For Terrelle Pryor and Others, Big Skills Plus Big Egos Equals Big Problems

 Over the past few decades, with recruiting becoming a bigger need for successful college programs, but also providing year-long news and months of speculation, some recruits get more press before they even don their college jerseys than their past generation may have gotten over their entire careers.

With publicity comes "stardom," even though they've really done nothing to be famous for at this time in their lives. Think Paris Hilton in shoulder pads. With stardom comes a sense of entitlement, a sense that they are better than everyone else, and the notion that therefore, the rules that govern everyone else don't apply to them.

They think they are "owed" extra privileges and extra chances when they screw up and that they owe nothing to their team, because, after all, the team is privileged to have them in the first place.

Terrelle Pryor is not the worst of this egotistical "it's all about me" crowd, but he is the poster boy for it today.

Coaches should have seen the whole Pryor problem coming down the tracks since his high school days, when all the butt-kissing started. His ego got all blown out of proportion and the problems started before he ever chose his college.

In September, months before national signing day, Pryor was charged with disorderly conduct after showing his true colors by yelling at a policeman that was trying to remove him from a park where he was causing a disturbance, calling the policeman a "rent-a-cop" and other insults.

He was asked to leave and wouldn't, and then he got very "mouthy". When you don't show respect to policemen who are doing their job, you are showing the world that you aren't going to respect very much else that you come in contact with.

When his school said they couldn't condone what he did, they were lying. They condoned it just fine, and he never sat out one play for his actions. It seems that it started a pattern of Terrelle doing whatever he wanted and not having to worry about any ramifications from it.

Later, during a high school basketball game, Pryor almost did a Ron Artest by threatening to run into the stands and fight with the students. Officials walked Pryor and his team to the locker room and a policeman told Pryor's coach that he was lucky that "we didn't take your kid in."

But again, coaches did nothing to try and reign in Pryor and his attitude. He was, after all, a two-sport star and was going to make their high school famous.

Pryor kept his penchant for cashing in on his fame quiet for three years. Taking trips, cars, and cash, selling memorabilia and autographs and all the other things he was alleged to have done, didn't just start in his junior year; they started when he arrived at OSU.

His coach was well aware of Pryor breaking the rules in trading memorabilia for cash, gifts and other things and lied to the NCAA about knowing it. In the end, covering up for a selfish star cost his coach his job, and many more sanctions to come. Why did people keep believing that Pryor was worth the cost of "doing business with him?"

He was stopped last April for a traffic violation in a car he didn't own, and he wasn't sure who the owner was, though it had Pennsylvania plates on it.

When he was caught again, this time running a stop sign in February, he was in a car with Ohio plates. Once again, he wasn't the owner, nor was the owner anywhere to be found.

Funny how neither of these "incidents" were known to OSU, which likes to brag that it has the largest compliance department in all of college football. Strange that their number one athlete, with the highest profile, drives to and from classes and practices in cars he can't possibly afford, gets tickets in them and nobody knows a thing.

The butt-kissing, looking the other way and cover ups just kept continuing for Mr. Pryor.

From his first day on campus, it is obvious now that Pryor felt like the rules weren't meant for him. A pattern from day one can now be traced.

Though he ends his career with a lot of personal accomplishments, OSU will really have nothing to show for his time there except a ruined name, a disgraced coach forced out and years of ridicule ahead. In retrospect, OSU would have been much better off without him than they were with him.

His time at OSU ended up only benefiting Pryor himself, not the school. They never got further than a conference title, and they could have done that without Pryor in all likelihood, given the state of other programs in the Big Ten at the time.

In the end, Pryor does what he does best: nothing. He simply walks away to the NFL and lets everyone else suffer cleaning up his mess with the NCAA and shake their head over busted careers.

Sound harsh? Consider that Pryor did nothing to try and help OSU with the media and public perception.

Pryor had his driver's license suspended in May for 90 days for failure to show proof of insurance. Despite this, Columbus police did nothing when he was seen driving every day, simply flaunting his utter disregard for rules and showing just how little he cared who knew about it.

He even drove another "mystery ownership" sports car past dozens of people with cameras and the press to attend a team meeting.

Of course, the car didn't belong to him and had "dealer" plates on it. Boy, talk about simply throwing gas on the fire. Did it belong to one of the "test drive it for 90 days" kind of places that are being investigated? That certainly was the perception.

It was his last team meeting as a Buckeye. He got rid of Ohio State, not the other way around, and decided to go into the NFL supplemental draft despite his promise to stay. He was finished with Ohio State, and, despite some lip service, he couldn't care less about them.

Harsh? Actions speak louder than words, and even the staunchest Buckeye supporter now has to say that Pryor was never as interested in helping the team as he was in helping himself.

You have to pity the NFL team that gambles on him reforming, not being an egotistical maniac and not ruining that team's good name the same way he did Ohio State's. If owners don't see another Terrell Owens train wreck coming down the tracks, then they deserve what they get.

I'm only glad that I cover college sports and that Pryor is now the NFL's problem. I guess we can just wait for South Carolina's Stephen Garcia to try and get some community service hours in by showing up to a MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) meeting to speak and hitting a MADD member in the parking lot while driving drunk.

I'm sure Spurrier will get him another chance for redemption; they say the seventh time is the charm. Such is the way with over-pampered stars today. Until we get coaches and schools who enforce the rules on everyone fairly across the board, such people will continue to disgrace football.