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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Sudden Impact: Channeling Rahm

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Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel once opined succinctly about political opportunism: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

In the wake of the Penn State debacle, the Big Ten appears to have taken Rahm’s advice to heart, if we are to believe a breaking AP story:

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that the Big Ten is considering a plan to give its commissioner the power to fire coaches in the wake of the Penn State child sex-abuse scandal.

An 18-page plan being circulated among Big Ten leadership would include giving Commissioner Jim Delany the authority to levy sanctions including financial penalties, suspensions and termination of a school employee. The Chronicle said it had obtained a document laying out the details.

The Big Ten did not respond to requests for comment today.

So, now the Big Ten presumably wants to gain the power to usurp the authority of member university presidents in order to make its own personnel decisions on their turf? What’s next? The Big Ten has to be involved in their hiring, too?

That 18-page plan better damn well provide some extreme circumstances for triggering the removal of a coach by the Big Ten. Certainly a criminal act should result in the coach being dismissed, but that’s a no-brainer. No university president would ever allow a convicted criminal to coach. So, what circumstances would prompt a coach’s dismissal by the B1G? Should we judge someone before he is tried in a court of law? Should we react based upon Freeh Report allegations? I’m laughing.

Sanctions and financial penalties I can see. Personnel actions, no way.

Perhaps the NCAA and the Big Ten should spend their time developing a plan to divorce big-time football programs from universities and run their own NFL farm systems. The concept of a student athlete who performs at the highest level is in serious doubt at the Turkey coop. Yes, there are a few — damn few — who turn out great, but come on. Listen to some of our own Nittany Lion seniors talk. They’re barely literate, ya know what I’m sayin’? The charade of supposedly providing poor, minority lads a free education in return for representin’ on da field is a joke. In most cases, da kid is an indentured servant who winds up with a half-assed education. If he’s good at football, the gods will go to great lengths to make him appear to be a scholar. You know dat.

I know, I know. Penn State has always been the model, graduating more football players than anyone else and producing guys like Mike Reid, etc. Yeah, I know. A lot of good ones would have succeeded with or without football. However, would Penn State (or anyone else’s) football be successful without coddling some hard-core functional illiterates through their so-called education while they major in Parks & Recreation Management? This Turkey does not think so.

I say to the NCAA and the university presidents, either spin off the Junior NFL for some sort of annuity from the lucky purchaser, or raise the academic standards so that “student athlete” is no longer oxymoronic. Incorporating high-priced entertainment into the higher education milieu promotes corruption and distortion of values. That’s why football coaches are more powerful than university presidents in some cases. Not to mention any—just sayin’.

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Some more stuff in the same vein to ponder while you wait for the whistle to blow and you don’t feel like shooting any more paper clips at the ceiling. (You should be ashamed of yourself! There are loads of unemployed people out there who would love to be shooting paper clips for their meager penance.)

Remember Pat Forde? He has turned up as Yahoo Sports’ expert. Pat thinks it’s time for schools to seize control of athletic programs (novel concept though it is), and guess who should lead the way?

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Meanwhile, Ray Ratto writes that Peterno [sic] put the brand ahead of human decency. Ray’s about as subtle as a two-by-four between the eyes, and maybe he can’t even spell Paterno, but this is worth a read. Thanks to reader Joe for digging it up.

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Here’s one that will piss you off. Alabama Crimson Tide head football coach Nick Saban calls the Penn State scandal “A very, very criminal situation.” (I previously thought that that particular label should have been hung on that jackass on Jersey Shore, but that show has been cancelled, so I don’t care anymore.) Saban, in his articulate, cogent manner (note irony, please) added, “… that reflects poorly on a lot of things.” He’d like to tax the tickets and give the proceeds to some child abuse organization. He claims that he could have never gained as much power at Alabama as Paterno had at Penn State.

