By BRUCE HOOLEY
FoxSportsOhio.com
March 9, 2011
It was a serious question amid a serious press conference about serious NCAA wrong-doing, and Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee's answer was seriously inappropriate.
Did Gee ever consider terminating head football coach Jim Tressel's contract for concealing the NCAA misdeeds of his players for an entire season and never fully admitting his knowledge of the matter until forced by the school?
"No," Gee said. "Are you kidding?"
That is what passes for accountability at Ohio State amid Tressel's six straight Big Ten championships, 9-1 record against Michigan, one national championship and eight BCS bowl appearances in 10 seasons.
It's not surprising.
It's just sad.
Tressel lied about learning in April 2010 that two of his players, later expanded to six, were in violation of NCAA rules for selling memorabilia to Edward A. Rife, a Columbus tattoo parlor owner.
That's not opinion. It's fact, admitted by OSU in the finding it issued Tuesday in announcing a hoped-for two-game suspension and $250,000 fine of Tressel.
Tressel didn't lie only once. He lied at least three times, according to OSU's own investigation of the matter.
Ohio State's report to the NCAA said Tressel signed an NCAA form on Sept. 13 indicating he had reported any knowledge of possible violations in his program.
By that time, Tressel had received and responded to four detailed and lengthy emails from a Columbus attorney offering details of Rife's criminal background and possibly paying Buckeyes players for their memorabilia.
The OSU report also said Tressel did not tell the university anything about his email correspondence with the attorney from April and June, or his knowledge of players selling memorabilia, when asked on Dec. 9 by OSU about the violations in the wake of a raid on Rife's tattoo parlor.
One week later, after OSU interviewed the six players involved in the scandal, it again interviewed Tressel and asked again whether he had been contacted previously or had prior knowledge of the violations.
Ohio State said Tressel responded that he had received a "tip about general rumors . . . that the tip had not been specific . . . (and) implied that the tip related to the social decisions/choices being made by certain student-athletes."
Tressel said he did not report the matter to anyone because the attorney reporting the players' violations to him requested "confidentiality."
Nowhere in the April 2 email, however, does the attorney ask for or even mention the word "confidentiality."
That request was not made of Tressel until the second email from the attorney, with additional details about Rife, which was sent to Tressel on April 16.
In that email, the attorney said he met with Rife in his office, and wrote, "What I tell you is confidential."
So, Jim Tressel kept secret for two entire weeks serious allegations about players on his team
