Business Reviews

We got the following email from Sports Illustrated Monday, giving us a sneak peak from the article some were calling the story too damning for Jim Tressel to remain coach.

A Sports Illustrated investigative report by means of senior writer George Dohrmann, with staff article author David Epstein, reveals a program rife together with alleged NCAA rules violations. The new allegations include that this memorabilia-for-tattoos and cash violations stretch back in order to 2002, involve at least 28 players (22 greater than had previously been reported) and accusations of which Buckeyes traded memorabilia for marijuana. Former OSU defensive end Robert Rose spoke for the record about his dealings, and a source points to somewhat of a much deeper relationship between Fine Line Printer and OSU players that involves tickets, vehicles and favors.

Sports Illustrated

Last Friday, SI informed Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch pores and skin new allegations and asked that Tressel be manufactured aware of them. Lynch said that the varsity would have some comment by the end from the day. No comment came, and on Sunday, Lynch told SI to contact Tressel’s personal injury attorney, Gene Marsh, for any response from this coach; Lynch also said he could not confirm that Tressel had been apprised of the new allegations. The implication was clear: Ohio Express was distancing itself from Tressel, who resigned on Monday. (E-mails from SI to Tressel so to Marsh and multiple phone messages for Marsh travelled unanswered. )

Excerpts from The Fall associated with Jim Tressel include:

Former defensive end Robert Flower told SI: he made transactions at Fine Line Ink who were NCAA violations and said “at least 20” other players did at the same time. He says he has no regrets: “I knew how much money that the school was making. I always heard about how Ohio State had the biggest Nike finances. I was struggling, my mom was attempting…. It was just something that I needed to do. I was in a hard area…. [Other] guys were doing it for exactly the same reasons. The university doesn’t really help. Technically we knew ?t had been wrong, but a lot of those guys are in the inner city and we didn’t have a lot, and we had to go on the most effective we could. I couldn’t call home to ask my mom that will me out. ”

Columbus, Ohio tattoo artist Dustin Halko worked out of Dudley’z Tattoos & Body Piercing in Columbus in the fall of 2002 until early 2004 and also revealed to SI that he inked as a minimum 10 Buckeyes in trades for memorabilia and estimates that as a minimum 15 different players committed NCAA violations at Dudley’z in similar fashion towards the six OSU Buckeyes found to have fully commited NCAA violations at Fine Line Ink. “What they brought in depended on the kind of tattoo they wanted, ” says Halko. “If ?t had been just something small, it might be a signed magazine or something like that. If it was a full sleeve, some might bring in a jersey. ” (Tattoos range in price from lower than $100 for simple designs to several thousand dollars for more elaborate ones like the full-sleeve inkings associated with some Buckeyes players. ) Halko says those working in the shop preferred receiving items with various autographs. His most memorable acquisition was a scarlet-and-gray training jacket with between 10 and also 15 signatures on it, including Tressel’s. Halko says he also traded tattoo be employed by a magazine bearing the coach’s autograph.

A former employee — “Ellis” (a pseudonym to protect his identity) — of Eddie Rife (owner associated with Fine Line Ink) provides a startling description into the scope of the relationship between Rife, OSU gamers 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 inquire into his involvement with Ohio State players. ) Ellis estimates that Pryor alone made possible more than 20 items, ­including game-worn make pads, multiple helmets, Nike cleats, jerseys, game pants and much more. One day Ellis asked Pryor how he managed to take so much gear from this university’s equipment room. Ellis says the quarter­back responded, “I get whatever I want. ”

Also in the story: The Department of Justice alerted Ohio State to somewhat of a transaction in which an unnamed player gave Rife a watch and four tickets to the Rose Bowl in ­exchange for a Chevy Tahoe. That player, Ellis says, seemed to be running back Jermil Martin: “Jermil came in the shop and said, ‘Are we doing this deal with this truck? ’ They went outside, and Eddie authorized the title over and Jermil shook his hand and off he went. ” Martin did not give Rife anything at that moment, Ellis says, but a short time later Rife said in a telephone call to Ellis that he was in Pasadena and that Martin had gotten your ex boyfriend tickets. Martin was particularly close to Rife, Ellis affirms; about a year earlier Rife had given Martin a different car, a 2004 Jaguar sedan. (Repeated attempts to obtain Martin, including calls, Internet searches and Zynga messages to past friends and coaches, had been unsuccessful).

“Eddie tossed him the keys, and also off Jermil drove, ” Ellis says. (Through Palmer, his lawyer, Rife declined to comment. ). Ellis confirmed SI pictures of players—Pryor, Thaddeus Gibson, Dan Herron and Solomon Thomas—being tattooed or revealing their artwork. Rife appears in one photo which has a player. Ellis also produced a photo of 11 plastic bags filled with what seems marijuana; he says the photo was used at Fine Line Ink. A letter the Department of Justice sent to Ohio State last December stated, “There is no allegation that any of these players were involved in or had knowledge of Mr. Rife’s drug trafficking activities. ” Ellis says that is certainly true but that he did witness some other Buckeyes trade memorabilia for weed. Three of those transactions involved few the drug, he says, but in one instance a player departed with what Ellis seemed to be told was a pound. (Rife’s lawyer denies of which his client gave marijuana to any gamers. )

Ohio State declined to make any of its current players available to respond to SI.

From Tressel’s days being an OSU Assistant: While Tressel was an assistant under head coach Earle Bruce, one of his duties was to prepare and run the Buckeyes’ summer camp. Most of the young players who attended it would never play college football, but a few had been top prospects whom Ohio State was recruiting. At the end of camp attendees purchased tickets to a raffle with prizes such as a pair of cleats and a jersey. Reported by a fellow assistant, Tressel rigged the raffle so that the elite prospects won. Says the former colleague, “In the morning he would study the Bible with another coach. Then, inside afternoon, he would go out and cheat young people who had probably saved up money from mowing lawns to purchase those raffle tickets. That’s Jim Tressel. ”.