not in any danger or legal trouble. He also even mentions staying after these "knuckleheads" to make better decisions.

Again I think JT deserves the benefit of the doubt here. If you are ever put in a position to have to make such a difficult decision I hope the people that support you don't make hasty judgments based on limited facts.

See BayBucks post above. I couldn't disagree with you more. JT had an obligation (and even he acknowledges that now) that he didn't live up to.

 

[unionfutura]

HOLY CHRIST. What part of FEDERAL INVESTIGATION is escaping your attention here. Of course there was a [censored]ing obligation to keep quiet. He could possibly be committing a [censored]ING FELONY if he revealed what he knew.

If you can possibly turn off the sports radio chuckleheads for a bit and actually think critically for a moment you might actually grasp the fact that Jim Tressel was put in a really bad spot and did what he thought was best for his student athletes and his football program.

Unless directly communicated to him by a federal officer JT was under no obligation to keep this quiet and he should have forwarded all transgressions of athletes that fall out of step to compliance bottom line. Anything else is a bad excuse sad to say.

 

[Cicero]

See BayBucks post above. I couldn't disagree with you more. JT had an obligation (and even he acknowledges that now) that he didn't live up to.

Of course he acknowledges it. The NCAA has yet to rule on it and being contrite is exactly the right thing to do. As always he is looking out for the students and the school.

 

[Buckeye86]

Unless directly communicated to him by a federal officer JT was under no obligation to keep this quiet and he should have forwarded all transgressions of athletes that fall out of step to compliance bottom line. Anything else is a bad excuse sad to say.

At the same time, federal investigations are not something to laugh at. He most certainly could have (and should have) handled the situation better, but when the words "federal government" came up in the first email, it is at least understandable that Tressel was conflicted about how to proceed.

 

[Cicero]

Unless directly communicated to him by a federal officer JT was under no obligation to keep this quiet and he should have forwarded all transgressions of athletes that fall out of step to compliance bottom line. Anything else is a bad excuse sad to say.

Wrong. This sort of thing could fall under quite a few different federal statutes. This isn't CSI or Law and Order.

 

[BayBuck]

HOLY CHRIST. What part of FEDERAL INVESTIGATION is escaping your attention here. Of course there was a [censored]ing obligation to keep quiet. He could possibly be committing a [censored]ING FELONY if he revealed what he knew.

If you can possibly turn off the sports radio chuckleheads for a bit and actually think critically for a moment you might actually grasp the fact that Jim Tressel was put in a really bad spot and did what he thought was best for his student athletes and his football program.

There may be an obligation/requirement of confidentiality if it's a federal investigator who shares this kind of info as part of the investigation, but there is no such obligation for a personal email given voluntarily from some lawyer somehow involved in the case. Even if this "concerned party" was breaking a rule/law himself, Tressel should not have taken that burden upon himself as well, and WOULD NOT have been in jeopardy of committing a FELONY by sharing this info with his own legal/compliance counsel.

Hey, I agree that Tressel may have done what was right as a human being, in order to shield his players, but as a head football coach part of his responsibility to his players (all his players) is protecting their eligibility and conforming to NCAA rules by involving the Compliance people hired for just that purpose.


Edit: I stand by Tressel as staunchly as anyone, but I don't think we do him or the University a service by denying that any mistakes were made at all. This was a screw-up by a man who knew better, and hopefully it's truly a teachable moment for the master of teachable moments.

 

[unionfutura]

At the same time, federal investigations are not something to laugh at. He most certainly could have (and should have) handled the situation better, but when the words "federal government" came up in the first email, it is at least understandable that Tressel was conflicted about how to proceed.

That's why you forward it to compliance. They'll proceed with caution from there. It's in his contract that any rules that may be broken he must report the infraction to the AD and compliance no matter what. JT is not a lawyer he has no obligation to keep anything quiet unless it was his personal lawyer or he was instructed by a federal officer to do so.