TJ Downing was arrested Sunday night for drug trafficking,
felony drug abuse, and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle. Head
Coach Jim Tressel responded this week by saying the incident shows that achievement
in football doesn’t make a person who they are. To hear of the incident hurt
the Buckeye’s coach.
By Steve Patterson
TJ Downing Found with Drugs and a Firearm
Two year starting offensive guard TJ
Downing left Ohio State the same year Ted Ginn Jr and Troy Smith went
to the NFL, 2006 after a bad loss to Florida
in the National Championship Game. He made his may to the Arizona Cardinals as
a free agent but did not make the team. With residence in Sunbury outside of Columbus, Downing was pulled over in Grandview Heights
for a missing front license plate and dark tinted windows. Officers found
marijuana, cocaine, and oxycontin in his car, and a pistol in his truck.
Those Thing Hurt
Coach
Tressel was asked about the incident this week at his weekly press conference.
“Those things hurt, you know, and I haven't had a chance to talk with him and I
don't know, I'm not judge and jury, I don't know what allegedly is the case or
not the case, but anytime you hear of something as disappointing, even if it's
alleged, that puts a knot in your stomach and it just reminds you that it's a
difficult transition.” He said about the arrest.
Not An Easy Transition
Sometimes
the transition from football to a non-football lifestyle is difficult for
players, Tressel explained. “Look at all these cameras and all this stuff and
then two years later, there aren't all this cameras and all this stuff and
that's not an easy transition and it's just a reminder that we've got to keep
working hard to -- I don't want to get on the pulpit, but there's a bigger
difference between what you do and who you are.” He said about his life
philosophy.
He
explained the problem between being praised for your success on the field and
trying to be successful as a person when you are not involved in the sport. “Sometimes,
I hate to say it, because of all this and because of aunts and uncles and
everyone else telling us we're out of this world, we start thinking that what
we do is what gives us our value and we've just got to keep working on helping
ourselves understand that it's who we are that really is important, but it
hurts. I guess a shorter answer to a tough question, it hurts.”