Jim Tressel Resigns-I'm Not Surprised

The Columbus Dispatch is also reporting that Jim Tressel was encouraged to resign by Ohio State University officials. Link:

Sources: Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel was encouraged to resign

There are reports that a damning article about Ohio State football and Jim Tressel is going to come out in Sports Illustrated this week, so it looks like the issues facing the program are too overwhelming for Jim Tressel to stay on as head coach.

Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio has been asking some intriguing questions of his guests on this morning's show. Can you win in big time college football and stay clean in the NCAA's eyes?


Look at some recent history. There are questions surrounding the 2011 National Champion Auburn and their recruitment of Cam Newton in addition to allegations of recruiting violations against the team Auburn beat, Oregon. USC will probably have to vacate their 2004 National Championship due to major infractions. 

ESPN just broadcast a report Sunday morning on their show, Outside the Lines, regarding the impact on recruiting that 7 on 7 high school football summer leagues is having. Third-party influences in the recruiting of college football players are becoming problematic according to the report.

I have said it before on this blog. Are Ohio State and Jim Tressel any better or worse than any other University trying to maintain their football program as a perennial top 20 in the country? It's a big business with multiple influences both inside and outside of those programs. And although the NCAA expects these programs to maintain "institutional control" it seems as though it is an impossible task.


Former Notre Dame head football coach and ESPN college football analyst Bob Davie had the best take I have heard regarding Jim Tressel's resignation. On Colin Cowherd's ESPN radio show this morning he said that Coach Tressel was the victim of a "self-inflicted wound" by not reporting the violations he was aware of to the NCAA and his superiors at Ohio State a year ago. 


College football and Ohio State will survive this. The Jim Tressel resignation will make for a great couple of days of coverage on talk radio and on the blogs. Columbus, Ohio will be batty for a couple of weeks. But soon all will be forgotten, and big-time college football will be back again in the Fall. Just a bump in the road in the big business that is college football.

$1 Beers and Good Weather! Columbus Crew 3, Chivas USA 3, May 28, 2011

Finally! The weather was great for a home match at Crew Stadium last night.

And The Crew had $1 Bud and Bud Light drafts!

And The Crew scored a first half goal!

The only thing missing was a Crew victory.

The match won't be mistaken for the quality of soccer that I saw this morning watching the DVR'ed UEFA Champions League Final. But six goals (three scored by The Crew), a red card and a back and forth tempo made the match very entertaining. And the $1 drafts made the crowd in section 132 very entertaining too. (Big drunk dude trying to pick up on a girl who kept telling him she was gay.)

The Columbus Crew's Andres Mendoza

On the field The Crew's defense looked very disorganized and ultimately very porous. Keeper William Hesmer and the back four didn't seem like they were on the same page for the first 60 minutes of the match. Interesting as last night's starting four of Sebastian Miranda, Julius James, Chad Marshall and Rich Balchan have started almost every match this year, yet have given up seven goals in their last 3 matches, as opposed to six goals in the first 8 matches of the season.

Andres Mendoza scored two goals last night, finally showing that he deserves the DP status (and corresponding salary) the Crew have given him. Emmanuel Ekpo also scored his first goal of the year.

So The Crew is now showing some offensive punch, but their defense is not looking good at all. With their next two matches against the New York Red Bulls away and Real Salt Lake at home they are going to have a tough time getting results. Luckily they are catching both clubs at a time when they are losing several players due to CONCACF Gold Cup call-ups, not to mention that that they are both on current runs of poor form. (New York Red Bulls 0 wins in their last 5 matches, Real Salt Lake a loss and 2 draws in their last 3 matches.)

Dan Wheldon Wins the 2011 Indy 500 After Final Lap, Final Turn Crash by J.R. Hildebrand!

Wow, what a finish! Guessing Dan Wheldon feels like Nick Faldo felt when he won the 1996 Masters after Greg Norman's choke job.

FC Barcelona, Champions of Europe!

Wow, a 3-1 dismantling of a very good Manchester United team. Are they the greatest club team ever?

Congratulations FC Barcelona!

Another prediction gone wrong...

UEFA Champions League Final 2011, Predicting a Manchester United Victory!

I'm back in the prediction game. Did I get the Super Bowl right? NO!

The Oscars? NO!

The NCAA Basketball Championship? NO!

I'm due to get one right, soooooo...

Don't know why, and I certainly don't have a logical justification for this pick.

I have a gut feeling, with the UEFA Champions League Final being played at Wembley Stadium in London, England that Manchester United is going to beat FC Barcelona 2-1!

