AZ_
Hall-of-Famer
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- Dec 6, 2007
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“I definitely believe it’s more of a cultural problem. Young guys, myself being one of them, who come from inner cities are basically in poverty situations, places where we glorify ignorance and nonsense and just not being responsible. When we go inside universities, be it Ohio State, Penn State, Miami, USC, anywhere, I just don’t think the way guys are raised, the way we’re brought up, the things we glorify, the things we prioritize are not conducive to what goes on at the university."
"Then when you begin to bring the dynamics of what the NCAA expects of you, what the university expects of you it just kinda doesn’t correlate. I think there has to be a more responsible system put in place to help guys succeed.”
“A lot of guys come from nothing. When Coach Tressel goes out to recruit these guys from inner cities, people don’t realize their family is depending on you and your athletic ability. That’s the only way you can make it out because when they wake up every day, every day in their lives they don’t see anybody who’s going to college or graduating and had success on a scholastic level, so they don’t believe in it. People only believe in what they see, so when they come to college and they’re used to having nothing then trying to live on $1,100 in Columbus, Ohio, if you want to stay in a reputable place you’re going to pay $750 for rent, then you’re going to pay $4 gallon for gas, that’s another $100-150 per month. If you have a girlfriend and want to live a normal life, $1,100 is not enough, but in Columbus, Ohio, you’re treated like a celebrity, so it’s not a Terrelle Pryor problem. It’s not a Jim Tressel problem. It’s just a culture not of inner city youth but a culture of the whole system.”
problem with guys trading stuff?
“The problem is why don’t they keep it? Who wouldn’t want to keep that stuff they earned? Why are they even in that position? The university can profit $25, 30, 40 million and put them in a position that they have to sell their memorabilia, the only thing they have of value at that point, that’s the argument to me. Why are they even in that position to do that when there’s enough money to go around?”
He didn’t sell his stuff
“There was no need to. I was on a different level just from playing. Everything I needed I could just go out and get through conversations and relationships I had.”
different level? what's that mean?
“There’s no secret regime, no secret congregation of people who sit around at Ohio State and give young guys money, who say, ‘Let me give you X amount of dollars or thousands of dollars,’ nothing like that. Anything that any players goes and gets is all based on him and who he meets in the community. When he goes out and meets a fan or he meets somebody, he’s going to meet that person himself and create a relationship himself and do what he does. A coach has no control over what the young guys are doing, know what I’m saying?”
people are helping you because you’re a star for a championship team?
“No, no, no. Absolutely not. I’m saying there is nobody there. There’s nobody there at the university saying…"
What about boosters?
“No, there’s no boosters. It’s the community. If you come to Columbus, Ohio, the whole community, the whole city, loves Ohio State football. I’m not sure if anybody can name a booster of Ohio State. I don’t know these guys. Nobody knows these guys.”
He's not sure who boosters deal with. He's never seen one.
You’re taken care of, you’re on a different level?
“Different guys have different notoriety on the team so I can go in the community and meet somebody and they know who I am because they watch the games, so the same recognition I may have another may not have, so I'm going to be on a totally different level so I don’t have to sell any memorabilia to try to get somebody to help me out to try to facilitate some need that I feel I may have. It doesn’t happen.”
but people did reach out to help you?
“No, I reached out to people. People didn’t reach out to me. Just traveling around in the community, I say, ‘Hey, I’m struggling with this. Hey I need help with this.’ I do those things."
"I don’t know how it goes on anywhere else, but at Ohio State there was nobody who said, ‘Hey, go talk to A, B or C and they’ll help you out.’ That’s not true. If you put those guys through a polygraph test they would tell you the same thing. There wasn’t any coach or booster or any member in the realm of Ohio State who helps you get a car or things like that. That doesn’t go on. It’s just guys doing what they want to. People will do what they want to. It’s nothing more than just young guys making mistakes."
"The things I did to take me to prison were crimes and things that people need to be taken off the street for and get help and rehabilitate and get a whole new perspective on life and everything like that, but these young guys are just making mistakes. We’re talking about tattoos and just minor things, they are not that serious to get people to put all this energy into hoping something negative comes out of this whole situation."
"People respect Jim Tressel because he’s a man. He’s a man’s man, you know what I mean? The guy has integrity. He has class. I look at Jim Tressel every day and just Google his name and see articles come up with reputable people sticking their necks out for him. He’s a good man who got caught up in a bad situation. You can’t be a fraud for 30 years. It’s impossible, you know what I’m saying? People could smell a fraud within the first few months. You’re going to be exposed. But for 30 years that man has been respected by the people who are very respectable throughout the country. It’s not right for that man to get done like that.”