Sports and Scandals

The issue of the article titled “The Fall of Jim Tressel” out of Sports Illustrated is exactly what it says it is. Jim Tressel was once one of the most prestigious college football coaches in the country, working his way up from mid-major Youngstown State to take over the program at The Ohio State University. He started off in fantastic fashion, restoring glory to the Buckeye tradition that had somewhat lost its stride. He was 9-1 all-time against Michigan and finished with a winning percentage of 82.8% (Dohrmann, 1). This past summer, everything went downhill for Jim Tressel. The coach that was nicknamed “The Senator” because of his alleged upright stature and truth telling was found to be a fraud basically the whole time. NCAA infractions started back while he was at Youngstown State and every time something was brought to his attention, all he could muster up to the media or investigators was, “uh, I don’t know.” The same continued while he was at Ohio State with the Maurice Clarett business and even onto the Terrell Pryor memorabilia for tattoos ordeal. He knew about all of this the whole time and thought he could get away with it. Now, he won’t be remembered as a great Hall-Of-Fame-like coach, he’ll be remembered as the guy who cheated before he even made it big.
The author’s stance on the issue is that Tressel basically cheated his way to the top and thought that he could continue to do it when he got there. As previously stated, any time an infraction or violation was brought to his attention, he acted like it was the first time he was hearing about it. In reality, he was the one who sent that specific player to talk to the booster or even recommended the tattoo parlor to Terrell Pryor and co. He cheated his way and was finally, and rightfully, caught.
The piece is organized very well. There are a good amount of times where the author jumps back in time to either explain something that was previously said or something that he is about to say; however, it is not hard to follow him and you feel like he is trying to convince you to see his side. He gives lots of facts and statistics about Tressel’s winning percentage and coaching career if tries to make the reader feel sympathetic; but than he quickly pulls the reader back and shows how bad of a guy Tressel is.
I agree with Dohrmann because Tressel got what he deserved. Hoenstly, Dohrmann went a little off his rocker at some points and I felt like he was going to say to kill Jim Tressel; however, he made plenty of good points and backed them all up with solid evidence from players to lawyers. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
The main thing that I want to incorporate into my paper is the strong voice that Dohrmann uses. He does it a bit over the top but I can see where he is coming from. I want my readers to feel how passionate I am about my position and the side that I chose that they will join it with me.