We got the following email coming from Sports Illustrated Monday, giving us a sneak peak from the article some were calling the story too damning for Jim Tressel to keep coach.
A Sports Illustrated investigative report through senior writer George Dohrmann, with staff contributor David Epstein, reveals a program rife by using alleged NCAA rules violations. The new allegations include that this memorabilia-for-tattoos and cash violations stretch back that will 2002, involve at least 28 players (22 over had previously been reported) and accusations of which Buckeyes traded memorabilia for marijuana. Former OSU defensive end Robert Rose spoke within the record about his dealings, and a source points to somewhat of a much deeper relationship between Fine Line Ink and OSU players that involves tickets, automobiles and favors.
Sports Illustrated
Last Friday, SI informed Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch epidermis new allegations and asked that Tressel be manufactured aware of them. Lynch said that the teachers would have some comment by the end from the day. No comment came, and on Wednesday, Lynch told SI to contact Tressel’s lawyer, Gene Marsh, for any response from this coach; Lynch also said he could not make sure Tressel had been apprised of the brand-new allegations. The implication was clear: Ohio State was distancing itself from Tressel, who resigned on Monday. (E-mails from SI to Tressel in order to Marsh and multiple phone messages for Marsh resolved to go unanswered. )
Excerpts from The Fall with Jim Tressel include:
Former defensive end Robert Rose told SI: he made transactions at Fine Line Ink that had been NCAA violations and said “at least 20” other players did as well. He says he has no regrets: “I knew how much money that the school was making. I always heard of how Ohio State had the biggest Nike spending budget. I was struggling, my mom was having difficulties…. It was just something that I needed to do. I was in a hard area…. [Other] guys were doing it for identical reasons. The university doesn’t really help. Technically we knew ?t had been wrong, but a lot of those guys are on the inner city and we didn’t have significantly, and we had to go on the most beneficial we could. I couldn’t call home to ask my mom to support me out. ”
Columbus, Ohio tattoo artist Dustin Halko exercised of Dudley’z Tattoos & Body Piercing in Columbus on the fall of 2002 until early 2004 and revealed to SI that he inked at least 10 Buckeyes in trades for memorabilia and estimates that at least 15 different players committed NCAA violations at Dudley’z in similar fashion into the six OSU Buckeyes found to have determined NCAA violations at Fine Line Ink. “What they brought in depended on the type of tattoo they wanted, ” says Halko. “If ?t had been just something small, it might be a signed magazine or such as that. If it was a full sleeve, they could bring in a jersey. ” (Tattoos range in price from below $100 for simple designs to several thousand dollars for more elaborate ones like the full-sleeve inkings with some Buckeyes players. ) Halko says those in the the shop preferred receiving items with many autographs. His most memorable acquisition was the scarlet-and-gray training jacket with between 10 and 15 signatures on it, including Tressel’s. Halko says he also traded tattoo improve a magazine bearing the coach’s autograph.
A former employee — “Ellis” (a pseudonym to guard his identity) — of Eddie Rife (owner with Fine Line Ink) provides a startling description to the scope of the relationship between Rife, OSU competitors and memorabilia and marijuana: “Eddie had storage units across town, ” he says, “and he also sold some stuff off to opportunity seekers. ” (Through Stephen Palmer, his lawyer, Rife declined to investigate his involvement with Ohio State players. ) Ellis estimates that Pryor alone earned more than 20 items, including game-worn make pads, multiple helmets, Nike cleats, jerseys, game pants even more. One day Ellis asked Pryor how he was able to take so much gear from this university’s equipment room. Ellis says the quarterback told the pollster, “I get whatever I want. ”
Also on the story: The Department of Justice alerted Ohio State to somewhat of a transaction in which an unnamed player gave Rife a wristwatch and four tickets to the Rose Bowl in exchange for just a Chevy Tahoe. That player, Ellis says, appeared to be running back Jermil Martin: “Jermil came in to the shop and said, ‘Are we doing this deal on this truck? ’ They went outside, and Eddie authorized the title over and Jermil shook the hand and off he went. ” Martin did not give Rife anything at that time, Ellis says, but a short time later Rife said from a telephone call to Ellis that he is at Pasadena and that Martin had gotten him tickets. Martin was particularly close to Rife, Ellis claims; about a year earlier Rife had given Martin some other car, a 2004 Jaguar sedan. (Repeated attempts to get Martin, including calls, Internet searches and Facebook messages to past friends and coaches, was unsuccessful).
“Eddie tossed him the keys, and off Jermil drove, ” Ellis says. (Through Palmer, the lawyer, Rife declined to comment. ). Ellis exhibited SI pictures of players—Pryor, Thaddeus Gibson, Dan Herron and Solomon Thomas—being tattooed or revealing their artwork. Rife appears in one photo with a player. Ellis also produced a photo of 11 plastic bags filled with what appears to be marijuana; he says the photo was consumed at Fine Line Ink. A letter the Department of Justice provided for Ohio State last December stated, “There is no allegation that such players were involved in or had familiarity with Mr. Rife’s drug trafficking activities. ” Ellis says which is true but that he did witness 4 other Buckeyes trade memorabilia for weed. Three of those transactions involved few the drug, he says, but in one particular instance a player departed with what Ellis appeared to be told was a pound. (Rife’s lawyer denies of which his client gave marijuana to any competitors. )
Ohio State declined to make any of its current players there for respond to SI.
From Tressel’s days just as one OSU Assistant: While Tressel was an associate under head coach Earle Bruce, one of his duties was to organize and run the Buckeyes’ summer camp. A lot of the young players who attended it would in no way play college football, but a few was top prospects whom Ohio State was enrolling. At the end of camp attendees bought tickets to a raffle with prizes say for example pair of cleats and a jersey. As outlined by a fellow assistant, Tressel rigged the raffle to ensure the elite prospects won. Says the original colleague, “In the morning he would understand the Bible with another coach. Then, inside afternoon, he would go out and cheat kids who had probably saved up money from mowing lawns to purchase those raffle tickets. That’s Jim Tressel. ”.