Women's Group Wants Penn State Coach to Quit
The coach in question? Joe Paterno, of course! Here's the gist - right before the Orange Bowl, one of Florida State's players got suspended from the game for an alleged sexual assault. When asked, Paterno said the following:
"There's some tough - there's so many people gravitating to these kids. He may not have even known what he was getting into, Nicholson. They knock on the door; somebody may knock on the door; a cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do?"While I don't know whether or not a crime was committed, I don't think that Paterno's comments "represent an institutional insensitivity that endangers women." I kinda thought it was funny.
"Geez. I hope - thank God they don't knock on my door because I'd refer them to a couple of other rooms," Paterno continued. "But that's too bad. You hate to see that. I really do. You like to see a kid end up his football career. He's a heck of a football player, by the way; he's a really good football player. And it's just too bad."
Cow Escapes Meat Plant, Dodges SUV, Train
A cow that escaped a slaughterhouse dodged vehicles, ran in front of a train, braved the icy Missouri River and took three tranquilizer darts before being recaptured six hours later. News of the heifer's adventures prompted a number of people to offer to buy the animal.Really, think about this one in another week or so when you bite into a particularly tough steak. I really hope they send her to a petting farm somewhere in the country...she's earned it!
1 comment:
Leave it to JoePa to put is foot in his mouth. That's what I love about JoePa... he calls it how he sees it. Of course that doesn't make it right. He's "old school" and stuff that people could get away with 10 or 20 years ago just doesn't fly anymore.
Here's another quote that brought criticism from a few sports commentators. He was commenting on the higher scores in the Big 10 when he said:
"You have to be careful the way you say things sometimes. Poor [Air Force coach] Fisher DeBerry got in trouble, but the black athlete has made a big difference. They have changed the whole tempo of the game. Black athletes have just done a great job as athletes and as people in turning the game around."
Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry had just been reprimanded the week before for making racially insensitive remarks. I'm not sure if Paterno was trying to stick up for him or just prefacing his own comments (kind of saying "don't take this the wrong way, but..."). In any case, he did get some flack for his comments from some sportscasters who basically said he shouldn't be distinguishing between black athletes and white athletes, even if he was praising them, and called for him to apologize.
That's not to say that JoePa is a saint. He's brushing this off as "kids will be kids," but he may not realize the severity of the charges against the Florida State player. Or worse yet, he may feel that football players are entitled to special treatment. When I was at Penn State I heard rumors of JoePa getting football players off for charges of public drunkenness, fights (assault), even DUI. He has a lot of power in that tow, and always made sure that there were no charges filed and nothing ever made the police blotter. I always wondered how Penn State could have such a well-behaved football squad until I heard this from a roommate of mine (a life-long Bellefonte/State College resident and volunteer fire dept. member, so he was in the know when it came to DUI accidents).
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