Ohio State wrestling documentary released today on HBO Max

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Anyone watch this yet?

https://www.hbo.com/surviving-ohio-state

[AgaveMaria]

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jun/17/ohio-state-sexual-abuse-scandal

You can read a bit about it here.

 

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Significantly, Hellickson’s lead assistant during much of Strauss’s tenure was Jim Jordan – the two-time NCAA wrestling champion turned Freedom Caucus congressman and Donald Trump bootlick. While Jordan would register his share of on-the-record denials at the time, a number of former wrestlers say in the film that Jordan reached out to them privately and pushed them to change their stories in hopes of making the scandal, and the growing scrutiny on him, go away.

The story bookends a shocking testimonial from Frederick Feeney, a respected wrestling referee who alleges that Strauss pleasured himself as the ref was showering after officiating a meet decades ago. “The next thing I know, I’m feeling his hand on my butt,” Feeney says to camera, choking back the emotion. “It affected me so bad that I didn’t even respond to him, when I should’ve knocked him on his ass at that point. But I didn’t. As I’m walking out [of the locker room], Russ Hellickson and Jim Jordan were both standing there. I looked at both of them and said, Strauss was in there masturbating beside me in the shower. Jim Jordan looked at me straight in my face and said, ‘It’s Strauss. You know what he does.’”

[ionel]

1 hour ago, Jimmy Cinnabon said:

 

Significantly, Hellickson’s lead assistant during much of Strauss’s tenure was Jim Jordan – the two-time NCAA wrestling champion turned Freedom Caucus ...

You lost me at caucus.

[Hammerlock3]

24 minutes ago, ionel said:

You lost me at caucus.

what you don't enjoy the idea of a convo with JC with an added layer of pompous political musings?

[ionel]

7 minutes ago, Hammerlock3 said:

what you don't enjoy the idea of a convo with JC with an added layer of pompous political musings?

ahh ... let me think about that ... NO

[Winners Circle]

13 hours ago, AgaveMaria said:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jun/17/ohio-state-sexual-abuse-scandal

You can read a bit about it here.

 

Or here: 

There's three whole pages about it.

[MPhillips]

 

[TNwrestling]

The fact Jim says he had no idea this happened and that it was a political hit job by the democrats is absolutely abhorrent. 

[fishbane]

There was an in depth feature on the Jordan and the scandal in the Washington Post a couple years ago when Jordan was attempting to become speaker of the house.  Below is the link to it.  One can circumvent the paywall by changing to reader view in their browser.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/jim-jordan/

This was the satement from Jordan's office when the scadal came to light in 2018 “Congressman Jordan never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State.”

[Voice of the Quakers]

If you know anything about the way colleges operated then (and now)...

• Everyone at Ohio State knew about the doctor.
• Plenty of people complained about him.
• Those who complained were told by the administration to pound sand.
• As such, friends and teammates warned their friends and teammates about the doctor and told them to make the best of it.

It's laughable to think that Jordan could've done anything about the doctor then. And, yes, whether you agree with Jordan's politics or not, his political opponents are going to make hay about it. They do not accept his denials, nor would they forgive him if he changed course and said he did know.

Hopefully, one more documentary on this type of "incident" means there will be one less similar case in the future.  But, be forever warned - predators are going to go where the kids are, and there's lot's of kids on athletic teams and at college campuses.

[AgaveMaria]

4 hours ago, TNwrestling said:

The fact Jim says he had no idea this happened and that it was a political hit job by the democrats is absolutely abhorrent. 

Jordan will make a public announcement to clear this up right after his committee holds public hearings on how Joe Biden caused the Civil War and is responsible for Rabies and disease carrying Mosquitoes.

[The Kid]

1 hour ago, AgaveMaria said:

Jordan will make a public announcement to clear this up right after his committee holds public hearings on how Joe Biden caused the Civil War and is responsible for Rabies and disease carrying Mosquitoes.

Ok.  Sounds like an interesting press conference. 

[MNRodent]

I'm in the middle of watching this now.  Very creepy.  Coaches, referees, athletes, doctors, all showering together on a regular basis, wtf?  

