Day 151

Blurb: It's the first day in the post Jim Tressel era.

Backstory: It's the story people in Columbus will be talking about for years to come: Jim Tressel resigned as head football coach at Ohio State. Before Monday he had been suspended for five games for next season, along with five players who were all involved in this situation called "tattogate" where they traded/sold memorabilia for tattoos. Then just before nine yesterday morning the newspaper in Columbus broke the story he was resigning.
This had a lot of people asking why now? It turns out the upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated as an in depth investigation into Tressel's entire coaching career, and it alleges he's known about many NCAA violations and that more than 20 players had participated in actions similar to "tattoogate." I read the article this morning and it really made me feel like I had egg on my face because I'm a Tressel fan. I like the demure exterior and the way he supposedly ran a tight ship. His image seemed good for the program, plus he won a lot of games.
People in Columbus and around the country are falling on two sides of the issue: either they think it was totally wrong, no gray area or they feel that he shouldn't have resigned because every other university in the country does it (just so you're aware only Stanford and Penn State have never had NCAA violations). Right now I'm in the middle because I see both points. Yes, what he did was wrong and in a way he did fool the fan base into thinking he was a man above cheating. On the other hand everyone else does it, and let's not even talk about the allegations against former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.
Whatever way you're leaning it's a sad day for Ohio State. It's a fact that Jim Tressel and his family did a lot for the University and the Columbus community. They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and helped better the lives of hundreds of people directly. Plus, his image made people believe that there were still people out there who had old fashioned values of hard work, team work and love.