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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Message to PS4RS about Kevin Slaten Radio Show (UPDATED)

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(NOTE: This was originally incorrectly attributed to former Penn State football coach Tom Bradley. It was actually written by another Tom Bradley, of Altoona, Pa., who signed it “Tom Bradley” (of course), thus confusing this aging Turkey. It is still worth a read, because Scrap says that Altoona Tom is a great guy. We apologize to both Bradleys and to our readers for the confusion. —TNT)

Good morning, fellow Nittany Lions!

I hope you listened to at least part of the Kevin Slaten radio interview with that buffoon Missouri lieutenant governor candidate I sent you last Saturday. (Ed. Note: this audio clip can be found at http://chirb.it/LJ2cyt —TNT) Slaten, who has a daily sports talk show in St. Louis, sees through this entire fiasco and knows the Freeh report from cover-to-cover. PLEASE take some time to listen to his interview with Anthony Lubrano (see below.) GOOD STUFF!!!!

Kevin’s show is from 3-6 pm CDT on weekdays. You can listen by logging into KFNS.com. I’m planning to call in today between 4-5 p.m. EDT.

You need to know that several slight “corrections” were made to the Freeh report on Monday as the NCAA hammer was coming down. The timing was quite suspicious. Damaging quotes attributed to Gary Schultz where he said he knew nothing about the 1998 investigation were actually made by PSU counsel Wendell Courtney. Shows what a rush to judgment can do.

There will be more! The infamous Vickie Tripponey [sic], who was fired by Penn State for the way she mishandled the student discipline process and HATED Joe Paterno, was an associate of (drum roll, please) MARK EMMERT. Now we know why Emmert thinks Joe ran the university. Someone’s been chirping in his ear for years about this.

Don’t feel guilty if you felt like giving up the fight on Monday. We all felt like that. The fight continues. We’re just getting started.

PLEASE: If you are not a member of Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, please log on at www.ps4rs.org and join today. THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR THIS and you’ll receive regular updates as we move forward . TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

Regardless of what Sports Illustrated says this week, WE ARE STILL PENN STATE!

The Nittany Lions Speak Out

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View this morning’s statement by the 2012-2013 Nittany Lions about their commitment to the University, the students, the alumni, and the fans.

Team Statement

Statement by Penn State Football Team: “This team is sticking together. We aren’t going anywhere. And we could not be more proud to be Penn Staters now. We look at this as a great opportunity to have the ability to bring back not only a team but an entire university. This team has taken on more adversity than any team has faced in history which is a testament to our commitment to our team’s character, our fans, and our university. One man didn’t build this program and one man sure as hell cannot tear it down. This program was built on the backs of the thousands of great men who put on the Penn State uniform. Today it is no different. No sanction or politician can tear this team apart. No one can take away what this university means to us. We will stick together and create our own legacy. Our loyalty lies only with our teammates, coaches, fans and families. No one else. It’s not going to be easy but we know that we have acquired the strength that we have overcome and we will embrace our anger and burn it as fuel this season. We can’t wait for September 1 and to be back in Beaver Stadium and playing for Penn State in front of the best fans in the nation. We ask everyone to come out, show the support, wear your colors proudly and show that adversity makes the Penn State nation tougher and stronger.”

 

Sudden Impact: Crime and Punishment (Updated)

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While this morning’s NCAA pronouncement implementing punishment and imposing additional bureaucracy upon Penn State athletics hit the mark for many Penn State haters, who use the Sandusky scandal to declare everything up to and including targeted nuclear weapons as fair game (sanctimoniously stating that even nukes won’t restore normal lives for the victims), many of us believe that the punishment was vindictive and draconian. And it still won’t restore normal lives for the victims.

I have selected two essays that engender the latter viewpoint, both published in Sports Illustrated’s SI.com. Fortunately, there are still some writers out there with the balls to contradict the common wisdom.

July 24 Update: added link to a great essay by Spencer Hall of SBNation.

The first, by Stewart Mandel, is entitled “NCAA’s Mark Emmert overstepped bounds in hammering Penn State.” Mandel feels that NCAA President Mark Emmert, enabled by the logic of the Penn State hater mentioned above, felt that he could justify going far beyond the pale to invent creative, crippling penalties for the Nittany Lions. Mandel sees this as high visibility hypocrisy, and his article is definitely worth a read.

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The other, by Michael Rosenberg, is “NCAA sanctions against Penn State reinforce overemphasis on winning.” Rosenberg thinks that by prescribing these sanctions “Emmert is not fighting against the hypocrisy of college sports. He is acknowledging it, legitimizing it, and — in a way — even embracing it.” Read it for more strongly worded pearls of Rosenberg wisdom.

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Spencer Hall of SBNation words his piece even more strongly. Here is a taste of “Penn State Scandal: NCAA Beats Up Corpse, Then Demands Your Applause.“

It makes sense for the NCAA to protect its product. It also makes sense of the coldest kind for Mark Emmert, head of the organization, to take a defenseless Penn State, prop it up on stage, and then take a few delighted whacks at its staggering corpse with the heaviest hammer imaginable. The key is not killing the victim, the Penn State football program. It will now be toured through every stage of the redemption cycle, and eventually brought forth as a model citizen at the appropriate date by a fully empowered oversight authority — one that can now, with the consent of its backers, make bigger, more immediate show trials of its thoroughly fixed bouts.

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Meanwhile, the Big Ten should have been flagged for piling on, for it was announced today that Penn State will not be allowed to share in the bowl revenues of other Big Ten teams for the duration of the NCAA postseason prohibitions.

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The very hot Kristi Dosh of ESPN says that the true costs of today’s NCAA sanctions, both monetary and abstract, are unknown.

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The Penn State Football Lettermen’s takes an angry stand.

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The Paterno family offers its response to the NCAA sanctions.

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Meanwhile, Former Penn State President Graham Spanier sent a letter to the board of trustees seeking to exonerate himself.

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Statements by Rodney Erickson, David Joyner, and Bill O’Brien.

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Consent decree between the NCAA and Penn State (PDF – 1.31 MB).

That’s a wrap for another issue of Sudden Impact. It’s been a long day today, but the longest, darkest days are yet to come.