[Buckskin86]

Tom Archdeacon: Coleman, Gentry turn dark cloud into silver lining
By Tom Archdeacon

Staff Writer

Sunday, January 06, 2008

NEW ORLEANS ? The best thing I've seen here in New Orleans didn't come from down on Bourbon Street ? where Ohio State and Louisiana State fans are throwing themselves full force into this end-of-the-season football bacchanalia.

Nor has it come from anywhere else in the French Quarter, and likely it won't come Monday night when the Bucks and Tigers square off in the Superdome to decide the champion of college football.

The scene that's moved me the most here happened Saturday during OSU's Media Day.

Off in the wings ? far beyond the media scrums that engulfed the Superdome podiums where OSU marquee figures such as linebacker James Laurinaitis, quarterback Todd Boeckman and head coach Jim Tressel held court ? safety Kurt Coleman leaned back in his chair, his right hand resting on the arm of the wheelchair of paralyzed teammate Tyson Gentry, who sat next to him.

Ignored by everyone else, the two huddled with a couple of other OSU lesser-knowns and talked and laughed and seemed to enjoy their closeness.

This was that old dark cloud/silver lining theory put being to flesh-and-blood practice. Or, as Gentry would later say, "You can find good in anything if you want to. Things happen that you don't want, but we showed you can make a positive out of a negative."

And the very first time these two shared a closeness, it turned out to be devastatingly negative.

Tom Archdeacon: Coleman, Gentry turn dark cloud into silver lining