Lunatic Ohio State football fans are bad for sports

Where some national fans see a Buckeye homer trying to cover his tracks on the air, some fraction of Ohio State fans see Herbstreit's efforts at objectivity toward OSU as a betrayal.

Per an interview with the Columbus Dispatch:

The Columbus lawyer who tipped off Ohio State coach Jim Tressel that two of his players were involved in a federal drug trafficking case has received death threats.

Tressel has admitted he violated NCAA rules for not disclosing information Cicero e-mailed to him. He repeatedly refrained from telling Ohio State’s compliance department or his superiors about potential NCAA bylaw violations involving some of his players.

In the first e-mail from Cicero, at 2:32 p.m. on April 2, 2010, Cicero said that Ohio State players were giving autographed Buckeyes football shirts, jerseys and footballs to a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner who was under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in a drug-trafficking case. “Just passing this on to you,” Cicero wrote. Exactly four hours later, Tressel replied: “Thanks. I will get on it ASAP.” However, the coach did not tell Smith or anyone in his compliance department until officials presented him with the e-mails in January [2011].

Cicero said he had received death threats in the past few days since his role in Tressel’s NCAA violation came to light. Yahoo! Sports first reported on Monday that Tressel had prior knowledge of the improper benefits involving his players. Tressel said at Tuesday’s news conference that he did not disclose the information from Cicero because he was concerned about preserving the confidentiality of a federal drug investigation.

Tressel signed an NCAA Certificate of Compliance Form—on which indicated he had no knowledge of any possible NCAA violations—on Sept. 13, 2010. He also did not report the information he had received from Cicero when university officials told him on Dec. 9 that players had sold memorabilia to Rife and that the U.S. Attorney was pursuing a case against Rife. On Dec. 16, Tressel was asked if he had been contacted on the memorabilia matter and he replied “that while he received a tip about general rumors pertaining to certain of his players, that information had not been specific, and it pertained to their off-field choices,” the university said in its formal letter to the NCAA regarding Tressel’s violation.

Bruce Hooley, who hosted the early afternoon "Big Show" on 97.1 with Chris Spielman and admittedly was never in the bag for OSU, was removed from the air because he had the temerity to call for harsher punishment for Jim Tressel. Maybe he can move into Kirk Herbstreit's new house in Nashville.

I don’t envy the talk hosts currently in the business of giving their opinions on WBNS, for obvious reasons. Ohio State’s bungled response to football coach Jim Tressel’s confirmed major NCAA violation - which includes a contradictory defense from the coach himself - leaves any talk host with a fiber of integrity no choice but to criticize the school’s mishandling of the affair.

Before today, I couldn’t begin to conceptualize how difficult it must be for current WBNS hosts thanks to Ohio State’s multiple, admitted NCAA and ethical indiscretions. Though from I’ve been told happened at WBNS the past week, I now have a pretty good idea.

Today the highest-rated talk host at WBNS, Bruce Hooley, announced that he was leaving the station. A station source told me today that Hooley’s January monthly ratings were higher than the station’s Ohio State football-bolstered fall ratings. With the winter radio ratings period ending shortly, Hooley was likely in line for a ratings bonus from WBNS.

I’ve never met Hooley but from what I’ve heard of his WBNS work over the years, he’s the same direct, informative and honest guy about Ohio State as he was in print. Sometimes brutally honest.

In other words, a rare breed in the ultimate college town.

So why did Hooley walk out on WBNS?

A station source told me today that Hooley was called into a meeting at WBNS last Wednesday. The meeting was expressly timed by station management to catch Hooley before he was able to first comment on Ohio State’s press conference the day before in which it announced its NCAA violation. I was told today that Hooley was instructed by WBNS management not to “scorch the earth” when giving his thoughts on what turned about to be an OSU public relations botch job of epic proportion.

n listening to a portion of Hooley’s subsequent Wednesday show, I heard him say that as an Ohio State alumnus, he was tired of Tressel’s program embarrassing the school. Hooley then listed other past NCAA violations on Tressel’s watch at OSU (Maurice Clarett, Troy Smith, Tattoogate) and Youngstown State. (YSU QB Ray Isaac testified in federal court under oath that a booster Tressel introduced him to, Mickey Monus, gave him $10,000 and “2-3″ cars why he was playing for the Penguins.)

After losing Spielman, Hooley’s importance to WBNS was doubly important. When Hooley entered WBNS, Herbstreit and Spielman were an everyday radio staple for Columbus Buckeyes fans. Now with Herbstreit and Spielman essentially gone from the Buckeye flagship, Hooley was by far the highest-profile and most credible personality at the station.

But - from what I’ve been told by a station source - Vanstone’s tone deaf managerial style along with onerous on-air oversight by station PD Taylor, as with Spielman, is what caused Hooley to also leave the station.

I did my final shows Wednesday and Thursday of last week in the aftermath of the press conference at Ohio State announcing head coach Jim Tressel's NCAA violations in the Tattoo-Gate case. My show was pre-empted Friday by Ohio State's opener in the Big Ten Tournament. Late Friday afternoon, my attorney, Bret Adams, received a call telling me not to report to work on Monday. Mr. Van Stone said he wanted to meet with Bret to discuss re-assigning me to other duties. That's when Bret and I suggested we explore a separation that would be satisfactory to both parties.

It's certainly the right of 97.1 to employ whoever they want for however long they want. I appreciate they're honoring my contract to the end of its term. That's partially why I had to cancel an appointment to appear on John Corby's top-rated afternoon show yesterday on 610 WTVN. John asked me to come on to give me a chance to say goodbye to my listeners. The terms of my separation agreement with WBNS allow me to guest on local and national shows, but WBNS objected to be being on John's show. It's not worth the hassle to involve attorneys now when everything was settled amicably between us. I'll continue to write for FoxSportsOhio.com on Big Ten athletics.