Do you really want to know why he still has a job? Standing ovations all around Ohio yesterday. The attitude is "He just made a mistake." Sickening. Read this article:
Tressel finds support
OSU coach tells groups he will grow from adversity
BY MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
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OSU coach Jim Tressel made several stops around the state yesterday, including at an awards banquet at the Stranahan Great Hall.
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Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel made reference to his current personal struggle with a pending NCAA investigation in his remarks last night as the keynote speaker at the local chapter of the National Football Foundation's 49th scholar-athlete awards dinner.
Tressel was recently suspended by Ohio State for the first two games of next season and fined $250,000 for not notifying the school about an e-mail tip he received last April that two of his players were associating with the target of a federal drug investigation and had sold the individual OSU memorabilia.
Tressel, who received a standing ovation at the start and the conclusion of his remarks from the crowd of more than 700 at the Stranahan Great Hall, emphasized to the 31 area football players who were honored at the event the importance of confronting those situations when things are not going well.
"We most certainly have to handle adversity," Tressel said. "I know we're going through that right now ... when a situation is put in front of you and you don't handle it maybe as well as you could have and you make a mistake like I have, you have to handle it."
In the afternoon, when he was speaking to the Ohio State University Alumni Club of Lucas County at the Sylvania Country Club, Tressel apologized "for what's going on right now."
"We're going to grow from this," Tressel told the OSU alumni in Sylvania. "I promise you we're going to grind forward."
Tressel expressed similar remorse earlier in the day when speaking at a luncheon in Canton sponsored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"I also apologize because I'm going to have some sanctions," he told the group in Canton.
The NCAA could add to the penalties when it completes its probe, but Tressel stressed to his Toledo audience the need to stay focused on your goals, even when confronting adversity.
"Because the beauty of it is that the mission doesn't change," he said.
"What we're trying to accomplish in changing lives with young people in our particular case -- that doesn't change. You have to handle whatever adversity comes your way. You have to be willing to look at it, where could I have been better, what am I going to do tomorrow. And you've got to handle it."
Tressel, who is in his 37th year of college coaching, said the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the political unrest in the Middle East, and the financial crises many cities and states are facing should make people appreciate their own situation.
"At this moment in particular for all of us, myself included, I think it's critical for all of us to have an attitude of gratitude," he said.
"We've got some challenging times. But we've got to make sure that the only way we tackle challenging times is with an attitude of gratitude. As challenging as they are ... I think that if all of us sat down and wrote down our list of blessings, it would be a lot longer than our list of challenges."
Tressel, who earlier in his talk cited his parents' roots in nearby Ada and his close association over the years with the coaches at both the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University, said: "Football folks love challenges."
Tressel, who also visited patients at Toledo Hospital while in town, told the alumni group at Sylvania how proud he was of the current Buckeyes from northwest Ohio, especially Dane Sanzenbacher, an all-Big Ten wide receiver and team captain for last season's Ohio State team.
The Central Catholic product was the first player in Tressel's 25 years as a head coach who was voted by his teammates as the team's most valuable player and its most inspirational player. Tressel said both votes ended in "a landslide."
"I used to always think I wasn't sure anyone could rival Jim Parker from this area," Tressel said, referencing the former Scott High School great who starred along the offensive line at OSU and in the NFL.
"In his own way, at a different position, Dane Sanzenbacher is something special. Now we need to get Jack Mewhort a lot like Jim Parker."
Mewhort, a St. John's Jesuit graduate, is in contention to earn a starting job along the offensive line for the Buckeyes in the 2011 season.
Tressel did not take questions from the media at his stops in Toledo, but he clearly had the strong support of the Ohio State faithful who attended the events.
Rick Morrin, a member of the local alumni club, was among the many Buckeyes fans who gave Tressel a warm welcome when he stepped to the podium at Sylvania Country Club.
"You look at his whole body of work and what he stands for," Morrin said. "It looks like he made a mistake. We all make mistakes."
Blade sports writer Ryan Autullo contributed to this report.
Contact Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6510.
http://www.toledoblade.com/Ohio-State/2011/03/15/Tressel-finds-support.html
