Pryor Hasn't Grown Up, but Goodell Wants Him to Grow Up

It is no break for Terrelle Pryor, a chance for the troubled NFL prospect until he is officially picked by an NFL franchise to finally be punished, maybe even disciplined for such poor judgment in his college days. While his potential seems to be a misgiving thus far -- he's not built to pose as an NFL quarterback but a possible bust on the professional level.

If we can pinpoint a precise action taken upon NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, it is clearly his best interest to discipline, issuing an unrelenting punishment. The most distinguished player formerly at the Ohio State University won't be eligible to begin his pro career, but could appeal the five-game suspension levied against him by the league if he is chosen in Monday's supplemental draft, a preference that embarks on a quandary.

In question right now is whether Pryor chooses to appeal the suspension and mature as a wiser athlete in dealing with strong character and judgment. But when he was finally interrogated by the NCAA and it was declared that he violated the rules following the Buckeyes investigation into the team's memorabilia-for-cash scandal, Pryor had quickly bailed on Ohio State.

Given his background as a quarterback for the Buckeyes, he lacks maturity, he has poor judgment and he is self-serving for abandoning the institution that elevated his stardom. Over hyped by a long shot, he doesn't even have the intangibles to dazzle as a top quarterback. The past year has gone from bad to worse at Ohio State.

That's because Pryor stained the university, left behind a toxic wasteland and could have largely cost the school in tatters. So, no doubt, in the wake of the Ohio State hysteria, which incredibly landed the tainted school on probation and cost Jim Tressel his coaching job, Pryor is liable for the hypocrisy and fraud that hovers permanently over a university that seems dismantled.

He ran from his troubles at Ohio State. He quit on his teammates and the coaching staff. He hightailed the program, clearly knowing that he'd be ineligible to begin the season at Ohio State, where he was a polished star in the Big Ten. Pryor leaves for the NFL, where he'll translate quarterback deficiencies on Sundays, after a bizarre departure of the wicked scandal that is tarnishing Ohio State's football program.

If only he could have gotten away with his sins, a scrupulous scheme of selling memorabilia for free tattoos and cash would have been a success. It's too bad he couldn't. He never was trying to feed his family, he was being greedy. He never was trying to break the rules, he was aiming to beat the system and he failed all so miserably.

Outside of the dramatic suspension, Pryor really doesn't seem like a devious suspect or demon of numerous crimes but a man who just lacks common sense. It requires growth, however, to avoid a slew of infractions as every NFL franchise should be leery on picking Pryor to call the snaps and hurl downfield passes on Sundays, not yet ready to advance in the NFL landscape.

Because he played for the Ohio State University, he absorbs much attention. It's the brand name, not the player. It's the history, not the player. It's the tradition, not the player. When a player can engineer a mediocre team and turn around a lowly program to qualify for an elite bowl game, he normally earns much consideration, although he never really proved to be an elite quarterback.

The stunning development sends a bold statement when Goodell wasn't hesitant to suspend the infamous quarterback by the name of Pryor, believed to be the first ever player penalized before a team can pick him in the supplemental draft. The daily charade continues, and if Pryor is selected, he will be permitted to complete training camp with his new team but will be forced to serve a suspension without pay.

His punishment, he said in a statement, had reached a surprising point and apparently he took accountability and cited Pryor's offense as undermining the "integrity of the eligibility rules for the NFL draft." The reason for an uncanny suspension towards Pryor, who is actually immature and lacks character, is that his persona worries Goodell, the one commissioner best known for instituting his personal conduct policy to punish players with misdeeds.

It sounds simple enough, a tactic that gives the commissioner a chance to collude with the NCAA and limit access to the league. The thing about it is, Goodell had a purpose for his pre-punishment regarding Pryor, angry with the puerile quarterback after hiring agent Drew Rosenhaus to represent him while attending Ohio State and being incompliant with investigators.

Whenever a fallen prospect enters the league with legal troubles next time, Goodell clearly thinks Pryor's suspension is the epitome of ramifications expected if a college athlete is tempted to accept money or even any other kind of improper benefits. Among other things, Pryor is not ready for the NFL and probably won't ever be a top-notch quarterback in the league.

It's an insult to tell another man to grow up, but maybe Pryor can finally grow up.

