Tressel Out (per Columbus Dispatch)

Well, if you're unhip to the tattoo world you might not realize that a "sleeve" could cost $1,000. I sure didn't til I read this story.

 

I can just see compliance guys all over the country getting ready to inspect and document player tatoos.

 

And I'm guessing there are a lot of Buckeye fans wishing Terrelle Pryor had signed with Michigan.

 

I thought it was excellent work. Dohrmann did what everybody should do, all the time. He did what Judith Miller should have done once upon a time. And that's not just play stenographer of the company line. All of these lowlifes were there for the questioning. Someone just had to have the initiative (and, also importantly, the time and the support of your publication) to do it. Half of campus probably knew this shit goes on. Any time a bunch of university bureaucrats are swearing that everything that happened was in the official paper trail, let this be a lesson that, well, everything that happened is probably not in the paper trail.

Dohrmann is the most important sports journalist working right now.

 

I don't disagree with any of that.

My point is, why resign (or force him out) now? None of this is really news other than the raffle thing and that was 25 years ago.

 

I think because this indicates that it clearly wasn't an isolated six players going off the reservation, but rather something that was going on for years under his nose. A coach is supposed to know what's going on in his program. There are two possibilities, and either are fireable offenses: (1) This was going on and Tressel knew about it; (2) This was going on and he didn't.

 

Agreed, DW.

I think what the article shows by going into detail about the 28 or so football players who have gotten free tattoos, marijuana or whatever since 2002 is this: Tressel admits he knew about at least the latest six violations; therefore it's possible (likely?) that he knew some of the others.

And -- for not just one year, but close to a decade -- he never reported any of the violations.

A Chicago Tribune story by Teddy Greenstein says Tressel tipped off his fellow coaches at a Big 10 meeting two weeks ago:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/breaking/cbsports-tressel-timing-20110530,0,4429032.story

 

And rather than being just six active players, there are 15 total implicated. As well as a few from each of the last two seasons.

 

Man, Dohrmann is brilliant. What great work.

 

They only hired Fainaru-Wada, right? Lance Williams works for some reporting non-profit in California, I think.

 

As someone else noted, they hired Mark FW (not Lance Williams), and also hired other top investigative reporters like TJ Quinn.

But I think the answer to your question lies in this basic fact: At its core, ESPN is a television/entertainment operation that's trying to coordinate a vast variety of platforms. SI is a news operation that's basically operating a single platform.

Probably a broader discussion for a different thread, but when all your focus is one basic product--your weekly magazine--you're going to have a different result than the guys who are spreading the work around a whole lot of products.