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Wow, thanks and a big tip of the helmet to David Regimbal of Land-Grant Holyland, an Ohio State Buckeye blog, for his sensitive and objective article, “When Penn State Comes to Town.” You’re used to sarcasm from this Turkey, but I’m swallowing the vitriol to state unequivocally that this piece deserves your attention, especially if you think everyone out there is using Penn State’s scandal to take potshots as anything even remotely associated with PSU. Good job, David!

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Back when the Turkey was a mere fledgling, Penn State freshmen had to learn the words of the Alma Mater. For some reason, and at some point in history, things got pretty loose and irreverent in Happy Valley, somehow causing the mutation of the Alma Mater’s opening line from “For the glory of old State” to “We don’t know the g*ddamn words”. In this time of Penn State soul searching, it is particularly important for students and alumni to carefully consider the real words. Justin Cortes of Onward State wrote a good article on the subject, interpreting and commenting on each line.

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In our final impactful piece of the day, the editorial staff of the Collegian asks Penn State president Rodney Erickson to give up the open records exemptions granted to the university by the state, and permanently maintain the transparency that he promised for the investigation.

Well, that’s all she wrote — he wrote — for this edition of Sudden Impact. I didn’t touch at all on the potential “death penalty” for Penn State by the NCAA, as it is all speculation at this point. It is not looking good, though, based on the hints and quips one reads. The NCAA wants to see documentation of substantive, positive, preventive change in Penn State’s response, which is forthcoming next week. It would be an excellent show of good faith to the NCAA if somehow between now and then, Erickson would take the open records issue seriously and perhaps three or four trustees would admit to malfeasance and resign. In my mind, that’s worth a stay of execution.

Chronicle: New Paterno E-Mail Shows Influence

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The Chronicle of Higher Education is once again in possession of an email exchange between the late Penn State head football coach, Joe Paterno, and the deposed university president, Graham Spanier. This one is from 2007, and its subject was an off-campus fight involving as many as two dozen football players beating up non-player students.

“…Coach Paterno is also saying THEY will handle this and makes it look like the normal channels will be ignored for football players.” —Vicky Triponey, Penn State Vice President, Student Affairs, April 2007

Although this particular correspondence trail doesn’t have anything at all to do with the Sandusky scandal, it hits at a point that this Turkey, among many others, has been trying to assert: the culture of omerta is alive and well at Penn State and its capo di tutti capi was Joseph V. Paterno.

Where the football program was involved, Joe was intergalactic emperor, holding sway even over the upper reaches of the ivory tower. His titular boss, AD Tim Curley, essentially Joe’s sycophant, and Tim’s boss, president Graham Spanier, seemed to allow Joe to have his way whenever push came to shove. Well, that’s the way it seemed to the outside world. Inside, it was no secret that Joe ran the program with an iron hand and didn’t appreciate incursions by meddling officials — even the State College and University police departments.

Whoever is leaking these emails wants to prove that point badly. In June, previously leaked emails had Curley changing his mind about a plan that VP Gary Schultz and he had concocted after Curley subsequently had a conversation with Joe. Spanier, who had previously given the original plan his stamp of approval, went along with the change, which kept the matter internal, presumably in violation of Pennsylvania reporting laws.

Paterno’s family pooh-poohed his assumed involvement in the aforementioned decision. One of the reasons given was that Mr. Paterno did not use email. Although that seems ludicrous, the conversation referred to by Curley was not via email. Furthermore, the new revelations by the Chronicle include an email sent at Paterno’s behest, albeit by his secretary.

There is a lot of resistance among alumni and stalwart fans to the notion that Paterno had power to trump higher-ups, even though just about everyone is aware of the failed attempt by Spanier and Curley to fire the coach in 2004. I think they’re in denial. This Turkey believes that for many years, Joe Paterno was the most powerful man on campus, and possibly in the whole of State College.

Let’s take a look at the 2007 email exchange about the “Ruckus at the Meridian”. In the aftermath of the incident, Paterno addressed an email to Graham B. Spanier and “Tim” (presumably Curley) via an email account used by Paterno’s assistant, Sandi Segursky:

“I want to make sure everyone understands that the discipline of the players involved will be handled by me as soon as I am comfortable that I know all the facts,” said the April 7, 2007, e-mail, which was signed “Joe.”

