• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

OL T.J. Downing (official thread)

CPD

Ohio State football: Former Buckeye T.J. Downing arrested

by Doug Lesmerises Monday November 10, 2008, 5:36 PM



medium_Downing.jpg
Marvin Fong/ The Plain DealerFormer Ohio State offensive lineman T.J. Downing
Former Ohio State offensive lineman T.J. Downing faces four felony counts after a traffic stop Sunday night when police said they found drugs and a gun in his car.
Sgt. Larry Balla of the Grandview Heights Police Department said that Downing was pulled over in that western suburb of Columbus for driving without a front license plate and with tinted windows. Balla said the officer who stopped Downing then smelled marijuana and after a search, found a marijuana pipe on the front seat and prescription drugs, marijuana, cocaine and a loaded Smith & Wesson .40 caliber pistol in Downing's trunk.

Balla said the charges include drug trafficking because some of the drugs appeared to be packaged for resale.
Cont...
 
Upvote 0
Canton

Ex-OSU, GlenOak player Downing faces four felony charges
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
REPOSITORY STAFF REPORT

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS Former GlenOak High School and Ohio State football player T.J. Downing faces four felony charges after an arrest in the Columbus area.

Downing, 24, was arrested Sunday at W. 5th Avenue and Cambridge Boulevard and charged with aggravated trafficking of drugs, two counts of drug possession and improper handling of firearms. He is scheduled for arraignment this morning at the Franklin County Courthouse and remained in jail.

According to Sgt. Larry Balla of the Grandview Heights Division of Police, Downing's car was stopped at 10:12 p.m. because it had dark, tinted windows and no front license plate.

The report states that officers smelled marijuana from the interior of the vehicle and a search uncovered drug paraphernalia as well as quantities of marijuana, cocaine, tablets of a Vicodin-type medication and a loaded firearm.
Cont...
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch
Former OSU football player arrested on drug, gun charges

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 3:00 AM
By Bruce Cadwallader


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A former Ohio State football player is expected in court today after his arrest on drug-trafficking charges and a weapons violation in Grandview Heights. Timothy "T.J." Downing, 24, of Sunbury, a Buckeyes offensive lineman from 2003 to 2007, was arrested about 10 p.m. Sunday at W. Fifth Avenue and Cambridge Boulevard, Grandview Heights Police Sgt. Larry Balla said yesterday.
He said police stopped Downing's Chrysler 300 because it had no front license plate and the windows were tinted too dark. The officer smelled marijuana, which was probable cause to search the vehicle, Balla said.
After the search, detectives charged Downing with possession of cocaine and OxyContin, aggravated trafficking in OxyContin and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle. Police found a loaded 40-caliber pistol wrapped in a pair of jeans in the car, court records show.
"As a concealed-weapon permit carrier, he's allowed to have it in plain view or on his person, but not wrapped in clothing in his trunk," Balla said.
Downing is scheduled to be in Franklin County Municipal Court for his initial appearance today. He was being held in the county jail without bail last night.
Police said they found 53 OxyContin pills and less than 5 grams of cocaine in the car, both felony-level crimes.
Cont...
 
Upvote 0
Boy, as I look back on this thread he got his degree and was doing quite well for himself. It makes you wonder what the "personal reasons" were when he left the Cardinals but even after that he seemed to be doing quite well for himself. This is truly a shame because it seemed like everything was going well for him. I guess not.
 
Upvote 0
JimsSweaterVest;1322202; said:
I won't link to them, but ESPN have already put this on their college football main page, and as you can imagine, the "Blame Tressel"/anti-OSU circlejerk has begun...
All ESPN did was place a link to a very fact-based AP story.

Hard to see how any rational person could find fault with ESPN here. Downing created this problem, no one else is to blame -- especially not Jim Tressel.
 
Upvote 0
MaxBuck;1322330; said:
All ESPN did was place a link to a very fact-based AP story.

Hard to see how any rational person could find fault with ESPN here. Downing created this problem, no one else is to blame -- especially not Jim Tressel.

That's what he wants you to think. :wink:
 
Upvote 0
MaxBuck;1322330; said:
All ESPN did was place a link to a very fact-based AP story.

Hard to see how any rational person could find fault with ESPN here. Downing created this problem, no one else is to blame -- especially not Jim Tressel.

