Warm Fuzzies

Now you're not going to find a lot of love for Jim Tressel on this site. And you're actually not going to find a whole lot in this particular blog, either. But I wanted to comment on this story that probably won't receive much attention otherwise.

A lot of college football fans have heard of former Penn State CB Adam Taliaferro. He broke his neck and was paralyzed making a tackle against Ohio State on September 23, 2000. He walked out of a hospital four months later and I was in the stands when he led the Lions out of tunnel against Miami to start the season the next fall. I gotta tell you, it brought tears to my eyes. It was one of the most memorable moments from a season where we finished 5-6. Really, the whole Taliaferro story is one of the highlights over the 1999-2004 seasons.

But I watched the game in which Taliaferro got injured. The play on which he was injured was a 30-yard bomb by OSU with about 1:30 left in the fourth quarter - a game which they were already leading 45-6. So I always took this as a really jerky move by Tressel's predecessor. Now that I fault anyone in particular for a freak injury - just that such things should not have to happen when you're up by so much and should be running the clock out. This was just a jerky move that led to added risk to everyone involved. But to the credit of the OSU staff, everyone lent a hand when needed.

But I send a nod to Tressel when he called Taliaferro recently when one of his own players suffered a similar injury. This was a classy move to help his player by getting advice an encouragment from someone who had been there before and it was good of Tressel to make the contact for him. Kudos to Tressel. You'll likely never hear me say that again.

Also, of note, if you read into the article a little bit - is that OSU is trying out their punter at WR. Missing Santonio Holmes already, huh? :-)