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Ohio State to Pryor: Stay away
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
FILE-This Jan. 1, 2010 file photo shows Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, left, and MVP Terrelle Pryor celebrating after winning the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game against Oregon in Pasadena, Calif. The Ohio State quarterback, full of potential but surrounded by controversy, announced through his attorney on Tuesday June 7, 2011, that he would give up what remained of his senior season. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill,File)
Associated Press
COLUMBUS
Terrelle Pryor’s lawyer wanted Ohio State to make it clear to the NFL that his client could not return to the Buckeyes. So Ohio State not only declared its former quarterback would not have played at any time during the 2011 season but also banned him from any contact with the school’s athletic program for the next five years.
In a letter from Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith dated Tuesday, Smith said that Pryor was ineligible because he failed to cooperate with NCAA and Ohio State investigators. He then added, “The university must also dissociate you from its athletic program for a period of five years.”
That means that Pryor can have no contact with recruits or enrolled Buckeyes, cannot accept complimentary tickets to home games and cannot use the team’s athletic facilities.
Smith didn’t rule out the use of all campus facilities, however.
“Please note that this dissociation does NOT prohibit you from enrolling in classes at the university to complete your degree,” Smith wrote. “As you know, I would encourage you to complete your degree.”
There had been whispers that the NFL might not offer Pryor a spot in a potential supplemental draft in the waning days of this lockout-shortened summer because he had only been suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season for accepting improper benefits from a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner. Pryor was at the center of an ongoing series of controversies that led to coach Jim Tressel’s forced resignation on May 30.
The NFL’s rules state a supplemental draft is open to “any player who is ineligible.” Since Pryor still could have played the second half of the 2011 season, there was still a question whether he could have regained his eligibility and played.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league has not decided anything about a prospective supplemental draft, nor has it considered the status of Pryor.
“We have not set a date for the supplemental draft nor made any determinations on the eligibility of individual players,” Aiello said in an email to The Associated Press.
Pryor’s Columbus lawyer, Larry James, said he sought the letter from Smith to rule out any chance of Pryor playing again in college, although that seemed extremely unlikely since he has hired agent Drew Rosenhaus and has been working out in Florida for the past several weeks.