Photo courtesy of Facebook

By Scott Salowich

In lieu of celebrating a trip to a bowl game, Ohio State chose to honor notorious former head football coach Jim Tressel and those members of his glorious 2002 national championship team that are not currently in stir during the season-ending game against Michigan.

What a wonderful moment.

Give a guy a second chance, I say. This is America, after all, which we know because (like Nixon, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Colson and all the other Watergate criminals) Tressel prominently displays the American flag on his chest whenever he is allowed to leave the home.

Ooops, wait a sec.

Ohio State was Tressel's second chance after his criminality was exposed at Youngstown State.
What the hell? Give a guy a third chance I always say.

I'm sure Buckeye fans of all species found tears in their eyes (or whatever other ocular organs they may possess) when Tressel and his ankle-tethered legions return to the scene of their greatest accomplishments for a 10th anniversary bow.

The fact that the warden has ordered that many of them have their shoelaces taken away could have been viewed as a mini-tribute to Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson but, given the magnitude of this event, I think it's unfair that Michigan was not allowed to play a bigger role in the festivities.

Convicted Unabomber Ted Kaczynski earned a PhD from Ann Arbor and would have been a fit for a halftime handshake at the 50 with St. Jim.

Reports are that such a ceremony was in the works until somebody down there decided that it would be tough to keep Ted away from the tuba that the guy who won the chug-a-lug contest at OSU band camp in June held while he famously "dotted the 'i' in script Ohio" before the game.

It would have been a real shame if that thing had gone kablammo and left a divot in the turf that a kick returner may have tripped on.