Actor George Clooney is producing a series of documentaries about decades of allegations of sexual abuse of athletes at Ohio State University, where Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was once an assistant coach on the wrestling team.
The series will be based on a Sports Illustrated article by writer Jon Wertheim last year addressing the charges against the late Ohio State sports doctor, Richard Strauss – and the officials’ unresponsive response.
The university said in its 2019 annual crime report that Strauss committed at least 1,429 sexual assaults and 47 rapes during his 20-year term. Strauss was never charged and died of suicide in 2005.
The documentation cannot be welcome news for Jordan, who was a technical assistant to the wrestling team in Ohio from 1987 to 1995. At least three athletes and a referee claimed that they discussed the abuse directly with Jordan, but he did not accept action to stop it. Jordan denied that he had heard of any abuse or that he knew of it.
One of the victims in Sports Illustrated’s history claimed that Jordan intentionally ignored Strauss’s abuse.
A former Jordan team captain said in an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid last year that the scandal will only “get worse” for Jordan.
Former fighter Adam DiSabato told Reid that Jordan called several times to beg him to contradict DiSabato’s own brother’s report in 2018 that he told Jordan about sexual abuse. DiSabato said that Jordan was fully aware that Strauss was harassing athletes during physical examinations.
Sexual abuse was “blatant knowledge across our wrestling team,” he told Reid.
Hundreds of athletes filed lawsuits against the university for ignoring sexual abuse charges. A lawsuit cites cases in which Strauss “drugged and raped athletes” and said that Strauss also attacked underage boys who participated in sports events on campus.
A referee said in a 2019 lawsuit that Strauss masturbated in front of him in the shower after a fight at the university – and that he reported the meeting to Jordan. “Yes, this is Strauss,” replied Jordan and then-coach Russ Hellickson, according to the process.
The state of Ohio agreed last May to pay $ 41 million to settle the lawsuits for 162 victims.
Sports Illustrated Studios and 101 Studios are producing the series about the scandal with Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures, Variety reported. Docuseries has yet to find a way out, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Calling all HuffPost superfans!
Sign up as a member to become a founding member and help shape the next chapter of HuffPost