Book Review-A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) by John Kennedy Toole

I had not heard of the book A Confederacy of Dunces, written by John Kennedy Toole, until I visited New Orleans this past February. I was sitting in the lobby bar at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside with my wife Tammy and sister-in Cindy having a drink while we waited for my brother Tim to finish up with his business meeting at a convention he was attending. We had just finished exploring the French Quarter, and were talking about how great a place New Orleans was, with it's eclectic culture, and it's history, both glamorous and sordid. I mentioned that I would love to find the definitive book on New Orleans, when a gentleman sitting near us piped up that if I wanted to read a book that captured the essence of New Orleans, it was A Confederacy of Dunces.

My sister-in-law Cindy had also known of the book, so the next day when we visited Faulkner House Books in the French Quarter she purchased it for me.

This satirical novel is centered around the character Ignatius J. Reilly, an overweight, slovenly, well-educated 30 year old idealist who still lives with his mother in New Orleans. Ignatius believes that he can change society for the better, but his methods and beliefs just don't mesh with the times or the people he tries to influence.

The author, John Kennedy Toole does a brilliant job weaving multiple characters and subplots into the novel, all of which are funny and even border on the absurd. And that is the beauty of this book, as Mr. Toole is able to connect all of the subplots back to Ignatius as the book reaches it's climax.

To be clear, this book is not a lesson in New Orleans history, but rather a fictionalized look at a group of distinctly southern characters at a point in time in the early 1960's. John Kennedy Toole's ability to accurately capture the dialect of the region in the book's dialogs along with his ability to accurately describe the neighborhoods, bars and businesses in New Orleans (with emphasis on the French Quarter) as the backdrop is what makes this novel a success in capturing the essence of New Orleans.

Ultimately what makes this book so good is it is very, very funny!

Interesting side note. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 31. He had tried to get the novel published but was unsuccessful. Eleven years later, his Mother brought the unpublished manuscript to the attention of novelist Walker Percy who helped to get it published. The novel and Mr. Toole won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981.


A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great book, here's my review: http://jiresell.blogspot.com/2011/05/boo...

View all my reviews

After Further Review-Eric Brunner Was Offside, The Crew Got Screwed!

Looks like Portland's Eric Brunner (#5) was offside when the ball was crossed to him, and the assistant referee at the top of the screen was completely out of position to make the call. Brunner scored the only goal of the game off this cross in The Crew's 1-0 loss to Portland this past Saturday, 5/21/11.

Watch the video, and note there is no Crew player at the far post.

It should have been waived off!

The Western Conference Rules! Major League Soccer Power Rankings, Week 10, 5/23/11

The Los Angeles Galaxy Take Over The Top Spot This Week!

It has become very clear that the teams in the Western Conference are currently the class of the MLS, holding the top seven spots in this week's rankings.

My Week 10 Major League Soccer Power Rankings (wins-losses-draws) UP or DOWN from last week:

1)   LA Galaxy, Western Conference (6-2-5) 23 points UP
An away win (kind of, it was in the Home Depot Center) against local rival Chivas USA and some weak results by the three teams ranked ahead of the Galaxy last week earn them this week's top spot.

2)   FC Dallas, Western Conference (5-3-3) 18 points DOWN
FC Dallas is still on a pretty good run, earning them the number 2 spot this week.

3)   Portland Timbers, Western Conference (5-3-2) 17 points UP
Undefeated at home!

4)   Seattle Sounders FC, Western Conference (4-3-5) 17 points UP
Steady Seattle continues to get the job done with a win against Sporting KC.

5)   Real Salt Lake, Western Conference (5-1-2) 17 points DOWN

6)   Chivas USA, Western Conference (3-4-3) 12 points DOWN
Chivas took a tough loss this week against the Galaxy.

7)   Colorado Rapids, Western Conference (4-3-4) 16 points UP
The Rapids aren't winning a lot of games, but they aren't losing either.

8)   New York Red Bulls, Eastern Conference (4-2-4) 16 points DOWN

9)   Philadelphia Union, Eastern Conference (5-3-2) 17 points UP
With a win against Chicago, The Union take over the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

10) New England Revolution, Eastern Conference (3-4-4) 13 points DOWN
Another team victimized by the three time zone curse, losing to the Earthquakes this week.

11) San Jose Earthquakes, Western Conference (3-4-3) 12 points UP
Two wins in a row earn the Earthquakes the biggest jump in this week's rankings.

12) Columbus Crew, Eastern Conference (3-3-4) 13 points DOWN
And two West coast losses in a row earn The Crew the biggest drop in this week's rankings.

13) Toronto FC, Eastern Conference (2-4-6) 12 points DOWN

14) Houston Dynamo, Eastern Conference (3-3-5) 14 points DOWN
Allowed the New York Red Bulls an extra-time equalizer to steal a point from them at home.

