The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Home 2012 Archives for July 2012

Archives for July 2012

One Point of View

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The Orlando Sentinel, our local daily rag here in Turkeyland, published a letter to the editor about the current state of affairs at Penn State written by a PSU alumnus and friend whom I’ll call “The Commish”, for lack of a better pseudonym.

I felt that it was interesting and controversial enough to publish here, since the Turkey’s readership is far greater than that of the Sentinel. Well, maybe not, but it should be. They publish a lot more trash than I do and they want to charge for it. The Nittany Turkey is always free. Free crap! You can’t beat it. (If you do, someone probably put it in a paper bag, set fire to it, and yelled “Fire! Fire!”)

Here is The Commish’s proposal:

In November 2011 when this scandal became public, the football operation should have been curtailed IMMEDIATELY, rather than wait for the curmudgeon to be fired while dallying through his desire to retire “one week after the bowl game”. This failure suggested no atonement or contrition for the ugliness which occurred. No solemnity for the innocent victims. ??? ???? ?????

Common business sense says you negotiate from a position of leverage. Get the upper hand, which is what an immediate shutdown would have allowed. Then you evaluate various economic scenarios, one of which will soon be on your doorstep. None of this was done. Betcha getting the upper hand on the NCAA from a self-imposed punishment would have HALVED the consequence. Imagine the sincerity from abruptly ending the season and rejecting a bowl game. Which is worse: asking the NCAA for a two-year DEATH penalty, or being economically water-boarded for ten years?

The foolish, selfish Penn Stater says the latter. What if you threw in an EXIT from the Big Ten? Both parties in truth would have been ecstatic. Better yet, say they’re EXPELLED! The Big Ten looks mean and punitive, and Penn State begins to elicit sympathy. Shhh.

Today (07/26/12) it’s learned that the NCAA had recommended a FOUR-year death penalty. If Penn State negotiated with ANY leverage, it could have asked for TWO-years (last year’s abrupt ending plus this year) and likely gotten THREE.

Even FOUR years is much kinder than being economically water-boarded for ten years. WTF are their brains?

This Turkey is scratching his head. As far as I’m concerned, this is a lot of speculation straight out of left field. Commish must have been slightly out of commission when he wrote it. By his own admission, “[This] shows how little I have to do, and what this cultural backwater accepts [for publication].” This Turkey can’t believe they actually left a “WTF” in there.

Everyone wants to criticize how Penn State has handled this misguided penalty, but no one is taking shots at the NCAA for taking license to come down hard on the innocents on the field by invoking “the chillllllllldren.” Obviously, we can no more change how the football program was run last year than we resurrect its late lamented leader. So, what’s the point, Commish? Just throwing stones?

Hell, you couldn’t even bear to mention Joe Paterno’s name!

I believe that the NCAA was bluffing with the purported ultimatum giving Penn State the choice of the sanctions that would eventually be levied or the dreaded “death penalty” for four years. In my old fowl brain, I’m thinking that for the NCAA to impose either the “death penalty” or a TV ban would be cutting off its nose to spite its face. Too much non-Penn State money would be lost in either of those two cases. I’m thinking that we might never see those extreme punishments again. Follow the money.

I still don’t see the Penn State situation as a football problem. The NCAA used the unfortunate institutional cover-up to make it one, and thus put it under their purview. It was easy enough to do by spouting platitudes about “the victims” and “the children” to gain the public’s ear and sympathy. The sanctions brought down from on high won’t do anything to help the victims, although having Penn State create a charitable endowment to aid organizations created to benefit future victims of abuse was a positive step. The rest of the sanctions were superfluous, draconian, and downright sadistic. ?????? ????? No competitive advantage was gained, so why the hell should victories be “vacated” and what does a won/lost record have to do with the victims, anyway? All the punishments were football oriented with the only real connection to football being that a high-level administrator who happened to be a football coach screwed up on a non-football issue. But once again I rant pointlessly. ????? ??????? ?????? ????? I’m either preaching to the choir, or I’m not.

For what it’s worth, PennLive.com has published a report by Charles Thompson that chronicles the negotiations with the NCAA from beginning to end.

Bolden Saga Ends with First Defection

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Rob Bolden is off the roster and has been released from his scholarship at Penn State, after a less than smashing career at quarterback. Bolden made history by being the first freshman ever to start the opening game of a season under Joe Paterno and the first overall to do so at State for 100 years; now, he makes history being the first player to bolt under the relaxed transfer rules of the NCAA’s sanctions against the Nittany Lions.

Recall that Bolden had pouted after being replaced by Matt McGloin as the sort of, maybe, possible starter under Paterno. His performance never lived up to his hype. He wanted to transfer after that first season, but Paterno would not let him out of his commitment, stating that he would have as good a chance as anyone to earn the starting job back. ????? ??? ???? He just didn’t have the mojo to do it.

