So, a liar and a juicer walk into a Hall of Fame …
That’s the easy setup after seeing Jim Tressel and Brian Bosworth were selected for the College Football Hall of Fame on Friday.
How could a coach who is still serving his show-cause penalty from the fallout from TattooGate at Ohio State be let in the Hall of Fame? How could a linebacker who was suspended for a failed drug test, mocked the NCAA on national television and was kicked off the team before his senior season be let in, too? Cue the selective Twitter outrage.
That's college football, right? If this were baseball…
Stop, right there. This isn’t baseball. That's a good thing. They've been dealing with that same juicer-and-a-liar setup for years. That’s the Hall of Fame that won't let the game’s all-time hits leader (Pete Rose) or all-time home run leader (Barry Bonds) in because of irreversible morality. Rose did his time. Bonds is the best player of all time. The fact Rose and Bonds aren’t in a Hall of Fame is infinitely more laughable.
Bosworth and Tressel were products of the same win-or-else surroundings, and they delivered on the field. Find a more dominant college middle linebacker than Bosworth the past 30 years. Good luck. He won two Butkas awards and tackled everything. Find a better coach in the BCS era than Tressel. Good luck with that, too. No Power 5 program had a better record from 2001-10 than Ohio State (106-21).
Tressel went 9-1 against Michigan. Bosworth never lost to Texas. Chances are that’s remembered in Columbus and Norman because it weighs more than those scandals.
Bosworth learned his lesson in the NFL, where he lasted just three seasons. He's waited longer than Rose for this redemption. Tressel, now the president at Youngstown State University, likely won’t coach again because of that show-cause penalty that comes with a suspension upon his return.
A Hall of Fame isn't a church, but Bosworth and Tressel have been forgiven anyway. There’s less pretense in college football than baseball, even if that margin is small. There's the lesson.
The MLB Hall of Fame voting process is unbearable. Should we let Rose in? Bonds? Roger Clemens? Mark McGwire? Yes, we should. Those guys also were products of the environment, too. Who didn’t want Rose to get all those hits? Or Bonds all those homers? They also gave more to the game than they took away.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the only one that operates with no pretense. Paul Hornung, Lawrence Taylor and Warren Sapp are in. Ray Lewis will follow. Adrian Peterson will be an interesting judgment call. Before you pass judgment there, ask yourself a question: What’s America’s favorite sport right now? Again, it's not close.
So, what message does that send to our children? I don’t know; do you know how to get that message out via Twitter, Instagram and Vine? How about telling them these guys made their choice and paid the consequences. If you lie or cheat, you are going to get caught. You won’t do performance-enhancing drugs in this house. That speech beats a Nike commercial every time.
It’s not necessarily right that Tressel and Bosworth are in the Hall of Fame, but let’s be honest: Do you even know who is in or out of the College Football Hall of Fame? Do you even know where it is? Does it really matter that much to you that Tressel and Bosworth are in?
Cooperstown, meanwhile, clutches this moral superiority complex instead of seeing the sport for what it is. It’s entertainment. It’s a game. Bonds and Rose provided that and then some. Who else does? Alex Rodriguez.
So go ahead. Tee off on Bosworth and Tressel. That’s for those who have all the questions but no answers, and with each class in every sport the notion of a Hall of Fame continues to be more outdated. Anybody expecting something more in any sport is the real punchline. Give it about 20 years and see how things don't change.
By then, we'll be talking about Jameis Winston for the Hall of Fame. Will we be still talking about Bonds and Rose?
