HBO’s ‘Surviving Ohio State’ Documentary Doesn’t Play Politics in Exploring the Abuse Scandal

Let’s get this part out of the way: yes, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan comes off very, very badly in “Surviving Ohio State,” the long-anticipated George Clooney-produced documentary about the sex-abuse scandal involving the university’s wrestling team. Dig a little deeper, though, and the more enduring story is how predators have historically exploited class divisions, counting on those in authority to turn a blind eye.

In that, this sobering project (which premiered at the Tribeca festival before its debut on HBO) mirrors other sports-related abuse scandals involving Penn State and Michigan State/USA Gymnastics, as well as the Catholic Church.

The main difference here is that the victims were, primarily, college-age male athletes. This led to snide social media skepticism about why they didn’t simply wring the guy’s neck, which completely ignores both the mores of the time — spanning a period from the 1970s into the ‘90s —and the economic, class and cultural dynamics at play.

To recap the sordid details, “Surviving Ohio State” focuses on alleged abuse of wrestlers by the team’s then-trainer, Dr. Richard Strauss. Despite Jordan’s denials, the now-middle-aged team members insist that Jordan, a former assistant coach, and head coach Russ Hellickson had to have been aware of what was happening, while recalling a culture that gave the young men little recourse in terms of reporting the alleged incidents.

“We had guys complaining about Dr. Strauss to Jim Jordan,” contends Dan Ritchie, a former Buckeye wrestler starting in 1988, while another, Mike Schyck, says of Jordan, “There’s no way that he didn’t know.”

Although the jacket-shunning GOP firebrand serves as an understandable political focal point, the more sobering and universal theme in director Eva Orner’s film stems from the sense of helplessness those young men felt. Many of them came from rural backgrounds that left them with little experience to deal with such a situation, no one with whom they could talk and a financial incentive not to do or say anything that might appear to rock the boat.

“The scholarship was critical,” Mark Coleman, another Buckeye alumnus who became a UFC mixed-martial-arts champion after his collegiate career, says in the film. “We were powerless.”

Powerless, in this case, meant tolerating Strauss’ “exams,” which invariably involved handling their genitals, and his habit of showering with team members. Some were coaxed into photography sessions, and others claim to have been raped.

Because Strauss (who died in 2005) never had an assistant or nurse present in the examination room, “It was always his word against your word,” Ritchie says, echoing Coleman’s point by noting that given the fear of saying something that might endanger their ability to stay on the team, “We had so much to lose.”

In a strange twist, the Ohio State story only became public after Dr. Larry Nassar’s 2017 trial for sexually abusing members of the USA Gymnastics program, itself the subject of a documentary, “Athlete A.” The coverage prompted the wrestlers to begin talking and sharing stories. They continue to pursue the matter legally, with their lawyer arguing that the university was, at best, “deliberately indifferent” — Ohio St.’s own report cited 177 victims, though the belief is the actual number is much higher — and at worst engaged in a cover-up.

When word of the documentary first surfaced three years ago, it not surprisingly caused a stir, with Clooney, an outspoken and politically active liberal, involved in producing a project with the potential to embarrass Jordan, an outspoken Trump supporter and one of the highest-profile GOP members of Congress.

Stripping away those political concerns, however, “Surviving Ohio State” plays like an even-handed presentation of another awful tale involving a Big 10 university that let down young people in its care, motivated at least in part by officials’ reluctance to investigate anything that might tarnish their prized athletic program.

As Ritchie notes, at that age, and at that moment in time, “You’ve never heard of predators. You’ve never heard of grooming.”

Sadly, we’ve all heard a lot more about both in the years since the events described, so much so that “Surviving Ohio State” represents just the latest story of survival — one that exposes what transpired but, whatever the perception, doesn’t cloud the message by playing politics.

“Surviving Ohio State” premieres June 17 on HBO and Max.

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