Since the Penn State assistant allegedly was having inappropriate contact with young boys story came out, the 800-pound gorilla in the room was the fate of Head Football Coach Joe Paterno. Although no charges have been leveled at Paterno as of now, it is obvious that Paterno knew of allegations against his defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, which he told his superiors – Senior Vice President for Finance Gary Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley who apparently did nothing.
I can understand older people not being able to fathom the evil of people, and maybe that’s what happened with Paterno, but, as the longest serving coaches in college football history, Paterno should have demanded action; at the very least, an investigation to clear his friend’s name if the charges were untrue. But, Paterno, Schultz and Curley protected the football program first, and now Schultz and Curley have been indicted for perjury and Paterno’s name as a defendant could be next.
The university cancelled Paterno’s weekly press conference yesterday while university officials met with lawyers to find the best way to begin extracting the school from the most serious scandal in college football history bar none. Today, it has been reported that Paterno’s tenure at Penn State will end at the end of the season, but that’s not enough. He should have stepped down today.
Yes, Paterno is in his 80s; he has the most victories in Division I football history; and until this incident, he was the living embodiment of college football. But, my reaction to Paterno since Penn State joined the Big Ten has been generally a negative one. He led the argument for further expansion, which helped trigger the money grab/conference shuffle that has happened over the past few months (and will continue). Paterno pushed hard for the Big Ten to have divisions and a championship game, which will be a big money generator and, according to him, allow Big Ten teams to be more competitive in BCS games. Not a word was spoken for the extra games’ impact on the athletes, either physically or academically. It was like Paterno didn’t give a damn.
And now this; to my mind, the act toward every young man who was assaulted by Jerry Sandusky after Paterno, Schultz and Curley found out about the allegations is now on the hands, consciences and reputations of these three men. They could have done something to stop the abuse, but they didn’t.
I hate to say it, but Joe Pa needs to go. Today! This very minute!

I am amused but not surprised by the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations. I am amused because of all of the pretend indignation by conservatives. Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and others have lined up in defense of Cain saying that it is racism of the left that is causing him to be attacked. No, I say just the opposite – true equality is when you are held by the same standards of anyone else, and if true, Herman Cain is a “good ole’ boy” in the grand tradition. Wrong is wrong; inappropriate is inappropriate, no matter who it is. That is true equality.
I’m not surprised by the Cain allegations because he is proving to be Neanderthal in his opinions of women to this day. Cain says that he would ban abortions even in cases of rape, and incest. It would follow that such a man would consider women as meat for his pleasure. It is funny though that the accuser that came forward is an attractive white woman. If Herman Cain had done what he is accused of doing in 1940 instead of 1990, many of his supporters would have been just as adamant that Cain be hung from the nearest tree.

Everyone knows by now that the world has lost Joe Frazier. Best known as the adversary of Muhammad Ali, Frazier was a great champion, winner of an Olympic Gold Medal in 1964.
But it is too bad that Ali went too far in demonizing Frazier, even to his own people. Ali called Frazier ugly, stupid, and worst, an Uncle Tom. And many black people, especially the young, went along with that. I remember the Monday after Ali-Frazier I “The Fight of the Century,” and even though many of us didn’t see the fight, we were convinced that Ali “slipped” in the 15th round of that fight and should have won. (Of course, looking at it today, Frazier hit Ali square on the jaw and Ali collapsed like a house of cards. It’s amazing that Ali was able to get up).
The second fight wasn’t that good in comparison (sorry guys), but the third fight, “The Thrilla in Manila” may be the most brutal fight since the bare knuckle, 50 round days. Ali and Frazier took turns being the aggressor and with the heat, both men left the best of themselves on that canvas. Frazier’s corner threw in the towel after the 14th round, and the fighter stayed in a hospital for three weeks afterward. In retrospect, Ali should have retired after that – maybe his pugilistic Parkinson’s Disease wouldn’t be as pronounced.
(I must also admit that I have been doing a fair Howard Cosell imitation for over 35 years of Cosell yelling into the microphone “Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!” when Frazier was beaten savagely by George Foreman in Jamaica. Thanks for the comment guys.)
Frazier ingested the insults, some of which were typical Ali hyperbole, and he hated Ali for it. I saw an interview with Frazier a few years ago in which he took pride and credit for having “given” Ali his condition. Frazier never got over the animosity, but in all honesty, Ali and Frazier defined each other – their legends would not have been as great without the other.

• Does anyone miss the NBA yet? If David Stern isn’t careful, that might be the impression for a long time to come.
• Brett Ratner is a jerk. Worse, he is a bad director – the comedic version of Michael Bay. Yes, his “Rush Hour” films made money, but Jackie Chan is great, and Chris tucker is perhaps the most irritating comic in movie history. Still, he is basically talentless. This week it came out that Ratner told someone before his latest movie “Tower Heist” came out that “rehearsal is for fags” which has caused an uproar; so much that he has been dropped as producer of the next Academy Awards telecast. Then, Eddie Murphy, who had agreed to host the show also pulled out when Ratner was canned. It would have been interesting to see what Murphyy would have done as host, but as for Ratner, no great loss.

