This sounds like someone trying to convince themselves into looking forward to this season. 2012 under Tressel will be much better than this year.
1. A lot of the items sold/traded for tats had multiple players' autographs, and many had Tressel's autograph. My question is, how do the players go about getting their hands on all of that stuff? Not the jerseys, programs, etc., but rather, the AUTOGRAPHED versions? Once that stuff is signed, it has value...so what is the chain of custody? Or, did they simply go to Tressel and say, "hey coach, would you sign a few, I need some new ink?" I just can't imagine a scenario where AT LEAST officials in the athletic department, and perhaps Tressel himself, were not just aware of, but facilitating the release of that signed memorabilia to the athletes.
2. If the reports in that story are true, how can you conclude that Tressel is anything but a total fraud as a human being? Switzer was a liar and cheater...but unlike Tressel, he didn't pretend to be some sort of choir boy or spirital savior of the inner city youth. The story with Ray Isaac, his former QB at Youngstown St., is beyond comical in its hyprocrisy. I nearly choked after reading Isaac's comments about how Tressel taught him his "most important life lessons." Yes, he clearly did. Here's an excerpt:
In 1995, Monus was convicted in federal court of 109 felony counts of bank, wire and mail fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and interstate transportation of stolen goods related to his looting of Phar-Mor's corporate coffers. Three years later Monus was on trial for jury tampering in the government's first prosecution of him, which had ended in a hung jury. During this trial (at which Monus was found not guilty) Monus and Isaac, who had pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe a juror on Monus's behalf, disclosed their financial dealings while Isaac was a student and alleged that Tressel had set these in motion with that first phone call.
A reporter covering the jury-tampering trial called the school and reported Monus's and Isaac's testimony, prompting an internal investigation. That probe revealed that Isaac's car was the worst-kept secret on campus. According to NCAA documents, all of Isaac's teammates who were interviewed "except one" knew about the car or had suspicions about it. Even people outside the football family knew. Pauline Saternow, then the school's compliance officer, had such misgivings about the car that she recused herself from the investigation committee because, according to Cochran, she did not feel she could be objective. Everyone raised an eyebrow -- except Tressel.
Today Isaac runs High Impact Football, a quarterback-coaching business in Cary, N.C. He is quick to call Tressel his "surrogate dad." The two were once so close that Tressel invited Isaac to a football camp, even after Isaac had been indicted for jury tampering. They text-messaged psalms back and forth, according to Isaac, who says the coach taught him his most important life lessons. "He never let me take the path of least resistance," Isaac says.