“This is my understanding as well,” wrote Mr. Spanier in response.

Vicky Triponey, vice president of student affairs at the time, was copied on the correspondence. Judicial Affairs, responsible for meting out punishment to students in violation of the student code of conduct, was the bailiwick of Ms. Triponey, who wrote the following to Spanier:

“Thanks for sharing. I assume he is talking about discipline relative to TEAM rules (note: he does not say that). Obviously discipline relative to the law is up to the police and the courts, and discipline relative to violations of the student code of conduct is the responsibility of Judicial Affairs.

“This has not always been clear with Coach Paterno so we might want to clarify that and encourage him to work with us to find the truth and handle this collaboratively with the police and the university,” she went on. “The challenge here is that the letter suggests that football should handle this and now Coach Paterno is also saying THEY will handle this and makes it look like the normal channels will be ignored for football players.

“Can you remind them of police and University responsibility?”

Do you note a bit of an edge in Triponey’s tone? She had been through this with Paterno more than once, and was basically tired of having her toes stepped on by the football coach. (Triponey later resigned, citing “philosophical differences”.)

There is no evidence of a return email from Spanier; however, he sent a letter on May 11 to Paterno, stating that players charged in the case would be interviewed by student affairs staff.

“I appreciate your cooperation in this important matter,” Mr. Spanier wrote to Mr. Paterno, “and I trust this comports with your understanding.”

Spanier appears to have been uncomfortable in his role of peacemaker between Paterno and Triponey.

The record shows that police filed charges against six players involved in the ruckus. Two pleaded guilty to misdemeanors. Internally, the university suspended four players, but they did not lose any playing time.

For show, Paterno had the whole team perform 10 hours of community service and also sentenced them to cleaning up the stadium after every home game. That lasted about two games, as this Turkey recalls, before Joe said they had learned their lesson and that was that.

So, back to the point. Joe was in charge. No doubt about that. Curley and Spanier were weak. No doubt about that. But who is it who so desperately wants to rub our noses in it? The Chronicle states only that the documents were acquired from “a source close to the Jerry Sandusky investigation…”.

Who would gain by creating all this folderol? Vicky Triponey? Maybe, if she were the vindictive type. Or Godknowswho, if this is just a fine red herring designed to channel attention away from somewhere else, such as The Second Mile. I’m not making an accusation. I’m just sayin’…

Sudden Impact: Hot Dogs and Hot Seats

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Happy Independence Day to all of you fine folks out there from the Turkey! This special holiday issue of Sudden Impact continues to center on the Sandusky scandal, Showergate, the Revenge of the Tickle Monster—whichever characterization you prefer.

We lead off with an excellent, well written, and articulate analysis of Tim Curley’s options in the days in weeks ahead. Should he take the fall or finger JoePa as the source of evil, the Benito Mussolini of the Penn State football program? Bobby Big Wheel, Legal and Political Contributor for SB*Nation, shines in “Tim Curley’s Choice: Sell Out Joe Paterno and Penn State Football?“

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Then, we have a dud. Frank Deford has turned up at NPR, and he says just about nothing. His long winded build-up eventually disappoints with an abrupt shifting of gears and an incomplete conclusion. See: “Joe Paterno’s Legacy: Protect Players at All Costs” in Deford’s “Sweetness and Light” column.

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Another shot at Paterno comes from Melinda Henneberger of the Washington Post. In her blog (entitled “She The People”), “What Paterno admitted he knew: Sandusky couldn’t have done it without him“, she once again points the finger at Joe for enabling Sandusky and his myriad transgressions of human decency constraints.

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More tarnish on Joe Paterno’s sainted reputation at the behest of Dan Wetzel in “Joe Paterno’s role in covering up Jerry Sandusky’s child molestations grows as evidence is leaked.“

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Those should be enough for you to tear into. Go out and have some hot dogs and drink some beer! Happy Birthday, USA!

 

 

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