Ohio State Football: Jim Tressel Is NCAA's Dark Knight

Everyone knows that growing up can be difficult at times. Eventually, we have to realize the world isn't the way we perceived it as children and it is hardly ever fair. The good guy doesn't always win in the end.

There is a quote from the movie The Dark Knight that is very appropriate given the events of the past few months:

"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

Unfortunately for Jim Tressel, he has seen himself praised as a hero only to be ultimately ousted as a villain. The same people who proclaimed his steadfast resolve are now calling for his head to be served on a scarlet and grey platter.

Now don't get me wrong here. Jim Tressel is not free of sin. He lied when he should have spoken the truth. He tried to cover up a scandal that far exceeds anything that was in his control. But I have some major issues with the now famous Sports Illustrated article that supposedly led to the coach's undoing at Ohio State.

"For more than a decade, Ohioans have viewed Tressel as a pillar of rectitude, and have disregarded or made excuses for the allegations and scandal that have quietly followed him throughout his career. His integrity was one of the great myths of college football," wrote George Dohrmann in the June 6th edition of Sports Illustrated.

I actually find Mr. Dohrmann's attempt to pad his inflated ego quite laughable. Are we to assume there is still integrity in college football? Really, Mr. Dohrmann? Where is the rock you have been living under for the past few years?

Does anyone really think this is only happening in a few places around the country? Kids are being plucked out of the inner-city to play a game in front of millions each week to further grow the enormous wealth of the NCAA and its affiliates. These so-called "student athletes" are given a free education that—priority-wise—is a distant second to the game they play and practice year-around.

These kids are modern-day indentured servants.

Many justify it by saying they wouldn't have the opportunity for higher education if it wasn't for the NCAA and their scholarships.

So it is right to treat them as slaves? The work they put in year in, year out produces billions in revenue for the NCAA and the various universities around the country—99 percent of these kids will never see a fraction of that. Sure, they have a college education, but in today's economy that's no guarantee for success.

This is not to say the players are completely innocent—they're not. They know right from wrong and have consciously made bad decisions.

But this isn't just happening in a few select programs; it's going on all over the country. The NCAA would like you to believe they are taking care of the problem, but they are only covering themselves in this process.

The NCAA only looks out for the NCAA. Why else would they have allowed Pryor and the other suspended Ohio State players to participate in the 2011 Sugar Bowl?

Also, if players were selling or trading their merchandise since 2002, how come no one knew about it? School  officials didn't know something was going on? More importantly the NCAA, a multi-billion dollar organization, didn't know this was going on?

Come on. We aren't that stupid.

Jim Tressel deserves to be held accountable for his actions but he doesn't deserve to be the scapegoat for Ohio State and the NCAA. I'm sure a simple investigation could have brought this all to light years ago, but it never happened.

Why? Because nobody wanted this to come out.

Because he's NOT the hero the NCAA deserves, but the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him because he can take it and it's the easy way out. For now, he will have to be a silent target, a shunned observer.

Jim Tressel, the NCAA's Dark Knight.