I agree to an extent, but why is this newsworthy on the most prominent college football website in the world? Downing wasn't a known player outside of Buckeye circles. Maybe hardcore fans of other Big Ten teams knew him, maybe.

It's one thing to link a story to a once-prominent college football player, if he didn't make a bigger name for himself in the pros (i.e. Eric Crouch), or if it in some way relates back to college football, but Downing wasn't even good enough to make the pros and this story certainly has nothing to do with college football. I don't think ESPN does this with every major program, and therein lies the problem.
 
Upvote 0
JohnnyCockfight;1322353; said:
I agree to an extent, but why is this newsworthy on the most prominent college football website in the world? Downing wasn't a known player outside of Buckeye circles. Maybe hardcore fans of other Big Ten teams knew him, maybe.

It's one thing to link a story to a once-prominent college football player, if he didn't make a bigger name for himself in the pros (i.e. Eric Crouch), or if it in some way relates back to college football, but Downing wasn't even good enough to make the pros and this story certainly has nothing to do with college football. I don't think ESPN does this with every major program, and therein lies the problem.
Ronnie Wilson's travails have certainly been well-documented. So have Teddy Dupay's.

Buckeye fans who seriously believe ESPN treats Ohio State differently from schools such as Florida, USC, UCLA, and Texas are delusional. Big programs mean big news; it's as simple as that. Oh, except that everyone likes to try to find feet of clay on the apparently virtuous; that is why Jim Tressel and Billy Graham will always get more media scrutiny than, say, Mike Leach (who is just plain weird) and Al Sharpton.
 
Upvote 0
MaxBuck;1322383; said:
Ronnie Wilson's travails have certainly been well-documented. So have Teddy Dupay's.

Buckeye fans who seriously believe ESPN treats Ohio State differently from schools such as Florida, USC, UCLA, and Texas are delusional. Big programs mean big news; it's as simple as that. Oh, except that everyone likes to try to find feet of clay on the apparently virtuous; that is why Jim Tressel and Billy Graham will always get more media scrutiny than, say, Mike Leach (who is just plain weird) and Al Sharpton.

There is no doubt that Ohio State isn't the only school singled out, but, again, ESPN does not treat Ohio State the same as some of the other major programs you list above. And I don't think the comparisons you have made above are comparable.

Ronnie Wilson currently is a college football player (or was a college football player when any of his misfortunes were reported). Makes sense how that's newsworthy on college football news website.

Teddy Dupay is more prominently well known as a former college basketball player than Downing is as a football player. He will forever be tied to college basketball because he was accused of gambling on his own games, and the articles on Dupay typically mention the fact that Florida kicked him off the team.

Both of those guys were known for their fuck-ups while college athletes.

I mean, am I crazy here, or is there a reason to state the following in the ESPN article on Downing: "Downing lettered three years for the Buckeyes, from 2004 through the 2006 season that ended with a lopsided loss to Florida in the national championship game." Seems like that's an unnecessary jab at Ohio State's football team to me (why not just stop the sentence before the bolded part?).

Edit: To clarify, I would have no problem if an article on Robert Reynolds pops up on ESPN the next time he beats his wife or girlfriend, because he assaulted someone on the field while a Buckeye, and was allowed to remain on the team. Signs of his criminal behavior can be traced back to his college playing days, in an event that is well known. Someone like that to me is fair game.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Canton
Downing news disappoints Tressel
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
BY TODD PORTER
[email protected]

COLUMBUS A year ago, T.J. Downing was trying to make the NFL.

On Sunday, Downing was arrested on four felony charges, including trafficking in drugs, two counts of drug possession and improper handling of a firearm.

That news disappointed Buckeye football Head Coach Jim Tressel.

"Those things hurt," Tressel said.

The coach has not spoken with Downing since his arrest. Walt Downing, the GlenOak High School graduate's father, was traveling on business but said he spoke with his son Tuesday by phone.

"He sounded real confident that his name would be cleared," Walt Downing said. "He said everything was under control, and it was a misunderstanding."

Downing was a media darling at Ohio State and a good quote for reporters covering the team. He was what writers refer to as a go-to guy for stories.

After Ohio State, Downing went undrafted and was signed by Arizona in 2007. He was released by the Cardinals and went to work near Columbus.
Cont...
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top