Coach Bill O’Brien tabbed him as third-stringer behind McGloin and Paul Jones, who both committed to staying at Penn State, at least for this first season of sanctions.

So, now, Bolden has been spotted sniffing around at LSU. The Times-Picayune reports that he is making an official visit this weekend.

LSU, huh? You would think that a top SEC school would be a little bit out of Bolden’s league. However, LSU is hurting for a backup quarterback behind Zach Mettenberger, as his two present backups are two redshirt freshmen who have never taken a college snap. ??? ????? ????? Bolden could be valuable for his real game experience. ????? ???? ??? ????

To this Turkey, Bolden never ever looked comfortable in the pocket. He couldn’t pass very well, and he couldn’t run very well. So, the Nittany Lions shouldn’t miss him very much.

New Uniform in Penn State Future?

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Plain blue or white uniforms with only a number to break the monochromatic monotony have been a Penn State feature for more years than I can remember — and this Turkey goes back to the 1960s. I can recall only three minor changes: the stripe on the helmet, the Nike swoosh on the breast, and the v-neck trimmed in white (last year the trim turned blue). That’s it. Otherwise, it’s been the same since 1890, when the colors were changed from pink and black to blue and white.

Many of us, particularly the Paternoists, take pride in the symbolism of the plain uniforms with black football shoes. Tradition is, after all, a big part of college football. It is the constancy in Penn State football that has bonded the fan base through the years. We have loved the power expressed by unadorned, unaccessorized out-of-the-box player uniforms, the stealthily apparent lack of speed watching those black shoes eat up the yards, and the namelessness, suggesting a team effort transcends the individual glory. Players honor those who wore their number in the past by not usurping it for their own glory. Lots of good reasons.

We also like the way the program pushed back against Nike when that company wanted Penn State to participate in its gaudy Pro Combat uniform design program, even though Paterno and Phil Knight were great friends. No way would a Nittany Lion every wear something with duck feathers, the Maryland state flag, or even a picture of the Nittany Lion shrine on his shoulder. That was for “them”. Plain blue and white is for us.

When Bill O’Brien was hired, he said that he would do nothing to change the uniforms, but that was then and this is now. The Sandusky case has been tried and the slimy ex-coach has been convicted. The administration has been accused of covering Sandusky’s tracks for 15 years. Joe Paterno is dead, his legendary career sullied. There is some impetus to make changes that put the past behind and speak to a new future, even though the NCAA is going to rub our noses in it for several years, sanctimonious hypocrites that they are.

But I digress.

“I reserve the right to change my mind,” said Bill O’Brien when asked why he has been singing a different tune about uniform changes of late. He has made some noise about wanting to make a small design change that will undoubtedly piss off some purists if it is made to happen. He has talked to players and their parents about it. He wants to put names on the jerseys. I can feel the grumbling in my old Turkey gizzard!

“There ain’t no ‘I’ in team!” you say.

(Comeback: Yeah, but there’s three “U’s” in “shut the fuck up!” I saw that one on Facebook recently and thought I would share the laugh.)

I don’t think the absence of names means as much symbolically as it does historically. Penn State fans don’t want change. We’re old farts now, right? We demand to keep things as they are. “Change” is why some of us voted for Obama, and look at how that one turned out. Now, we’re doubly resistant to change. Why do we fear change so much? Does it take us out of our comfort zone?

Frankly, this Turkey has been looking at those plain old uniforms for one helluva long time. Paterno’s teams reused uniform numbers on offense and defense, and sometimes, especially on special teams players, we had to scratch our heads about who did what to whom. Furthermore, everybody isn’t as good as this Turkey and the other forest creatures with whom he hangs out at memorizing numbers. So, what is so god-awful wrong with putting a name on the jersey?

Tradition. Change goes against it. Yeah, well, when I attended State, girls were called “coeds” and they had to be back in their female-only, well guarded dorms by 11:30 pm on weeknights. They couldn’t live anywhere outside the dorms unless they were either over 21 or married. Good old Penn State traditions.

I didn’t hear anybody squawking when that one changed!

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I addressed that before. We’re going to see a lot of strange people running around in Penn State uniforms because we’re going to be getting one-star recruits, and damn few of them, for the next five or six years. Who has the time and energy to memorize all their numbers? We’ll be having a big bail-out before spring practice, no doubt. Lots of new numbers, lots of new names.

I say, go ahead and put names on the jerseys. You go tell O’Brien that’s not the Penn State Way. Go ahead, I dare you! What you’re really telling him is, “We don’t want you. We want Paterno.” Sorry, you can’t have him. He’s in another dimension now. How about getting over it, huh? There’s too much of that going on at a time when we should be letting the new order take charge and watching its results. Quit screwing with it. O’Brien will get what he wants.

By the way, he said he was unsure that he could get the names thing done by September 1, the home opener against mighty Ohio U. This might have to wait until the fateful 2013 season.

What do you think of that change? No one is talking about duck wings or checkerboards. Just names. How about it?