View All

Top Jobs

Latest featured videos from Journal-News.com

Fake letter can't fool OSU recruit

Document tried to get player to think he had lost his scholarship.

Associated Press

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Willie Mobley, a high school recruit who signed this week to play at Ohio State, said he wasn't fooled by fake letters with the forged signature of coach Jim Tressel telling him his scholarship had been withdrawn.

Mobley, a 6-foot-2, 263-pound defensive lineman from Eden Prairie, Minn., gave a verbal commitment to the Buckeyes in November. The first bogus letter arrived in January followed by a second one Wednesday, he said.

Extras

Both letters appeared to be on Ohio State letterhead and were postmarked from Columbus.

"I looked at them like, 'What the heck? This is fake,' " Mobley said Thursday. "There were all these misspellings, and you couldn't even read the signature, it was like, 'Jim, scribble-scribble.' "

Mobley, who also considered attending Minnesota and UCLA, said he called Tressel to tell him about the hoax. Tressel told him he had heard of other players receiving the letters, Mobley said.

The Buckeyes locked up 19 football recruits Wednesday on national signing day.

Journal-News.com:

Copyright © 2008 Hamilton Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved.

By using Journal-News.com, you accept the terms of our visitor agreement and privacy policy. You may wish to note our other business policies.

This website is ACAP-enabled