Series of Scandals Led to Fall of Ohio State's Tressel

Ohio State’s vaunted football coach Jim Tressel resigned suddenly yesterday, and a new Sports Illustrated story may explain why. The piece on Tressel details a “pattern” of broken rules under his coaching, all amid much praise from other football heavyweights for his “steadiness” and “integrity.” The latest crisis occurred when it emerged that players were trading team merch for tattoos, which Tressel initially said he knew nothing about before admitting he had long known—echoing his response to a series of earlier infractions. Among SI's findings:

• In the mid-1990s at Youngstown State, Tressel said he wasn’t aware that a school trustee gave one of his players a car and $10,000; court documents later showed Tressel had told the player to meet with the trustee.
• An OSU player close to Tressel in 2003 also scored some money, but the coach said he didn’t know of any rule-breaking.
• Soon after, a booster gave another player $500, and though the booster had faced a probe in another incident, Tressel said he knew nothing of it.
  
  Click through for more on Tressel’s career.

(More Sports Illustrated stories.)