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!!

Stop The Madness

OK, so we all know I am not exactly a Lebron James fan, in fact I firmly believe that if Lebron were to join the Heat is would be the third best player on that team, but I need to continue here for a moment tonight. This is not really about Lebron, but about sports in this country period, it is just that Lebron is the most obvious and visable symptom.

A one hour special to announce a decision as to where he is going to play basketball next year?? Yes, it is great that he will help the Boy's and Girl's Clubs of America, but does anyone really buy that they are the only reason he is doing this special?? Not to mention the "whores" that ESPN have become...OK we will come back to that one at a later date because they do give me something to write about every day.

We have youth sports in this country that has gotten so bad that I actually saw a player, in a youth game, under elevens mind you, shove a coach!! Yes I said shove a coach. Now, I give the coach, parent helping out as a coach, a great deal of credit for not losing it on the player, and in fact he stayed patient with this young man, and I use the term as loosely as humanly possible,and gently made his point before leaving him on the end of the bench for the rest of the game to rot. But, this kind of behavior is not the exception at this point, it is the rule.

It started, I guess, with the spike in football, and then the Icky shuffle, and now it has reached a point hat college players in the major sports celebrate and taunt routinely, and as it works it way down, none of the work ethic, respect for coaches, respect for teammates, opponents, the games themselves, or even competition exists anymore and so you simply have spoiled, entitled little "shits" running around believing they rule the world, and then we wonder why we have had to use "professional" athletes, and I use that term loosely as well, for all the team sports in the Olympics.

Take a look at the teams, the countries, the different sports that all of sudden everyone is getting good at, and look at the United States. Look at the World Cup and the countries that were suddenly competitive. We have lost control of youth, athletes, and sports in this country, and we have definitely lost control of youth sports. People will tell me well it is because we don't have enough good coaches at the youth levels, or the high school levels, the sport is simply growing too fast. Well maybe we should take some control over how we grow the sports we grow in this country and maybe the people that want to help should do a little more than just show up, and if we do that, if the "grown-ups" take responsibility and ownership of educating themselves about that which they are trying to teach, including the sportsmanship and respect components, then maybe the youth players will take their lead.

What a novel concept, coaches leading players by example, glad I thought of it!!

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