Off-Campus Fracas Gets Nasty

OK, so by now you’ve heard that 10 guys, including some PSU football players, broke into an apartment on East College Avenue where a party was taking place and assaulted several of the fine, upstanding, beer swilling citizens attending said party.

(Run Up the Score sheds an interesting light on the subject, with some commentary that he captured before it was deleted elsewhere. While it could be bullshit, the commenter implicated Anthony Scirrotto in calling in his boys after an incident involving his girfriend and him earlier. )

Now it comes to light that someone later slipped a note under the door of said apartment obliquely warning the occupants that charges should not be pressed. Uh, yeah, like really bright. Now, we add strong-arm extortion, racketeering, and various violations of the RICO act to the original burglary and assault charges.

The under-the-door note alluded to the notion that Paterno would be handling the involved players in his own way. Oh, you can bet that’s true—if these assholes are still on the team, they’re going to be treated to some severe hardship and sanctions—but a frigging bunch of college football players and their boosters, supporters, and parents must not think that they are exempt from the laws which govern the bulk of society.

(Someone will relate this to the war in Iraq, I know. Well screw you and grow up. I’m talking here.)

What the hell is happening at Dear Old State? Is this football program going to turn the place into “The U?” Engram and Co., Stereo Thieves, Arrowgate, Chisley the Murderer—what the hell kind of hired hands are we dealing with here? Is having a fucking successful football team (dubiously, of late) worth watching our alma mater take a nose dive into the shitpile of universities defined by their “program?” As long as we’re playing crappy football, why not stop recruiting hired thugs and get some real student athletes?

We could return to the times when the big thing in State College were the occasional beer-fueled fights between “greasy construction workers” and “college punks.”

Those of you who say “boys will be boys” are missing the point. At what cost do we transform our beloved Penn State into a football factory? (I know, I know. That sorry-ass transformation happened long, long ago.)