Say It Ain't So Joe

Some of you will remember the line from baseball days a very long time ago, and Shoeless Joe Jackson and the "Black" Sox scandal, but I had to borrow the phrase for a moment.


ESPN is at it again, as are many other so called sports outlets as they are trying their best to put all of this on Joe Paterno and the Penn State Football program when in fact, if you look at the Freeh report and you pay very close attention, this was a gross administrative f-up of mammoth proportions, but not a football issue.  I realize that this will not be a popular statement, and I am not saying that Joe Paterno could not, or should not, have done more as a human being, Joe said that himself, but ESPN continues to conveniently forget that Joe Paterno was not the one in the shower with these boys.  Joe was not the 28 year old, 6' - 4", 220 pound graduate assistant that heard something going on in the shower, did nothing, ran home to daddy, and then decided to speak with Coach Paterno more than 24 hours later.  Joe was not the one in charge of campus security.  He was not at any point in his career a Dean, a Vice President, a President, or a trustee!!  And, oh by the way, he was 75 at the time he was told by Mike McQuery whatever he was actually told.


It is hard for me because I am a 48 year old coach and I know that if I was told this I would have gone and found Sandusky and confronted him, to put it nicely, but by the same token, I am not a head D-I football coach in my mid seventies.  I am guessing that if I were, and I was in my office preparing for the weekend, and someone told me "he thought he heard something that sounded like," especially more than twenty four hours later, I probably would have picked up the phone and called the President of the University, or the State Police, or the Chief of Police on campus.  I do know that at Chico State I got to know the Chief of Campus Police there quite well and he was always my first call regardless of what the issue was, and I know that I have campus security on speed dial here as well.


Let me be clear, I firmly believe that anyone that molests someone, rapes someone, harasses someone, woman, child, whomever, anything other than the rack, tar and feathers, and then maybe stoning, slowly, is too good for them.  Just going to jail is far too easy an answer, the death penalty is far too easy an answer.  This type of behavior makes me seethe, as I know is does many people, but it is also important that we punish the right person, or people, and that in the rush to judgement and blame, which is very natural, that we don't let organizations like ESPN skew the truth and the reality to the point that 120 student athletes that were in middle school when all of this started don't end up the ones that suffer the most at Penn State.


I believe that the majority of the Board of Trustees should be replaced, for two reasons, one because the Freeh report does suggest quite strongly that a large portion of the board, not just the chairman, knew more about this scandal than most, and two, because their handling of this entire event since ESPN set up shop on campus with three games to go has been anything but professional.


Should Joe have done more, yes.  Was he the lead culprit in a "cover-up," if that is what we should call it, no.  Was the football staff, other than McQuery and Sandusky, actively involved in this horrible mess, no.  Does anyone really believe that any of the players, then or now, knew what Sandusky was up to and let it happen??  I do not know if anyone believes that or not, but I do not.  Division I college football players are a bizarre collection of individuals to say the least, and a large percentage of them seem to find ways to make really bad decisions, and act in some pretty awful ways, but I just find it very hard to believe that this was the fault of the players in 1998, and 2002, and I know it was not the fault of the current players, so please Penn State University, fire your whole administration, all of your trustees, interesting that that is what they should be called given this situation, and send Sandusky and the then President, and hopefully Mike McQuery to jail (for criminal negligence, or behavior unbecoming a decent human being), but please don't make this about football, and athletics.


This was about a large number of humans, beginning and ending with Jerry Sandusky, that did not act very human, and did not put the children first.  This was the equivalent of a large group of people in the middle of a city watching a man get mugged because they did not want to get involved, except the victims were far more vulnerable, and far less able to defend themselves, and significantly more valuable.


I just wish someone would go back to making this about these victims and their families getting some measure of justice, not just for what was actually done to them, but for what others allowed.


Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

All Is Definitely Not Lost

Well, it is another day, and as with every day ESPN has done something that has completely boggled my mind.  In this case though I have to say it is not just them, but people all across this country that count themselves as college football "experts," or even "avid" fans.  I think all of the above need to find a dictionary and look up some of these words.

I have to admit that this time last year, having been in Boise just over a year, and having been in Bronco Stadium for Senior Day the previous fall, I was a little curious if Boise State would be just as good as the previous year given all the talent they had lost, but knowing a little something of the history of the program, Junior College National Champs, I-AA National Champs, a full decade of steady climb to the top ten under two different head coaches, with Coach Peterson being the consistent theme in that decade as QB Coach, Offensive Coordinator and then Head Coach.

The result? I believe the 2011 version of the Boise State Broncos Football Program was significantly better.  I believe the win over Georgia in the Georgia Dome proved to be an even bigger win than the previous win over Virginia Tech in 2010.

Now Kellen is gone, and Douggie Martin is gone, and a whole bunch more, but this is a great "program," and I am sure, no confident, that Coach Peterson has a shelf in his office with quarterbacks stacked up like cord wood and when he needs one he just goes in there and picks one.  Do I think this year's version of Bronco Football will be just as dominant and just as amazing?  No idea.  Do I think they are deserving of a national ranking, and even a top 15 ranking?  Absolutely yes!!

Alabama graduates a Heisman Trophy winning running back and they are still in the top of the poll.  USC graduates a Heisman Trophy winning QB and they are still in the top 10, and oh by the way, the next quarterback wins a Heisman.

Coach Peterson and his staff are great at what they do, and it is not just Xs and Os.  They have built a program that is a national program and deserves all the same respect as LSU, Alabama, USC and the like.  I truly would have loved to have seen Kellen and the boys against Alabama at the end of last year!!  Great offense against great defense!!  That would have been a fun, exciting game to watch, unlike "the rematch," which was unbearable to watch.  Who has been better than Coach Peterson at managing the five weeks off before bowl games the past five or so years.

Mark May is a complete moron by the way...just saying.

Thank you ESPN for spurring today's sports thought!!

Can't Sit This One Out

Just received notice that a very good friend of mine, and phenomenal kicking coach is being inducted into the Wittenberg University Hall of Fame!!  Congrats Coach Sit!!

Sitler is one of the finest punters in Wittenberg football history. He earned first-team All-OAC honors three times during his career and Lutheran Brotherhood All-America honors in 1975 and 1976. Sitler's name appears frequently in the program record book, standing atop such lists as career punts (177) and punting yardage (6,934), while his punting average for a game (51.6), season (41.1) and career (39.2) all rank second in school history. The Tigers compiled four-year records of 39-5-1 overall and 20-1 in the OAC during Sitler's career, winning two conference championships and the 1975 national championship, in which Sitler set the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl record for punting average (46.4). He earned a tryout with the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League, making it to the final round of cuts. A native of Newark, Ohio, Sitler currently resides in Granville, Ohio, where he has served as kicking/punting coach for Wittenberg's NCAC rival Denison University for 12 years. He continues to coach youth of all ages, including four former Wittenberg kickers/punters and numerous high school standouts.

Gary Sitler