In Bad Travesty, Ohio State, NCAA Not Harsh Enough on Jim Tressel

It's not enough for Ohio State to be America's laughingstock. As in any scandal, one of the paramount football programs in the nation was blinded and the mystery engendered a hideous disturbance, a national disturbance rather in Columbus, dealing with criticism for contemptible infractions that weren't harsh enough in punishing the man in the middle of the widespread travesty to stain Ohio State's reputation.

Most of all, with a phony facial expression in a press conference Tuesday to address that several of his players had received impermissible benefits months before allegations came to light, Jim Tressel admittedly was aware of the incident and had been informed last April. In the immediate aftermath of the revelations in regards of accusations, he absurdly lied and deceived the university for months, refusing to come clean.

I'm still not certain whether to feel sympathy for Tressel or slap him silly after he wrongly stood as a hoax and kept a secret, assuming the scummy plights would hereafter vanish and erase the public anticlimax that surfaced in the early winter when the NCAA suspended five Ohio State players, including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, for the first five games of the 2011 season for auctioning memorabilia for tattoos. It is well established that Tressel, in his lack of knowledge with his lame excuses, mistakenly believes we are stupid, trying to clean his image before it tarnishes.

Come to think of it, he already has sabotaged his legacy and image to some degree. He needed to be honest and precise in the beginning, but instead he made matters worse. It's almost laughable in a way that the Buckeyes are suddenly known as the Blackeyes, aka Tressel's culprits. What's next?? The Buckeyes will be broadcasted on America's Most Wanted, simply when the program was recognized as one of the most dignified universities in the nation, hijacking the airwaves on the Big Ten Network, a conference that really isn't worthy of its own television network??

So now he's living a lie to escape from the stunning damage, perpetrated to change the way people regard Tressel, once revered for leading the Buckeyes to seven Big Ten titles and the 2002 BCS national championship. But surely the achievements seem as if the Buckeyes were tainted an asterisk, when nearly it feels so convenient to lampoon Ohio State for nearly every incident with Tressel's top star players each season, a frequent pattern that brainwash non-believers to disparage a nationally respected program. When it all came out, when he arrived to a press conference embarrassed and saddened, he said he was "scared" of putting an endless federal drug trafficking case accompanied to the tattoo parlor.

Lame excuse. Sorry, I'm not buying it.

"It was obviously tremendously concerning," Tressel said. "Quite honestly, I was scared."

Maybe had he spoke on the allegations much sooner, he would have enhanced his credibility by telling the truth instead of lying. Rather amazingly, he wanted his to seriously believe that he was an immaculate coach who follows the rules without rebellion or breaking NCAA rules, but he never apologized for evidently violating the rules and not following the protocol.

In a sense that he demands superiority that enables an overbearing and careless demeanor, he truly believes he can escape the harsh reality of sanctions with selfishness as if he's above the NCAA rulers. Eight months later, he's accused of letting down his university, his bosses and NCAA investigators for never telling them that he was aware of two players accepting improper benefits from the owner of a tattoo parlor in Columbus, Ohio.

The latest scandal might have tarnished the program, purging traces of indelible moments over the years at Ohio State, a school that has celebrated with much joy in the past as the symbol of Big Ten football, but currently, it's a program in trouble when the truth finally was revealed. In a strange way, of course, none of this bothers Tressel and, if anything, he says he has always been his own critic.

"I don't think less of myself at this moment," Tressel said.

Consider it a case of disingenuousness, a word heard commonly in college sports these days. From what it seems, we can never assume that a university is clean in the age of sleazes and when players or coaches make poor judgment, seeking improper benefits to enrich the program or even their own lives in general. At risk of sounding like a fraud, on the fringe of a harsher sanction if the NCAA decides to drop the hammer on Ohio State in the upcoming weeks, Tressel simply thought he could remove from the heinous crimes.

Bombarded by questions in the conference, a publicity scene where Tressel was uneasy and too tense to stand before reporters, he never discussed the e-mails and he never told the bleak athletic director Gene Smith or the school's compliance office about e-mails he retrieved from an attorney in April 2010, which were evidence that Buckeyes players had been accepting improper benefits. And for the purposes of this argument, when the issue is whether he was penalized harshly or softly, Tressel mostly was given a slap on the wrist after Ohio State suspended him for the first two games and fined him $250,000.

That's it?? That was soft, not harsh enough.

