Fans are great.
Fans are sports.
Fans make sports.
There are no games without fans, no million-dollar contracts for coaches and players, no billion-dollar television deals. But sometimes, fans make me shake my head. Sometimes, they go too far.
I’m talking about you, Ohio State fans, and you, San Francisco Giants fans.
Just writing about you this week makes me feel dirty and want to take a shower.
ESPN reported that more than 23,000 Ohio State fans had signed a digital petition as of Monday morning to keep Urban Meyer from being “wrongfully fired.” A rally in support of Meyer at Ohio Stadium was scheduled for Monday night. It doesn’t matter if Meyer violated his contract with his handling of long-time assistant Zach Smith over multiple domestic-abuse issues. Ohio State fans are going to back him blindly because he wins games, brings millions into the university and makes Columbus relevant on Saturdays in the fall.
Giants fans will have their low moment Saturday night before the Pirates play at AT&T Park. Barry Bonds’ No. 25 jersey will be retired. It doesn’t matter that Bonds is linked to performance-enhancing drugs and is such a pariah in baseball that he probably won’t be voted into the Hall of Fame even though he is one of the five greatest players of all time. A sellout crowd will turn out to honor him.
I know, I shouldn’t be surprised.
Fans are pretty much the same everywhere. They want their team to win with good, decent human beings. But they will settle for winning. Winning is all that matters.
Hardly anyone in college football does more of that than Meyer, who has a 73-8 record at Ohio State, is 6-0 against Michigan and won a national championship in 2014. He also won national titles at Florida in 2006 and 2008. That’s why Ohio State fans were thrilled when the university hired Meyer in 2012 despite his history of recruiting and playing unsavory characters at Florida.
A total of 31 players were arrested there in his six seasons as head coach with at least 10 accused of violent crimes. Aaron Hernandez, who was later convicted of murder, played for Meyer at Florida. So did former Steelers running back Chris Rainey, who was suspended for four games in 2010 after being charged with aggravated stalking of a girlfriend. The Steelers released Rainey in 2013 after just one season after he was arrested on one count of simple battery after an argument with a girlfriend over his cellphone.
Smith was a graduate assistant on Meyer’s staff at Florida in 2009 when he was arrested for allegedly shoving his pregnant wife against a wall. Charges were dropped because of insufficient evidence. Meyer brought Smith with him to Ohio State and kept him on staff after more domestic-abuse allegations from Smith’s wife in 2015. Again, no charges were filled. It wasn’t until July 23, after national football writer Brett McMurphy reported numerous other, more recent allegations against Smith, that Meyer fired Smith.
If nothing else, we know Meyer is a liar. He stood front and center at Big Ten Conference media day July 24 and said he didn’t know about the 2015 allegations against Smith. After McMurphy provided proof that Meyer did know, Meyer was placed on paid administrative leave by Ohio State while it launched an investigation into the matter. Meyer, who is due to make $7.6 million this season, went on Twitter Friday and said he always has reported instances of criminal behavior to the proper authorities. He made it clear he told Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith about the 2015 incident. He apologized for his misleading comments at media day.
The Ohio State University announced Sunday night it expected its investigation of Meyer to be concluded within two weeks — about two weeks before the Buckeyes open their season against Oregon State at home. I’ll be shocked if Meyer isn’t on the sideline. His defense for sticking with Smith will be that no charges were filed against him. Anyway, we know how adverse Ohio State is to firing a highly successful coach. Remember then-university president E. Gordon Gee’s response when asked about the possibility of dismissing Jim Tressel after news broke in 2011 about Ohio State players receiving improper benefits? “Are you kidding? Let me just be very clear: I’m just hoping the coach doesn’t dismiss me.” Tressel, who won the national championship at Ohio State in 2002, was forced to resign in May 2011 after lying to his bosses and the NCAA. The NCAA found his transgressions so egregious that it imposed a five-year show-cause penalty against him, effectively banning him from coaching in college. Here’s the part that still amazes me: Tressel, who was deemed unfit to coach college athletes, was hired as Youngstown State president in May 2014. Only in America.
If Ohio State is looking for someone to fire, it will be Gene Smith. It won’t be Meyer.
Bonds wasn’t the winner that Meyer is, although he led the Giants to the postseason four times, including the 2002 World Series. What he did do was bring attention to the team by becoming — at least statistically — the greatest home run hitter in baseball history. No one in the Bay Area seems too troubled that Bonds did it unethically. All that mattered was that his home runs were majestic. Some people will tell you those home runs led to the approval of a ballot measure to build AT&T Park. I almost can hear the roars from the crowd Saturday night.
Can a Bonds statue be far behind?
Fans, you gotta love them.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter @RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Poni” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: August 7, 2018, 9:45 a.m.
