The End Of An Era

This past Memorial Day weekend people went about their business as usual. There were cookouts, the pools were filling up and preparing to open, families in town, and students anticipating the last few days of school before "freedom" for the summer.

In Columbus, Ohio the close of the weekend had a different feeling. Head Coach of The Ohio State University football team Jim Tressel officially resigned on Monday. The events of the past year had finally put Coach Tressel and the university in a corner they could not escape.

People around Columbus had mixed emotions. Some angry that the coach of their beloved team would put their program at jeopardy like this. Some saddened by the loss of a coach who had come off to many as a great man. Some happy because him resigning, in the long run, really would be what was best for the university and program after everything that had come out.

The final straw seemed to be the report that the Sports Illustrated article written by George Dohrmann would be released late Monday night or early Tuesday morning with full details about numerous NCAA rules violations dating all the way back into the 1980's and also covering Tressel's time at Youngstown State. After reading the article, what stood out most to me, was that the majority of things mentioned, people had already known about, especially here in Columbus, but it was overlooked. People even knew of his run ins at Youngstown State, the suspensions of Maurice Clarrett and Troy Smith were well documented, all of this had happened before so it should not surprise anyone, including the NCAA.

The NCAA has a keen ability to turn the cheek and look the other way, especially when it is in the best interest of the NCAA. Let's start with this situation for example. The Ohio State players and coaches involved in this most recent tattoo incident were still allowed to play and participate in the Sugar Bowl game against Arkansas. There is only one reason for this in my eyes and that is money. Without the Ohio State star players in that game against Arkansas the game just simply doesn't sell well. The ratings on TV would have dropped and it would not have had the following that it had. Now let us take a look at the Cam Newton situation. Why is this relevant you ask? It is because Auburn was heading into the SEC Championship game, to play for a chance at winning a BCS National Title. It is also another incident where the NCAA "turns the cheek". Cam Newton was the most important piece on that Auburn team, this is why he won the Heisman Trophy because of how great a player he is, and how much he meant to his team. But even after it was found that his father, who by Cam's own words he has a great relationship with, was found guilty of pursuing money in exchange for his son playing ball, Cam was only suspended for ONE day. The reason is, had Cam not played in the SEC Championship game Auburn would have lost. The TCU Horned Frogs would have played the Oregon Ducks, instead of Auburn playing Oregon, and that would have meant money lost for the NCAA. There would have been significantly less start attraction without Auburn in that game with no Heisman winner playing in the title game, and you would have had a non BCS school playing for the BCS title. So even though his father, who by all indications still has a great deal of influence over Cam, and who for schooling purposes Cam is still a dependant of, was found guilty of participating in a pay to play scheme, Cam was suspended for only a single day, for no other reason in my eyes than it is what was best for the NCAA.

This however does not excuse Tressel's actions or make them more acceptable. Again these actions date all the way back into the 80's including the 2002 Ohio State team that won a National Title. At the same time to be naive enough to believe no one of a higher stature knew anything about these actions would be silly. And maybe, just maybe there should be an outside investigation of a certain four letter association, because it seems Tressel and Ohio State are not the only parties who wait until they are backed into a corner, to do the right thing.

Richard Rodawalt

AB3 Sports

NBA Finals

Last night the Miami Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls to punch their ticket to the NBA finals. In this series you were able to see several different things that were unable to see during the regular season or even in seasons past. Although they are the focal point the key to this series was not the "Big 3" of Miami, but it was Udonis Haslem, and Mike Miller. Both of whom spent the majority of the season not in the rotation or injured in the case of Haslem. Yet after the Bulls won convincingly in Chicago in game 1, Coach Spoelstra elected to increase Haslem and Miller's minutes dramatically. This was key because the main factor in the blowout in game 1 was rebounding and toughness, and Mike Miller being one of the best rebounding guards in the NBA and Haslem being one of the toughest players in the NBA helped provide a more even playing field that said "we are not going to be pushed around". There is 1 other thing that happened in this series though that had not been seen in years past. That is the emergence of LeBron James. One could say how could a former 2 time MVP and arguably the best player in the game today emerge? It's simple, he performed, even in the Boston series, like he had never performed before in the fourth quarter and late in games. For the first time in his career he had the "killer instinct" to close out games and opponents. He also didn't just do it on the offensive end of the floor, he closed out games on the defensive end of the floor by switching in the fourth quarter of every game to guard current MVP Derrick Rose. Running the risk of making everyone in Cleveland cringe, I must say that it finally "clicked" for LeBron James. Now Miami is on to play a Dallas team in the finals, a DEEP Dallas team at that with a ton of veteran leadership on their sideline and Dirk Nowitzki playing great basketball right now, and will have the majority of fan support outside of Florida in their corner. With that being said Miami has finally come together as the team Pat Riley visioned when he put it all together, and two things are certain. First Miami is going to be a heavy favorite going into the series with LeBron being as hungry as he is for a title, and secondly with all of the dislike for the Heat, and people rooting against them because of all of their shenanigans through out the past 11 months, Dallas will once again be the "home of America's team".


Richard Rodawalt
AB3 Sports