It appears Tressel is allowed to return from his infamous suspension much too soon, where he'll be back for conference play when competition is steep and the emotions rise publicly within a conference for teams that are in contention against elite programs from a rather overrated conference. It's precisely not fair for him to only miss cupcake games against Akron and Toledo, two home games the Buckeyes will rout, no doubt.

For many years, Ohio State has represented excellent athleticism, but it's not the first time Tressel has been accused or caught for lying, though the latest scandal for the Buckeyes is the worse. It was lies that bruised Tressel's identity, an blemished personality ever since he used an ignorant excuse in defense for Maurice Clarett in 2002 when the explosive running back was suspended for falsifying a police report and took improper benefits and reportedly misled investigators and ever since his former star quarterback Troy Smith received money from a booster.

In fairness, as bad as the scandal seems, he deserved a harsher punishment when Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl lied to NCAA investigators and was suspended for many of the conference games by SEC commissioner Mike Slive. In contrast, football coach Rick Neuheisel was fired by Washington for lying to NCAA investigators, but even though he's verified as a lightning rod in college football, Tressel avoids a significant punishment.

The NCAA has given skeptics and doubters plenty of reason to grasp a sense that they show favoritism towards Ohio State, which is exactly what exemplifies a corroded formula, a mockery to academics and college athletics. It's true, although he's responsible for much of the deceptiveness and bad publicity that has toppled the name brand program, he won't be held liable for lying or expanding the horror.

In his strange way, Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee has no intentions in firing Tressel, in full support of his head coach despite his horrendous mistakes. No matter what has transpired, even if Tressel deceived his bosses and the school, Smith also is supportive in the end of a fragile farce that stained the Buckeyes.

"Wherever we end up at the end of the day, Jim Tressel is our football coach," Smith said. "All the speculation about him being terminated is pure speculation. This case, in my view, does not warrant it."

Quite honestly, how can you trust in a fraud?

NCAA Hideous Missteps Are Just As Bad As Terrelle Pryor

It's another episode cast upon the NCAA, perpetrated to create further humiliation and generate draining drama within a collegiate association that everyone prides itself on, despite the sins which wrongly invoke a bad situation by the lack of maturity or poor judgment from a student-athlete.

There's a portrait not too long ago, that evidently unveiled junior quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who is entrapped as rumors swirl with infractions, as the latest outlaw of college football, being ridiculed in local newspapers in Ohio.

It's one of the saddest scandals; the most pathetic and outrageous incident to dishearten Buckeye Nation, and with so much lampoonery in the last few weeks, it's the equivalent of Hugh Hefner's engagement to a 24-year-old woman or Justin Bieber's crush on Selena Gomez.


In his third year as a starter, Pryor has played impressively and mellowed into a team leader. The face of the Buckeyes is Pryor, and as it seems, he quickly emerged into the savior for a traditionally regal program. The face of trouble is Pryor, but he wasn't suspended because of his infractions and wasn't imposed a harsher sanction by the university for violating NCAA rules.

Sure, he has led the Buckeyes to three Big Ten championships, a 30-4 record and three wins over the archrival Michigan, but this doesn't mean he should be allowed latitude of his wrongdoings.

However, it seems he was allowed a free pass after he profited by selling autographed memorabilia, along with the traditional gold pants that Ohio State players receive when the Buckeyes defeat its longstanding nemesis.

The problem is that he's allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl, but was issued a five-game suspension at the beginning of the 2011 season and has already announced that he'll not declare for the 2011 NFL Draft.

Back in mid-December, Ohio State reportedly was doomed with compliance trouble regarding Pryor and four of his teammates for receiving tattoos from a parlor in exchange for keepsakes. When reports surfaced, heavy talks caused fans to panic as innuendos of possible suspensions for the bowl game spread gradually and left the town of Columbus in a state of shock.

The basic approach, currently, is that the facts are evident: Pryor and his teammates broke the rules, yet the NCAA isn't proactive to punish the lawbreakers or repair an unglued system by instilling the emphasis of education and, more importantly, producing a policy to mitigate the dishonest agents and illicit payments.

Unfortunately, with the absurdity destroying integrity, it's obvious that the NCAA is manipulated by either the deceptive agents or student-athletes who are desperate to accept improper benefits in order to take care of their families financially.

Pryor, an excellent football name in an illustrious football conference called the Big Ten, said he had the desire to assist his mother in financial needs and ignored the consequences of facing a punishment that could have severly damaged Ohio State's quest in the Sugar Bowl.

