JIM TRESSEL DOES INTERVIEW WITH LGBT MAGAZINE, CHALLENGES MICHIGAN FANS TO THEIR VERY CORE
by Spencer Hall on Mar 4, 2010 3:29 PM EST
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When a college football coach comes out (<--coincidental phrasing) in theoretical support of a gay players, it's a daring public move, especially when the coach isn't know for saying much about anything specifically in public, much less doing it in a one-on-one interview. Daring is not the word we would assign to Jim Tressel in anything, but it's 3:15 p.m. on Thursday and here we are.
When I think of the diversity we’ve had on our team the past few years, it goes way beyond just a racial, sexual or ethnic mix. We've had players who had different religions, players who came from different economic backgrounds, players who are parents, who are spouses, who are caring for ailing parents, who are wheelchair bound, who are battling cancer, and on and on. Whatever a young man feels called to express, I hope we will help him do it in a supportive environment.
That is innocuous enough by itself. Seen in the March 2010 edition of Outlook Columbus, though, it marks the first time a college coach has done an interview with a gay newspaper or publication of any sort. It also marks the first appearance of the tres fetch sweatervest in the publication, which doesn't work on most men but there's just some kind of church-daddy allure when you wear it, Jim.. (Cardigans, as useful and stylish as they can be, are not quite the same, sweetheart.) Next up: Greg McMackin on the topic of dance and its place in football.
(The best part: Michigan fans, the primary rival fans, are far too conscientious and polite to make homophobic slurs, while SEC fans would see this in a rival coach and instantly mail him cock-shaped cookies. We'd eat them, but seriously, they are cookies, and cookies are good no matter what they're shaped like.)
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I'm laughing so hard, I want to throw up
This is kinda like when Rocky won over the Soviet crowd at the end of Rocky IV.
It’s funny though, because, as a nutso OSU fan, I fucking hate the Michigan Wolverines football team.
But as a card carrying pinko liberal rocker, I think Ann Arbor and the Univ of Michigan at large is well, kinda cool.
Props to Tress. I’ll shit my 511’s if I see him drinking Razztini’s in the Short North this weekend.
As a Penn State fan
I also say props to Tressel.
But the point was dead-on. If this were in the deep south, this would be totally different. There would probably be an angry mob at Tressel’s door demanding his resignation. State government would be involved by Monday demanding a retraction and public apology.
"We hugged as grown men do. It was a great moment. Then, it was business as usual." -- LJ Sr.
Now wait just a minute.
We’ve got plenty of intolerance of our own up here in the North. I can think of a certain school that would denounce such things as “objectively disordered.” Ugh.
Brian Kelly says no Burger King at 3 AM.
by Ancient Chinese Secret on Mar 4, 2010 4:01 PM EST up reply actions
Brian Kelly...
Man oh man would there be a shitstorm if he did something like this. And we thought the “Kelly is pro-choice and thus can’t coach ND” storylines were bad.
You better believe it.
Shitstorm is something that school does with great expertise. I had more than a few tee shots interrupted by the Flying Fetus last spring.
Brian Kelly says no Burger King at 3 AM.
by Ancient Chinese Secret on Mar 4, 2010 5:02 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed, hell I’m living in a microcosm of the south right now, beautiful intolerant central Pennsylvania. AKA Pensyltucky.
"We hugged as grown men do. It was a great moment. Then, it was business as usual." -- LJ Sr.
Wasn't it Carville?
Something like … Pennsylvania is Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in between.
by NCT on Mar 4, 2010 4:22 PM EST up reply actions
I've always wondered
If Carville was being unfair to Alabama, I’ve never been there.
Blogging about D.C. Baseball since April '04. Penn State alum. Also partial to the Washington Capitals, New York Yankees and Yale football.
by WFY on Mar 5, 2010 9:38 AM EST up reply actions
I have
Carville was pretty much straight on.
"I like the taste of danger most of all." - Jonatha Brooke
by MtnEer_in_SC on Mar 5, 2010 12:36 PM EST up reply actions
To stick up for the South
If a southern school had a gay 5* QB that guarantees said team 3 NC over 4 years, that fanbase/state would only be only too happy to have that guy on their team. Now his sexuality may not be discussed to any great detail, thus not “cherished”, but most certainly “tolerated”, which remembering my classics education via South Park, is what is important.
College football will conquer all.
It appears to me
It’s been done already, except 2 NCs over 3 years.
by NCT on Mar 4, 2010 4:53 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Yeah, but we're talking about RIVAL teams. Of course his own fans would accept a gay Heisman-winner.
Most of UF’s rival fans can’t even accept Tebow being a CHRISTIAN.
Longest Atlanta Falcons winning-seasons streak: 2008 - current
The Falcoholic · Blog · Twitter
And the enlightened fans of the Big East or Big 10 would treat such a player with respect?
Give me a break.
The only constant in the college football world is hate for one’s regular opponents, expressed in the most convenient terms available to the 19-year-old sophomore after four Jägerbombs and a couple of Jello shots. Sexual orientation is in that mix at all schools in all regions.
