Who is Robyn Bassani? Did she target Ohio State football players for s*x?
Here is everything you need to know about Robyn Bassani who was accused by Ohio State for having sexual relations with players under the guise of free massages.
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Robyn Bassani and Ohio State football team (Image via Starsgab and BuckeyeXtra)
There have many controversies in the league that have ranged from sexual harassment to racial discrimination in the hiring process. A number of players have also been involved in multiple scandals, from guns, trafficking, and murder to money scams and sexual harassment. And the same applies to a select few college athletes as well.
While football student-athletes aren’t involved in big controversies like Ponzi schemes, and murder charges, they have been arrested for DUI and domestic abuse cases across campus. However, there was a big scandal that occurred back in 2020, which happened the other way around, i.e. it wasn’t the players who were the perpetrators of the alleged crime, but the victims.
A massage therapist out of Cleveland was accused by Ohio State of targeting football players and goading them into sexual interactions. This allegation turned into a pretty big scandal that included 117 former and current players, 44 coaches, and staff, along with the masseuse Robyn Bassani.
Who is Robyn Bassani?
Robyn Bassani of Bedford Heights, Ohio, was a former licensed massage therapist. The 42-year-old was accused by Ohio State of taking sexual advantage of players who approached her for massages. An official complaint was filed by Ohio State with the Medical Board of Ohio on March 14, 2020. Law firm Barnes & Thornburg was hired by Ohio State to do an independent investigation of the entire ‘relationship’ matter in March 2021.
Barnes & Thornburg released a detailed report of their findings. In the report, it was revealed that Robyn Bassani contacted players on social media and offered free massages to them, and also shared nude photographs of herself to initiate a sexual relationship during the therapy.
However, Bassani came forward and denied the claims that she used any such schemes and lured players to take massages from her. During a radio interview with Cleveland’s FM-WMMS back in 2021, she revealed her side of the story and said that the university threw her under the bus to keep their hands clean and save themselves from public embarrassment. “Most of the players that I worked with, the vast majority, I didn’t have to reach out to,” she said. “They reached out to me via a referral program I was running. As far as the university saying I was targeting these young men, to me it feels like their way of staying in charge of the situation and making me the villain so they could keep their hands clean.”
As per the report, Robyn Bassani had sex with five football players all above the age of 18, and no NCAA codes were broken and no crime was committed. It was also noted that she gave non-sexual massages to 20 players. However, Bassani said that she had sexual encounters with just 2 players. The 42-year-old also added that several players asked what all these allegations were against her because they knew that wasn’t her.
The independent massage therapist, with 12 years of experience, unfortunately, surrendered her medical license because she was led to believe that doing so would make the situation go away. “I was told by the investigator for the Ohio State Board that if I didn’t (surrender my license), then I would be subject to a citation and then a hearing in which the players would be individually subpoenaed to testify in open public record,” she said. “Not wanting to put them through that, I said, ‘OK, I’ll surrender it.’
In the end, Bassani did not get her license back as it was permanently revoked by the Medical Board of Ohio. This really was a bizarre turn of events where the massage therapist was the one at fault allegedly and the players fell prey to her. What really happened is only known to Bassani and the players and while the report did give a detailed insight into everything, who’s to say it wasn’t just fabricated by Ohio State to keep the record of their football spotless?
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