Just after a few hours of the public hearing about the Cleveland Browns being interested in Jim Tressel, ex-head coach for Ohio State, the story was quickly shot down by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The rumor first started to take flight once Mary Kay Cabot, a beat writer for the team, Tweeted the following:

“Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel will interview for Browns head coach job within next few days,” she wrote. Cabot was repeating what she heard from Fox Sports’ Joe Dunn.

In and around Ohio, Tressel is a legend to many for his very successful run at Ohio State, leading the Buckeyes to two 19 game winning streaks in the 2002-2003 and 2005-2006 seasons. So it’s quite obvious a good number of Cleveland fans would have loved for Tressel to bring that type of success to the Browns’ organization.

Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel will interview for #Browns head coach job within next few days, per Joe Dunn of Akron's Fox Sports 1350

— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) January 3, 2014

Browns official on team's reported interview of former Ohio State HC Jim Tressel: "Totally false. A lot of BS coming out about us."

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 3, 2014

And this is in spite of the 61-year old being involved in a scandal back in 2010, when he was accused of hiding the fact that some of his players were giving away their jerseys and other memorabilia in exchange for free tattoos. In fact, ESPN aired an extremely interesting documentary on Tressel and his former running back Maurice Clarett that paints a vivid picture of what he really means to the state of Ohio. Tressel is a native of the state and was also the head football coach at Youngstown State University.

But before Browns’ fans could even get excited about the coaching possibilities, word quickly got out that the story was false.

“Browns official on team’s reported interview of former Ohio State HC Jim Tressel: Totally false. A lot of BS coming out about us.” Tweeted Schefter.

It’s been a string of painful seasons for Cleveland fans, as the Browns haven’t made the playoffs in 11 years, and this season they had a dismal record of 4-12, losing their last seven games. After the team’s final loss head Coach Rob Chudzinski was fired shortly after, and reportedly the team will be interviewing New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

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