That 17-year-old Hokie sitting in the rafters in Greensboro didn't see any of this coming.
mind games
isn’t the point that he is totally shoving his tolerance up the asses of Wolverines everywhere?
by haveagreatday on Mar 5, 2010 2:04 PM EST up reply actions
UM fans say good with reason:
Props to him.
by Cairo on Mar 4, 2010 5:37 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
I wonder
if Forcier prefers the Club Sauce…or the Spicy Club Sauce?
Brian Kelly says no Burger King at 3 AM.
by Ancient Chinese Secret on Mar 4, 2010 7:13 PM EST up reply actions
dat rite thar is epik
not drunk, just overserved
by Gen. Stoopnagle on Mar 5, 2010 9:49 AM EST up reply actions
As a Buckeye fan
I respectfully laugh…as decorously as possible.
by NormanConquest on Mar 5, 2010 2:57 PM EST up reply actions
Please oh please oh please
No one ever ask Richt about his views on diversity of sexual orientation. Please don’t do it. Please. I don’t want to hear him say it out loud. Ever.
Please.
Wheelchairs? Huh?
I thought players in wheelchairs only appeared in feel-good kids’ sports movies. But maybe that’s Tressel’s secret weapon this year
I guess he meant parents who are wheelchair bound?
Major punctuation failure.
by Brock Sampson on Mar 4, 2010 3:49 PM EST up reply actions
To beat MSU that's all he probably needs.
I'm Banana dammit!!!
by BurritoBrosShits on Mar 4, 2010 3:56 PM EST up reply actions
If you only knew
I think Tressel is refering to Tyson Gentry, a walk-on who was paralyzed from the neck down during practice. Tressel kept him on the roster until he graduated; as much as possible, he remained a member of the team. Pretty amazing story, actually.
Unless this is a clever cover story for the secret weapon…
wheelchair bound?
But can you hand off, son? Yes? Then you’ll make a fine QB at The Ohio State University.
"In case you're wondering what the offense should look like, that wasn't it." - Urban Meyer
Down here in Sakeralina...
he’d be denounced from most every pulpit in the state, Baptist radio stations (AM, of course) would ’splode all across the Upstate, state legistators would speechify about his lack of respect for marriage for days on end (and thereby dodge the actual work of making laws), and a good number of us in the sin-holes of Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Columbia would be amused by all the vituperation.
I say “good on him” also.
"I like the taste of danger most of all." - Jonatha Brooke
Obviously someone wants to recruit some kickers...
I'm Banana dammit!!!
by BurritoBrosShits on Mar 4, 2010 3:52 PM EST reply actions
Punting is winning!
Who wouldn’r make an exception for a reliable kicker?
by Crabapple Buck on Mar 4, 2010 4:02 PM EST up reply actions
And yet...
All major D-IA universities’ football programs discriminate against short, slow, athletically untalented guys with bad hand-eye coordination, such as myself. WHEN WILL THE INJUSTICE END?!
+11 cocktails to the Sweatervest.
Brian Kelly says no Burger King at 3 AM.
by Ancient Chinese Secret on Mar 4, 2010 3:53 PM EST reply actions
You'd think.....
…..that every short, slow, athletically untalented guy in Congress (aka all of them) would have legislated against this already. What the hell are we paying those guys for again?
To build cars, right?
not drunk, just overserved
by Gen. Stoopnagle on Mar 5, 2010 9:54 AM EST up reply actions
Interesting quote
Obviously, cocktails to Tressel, but I was intrigued by the quote about athlete’s identities and how they’re so wrapped up in that role that they have a hard time seeing themselves as anything else. It’s the kind of thing I’d expect to hear from an academic analyzing football, not necessarily somebody within the system.
I dunno
Considering that its their football prowess that gets them popularity, free pizza at the mall, girls (and guys), seems to me its just classical conditioning that motivates them to that behavior. I would think that would be quite apparent to any coach.
So what I am saying is that Tressel still sucks.
It would be apparent
But the language he uses seems…non-football-y? Excessively intellectual? I dunno. Tressel’s always seemed non-football smart in addition to football smart, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Dammit, Orson
“while SEC fans would see this in a rival coach and instantly mail him cock-shaped cookies. We’d eat them, but seriously, they are cookies, and cookies are good no matter what they’re shaped like”
If you’re going to invoke the dickerdoodles, name them properly!
by The Commenter Formerly Known as Not You on Mar 4, 2010 4:04 PM EST reply actions
I’d imagine that dick shaped cookies are probably easier to dunk in a cup of coffee, but I don’t know that I have the maturity to attempt that.
by DC Trojan on Mar 4, 2010 4:09 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Better coffee
than milk.
Just sayin’
And here's a lighthouse keeper being beheaded by a laser beam!
Attn management: Are there still EDSBS tee shirts?
If so, can we get a new batch that says “EAT A DICKERDOODLE!” in big ol’ letters?
Thanks in advance,
DG
by DevilGrad on Mar 4, 2010 5:57 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
FYI on ailing parents etc quote...
