Reaction to Terrelle Pryor Apology

Yesterday, Terrelle Pryor apologized in public for the first time about his undercover arrangements at Ohio St. He didn't point out any specifics, but he did specifically apologize to Jim Tressel for feeling that it was his fault the former head coach resigned from Ohio St. Admittedly, I am not an Ohio St. fan.  I always found there to be something suspicious about the Buckeyes ever since Maurice Clarett made allegations that he was getting paid and earning money from non-existent jobs set up by Tressel himself.

I also found Tressel's sweater vest to be both partly disingenuous and obnoxious. He created a persona contingent on clean, by-the-book, blue-collar work ethic. Yet, it turns out that there was nothing clean about his program, and that his pick-and-choose approach to the rules reeked more of white-collar privilege than blue-collar concession.

For the record, I am not absolutely stunned by what happened. The fact is that Tressel, is a coach at a football factory -- just like at Texas, Florida, Alabama, Florida St., Miami, Penn St., and USC. I'm sure these kind of things happen at these schools and there are ways that booster payments, illegal gifts and transactions, and even academic fraud is in one way or another swept under the rug for fear that it may bring down a program. It's just that Tressel got caught, and he had to rightly pay the price for it. It was only a matter of time before he was gone, and it was sad to see Tressel slowly relinquishing his grip on the program. He seemed very desperate when he self-imposed a five-game suspension on himself. 

I also don't blame Pryor for doing what he did. The man is a part of a team that brings in millions of dollars to Ohio St., the Big Ten, NCAA, and ABC. He is an elite athlete with an opportunity to capitalize on his talents but the NCAA has all sorts of ways to keep capitalism on its favor at the expense of its labor force. Pryor should have been more mature, should have been more considerate, and should have been more honest when he was getting paid to sign memorabilia and make public appearances. Then again, that's asking a lot of a young kid who every football weekend has hundreds of thousands of people telling him how great he is.

This may come out harsh, but Pryor was just a symptom of what was really wrong at Ohio St., and what was really wrong was Tressel. I have no doubt that Tressel was a good man, but he played by his own rules and taught some of his players the worst lesson they could learn -- that they are outside the spectrum of the rules and laws that apply to everyone else.

Thanks Terrelle for apologizing to Tressel, it took a lot of guts to do that. But you know what? I think Tressel owes you an apology for leading you down the wrong path these past three years.