Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer has been holding a grudge against Sports Illustrated for over a decade.
In a new episode of his “Triple Option” podcast, Meyer revealed that he still dislikes the magazine for the way it treated former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel during the 2011 scandal that cost Tressel his job. At the time of Tressel’s resignation, the magazine ran an in-depth story about the tattoos-for-memorabilia featuring Tressel on the cover.
“To this day, I still hold a grudge about that whole thing,” Meyer admitted. “I know Jim Tressel. I followed him, so I know exactly what his program was all about. That was wrong. That was a mistake on a lot of fronts. The support Tressel received in Columbus I don’t think was fair, and certainly nationally, it’s actually a joke, to be honest with you.
“Remember: competitive advantage, negligible. There was none.”
The scandal involved several players receiving free tattoos in exchange for autographs, and led to significant punishment for Ohio State. Tressel initially claimed that he knew nothing about the allegations, but it later came out that he failed to report them to the proper authorities. The scandal ultimately led to his resignation, and Meyer became head coach a year later.
Meyer had some issues of his own at Ohio State with rules violations, and has been adamant that coaches who lie to the NCAA should be severely punished. Some would argue that lying to the NCAA is precisely what got Tressel in trouble to begin with.
H/T Awful Announcing