It could be either parents or players. Some players have ailing parents ie. Terrelle Pryor, whose father has a rare disease that renders him wheelchair bound, or to Tyson Gentry noted above. Cancer has hit many players families and even players themselves. Dan Potokar recovered from cancer last year and rejoined the team.
I couldn’t be happier that Tressel is our coach. But I think the Michigan coach would have provided a funnier interview.
The one thing Tressel quite noticeably does not mention
is that he’s had a gay player. Which kind of throws the tired “IN THE NORTH WE’RE SO ENLIGHTENED” argument straight out the window.
by 4.0 Point Stance on Mar 4, 2010 4:25 PM EST reply actions
You know, though...
I actually read the line, “When I think of the diversity we’ve had on our team the past few years, it goes way beyond just a racial, sexual or ethnic mix” as him saying that they HAD had players of differing sexual orientations. But maybe I was reading too much into something meant as a hypothetical.
Pure probability would say.....
…..that he has had a gay player, probably just not an openly gay one. My money is on Santonio Holmes
you are right!
bc he does not mention it, means it has not happened and that he has actively avoided the situation!
you might consider that tress has had one and respected that player’s wishes to remain anonymous. or that the issue has not come up.
It is a statistical certainty
that he has had gay players. He may well have not had any out gay players though.
Los Angeles is like Manchester. There is a red team that wins championships and a blue team that doesn't.
Well, if you're just making things up
We might also consider that maybe Houston Nutt has had gay players in the past and respected their wishes to remain anonymous, etc etc. Therefore, Fayetteville, Arkansas is the most enlightened and bigot-free place on earth!
by 4.0 Point Stance on Mar 4, 2010 5:57 PM EST up reply actions
dude
you are the one who created a scenario that fit some point your little weiner needed to make to prove itself for the day.
My point, to the extent that I have one,
is that Tressel’s willingness to give a ten minute interview to a local gay magazine isn’t really indicative of anything. It certainly isn’t proof of the innate moral superiority of Ohioans.
by 4.0 Point Stance on Mar 5, 2010 2:09 PM EST up reply actions
Tressel has learned to speak like a Senator.
There is a big difference between voicing general support for diversity and actually recruiting a gay player or taking the time, effort, and risk to assimilate a gay player into the very masculine, sometimes crude and homophobic atmosphere of a college football locker room.
While Columbus and Ann Arbor are university towns with a tolerant, liberal bent, the Rust Belt where the fans of those schools actually live is often a very blue-collar, socially intolerant place.
Not knocking Ohio, just pointing out that nobody should be riding their moral high horse over Tressel’s statement.
without putting too fine a point on it, blue collar does not equal socially intolerant
I am one generation removed from a Mississippi dirt farmer, and I like to think I am open minded, at least open minded enough to know that working for a living does not make a person a bigot.
by haveagreatday on Mar 5, 2010 4:11 PM EST up reply actions
The Genetic Lottery...
doesn’t have a sexual preference. Can anyone imagine taking recruits to a gay strip joint on a recruiting visit…say Urban Meyer. If he wants to prove he’s the world’s finest recruiter, I think that is one way he can prove it. Swinging Richards is right there off Northside Drive man. Get. It. Done.
I know you already used up your Les Miles quota for the week
But imagine if he were Michigan’s coach and was asked about this interview.
C Is For Cookie-Flavored Cocks
Let a gay SECr who was the tuba section leader in the Razorback Band let you know. . .there is a place for gaybos in the SEC. . .
Fayetteville isn’t the most enlightened and bigot-free place on earth. If I was a gay football player, instead of a tuba player, I would have certainly gave tOSU a shot just for that interview.
/signs “Suck it Houston Nutt”, eats cookie
"Heaven love's ya. . ." - David Bowie
As much as I admire Bo Pelini, I just can't see him doing this interview...
Kudos to you, Coach Tressel, even though I must now take just a smidge out of the “I Hate Ohio State Because Eddie George Stole Tommie Frazier’s Heisman” account. Dammit.
"...when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to."
— Martin Luther
WILLY KORN!!11!!!
HOLE
My high school football team had a player come out. The kid was already known for being so weird, though, that gay was more of a positive re-branding.
looks like big 10 country is a little bit more enlightened than the big 12, where mizzou and k-state fans routinely refer to us as “gayhawks”
and we don’t even have any out-of-the-closet players!
maybe only a little bit
Certainly Tressel deserves kudos for doing this, but I’m afraid his approach as described in the article is not necessarily indicative of the attitudes in the area as a whole.
I can’t speak firsthand to life in Ohio, but I can say that there is plenty of intolerance in Indiana, even in Bloomington (definitely the most tolerant town in the state).
As an Ann Arbor native, I prefer to boo the Sweatervest whenever possible. This as an unfair tactic and I object. (Of course the way things are right now, if Rodriguez made similar statements, the Freep would respond with “RODRIGUEZ KNOWN ADVOCATE OF CHILD PORN” in 48-point type on the front page.)
Wow.
I know have to like Jim Tressel for doing something I damn well know my coach won’t.
I just hope I never have to witness KoRick navigate this type of ground.
not drunk, just overserved
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