[bnwtwg]

9 hours ago, TNwrestling said:

The fact Jim says he had no idea this happened and that it was a political hit job by the democrats is absolutely on par

FIFY

[bnwtwg]

6 hours ago, Voice of the Quakers said:

If you know anything about the way colleges operated then (and now)...

• Everyone at Ohio State knew about the doctor.
• Plenty of people complained about him.
• Those who complained were told by the administration to pound sand.
• As such, friends and teammates warned their friends and teammates about the doctor and told them to make the best of it.

It's laughable to think that Jordan could've done anything about the doctor then. And, yes, whether you agree with Jordan's politics or not, his political opponents are going to make hay about it. They do not accept his denials, nor would they forgive him if he changed course and said he did know.

Hopefully, one more documentary on this type of "incident" means there will be one less similar case in the future.  But, be forever warned - predators are going to go where the kids are, and there's lot's of kids on athletic teams and at college campuses.

Denny Hastert, Republican speaker of the house, was brought to justice. But it's laughable to think the same could happen amiright

[fishbane]

5 hours ago, bnwtwg said:

Denny Hastert, Republican speaker of the house, was brought to justice. But it's laughable to think the same could happen amiright

Are you being sarcastic?  My understanding is that Hastert's crimes happened in the late 70s/early 80s and by the time they had come to light the statute of limitations had long passed.  The only thing he was convicted of was structuring for how he was making the withdrawals to pay the hush money to his victims.  He was sentenced to 15 months, which was above the sentencing guidelines for structuring. He was released after 13 months and is free now.  He had also been retired for years from Congress so the only political hit he took was that he could no longer work as a lobbyist.  Still collects his congressional pension.

In this case Strauss died years before the scandal became public.  So he couldn't even be held to account at all.

[GimJustafan]

11 hours ago, MNRodent said:

I'm in the middle of watching this now.  Very creepy.  Coaches, referees, athletes, doctors, all showering together on a regular basis, wtf?  

creepy is understatement / made it thru about half of the first episode 

follows the ref into showers / ref tells coaches   their response oh that's just Strauss 

 

 

[GimJustafan]

4 hours ago, fishbane said:

 

In this case Strauss died years before the scandal became public.  So he couldn't even be held to account at all.

to be clear he committed suicide in 2005 

[Ragu]

In the middle of my watch and I'm a young guy so I had never heard of any of this. The men who are coming forward and sharing their story for all to hear is incredibly brave

[1032004]

1 hour ago, GimJustafan said:

to be clear he committed suicide in 2005 

I don’t believe there is any indication that his crimes are why he committed suicide though.  I just read an article saying the investigation found it may have been due to “pain problems”

[TNwrestling]

20 hours ago, TNwrestling said:

The fact Jim says he had no idea this happened and that it was a political hit job by the democrats is absolutely abhorrent. 

@Fred @Saylors_Tiny_Willie

I'm assuming since you used the clown emoji to react to this post that you agree with Jim Jordan and that nothing ever actually happened at Ohio State? Because that's been his argument from day one. Nothing ever happened, but if it did he didnt know about it. 

[NotThatDave]

15 hours ago, AgaveMaria said:

Jordan will make a public announcement to clear this up right after his committee holds public hearings on how Joe Biden caused the Civil War and is responsible for Rabies and disease carrying Mosquitoes.

You are worse than herpes.

[D3 for LU]

... I know what else is worse. 

D3

[pokemonster]

I recommend everyone watch this. Super messed up. It starts off as a kind of joke of hey this weird old guy fondles our balls too much when checking us out, well that was weird and creepy, and progresses in to literal drugging and rapes. Thousands of victims. I hate to say it, but I can easily see how this went down considering the time period. Coaches tell the athletes to suck it up, focus on wrestling, not worth getting the Ohio State brass involved. Instead Hellickson told the doc to knock it off and that's it. Coaches didn't realize the trauma it inflicted on some of these guys, and instead of admitting they knew it was happening, they said they were clueless and dug a hole they can't get out of. For Jordan to tell the truth now would be an admittance of being a liar and admitting they didn't give a *I poop my pants, don't laugh at me* back in the day. Not to mention that Strauss was the roid doctor for the University, punishing him meant risk of exposing the PED use. So messed up.