Former Ohio State wide receiver Ray Small said Friday a campus newspaper twisted his words and that he has no knowledge of other players breaking NCAA rules.

"I've come back to retract my words, because there's two sides to every story, and I want to tell the world my side of the story," Small said in an interview Friday with Outside the Lines' Tom Farrey.

The newspaper, The Lantern, said it stands by its story and everything Small said is on tape. On Friday, Small said he sold his own memorabilia, but he never said everyone was doing it.

Small said he earned up to $2,000 from selling two of his Big Ten Championship rings while he was playing for the Buckeyes, acts that he knew at the time were in violation of NCAA rules.

Former Ohio State wide receiver Ray Small said Friday a campus newspaper twisted his words and that he has no knowledge of other players breaking NCAA rules. Gary A. Vasquez/US Presswire

He just didn't care -- or feel he had a choice. He needed the cash to make ends meet, he said.

"It was either break the rule or get evicted," Small told Outside the Lines on Friday. "That was the best thing I could do. It was the smartest plan I came up with to pay my rent."

Small, whose senior season with the Buckeyes was in 2009, said he sold the rings midway through his Buckeye career because his regular scholarship check for room and board didn't cover his year-round costs of living in Columbus. He also felt compelled to unload them because he lacked the funds to afford a car he was driving at the time, a 2007 Chrysler 300 that carried a $600 monthly payment.

"Being young, I wasn't good with my money," he said. "I made a bad decision on a car and I had to pay it."

Small found himself in the national headlines Wednesday when the student newspaper at Ohio State, The Lantern, published excerpts of a phone interview with him in which he seemed to suggest that teammates regularly received benefits in violation of NCAA rules. On Friday, Small claimed his comments were mischaracterized, and that he knows of no violations of NCAA rules by teammates.

At the same time, when asked by ESPN if he would disclose NCAA violations among teammates if he knew of them, he said no.

"I am a Buckeye at heart," he said.

Small said he acquired the Chrysler 300 through Aaron Kniffin, the former Columbus, Ohio, used car salesman whose transactions to football and other Buckeye athletes have come under scrutiny by officials from a state agency as well as the university's athletic compliance department. Kniffin confirmed to ESPN that he sold the car to Small, or more specifically his grandmother whose credit was used to qualify for the loan.

Small said during his time at Ohio State he drove three cars acquired through Kniffin who encouraged him to use other people to secure the financing. He lacked the credit to qualify for a loan on his own. He said one of the other cars was purchased through his parents, and the other through his then-girlfriend's mother.

He said he was referred to Kniffin by teammates, as the Jack Maxton Chevrolet and later Auto Direct salesman was popular among players. He said they gravitated to Kniffin because he was "cool" with Ohio State players, not because they believed he would give them the discounts based on their athletic stature.