It's one of the oddest stories based on Ohio State football to come along in years.

A pizza delivery guy makes an off handed comment while taking an order from the wife of an Ohio State University assistant football coach on the phone.

Then the pizza guy gets fired.

What? In a town where every armchair quarterback shares his opinions with anyone who will listen, the pizza guy gets fired?

As the story was reported by WSYX-TV, Luke Fickell's wife called a pizza shop in Shawnee Hills to order a pizza for the family. The college student working at the pizza shop took the order then concluded the call with a couple of cracks about Fickell's defensive Buckeyes needing to tackle better and play better defense.

Offensive? Out of line? One could argue affirmatively in both cases.

But let's stop and think for a minute about what Amy Fickell may have heard over the years as the wife of an Ohio State coach.

Let's stop and think for a moment what she must have heard all year last year as the first lady of Ohio State football sitting at the 50-yard line of AA deck for all of the home games.

I'm guessing she's heard worse than a crack about tackling.

She's a smart, tough woman who despite initial reports to the contrary, did not call the pizza shop to complain about the comments.

Strange as is it, the story began to take flight online Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.

Yes, the comments of the pizza guy were going viral.

This thing was going to be a deep dish PR issue unless someone stepped in.

So Ohio State's Sports Information Department sent out the following bullet points to the media via email.

Under the heading "Here's background on the pizza issue" the following relevations came to light.

§ A slight (or a flippant remark or an inappropriate comment) was made by  an employee of a retail establishment to Mrs. Fickell.
§  The Fickells DID NOT call the manager to complain.
§  The manager found out about the incident (presumably from someone at the restaurant).
§  The manager called the Fickells … to ask what was said by his employee. They told him.
§  And just like they did not place a call to complain, they also did not ask that anyone be fired. In  fact, they feel terrible that this person lost his job.
All they did was order pizza.
 
It's hard not to giggle isn't it? Here we have an undefeated football team, ranked 8th in the country coached by one of the most succesful active coaches in the game and we're taking about the smart-ass pizza guy.
Only in Columbus, Ohio.
 
Don't you wonder what Woody would have done with this? What Earle would have done with this?
 
Coach Bruce was not impressed this had even crept into the weekly news cycle.
 
It is beyond ridiculous and only underscores the over-zealouness which news agencies display in an attempt to feed the Buckeye machine.
 
It has been quite a year for the sleepy hamlet of Shawnee Hills though. Remember it was the Shawnee Hills police department that chased down two Buckeye football players last spring after they were spotted relieving themselves in public near a Shawnee Hills pre-school.
 
Now this crazy tale involving a Shawnee Hills pizza shop.
 
If I'm Shawnee Hills, I'm hoping things like this don't happen in threes.