A Private Matter

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"It's Hallmark meets the Sopranos in this fun and engaging read."
"Lots of sass, drama and wicked humor."
"The characters were hilariously and perfectly flawed."
"Cleverly plotted and exceptionally well written... part drama and part slapstick comedy."
 "Funny and thought provoking and entertaining!"
"A rollicking good yarn."
     -Amazon reviews

A Private Matter

       You cannot put a fire out;  
        A thing that can ignite
       Can go, itself, without a fan  
       Upon the slowest night.
        You cannot fold a flood        
          And put it in a drawer,
         Because the winds would find it out,   
         And tell your cedar floor.
-Emily Dickinson

   Ohio State Buckeyes  wide receivers coach Zach Smith assaulted his wife, Courtney Smith.

     Or else Zach Smith, by his own account, didn't technically assault his wife but rather, in his own words, "things got out of hand and I had to defensively kind of restrain her," although, "I’m not saying she didn’t get a bruise or a mark.”
      In any case, Zach Smith contends that what happened between himself and his wife was "a private matter" that should have stayed "behind closed doors."
       But it didn't. And it's ponder-worthy that the violence inflicted behind close doors in private moments between a man and his wife has had so many far-reaching reverberations, like the outward ripples from a stone suddenly hitting still waters.
       It was because of what happened in private moments that Zach Smith lost his marriage and a job that paid him, at 33 years old, $340,000 a year and accorded him great honor, status and prestige in the world of college sports. He lost the means to support his children, who will soon be old enough to understand what their father did.
​         Because of the those private moments of one of his assistant coaches, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer,

...the indomitable ruler of a winning college football empire, loved and respected by team members and fans alike,  a man who walked on water in Columbus, Ohio  and who'd  built a career on his flawless reputation as an honorable, admirable man, has lost that reputation over a lie he told to cover for Zach Smith and possibly his own inaction when he learned of his young assistant's behavior.
        Urban Meyer has been suspended with pay from his job and will likely lose that $7.9 million-a-year job along with his good name.
          Bob Evans Restaurant, which was about to begin a new cleverly-conceived marketing campaign featuring Coach Meyer as Breakfast Coach, has had to jettison the campaign.

    The Ohio State football team members have had to face the first practices of the season without   Coach Meyer or Coach Smith, unsure of what's in store for themselves as a team, knowing only that they've been put under a media blackout.

     It's come out that Zach Smith is the grandson of the late Earle Bruce, the legendary former Ohio State coach whose memory as a man of character is revered among Buckeyes fans.

    But it has also come out that when Zach Smith was arrested in 2009 for assaulting his then-pregnant wife, Earle Bruce compelled Courtney not to press charges against his grandson. Lynn Bruce, who is Earle Bruce's daughter and Zach Smith's mother, also pressed Courtney to keep silent about the matter.

  Now Lynn Bruce, a fund-raiser for charitable causes in honor of her father, is in the midst of planning an Alzheimer's fundraiser to be held next week.

    But this morning, while making an appearance as a guest on a local radio talk show to promote her upcoming fund-raiser, Lynn Bruce  was put in the position of having to defend her son to the radio audience, because the Zach Smith/Urban Meyer/Ohio State Football scandal dominates all media in Columbus, Ohio, day after day.

    It's' been hinted by some commentators that, depending on the results of the investigation that's been opened into the Zach Smith abuse scandal,   the whole Ohio State football department may have to be fired, maybe the director of the entire athletic department as well. It's been suggested that the fallout from the investigation could potentially take out the president of the university.
   And the football-loving populace of Columbus Ohio who refer to themselves as Buckeye Nation are bewildered and heart-broken over the of downfall of their beloved Coach Meyer.
     All over what a naive, heavy-handed young man thought was a private matter.

References:

https://sports.yahoo.com/ex-osu-coach-zach-smith-found-investigated-abuse-ohio-state-ad-220120736.html
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180803/powell-police-refuse-to-release-report-involving-zach-smith

http://www.buckeyextra.com/news/20180803/urban-meyer-says-he-reported-allegation-regarding-zach-smith

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/heat-ratchets-up-as-urban-meyer-zach-smith-try-to-pass-the-buck-in-confounding-media-tour/

http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-football/news/zach-smith-urban-meyer-timeline-domestic-violence-allegations-ohio-state-florida-courtney-smith-ex-wife/qdgwf1d3j9n41skbguxgqsql0

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/76-Joel-Riley-28190899/episode/lynn-bruce-the-fedora-ball-is-29675149/?campid=homepage_featured_shows&pname=0&cid=%2F&autoplay=true