Lessons to learn from Jim Tressel

It's Sunday morning, the perfect time to learn some life lessons. So with the career of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel  going up in flames as we speak, I think there a few lessons we can learn from the nasty little situation he has put himself in.

Lesson #1 - Think twice, hit forward once.
Emails are can be very dangerous things. One click and suddenly your entire office knows you have that crush on Jessica Rabbit and you're explaining to your boss why a video of a bulldog  and stuffed Pokemon going at it with love songs in the background is funny. - Trust me if they don't already find it funny, you'll never be able to explain it.

Tressel forwarded the email regarding his players without thinking of what it might mean in the grand scheme of things. He simply figured it was the easy way out of a tricky situation that he could then wash his hands of.

If only he would have taken a few moments to ponder the ripple effect. To wonder what would happen if people learned he caught a whiff of this and swept it under the rug. If he would have done that, I'm not so sure he hits send.

Lesson #2 - If you are already in trouble, you might as well just get it all out there.
When the heat is on, you are already caught, and a stiff punishment is staring you in the face, go ahead and let it all out. Go ahead and toss in the lamp you broke, the bad grade in Chemistry, and the fact you were caught skipping gym.

Every kid knows a parent can only punish you so much at one time. You can only get spanked so many times in one outting before your old man's tennis elbow  kicks in, so why let him rest it? Why not drop it all on them at once, take your medicine, and avoid your folks feeling like you were trying to pull one on them?

Tressel had his chance more than once to fess up to this whole mess, but rather than dump it all out there at once he chose to stay zipped up. He chose to hold back and now he isn't confessing as much as he is being captured. His punishment, which has already grown from two to five games, will no doubt continue to progress as more details come out and more folks feel like they were taken for a ride.

Lesson #3 - The right thing in the real world, isn't always the right thing in the sports world.
Think about this for a second. If you caught your kid smoking on the corner would you rat  him out to the cops? Or might you be tempted to see if his older brother, whom he looks up to, could give him a nudge in the right direction?

I'm guessing the latter and why? Because it's the right thing to do. Even though your kid is breaking the law, my money says you'd still try and curb the Camel Light habit in a way other than reporting it to officials.

Now consider this. What the Ohio State players did, wasn't illegal. Heck , it wouldn't even be a bad idea - depending on the choice of  tattoos - in the regular world. But they don't live in the regular world, they live in the world of college sports and there it is considered a top-tier crime.

When we hear about these athletes and coaches getting in "trouble," let's just keep it in perspective. Generally they are simply breaking NCAA rules, which isn't good, but also weren't sent down from heaven on tablets.