Today, my topics will be:
Jim Tressel
Osama Bin Laden
Rashard Mendenhall
JIM TRESSEL
This situation has been stewing for me for quite a while. Anyone who has talked to me over the course of the past five years knows the kind of respect that I had for Jim Tressel. I thought that he was an outstanding coach and a wonderful example to the dozens of young men that he influenced during his tenure at one of the biggest, most prestigious football programs in the country.
The way that he has handled that stature is nothing short of awful and I am sure that I am not alone in feeling betrayed by the Vest. I even praised him for his handling of the situation, saying that the five players could play in the Sugar Bowl if they promised to come back next year and serve their five game suspensions. Then I found out that he knew about it all along and told nobody. The reaction from Tressel and the university (specifically the athletic director and the president of the university) was very telling. It took Tressel days to apologize and even then it didn’t seem genuine and when the AD and the president came out and more or less scoffed at the notion of Tressel being fired, it sent the message loud and clear that at Ohio State, Jim Tressel is the be all and end all and winning is more important than integrity.
NCAA, you need to come down on Ohio State and Tressel and you need to come down hard. Tressel needs to be suspended for longer than just his self-imposed (image salvaging) five games and Ohio State needs to be punished for allowing this to happen, even if it is a relatively minor infraction. Here’s a suggestion; each time a coach is found to have done something like this, take away a few scholarships. It’s easy to see over time that the loss of scholarships can cripple a football program and while that shouldn’t be the goal, it would send a clear message that you won’t stand for this anymore.
What will happen? Tressel will get slapped on the wrist and will be forced to write “I won’t lie to my bosses anymore” 1,000 times… a task which he will give to an assistant.
OSAMA BIN LADEN
It has now been
However, the window for this event eliciting an emotional response from me has long since closed. If they wanted me to be dancing in the streets over the capture or assassination of Bin Laden, they would have had to do that years ago. I completely understand that was completely unreasonable especially considering that we’ve been attempting to find him and bring him to justice since well before September 11th, 2001. I do not fault the American military or intelligence services for taking this long to kill him. Personally, I think the fact that they found him at all is a testament to the quality and perseverance of all those involved.
Do I think that President Obama wrapped up the 2012 election? No.
Do I think that Al Queda is done for? Perhaps, but that has more to do with the next year than anything else.
Do I think the world is a better place without Osama Bin Laden in it? Absolutely.
RASHARD MENDENHALL
Shortly after the aforementioned assassination of Bin Laden, Rashard Mendenhall took to Twitter to express his feelings and perhaps he thought them through and perhaps he didn’t.
Personally, I have no problem with him questioning whether or not people should be celebrating the death of anyone. That is definitely a discussion that should occur somewhere at some time. Perhaps as soon after the death of Bin Laden wasn’t tactful. Whatever, my single biggest reaction to that part of his tweeting was “who cares?”
My much bigger problem was that he more or less suggested that he subscribes to the conspiracy theory that it was more than just two jetliners that managed to take down the two towers of the World Trade Center. He talks about combating ignorance with regards to the celebration of people’s deaths and yet he ignores enormous amounts of evidence that say it was nothing more than two planes. I don’t know if Rashard Mendenhall studied any structural engineering during his three years at Illinois or if he talked to anyone who has studied structural engineering before making his Tweets but if he didn’t, he is the one who is being ignorant.
Frankly, I don’t care what people think or believe and everyone is entitled to their opinions. If Mendenhall spoke to an architect, a structural engineer, or a civil engineer (or if he has studied any of those disciplines) and he has evidence that supports his theory that something other than burning jet fuel and that heartless wench gravity took down those towers, I will listen and if his evidence is at very least sketchy, I’ll admit he may have a point.
However, if he has his own hunch or his own suspicions about the events of that horrific day nearly ten years ago and they aren’t backed up by anything remotely scientific, then he is being the ignorant person that he was railing against and all he’s doing is pouring gasoline on the fire, not raising the level of debate about whether or not we should be celebrating the death of public enemy number 1.
This is something that he never addressed in the blog post he wrote. He talked about people celebrating and focused on that. In that respect, he has a legitimate point and I honestly believe that that is a discussion that should happen and I have a great amount of respect for him to bring that up, knowing how unpopular it would be. With regards to what he said about 9/11, he has since said nothing and that comment was even deleted from his Twitter page, which might be saying something in and of itself.
A sponsor has bailed on him and his team more or less came out and emphatically said that he was not speaking for us, i.e. you’re on your own. Here, he has a very unique opportunity. He can remain quiet and attempt to gradually rehabilitate his image or he can feed the beast. If he takes the former path, he might be remembered as the guy who said that one controversial thing once. If he decides to feed the beast and stand by what he said and follow up on it, get involved with discussions about that day (when, it should be pointed out, he was just 14 years old) and the 1st of May this year when the news broke, then he can be remembered as something more. Someone who had an unpopular opinion, a minority opinion, but someone who was brave enough to stand up and say this is what I think, now what do you think? If he was able to do that and if he was able to somehow remove emotion from the debate (calling him un-American for his comments was nothing short of asinine) then his legacy could be that he stood up for peace and for life.
Instead of sitting there, wherever he is, and saying nothing.
Check back periodically for more of these "Random Notes" type columns...
Until next time, enjoy the baseball!
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