http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111404/spf_17180214.shtml
As someone pointed out in another thread, Mike Freeman appears to be employed by a paper in Jacksonville FL - Florida Times-Union (for now). Still writing about the Buckeyes though:
Last modified Sun., November 14, 2004 - 12:34 AM
Originally created Sunday, November 14, 2004
Buckeyes AD presides over absurd scene
By MIKE FREEMAN, Times-Union columnist
It must be nice to be a human non-stick surface, where denial is crusted onto the bones, the genetic material soaked in Teflon. It must be convenient to be a man of such stupendous arrogance, to feel that you can never admit wrongdoing. This is what it is to be in Geiger World.
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Andy Geiger is the athletic director at The Ohio State University, overseeing one of the most historic football programs in history, sitting atop one scandal after another, scandals that would make any past wrongdoings at Florida or Florida State seem like minutia. There have been so many arrests, cash handouts and alleged grade fixing scams under the watch of Geiger, considered by some to be the best AD in America, the NCAA infractions people should open a branch office in Columbus.
That is why the latest Maurice Clarett saga -- Which is this, by the way? Clarett Episode One? Five? Six? I forget -- is such a national and important story. If there is any program, or man, that symbolizes why the college system has gone so completely screwy, it is the Buckeyes and Geiger.
Free cars, easy cash, easy grades, it's all there, in every major college program, from conference to conference, from sea to shining sea. Big-time college sport has fallen and it can't get up.
We don't need a CNN newsflash to tell us this. But what Ohio State has done is traverse from the absurd into the universe of the obscene. They now lead the country in running backs produced and scandals amassed. When asked what he blamed the most for current problems at the school, Murray Sperber, a former Indiana professor and current author who is a critic of big-time college sports, said in an e-mail interview: "I blame Buckeye Fever, the culture in Columbus and the state of Ohio that says, 'Them Bucks should win no matter what it takes.' I blame the Ohio media for feeding this culture, and the officials at OSU for not speaking loudly against it. They pay lip service to winning with a clean program but they never say that they would rather lose to Michigan than to the NCAA. They would lose their jobs if they did."
Sperber added, "Geiger is taking a fair amount of heat right now but, yes, it's hard to believe that he never heard anything about the behavior of the alumni and boosters. Finally, Columbus is not that large a place and everyone is focused in on the football program and especially its stars like Clarett, and so there must have been rumors about the freebies."
We should not be surprised by Clarett's claims because the shenanigans at Ohio State have been ongoing for years. In 1998, former linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer said that to avoid being ruled ineligible, he took summer classes in golf, music and AIDS awareness. (Can't you see one of the questions on his midterm: "What is a par 5?") A teammate of Katzenmoyer's told Sports Illustrated he had "some grades changed." Two years later, wide receiver Reggie Germany had a grade point average of 0.00. Geiger blamed those problems on former coach John Cooper.
No, if there is one common theme arising from the stinkin' pile of corruption, it is that Geiger, the garbage truck driver, has been the man in charge. Not Cooper. Not coach Jim Tressel. But Geiger.
The latest allegations are worse. Players now say they were taking classes called Officiating Basketball and Officiating Tennis. Tressel actually taught a class on football.
That is just the beginning. If you believe Ron Zook did not run a tight ship at Florida, then the following list of arrests, compiled by the Associated Press, make Zook look like one of the nuns from my Catholic high school:
* In October, an all-nude strip club accused running back Lydell Ross of trying to pass fake currency. He was suspended for one game. In May, two players were accused of robbery. One received probation while the other was sentenced to three years in prison.
* In November of 2003, two players were arrested for disorderly conduct. One woman reported her jaw was broken. That October, backup Louis Irizarry, previously charged with robbery, was charged and later found guilty of first-degree assault.
* In October of 2002, linebacker Fred Pagac Jr. was charged with persistent disorderly conduct. That August, defensive lineman Quinn Pitcock pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct. That same month, wide receiver Chris Vance was suspended for the team opener for an undisclosed violation of team policy. In April, linebacker Marco Cooper was charged with felony drug abuse and carrying a concealed weapon. He pleaded guilty.
In all, there have been 14 player arrests since Tressel became coach in 2001. Those are statistics that would make even Barry Switzer blush.
This past June the Buckeye hoops coach, Jim O'Brien, was fired after admitting he gave a $6,000 payout to a recruit. There were professors that changed the grades of basketball players to keep them eligible. This week O'Brien sued the university for wrongful termination.
What has been Geiger's response to all of this? What problems, he says? We're a model program, he snorts. He is see-no-evil Geiger. Andy the Blind. Andy the Innocent.
Clarett is a duplicitous, confused punk. He carries more baggage than a C-130. He is also extremely intelligent ... and I believe him. I wrote the first Clarett scandal story over a year ago while working at the New York Times. It detailed the claims of a former teaching assistant that alleged a number of academic improprieties, many of them involving Clarett. At the time, Clarett denied her claims but now, he is saying they are true. Geiger ripped her as mentally unstable. He attempted to intimidate me from running the story.
Later, after its publication, Geiger and other Ohio State officials met with a group of Times editors to complain further. Geiger claimed that I was never in Columbus, even though I spent almost two weeks there, and met one of the school's PR people on campus (The phrase thou doth protest too much applies here to Geiger).
I also saw firsthand one of the sweet $30,000 SUVs Clarett now claims were illegally given to him, parked in the driveway of Clarett's condo (I think it was a nice shade of red).
Clarett is now the one in Geiger's crosshairs. One NFL general manager said this week that during Clarett's legal battles to gain early entrance into the NFL, Geiger phoned his and other teams, and completely trashed the back. Geiger does not just shoot the messengers, he nukes them.
Geiger has survived the scandals unscathed because of an at times pusillanimous Ohio press. The ba-jillions of dollars he has raked into the athletic program also act as a sort of force field, repelling opponents. One estimate says the athletic department generated a staggering $87 million in revenue in 2002-2003 alone, tops in the nation.
Not even Geiger can huff and puff his way out of many more player arrests and alleged NCAA violations. In the Clarett case, Geiger believes that everyone -- Clarett, the tutor, the other players that have corroborated Clarett's story -- are all ax-grinding liars.
Isn't it possible? Just possible?
That they are telling the truth.
And Ohio State isn't?
mike.freemanjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4377
What a load of horeshit! I notice Freeman at no time mentions his role in the "scandal" at OSU. Just like he's some innocent bystander writing about the events at OSU (which he created/invented). Cockroach.
