Actor George Clooney is producing a docuseries on decades of reported 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 that addresses the allegations against the late Ohio state sports physician Richard Strauss – and the lack of response from officials.
The university said in its 2019 annual crime report that Strauss committed at least 1,429 assaults and 47 rapes during his 20-year tenure. Strauss was never charged and died of suicide in 2005.
The docuseries can’t be welcome news to Jordan, who was an assistant coach on the Ohio State wrestling team from 1987 to 1995. At least three athletes and a referee have claimed that they have discussed the abuse directly with Jordan, but that he is taking no action to stop it. Jordan has denied having been told or aware of any abuse.
One of the victims in the Sports Illustrated story claimed that Jordan knowingly ignored Strauss’s abuse.
A one-time captain of Jordan’s team said in an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid last year that the scandal for Jordan will only get worse.
Former wrestler Adam DiSabato told Reid that Jordan had called him repeatedly to beg him to contradict the story of DiSabato’s own brother in 2018 that he told Jordan about sexual abuse. DiSabato said Jordan was fully aware that Strauss was molesting athletes during physical exercise.
The sexual abuse was “blatant knowledge in our wrestling team,” he told Reid.
Hundreds of athletes have filed lawsuits against the university for ignoring allegations of sexual abuse. A suit cites examples of Strauss “drugging and raping athletes,” and claims that Strauss also preyed on underage boys who attended athletic events on campus.
A referee said in a 2019 lawsuit that Strauss masturbated in front of him in a shower after a college wrestling match – and that he reported the meeting to Jordan. “Yes, that’s Strauss,” responded Jordan and then-head coach Russ Hellickson, according to the lawsuit.
The state of Ohio agreed last May to pay $ 41 million to settle the cases of 162 victims.
Sports Illustrated Studios and 101 Studios are producing the series about the Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures scandal, Variety reports. The docuseries have not yet found an outlet, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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