'EYES OF THE STORM

OSU contradicts itself in Meyer excuse

I N OTHER words, what did Urban Meyer know and when did he cease knowing it? Either Meyer knew that one of his longtime assistant coaches was a recidivist wife-beater or he didn’t. Yet, in suspending Meyer for three games, Ohio State claims both.

Read for yourself. According to a statement from Ohio St., Meyer never “condoned or covered up the alleged domestic abuse by Zach Smith, [but] failed to take sufficient management action relating to Zach Smith’s misconduct and retained an Assistant Coach who was not performing as an appropriate role model for OSU student-athletes.”

Double-talk. How was it that Meyer, the Buckeyes-stop-here boss, didn’t “condone” or “cover up” such conduct if he knew of it but ignored it? Did he ignore it because he didn’t feel it was a big deal or because he knew it was?

It’s a laughable contradiction, if only it were funny. Yet, a panel of OSU investigators signed its names to such an absurd conclusion.

Perhaps such a compromised decision came easily given that OSU signed Meyer for $7 million per and a $21 million severance package despite running a University of Florida football program that succeeded through the annual recruitment of what pandering media call “distractions,” code for full scholarship football players under arrest.

In “role model” Meyer, OSU was eager to hire a conspicuously compromised leader of “student-athletes,” one who professes deep spiritual devotion, no less.

Also last week, Ohio State’s Big Ten partner since 2014, Rutgers, continued to bleed millions in taxpayers’ and students’ money in the name of chasing big-time football glory, whatever it takes.

Eight recruits were charged with credit card theft and fraud. Two with the additional charge of “organized street crime.”

That brings, since 2015, the number of arrested RU football recruits to at least 15, including the one from Texas who never quite made it to campus as he was charged with the rape of a minor.

In 2015, six RU football players were arrested for a pile of serious offenses on and near campus, including armed robbery, breaking and entering and assaults.

At the time, rah-rah RU fan Gov. Chris Christie played the no-big-deal pandering fool, the kind commonly found among bigshot boosters in big-time college football and basketball but otherwise smaller towns.

“Rutgers is dealing with disciplinary problems with teenagers. This is not shocking, you know. I’m a father of four [and] having disciplinary problems with teenagers is the normal course on a college campus.

“The breathless media coverage of all of this — and every time there’s a problem or some indication of a problem, some deepseated problem at Rutgers — man, you guys gotta find something else to do.”

Several of those “teenagers” however, weren’t. One was 23. This year, Tejay Johnson, now 26, pleaded guilty to three armed robberies and was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years.

Another, RU player Andre Boggs, was sentenced to 12 years for typical teenage mischief: forced entry into a home while armed with a bat and a knife and robbing a student of $900 in cash.

Yes, the media blew it out of proportion. After all, the 19-year-old student who had his jaw broken by one of five street-fighting RU players — the victim, in a hassle over a parking spot, was then kicked — wasn’t Christie’s kid. The perps included 22-year-old WR/DB Ruhann Peele, arrested for assault three times in 14 months.

With Christie unavailable to run the pigskin, this time it was left to RU athletic director Pat Hobbs:

“We are very disappointed and frus- trated. We have been working extremely hard to build a culture of excellence across the department and this news detracts from the great strides we have made.”

But once you buy into the big-time college football “culture” — once you have to win games to fill the new stadium and play in big bowl games, pay millions to coaches and spend a fortune to attract recruits with lavish players’ lounges, before you can hope to begin to reverse millions in debt applied to such a non-academic pursuit — the “culture” owns you.

Doesn’t matter if its Ohio State, Florida or Rutgers. You’re all in or all out. The culture owns you.