Smith is the husband that leaves when the wife gets cancer

I don't think OSU has cancer. Literally or figuratively. 

But you're entitled to your choice of metaphors.

It's an analogy, not an equivalency.

Stop. Just stop. It’s football for Christ sake.

Taking a complete lack of empathy in a different direction...

I have always thought Smith was on the spectrum. the Autism Spectrum to be clear Probably a couple years back we'd use the now retired term Aspergers. He is a guy that intellectually understand the way people think and what a person may or may not feel about things, but he himself doesn't REALLY get it or feel it or deeply understand it. 

he can fake it. He can mask... but he doesn't feel it. 

A lot of things line up from his speaking dictation, to his coach speak, to how he chose to handle some questions. Sort of in that way "what? it's true!" type of way when you say something other people cringe at. Just sort of misses at the subtle nuances of social life. His generally unexcitable demeanor. Even when he was a student athlete here, he was hardly the center of attention on campus, often times he was invisible despite being the star QB. 

Smith intellectually knows what OSU is and means to people and maybe even intellectually understand why people would be angry and expect he'd show loyalty, but he doesn't feel that pull like others expect of him. In a mind that is low on emotion and high on logic, he made pragmatic and logical choices. 

I don't think your analogy is as heavy handed as others are making it out to be, because it all comes down to a fundamental thing: Empathy. Empathy, to an extent, can be learned... but for the most part it is just something you either have or you don't. Most people in society have empathy for one another, and thus when a husband leaves a stricken wife we all feel the outrage and we all know how asshole of a move it, because it is a move devoid of empathy. 

Is a husband leaving a wife in her darkest moment WAY worse than a football coach leaving. Of course. But as you said it is an analogy not an equivalency. The analogy is rooted in empathy and emotion which is what is at play here. 

people that don't feel it can only know, intellectually, what others would think, but they won't feel it. And to that end, are generally able to make decisions many of us would not. 

Or maybe those VHS tapes weren't of football and he was going to celebrate.

The way I'm viewing this right now is, Smith did us right as a player and then as a coach for the past six years.  I'm grateful, 100% grateful, for that and will give him a ton of benefit of the doubt because of it.  Give is the wrong word, he earned it with hard work and results over time, so it wasn't free.    

That's a lot of years of solid character he displayed and we all stood behind.  Regarding this one single decision he's made, I don't have all the facts, I don't know all the considerations or thoughts that went into it, or family dynamics which may have played a role, or other factors, if any.  

We may never know the whole story for sure, but what I do know beyond this one single decision is a lot of years of him doing us right.  So I am refraining from grabbing my pitchfork and instead keeping a very open mind. Yes there are and will be endless "rumors" and "inside" stories about what happened, most will be negative about Smith (which at the end of the day will be just as negative about OSU fb to a casual observer) and also most will be based in pure BS.