I know nothing about football. But I understand that in the United States of America, big guys running up and down a field carrying a little ball, is close to being a religious ritual. So when 58-year-old Jim Tressel, headcoach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, was forced to resign from his $3.5 million coaching contract it was big news south of the border.
The disaster befell Tressel because, apparently he was turning a blind eye to the fact that his Ohio State University players were illegally trading signed football memorabilia for favours from the community. In September 2010 Tressel signed a form stating that he had no knowledge of any wrong-doing on the part of his players.
Apart from the fact that, apparently a College football coach in the US gets paid $3.5 million a year for his efforts, this story would have not interest, if it were not for Tressel’s reputation.
In a December 2002 “Free Republic” report titled, “Tressell’s faith in Christ evident in Ohio State team,” reporter Art Stricklin described the holy glow that surrounded the Ohio State University head coach:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–By each Friday of the 2002 college football season, the complete football game plan for the Ohio State Buckeyes has already been installed, explained and executed many times in practice.
But on Friday morning and again on Friday evening, an even more important game plan is put into place. That’s when several Ohio State coaches and later many players meet for a weekly Bible study, share and accountability time.
Looking for an explanation for the Buckeyes’ amazing 13-0 record, which has included seven fourth quarter comebacks, and carried them into a national championship match-up with Miami in January 3rd’s Fiesta Bowl?
Look no further than the faith head coach Jim Tressel and his players have shown in each other and their own spiritual progress.
“It’s certainly not a liability to be a Christian at Ohio State like it is at some places,” said Tom Rody, an Athletes’ in Action staff member who helps conduct the coaches and players study along with AIA staff member Jim Schmidtke. “The coaches provide a strong umbrella of support which helps undergird the entire program.”
Tressel has been the Buckeyes’ coach for less than two years but has taken the Scarlet and Gray back to their once familiar place at the top of the college football mountain.
Maybe not so well known is Tressel’s declaration of his job at OSU as, “my ministry,” and his faithful attendance at the early Friday morning coaches Bible study, held in the Buckeye coaches’ meeting room.
“The coach has been nothing short of great to us,” said Schmidtke, who counts Tressel as a true Christian brother regardless of the outcome of this week’s game. “He is an active proponent of Christianity to all those around him, but even more important is the way he lives his values and his walk with God.”
His star players have been quick to pick up on the positive message delivered through the Ohio State program.
“Football is very important to me at Ohio State, but its importance pales in comparison of Jesus Christ in my life,” said starting cornerback Dustin Fox. “It helps keep me strong during all what we’ve been through, to walk straight and stay in the word.”
Treseel’s knowledge that his players were engaged in activities that broke league rules has been documented since at least 2002. The praying, Bible studying, Christ preaching coach was covering up for his players misdeeds and, when challenged to sign a document claiming their innocence, apparently knowingly lied to his employers.
No doubt we all lead double lives to some extent. But the brazen disconnect between Tressel’s public profession of faith and his private action is startling. Just a year ago Jim Tressel was inducted into the Christian Atheletes in Action “Hall of Faith.” It is an honour given in recognition of the recipients’ faith, leadership, character, and integrity.
People wanted to believe in Jim Tressel. They wanted to trust him. He was a winning coach.Evidently no one cared to look too carefully at his real life. They heard the right religious words, assumed he was “one of us,” and cut him enough slack to enable him to lie his way through six seasons of college ball.
We need to look deeper than words. Faith does manifest in action. But, Jesus was clear that the actions of faith start in the heart. Seeing hearts means taking time to really pay attention to one another and not automatically trust that when you hear the right words they necessarily indicate a heart that is in the right place.
Authentic human relationships may be the first guard against the kind of disconnect that the Jim Tressel story illustrates. Faith is not a cover behind which to hide. Faith is a tool that is intended to enable us to live more honestly, more transparently, and more authentically.
Jim Tressel’s “faith” may have landed him in the “Hall of Faith.” It does not seem to have done much to enable him to live as a more genuine human being.
In A Spacious Place 
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June 4, 2011 at 7:57 am
Kim
Major College football is a religion itself south of the border. It can reasonably be argued that it has been too big a sport in America for decades now. with upwards of 90,000 in attendance at the largest university’s each Saturday, the millions that the team brings to the school each year is staggering. The football team underwrites all the other sports, mens and women’s, the college offers as well as general funds. The money corrupts most in authority to one degree or another in all the major football colleges. The only ones seen not to benefit are the players creating the wealth. They are amateur athletes. Usually it is wealthy alumni who hand the players cash in the background. But what are these young men learning when this aspect of their life exists alongside the witnessing of Christ by both fellow players and coaches? It can’t bode well for them in the future when they fade from the spotlight.
June 4, 2011 at 2:35 pm
inaspaciousplace
Wow!
How do you know all this?
And what a devastating insight about the possible future for these young athletes. It seems a desperately sad scenario all around.
June 4, 2011 at 11:00 am
jaqueline
If all faith in Christ becomes is a form of identifying ‘your people’ then you do not feel any contradiction with anything you do to further your ‘people’ and feel no shame in disregarding others or other rules outside of that circle. Tressell’s actions and lies are consistent with that sort of mentality.
June 4, 2011 at 2:38 pm
inaspaciousplace
yes! this is most helpful. Increasingly I believe that Jesus came to deconstruct the whole ‘your people’ vision. He wanted us to see that we are part of our people. We must learn that we cannot act with impunity in any way that harms anyone, because harm to anyone, harms everyone. Let us choose no-harm.