YOUNGSTOWN BOYS

[AuburnBuckeye]

I love watching how pumped JT gets after the touchdown that puts the bucks up 31-24

 

[kippy1040]

All of this stuff is just simply disturbing to me, and its why I choose as a TOSU fan to simply focus on what happens on the field here. Players play then they leave, and for the most part I don't care about their NFL careers unless they come play for the Browns.

With that mindset, its as simple as this. Without MoC, this football program is 45 years without a National Championship. Take away his great runs in 2002. Take away the pass against scUM that he basically called for himself that set up the winning touchdown, and focus on this. If somebody ever comes up to you and asks you what is THE single most important play that has happened in an Ohio State football game in the past 45 years and YOU don't say his strip of Sean Taylor in the Fiesta Bowl, then you need to go look in the mirror and have the dumbest-fuck wannabe Buckeye fan in the world stare in your face.

Peace

You took the words right out of my mouth in this post. It was sad to see how all of this played out and a lot of things were brought to light, that I didn't know about. And that is saying a lot because of how many years I lived in the Y-town area. The only thing I really remember was the day Tressel was named the head coach of TOSU. I knew from that moment on, Ohio State would excel in every phase of football that I could ever imagine. For nine glorious years, Jim Tressel was great for Ohio State Football. And it all started with Marurice Clarett. His role in the 2002 year and the Fiesta Bowl game with Miami was very memorable. Without him we are still waiting for a National Championship.

 

[lvbuckeye]

All of this stuff is just simply disturbing to me, and its why I choose as a TOSU fan to simply focus on what happens on the field here. Players play then they leave, and for the most part I don't care about their NFL careers unless they come play for the Browns.

With that mindset, its as simple as this. Without MoC, this football program is 45 years without a National Championship. Take away his great runs in 2002. Take away the pass against scUM that he basically called for himself that set up the winning touchdown, and focus on this. If somebody ever comes up to you and asks you what is THE single most important play that has happened in an Ohio State football game in the past 45 years and YOU don't say his strip of Sean Taylor in the Fiesta Bowl, then you need to go look in the mirror and have the dumbest-fuck wannabe Buckeye fan in the world stare in your face.

Peace

that is THE best football play i've ever seen.
40 times mean dick. running down Sean Taylor from behind and taking the ball from him was MONUMENTAL.
the pick was a 14 point swing. the strip was a 10 point swing back the other way.

that play.
that game.
that season.
dem feels.

section 24, row 45, seat 5. i'll never forget it as long as i live.
we could win it all for the next 35 years straight and NOTHING will feel better than 1/3/03.
(well, except for beating Blew to get there. Fuck _*ch*g*n!)

 

[matt_thatsme]

I don't buy into the whole ESPN is out to get us theory. Yes, some of their personalities purposely provoke the fanbase by making outrageous comments. Unfortunately, that stuff drives ratings and every sports network does it. My issue with this piece is that it failed to address the media's role in portraying MoC as a thug and undeserving punk. I remember the media coverage in 2002-05. There was some really, really harsh things said about MoC. No "journalist" was portraying MoC as a good kid who just lost his way. They were all racing to their computers to report the next "see what MoC did now." The one and done article was particularly unnecessarily inflammatory.

I understand that the 30 for 30 pieces are independent; however, ai am confident that ESPN has a say in what it airs. At the least, it guides the creator's vision with the reality that if it paints ESPN too negatively, it won't see the light of day. It isn't ESPN's fault altogether. All media was to blame for not putting out the whole picture earlier. MoC has for the most part claimed responsibility for all that happened 10ish years ago. It is time the media does the same. This piece should also be instructive to the OSU fanbase: don't buy everything that is reported wholesale.

 

[Steve19]

I think that it is incredibly naive to believe that the ESPiN script doesn't set out to diminish the B1G, in order to optimize profits for the network. It is not personal, I agree, for the most of the talking heads (May still smarting over Pitt's destrructionnnnnn, Herbie resentful that we won't recognize him as a former great and insider).

But the biased reporting against Ohio State cannot be denied. It is an objective fact. If TSUN was still a powerhouse, we'd see it against them as well. It apperars to be a consistent strategy to diminish, with the goal of beating the competitive B1G network.

 

[CookyPuss]

Really feels similar to what happened to Pryor.

I couldn't help but wonder how much the Mo C situation had an impact on how Tress handled the Pryor situation. I've always suspected Tress was far more involved (for better or worse) than was made public. Mo said something like he thought Tress was doing his best to protect Pryor. Of course, I remember hearing rumors (before the NCAA stuff came down) that Mo was out of control with taking freebies and staff was trying to get him under control - source was a friend of a friend who worked for one of the women's sports teams at tOSU at the time (don't know how much truth there was to it). Anyways, maybe Tress was trying to make sure as much as in his control that if the Tat 5 thing ever went where it did, he would be the one to fall on the sword this time and not the players (although he couldn't do anything for TP after he exited - remember he was still on the team at that point). Just my random thoughts as I watched this.

Really liked the piece. There is always more to the story and I thought this filled in some things and told a good story of redemption.

 

[kujirakira]

I think that it is incredibly naive to believe that the ESPiN script doesn't set out to diminish the B1G, in order to optimize profits for the network. It is not personal, I agree, for the most of the talking heads (May still smarting over Pitt's destrructionnnnnn, Herbie resentful that we won't recognize him as a former great and insider).

But the biased reporting against Ohio State cannot be denied. It is an objective fact. If TSUN was still a powerhouse, we'd see it against them as well. It apperars to be a consistent strategy to diminish, with the goal of beating the competitive B1G network.