15) D.C. United, Eastern Conference (3-4-3) 12 points DOWN

With the Chicago Fire and Sporting KC losing, and Vancouver idle this past week, the bottom three stay the same in this week's rankings.

16) Chicago Fire, Eastern Conference (1-4-5) 8 points

17) Vancouver Whitecaps, Western Conference (1-5-5) 8 points

18) Sporting Kansas City, Eastern Conference (1-6-1) 4 points

The Case Against Lance Armstrong

I just finished watching 60 Minutes this evening:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/20/60minutes/main20064858.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

They dedicated over 35 minutes of tonight's show to an interview with Tyler Hamilton, one of Lance Armstrong's teammates on the US Postal Service cycling team that helped lead Lance to Tour De France victories in the early 2000's.

Lance Armstrong is one of the exhibits in my Modern Museum of Gripes and Grievances. I should be clear that Lance Armstrong, through his Livestrong Foundation has single-handedly raised millions of dollars for cancer research and prevention. That is a great thing.

But Lance Armstrong is also arrogant, condescending, egotistical and generally not a likable guy. However, he is very powerful in the world of sports and particularly in cycling, and he wields that power like a sword, cutting off anyone who dares question him, his motives and ultimately his claims that he is and was clean as he won his 7 Tour de France titles.

But as was pointed out in the 60 minutes report, and as I was just reminded through a tweet from my brother Tim, Marion Jones never tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, and maintained her innocence until additional evidence proved that she had doped. She finally had to admit her guilt.

What bothers me the most about Lance Armstrong is the short and condescending way he defends himself, as if he is better than those who choose to question him in the face of overwhelming evidence. He cites the 500 plus drug tests he has never failed. It's interesting that we haven't heard him say "I have never taken performance enhancing drugs, and have never been involved in blood doping." We've only heard him say he's never failed a drug test.

So here I am, trying to strike a balance between the great work that Lance Armstrong's foundation has done to raise money for cancer research and prevention, and the fact that he is using the same influence and power that made Livestrong so successful, to continue to perpetuate his claims of innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

My Friend Tim

My friend Tim was married to my wife's sister, Amy.

My friend Tim loved his family.

My friend Tim would do anything for you, and help whenever you needed it. He would never ask for anything in return.

My friend Tim and his wife Amy were with us when my wife's water broke in a restaurant in Valparaiso, Indiana. We needed to take his brand new car to the hospital. Luckily he had towels in the trunk so we wouldn't ruin his new leather seats. Michael, our youngest was born the next day.

My friend Tim would miss a short putt, and mutter under his breath over and over "f**kin' idiot". You couldn't help but laugh. Think about the movie Boogie Nights when Philip Seymour Hoffman's character, Scotty J. tries to kiss Mark Wahlberg's character, Dirk Diggler in the driveway-and is rebuffed-you get the picture...

My friend Tim was very proud the day his son Andrew was born.

My friend Tim was so happy when his wife Amy announced she was pregnant with their second child, Emma.

My friend Tim gave me a Steelers cap when our family moved to Pittsburgh. My wife Tammy would tell you I don't have the best shaped head for caps, so I kept it in my office on a shelf. That summer Tim and his family came to visit, and when I saw the cap I thought "Tim would really like this!" When I gave it to him he thanked me, and then my wife Tammy piped up, "Geez Jim, you're an idiot, Tim gave that cap to you last Winter!" Typical of Tim, we had a great laugh over that re-gifting incident.

My friend Tim loved the Cincinnati Bengals.

My friend Tim worked his way from the age of 16 as a stock/warehouse man at Grainger to a Branch Manager. He had a great 27 year career there.

My friend Tim preferred "sprinkle cheese" on his hot dogs rather than liquid cheese.

My friend Tim and I vacationed together with our families several times in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We were fortunate that our wives would let us go golfing in the mornings, while they took care of the kids. After one of our rounds of golf we decided to stop by a nondescript hot dog stand at the side of the road for lunch. We each ordered a footlong chili cheese dog and a Diet Coke. (It was liquid cheese, by the way.) We decided that we would sit at the old picnic table outside of the stand, both of us facing the road. Not realizing the picnic table wasn't designed for two, 240 pound men to sit on one side of the table, we toppled over, but still had the foresight to grab our footlongs and drinks...and didn't spill a drop. But neither of us wanted to put our food on the ground, so we just layed there like turtles on our backs!

We buried my friend Tim this past Thursday after his untimely death on Sunday, May 15th, 2011.

I will miss my friend Tim.

Dedicated to the memory of Tim Quinlisk. With love to his wife Amy, his son Andrew and his daughter Emma.