With the game hours away, the Buckeyes are in the middle of a needless distraction, one that can affect the performance of a brawny quarterback, when he has admittedly acknowledged how nervous he is entering an exuberant game on the wondrous stage of a BCS bowl game.

"A number of people reached out as we've been dealing with this thing, and one thing said was, 'Keep in mind, coach, you're dealing with a different generation. Back when you were growing up, one got a trophy, maybe, and now you're dealing with a generation that if you're on the team and you're seven years old, then everybody got a trophy,'" Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "Maybe this generation doesn't understand the value of awards like we did."

The Buckeyes, in truth, are 11-1, ranked No. 6 in the nation with the exception of possessing a speedy runner or a solid pass thrower like Pryor, despite a travesty in a program used to the infinite prestige for representing the Big Ten as the symbol of pride and goodness, considering that few actually believe Ohio State is overrated simply for stumbling in decisive games. Even if the program is hampered by penalties, with implications involved in the next few hours, Pryor makes Tressel looks shrewder.

And because he's the emblem of the Buckeyes empire, he's saved by the NCAA, an industry that bares favoritism, negligence and injustice. But now, the drama has heated up, leaving us wondering why the NCAA never addressed this issue by banishing him for the bowl game, the most acute showdown for the Buckeyes. As for Tressel, obviously, he wears a stylish red vest with the Ohio State logo on it, dressed in a tie and a shirt collar.

But he doesn't always rely on his ambiguous coaching style, and respectively advances to a favorable bowl game on Pryor's assurance and assertiveness. The welfare of his eligibility, which probably lifts the popularity in the Big Ten and silence cynical populace devoted to the game when the conference finished pitifully 0-5 Saturday in bowl games, is useful to the Buckeyes if they care to win against Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.

It's strange that he remains eligible to play in the bowl game, giving him the opportunity to lead the Buckeyes to a win. The irony of integrity or sportsmanlike conduct is least important to the NCAA, willing to postpone the suspension until next season, when they clearly could have forced him to miss the bowl game. In selling his belongings, he pocketed $1,250 in exchange for his 2008 Big Ten ring, his 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award and his Gold Pants.

What amazes me is that the NCAA hasn't enforced the rules, but constituted the significance of the consequences if a player violates the rules.

Well, Pryor broke the rules. So doesn't that mean he deserves a suspension?

Absolutely.

The rules are irrelevant if they are not meant to be followed. The conspiracy in student athletics is drawing an immediate issue, and the members of a shabby association still haven’t reached a solution to oust the wretched farce. This is all crazy, come to think of it.

It's all mishandled in such a despicable way that the NCAA may have forgotten it held Southern California liable for the Reggie Bush scandal and issued a heavy sanction to punish the school, tarnished ever since the investigation came to a close in which Bush accepted money from a dirty agent.

The backlash in Ohio is huge, although there are a few fans, like always, defending Pryor amid the tiring ordeal. Through it all, he responded to the harsh criticism by former quarterback and ESPN personality Kirk Herbstreit and derided him in frustration. "Has he beat Michigan?"

All the hoopla had began to decrease somewhat, but then the Columbus Dispatch reported, as of recently, that Pryor had been stopped by the police multiple times in the last three years for driving loaner cars from a used car dealer. In defense, he informed police that he borrowed the car while his Dodge Charger was being repaired in the auto shop.

The university couldn't care less about his misconduct off the field, as long as its star is available in the bowl game. If he's accepting most of the criticism, isn't the NCAA just as blameworthy as Pryor? I believe so.

But all that matters now is that he listens and learns from his mistakes. Whatever happened to the significance of "Midwestern values," a theory emphasized greatly by the legendary Woody Haynes?

Folks, we live in a different age, a bad age, that is.

Terrelle Pryor Wins Roses For Ohio State, Big Ten To Illustrate Bright Future

From my perspective it was a Big Ten coming out party, at the most prestigious venue in college football -- below the Hollywood sign and near the beautiful mountains. In what was the biggest game for Ohio State, where coach Jim Tressel wore his red vest and where fans in Columbus waited anxiously for a big victory, the large population screamed at the top of their lungs.

They finally can scream O-H-I-O! Given a few meltdowns, in a big conference with its own network, the Buckeyes used to stumble and collapse on the biggest stage in college football. Jim Tressel, the man in the vest, found redemption and recovered from a disgraced era.