Even saw it with respect to Sparty. Last week of the regular season, ESPiN had a hit piece about how both Ohio State and Michigan State were bad teams.

 

[kujirakira]

I couldn't help but wonder how much the Mo C situation had an impact on how Tress handled the Pryor situation. I've always suspected Tress was far more involved (for better or worse) than was made public. Mo said something like he thought Tress was doing his best to protect Pryor. Of course, I remember hearing rumors (before the NCAA stuff came down) that Mo was out of control with taking freebies and staff was trying to get him under control - source was a friend of a friend who worked for one of the women's sports teams at tOSU at the time (don't know how much truth there was to it). Anyways, maybe Tress was trying to make sure as much as in his control that if the Tat 5 thing ever went where it did, he would be the one to fall on the sword this time and not the players (although he couldn't do anything for TP after he exited - remember he was still on the team at that point). Just my random thoughts as I watched this.

Really liked the piece. There is always more to the story and I thought this filled in some things and told a good story of redemption.

I'm hesitant to compare those two.
'Tatgate' wasn't really anything. I'm sorry, but I refuse to get worked up about players selling/bartering their own private property at fair market value. It's only an issue to NCAA Nazis... and even then, it's rather minor when you consider the bs going on in the SEC. ie ostensibly amateur athletes conducting business transactions with NFL agents and getting 1 game suspensions. See Clinton-Dixon or that Georgia player.
It also strikes me that Tressel more or less wanted the players involved in that one take the fall. He tried to play stupid and make it appear as an isolated incident when it would seem that quite a few players had done it. When that narrative fell through, he took the fall himself. But only after the reveal.
I was deployed in 2002 and didn't get to watch a single game and thus what I know about MoC is all after-the-fact hearsay. But it seems to me his situation really was an isolated incident. Clarett had issues before coming to Ohio State and got involved in some shady stuff.
It seems to me Pryor et. al. didn't have those issues -- if anything, their "problems" were the kind of attitude stuff that go hand-in-hand with being a young star athlete worshiped by millions of people.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Agreed. FWIW, there are many folks who felt like cutting Mo loose was a bad decision....not for the school, but for a kid who needed someone or something to care for him and lookout for him. My father loved JT, but was VERY disappointed in how Mo was cut loose. We talked for years about how he wished that they had kept him on the team, even if he didn't play, just to keep him away from the [Mark May] surrounding him. There are no "right" answers in this but I suspect a lot of people wish they had handled things differently.

I disagree strongly with this. Cutting MoC loose was 100% the right decision. He was a cancer who was throwing around unfounded accusations that struck at the very heart of the integrity of the athletic department and the university itself. Ohio State University had no obligation to act as his shrink.

I'm glad that he turned his life around, but at the time, Geiger was absolutely right to get him as far away from Ohio State as possible.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

But the biased reporting against Ohio State cannot be denied. It is an objective fact. If TSUN was still a powerhouse, we'd see it against them as well. It apperars to be a consistent strategy to diminish, with the goal of beating the competitive B1G network.

Absolutely. Look at how overboard they went with DickRod's extra practices, which before anyone gets too self-righteous was the exact same thing that Woody got tacked for in the 70s. You would have thought that DickRod was the second coming of Barry Switzer up there.

 

[CentralMOBuck]

2002 was about the time I really got into Ohio State football. It still pains me to see how MoC's football career turned out, but I'm glad he got his life turned around and is headed in the right direction.

 

[matcar]

I disagree strongly with this. Cutting MoC loose was 100% the right decision. He was a cancer who was throwing around unfounded accusations that struck at the very heart of the integrity of the athletic department and the university itself. Ohio State University had no obligation to act as his shrink.

I'm glad that he turned his life around, but at the time, Geiger was absolutely right to get him as far away from Ohio State as possible.

And I disagree with your opinion. There are ways to try to keep a kid on a different path without him playing. Trust me, there is.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

And I disagree with your opinion. There are ways to try to keep a kid on a different path without him playing. Trust me, there is.

Why was it the university's responsibility to keep this kid on any kind of path whatsoever, particularly when he was making the wildest accusations about the university's integrity? He not only threw away every opportunity that was given to him by Ohio State but tried to drag the entire university down with him. He deserved nothing except the boot.

Out of curiosity, does this responsibility for the university to act as guardian, shrink, mother and social worker extend to an anonymous Joe Student who shows up on campus doesn't have the maturity and discipline to keep his shit together in the classroom or just for five star athletes?

 

[MaxBuck]

Why was it the university's responsibility to keep this kid on any kind of path whatsoever, particularly when he was making the wildest accusations about the university's integrity? He not only threw away every opportunity that was given to him by Ohio State but tried to drag the entire university down with him. He deserved nothing except the boot.

Out of curiosity, does this responsibility for the university to act as guardian, shrink, mother and social worker extend to an anonymous Joe Student who shows up on campus doesn't have the maturity and discipline to keep his [Mark May] together in the classroom or just for five star athletes?

Given how much revenue Clarett drove to tOSU, I think it's absurd to expect the same treatment for him as for anonymous Joe Student. And I'm not criticizing the way Clarett was treated by Geiger and the athletic department here, just pointing out that you're not talking apples to apples.

 

[TooTall]

Given how much revenue Clarett drove to tOSU, I think it's absurd to expect the same treatment for him as for anonymous Joe Student. And I'm not criticizing the way Clarett was treated by Geiger and the athletic department here, just pointing out that you're not talking apples to apples.

So Clarett driving revenue for Ohio State gives him a free pass to say whatever the fuck he wants to say about the institution he attends? I'm not sure that's how it works, Max.