By Jeff Seemann
FOXSportsOhio.com
March 8th, 2011
The day after. Today is the day that everything sinks in and forges opinions that become permanent.
Ninety-nine percent of the population will not be swayed on the opinion of Jim Tressel this afternoon. Whatever you think of him this very minute is likely to be the same opinion of how you will view him when he re-claims his sideline in Miami on September 17th.
Speaking as a lifelong Ohio State fan, I can guarantee you that the vast majority of my scarlet-clad brethren will shake their head in disappointment, take a deep breath, and proudly put on their favorite Ohio State piece of clothing today.
The opinion we will maintain of Tressel has nothing to do with a missing sense of outrage or a blind eye to winning. It has everything to do with the way we have been treated by the rest of college athletics.
Even when the Buckeyes win, you kick us. There is nothing that this team can do without you attacking us for it.
After a decade of that abuse, it has a tendency to bond us together and defend our own against anything you wish to throw at us. What you say about one of us, you say about all of us.
We are Spartacus.
We will stand together shoulder-to-shoulder in every instance, including this latest turmoil created by our field commander.
We've been through it before, and we're preparing to do it again today.
When we won the National Championship in 2003, you told us that the refs cheated. The Buckeyes controlled the game that you told us we would lose by four touchdowns, and you still haven't gotten over that. So we banded together against your attacks.
When Maurice Clarett was on the team, he was a pain in the butt. During his freshman season, he committed no violations. When he violated the rules at Ohio State, Tressel suspended him immediately and he never wore the uniform again. It wasn't for another three years before he committed the crimes that sent him to prison. Our coach handled the Clarett situation perfectly, but yet you still bring his name up when you want to belittle us. So we band together against your insults.
When Troy Smith accepted 500 dollars from a booster, he was suspended for two games by Tressel, including his first chance to start in a bowl game as a starter. Again, coach did the right thing. But you launched your comments towards us again, so we banded together.
Yes, we're well aware that we were once 0-9 in bowl games against the SEC. You wouldn't shut up about that one. So again, we stood strong with one another, and when we finally took down a top-10 team from the SEC in a bowl game this year, the celebration was fierce. We were shaking a huge monkey off our back, and we were going to enjoy doing it.
And even though we won that game, you tried to take it away from us because of the tattoo story. Even though the NCAA declared all five players as eligible, you demanded they sit out. We broke the rules, but we followed the punishment given us, and it wasn't good enough. So again we locked arms and defended our honor.
So when this news broke and we were all finished skipping heartbeats, we begin our defense of Jim Tressel.
When you wonder why we can defend a coach that violated major rules of the NCAA, the answer is simple.
We know that the coach did the wrong thing, and we are not forgiving him his trespasses. But you forced us to defend him even when he did the right thing.
Right or wrong, he's our coach. He's the reason your team doesn't win championships, and we understand your hatred of him. But you will not make us join in your call for his public flogging.
By now, we know what your motives are.
So yes, we plan to defend him again today.