For a long time, Ohio State stood as a misrepresented symbol, tarnishing a prosaic Big Ten Conference. There are people still categorizing the Buckeyes as a worthless program. That was fair when the Buckeyes had flaws and couldn't ever hoist BCS titles.

Rarely were the Buckeyes invited to play in an enormous bowl game, where biased folks ridiculed them, insulted them and neglected them. After problematic losses were suffered on the national stage, like in those dreadful meetings against the powerhouses of the Southeastern Conference, folks have been skeptical of Ohio State.

But now, a losing streak no longer exists, a Big Ten losing streak is snapped and Terrell Pryor is a savior by delivering the greatest win to begin a new decade. After being demolished in consecutive BCS games, after being doubted for winning much-needed BCS games, Ohio State experienced triumph and has finally established itself in a weakened conference.

In an ecstatic environment, before thousands of Buckeyes faithful, Pryor silenced disbelievers with a 26-17 breakout victory of seventh-ranked Oregon in the Rose Bowl game. For an entire week, Ohio State prepared for this moment and dreamed of roses.

Never mind shriveled roses. Pryor blossomed into a superlative hero, and greatness was sustained through his overwhelmingly tremendous dominance. The Buckeyes have a shot at legitimizing relevance within a prestigious program, where an entertaining marching band performs and where football games are hosted in an illustrious structure known as the "Horseshoe."

For much of the week, Tressel seemed humiliated by prior letdowns and burdens that had brought down the Buckeyes.

There was a loss of sprit, a loss of regard with the disintegration of a program. But now Tressel, who has three years remaining on his contract, is breathing a sigh of relief. And because he’s an old-school coach, Tressel's offensive schemes were routes opponents never saw coming.

Everyone should be impressed by his ability to change the style and exploit different schemes. He grasps a wise sense that Pryor should be involved in an average offense, and has nurtured and cultivated his superstar.

And, indeed, Pryor was mentally and physically prepared to withstand the grandest moment of his career. Pryor, the energetic sophomore, has stamina and the rushing ability that can help catapult the Buckeyes to championship victories. Instead he tried new options, with his aerial spectacle, and proved to the world he’s a stellar passer just as well as he runs and races to the end zone.

Even though Ohio State has been able to win five straight league titles, it has faltered to win meaningful games and harmed its reputation. Suddenly, in the second decade of the 21st century, Pryor has restored belief, not only for the long-waited masses in Columbus, but the Big Ten Conference as well.

It was sort of like witnessing an endless nightmare, in an unfavorable conference unworthy of regards. Before Ohio State celebrated together on New Years Day, this was a catastrophic conference.


The Big Ten went 4-11 in BCS games in the last nine games, thanks to Pryor, who had career highs in 266 passing yards and 23 completions. And he absolutely carried a reliable rush attack and ran for 72 yards. On greater imports, he led an energetic offense and was responsible for such a brilliant afternoon by converting 11 of 21 third downs.

To start, he played like the running icon everyone idolizes, and now he's compared to Michael Vick. To start, he was unstoppable moving the ball on his successive ground game, something the nation pictured when the Buckeyes recruited Pryor to become the nation’s No. 1 quarterback two years ago.

This was a program predicted to win a BCS title in 2002, but it’s never too late for a school to win. If this was a statement, the Buckeyes are bound to return and capture national title respectability. There’s a good chance Ohio State may not be the erratic school we viewed it to be before Pryor emerged into stardom, and paralyzed Oregon’s improbable chase.

Chip Kelly's high-powered offense wasn’t nearly as effective as it was during Oregon's storybook season. Although Ducks’ tailback, LeGarrette Blount, stormed to the goal line and broke the plane for redemption after he was forced to serve a suspension for punching a Boise State player in the face during an ugly melee in Oregon’s season-opener, a wonderful tale wasn’t completed.

The Ducks committed two turnovers inside the Ohio State 35. Their creativity wasn’t relentless or befuddling to throw off a well-aware Buckeyes’ defense. Missing in action was talented quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, who completed 9 of 20 passes for a season-low 81 yards.

But Pryor clearly was the marquee player and stud, lifting the Buckeyes out of devastation and granted the team with the ultimate prize.

Watching many painful seasons of Big Ten flaws, Pryor has been named the biggest hero in the Big Ten.

He’s a remedy in a conference that badly needed joy.