But I do know one thing; this is another black eye on college athletics that NCAA President Dr. Mark A. Emmert doesn’t need. By now, you’ve heard the allegations – Penn State Senior Vice President for Finance Gary Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley were indicted over the weekend on charges that they failed to report suspected child-sexual abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and committed perjury in their related grand jury testimony.
Schultz and Curley resigned Sunday and appeared in a courtroom today where a judge set bail at $75,000. They weren’t required to enter pleas but they had to surrender their passports. The men are accused of failing to alert police to complaints that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused eight boys. They are also charged with lying to a state grand jury investigating the former defensive coordinator.
According to a Yahoo Sports report, Sandusky continued to be around the Penn State football program up to his arrest Saturday, including working out multiple times in the team’s weight room last week, according to multiple sources within the program.
Prosecutors specifically said that the university’s longtime football coach, Joe Paterno, is not a target of the investigation into how the school handled the accusations. Paterno, who last week became the coach with the most wins in Division I football history, wasn’t charged and the grand jury report didn’t appear to implicate him in wrongdoing although he did testify before the grand jury.
Of course, there is little that is more reprehensible than a child molester, whatever his or her walk of life happens to be; but it’s worse when it’s an educator. Teachers and coaches are supposed to be instructing young people on life skills, not indulging their own sexual desires.
If Sandusky is guilty, then he should get serious punishment, and the same can be said for anyone who did nothing, said nothing, and allowed him to continue, even if that includes Paterno. When the allegations surfaced, I think I would have asked him to leave, even if no trial ever occurred. In a public university, the appearance of impropriety is as bad as any actual transgression. Sandusky should have been fired immediately, especially if truths were known and covered up. And, of course, all the boys he molested need to be identified, if, for no other reason, then to get them help.
No matter what happens now, Paterno’s tenure at Penn State is tarnished. I hope that the truth comes out so that we really know who did what or not, and who knew what and when.

No one is happier about Northwestern’s stunning defeat of Nebraska last Saturday than I. After all, the Indignant Wife and I travelled to San Antonio in December 2000 to watch Nebraska run up the score on the Wildcats 66-17 (still the most points scored in an Alamo Bowl Game). They were angry they didn’t get a better bowl game and ran up the score on us in a classless display.
So, for over a decade, I’ve had a mad on for Nebraska. Saturday’s 28-25 win wasn’t the 88-0 blowout I still want to see to settle me blood lust, but it does feel awfully good.
But, my former employer, Chet Coppock posted on Facebook that this was the biggest regular season game in Northwestern history, and I immediately disagreed. To yours truly, the Nebraska upset is only the third most important regular season game. At number two was October 21, 1995 at Dyche Stadium. We were ranked 11th in the country and Wisconsin was rated 24th, but many people believed that Wisconsin was the better team. It was our game to prove that we belonged with the big boys, and we not only won, but demolished the Badgers 35-0. At that point, no one could doubt us anymore.
But the most important win in Northwestern history up to now was September 2, 1995 when the ‘Cats went to South Bend, Indiana and defeated Notre Dame 17-15; and I don’t say that because of my hatred for Notre Dame. It was the first game of that season, Notre Dame came into the game ranked #9 in the country; televison analyst Beano Cook had proclaimed that ND quarterback Ron Paulis would win TWO Heisman Trophies; and Gary Barnett had just come to Evanston.
Up to that point, no one believed that Northwestern could compete in football in the Big Ten. When Penn State joined the conference, there was more than one commentator who said that NU should leave the conference. But Barnett, offensive stalwarts like Steve Schnur and Darnell Autry, and current coach, linebacker Pat Fitzgerald and the other players drank from Barnett’s Kool-Aid and went to their first Rose Bowl in 47 years. Of course, Paulis never won any Heismans, which pretty much killed Cook’s credibility on television.
THAT game was the moment that Northwestern football was no longer the punch line to a very bad joke. This past weekend’s game was important this season, and could be the springboard on which NU finished the season strong and goes to another bowl game. But it wasn’t as important as those two 1995 games.

Or, if this were Don Adams on “Get Smart,” “he missed it by THAT much.” I have hardly ever agreed with Illinois congressman Bobby Rush, even when I lived in his district. While I admit to giving him much respect for having gone from being a Black Panther to Congress, he usually is too wild in his rhetoric for yours truly. And, in my opinion, he is too over the top with his comments earlier that week that compared the NCAA to the Mafia concerning how it controls the lives of student athletes. Organized crime? No, I don’t think so. Plantation owners of slaves? Guilty as charged.
“I think they’re just one of the most vicious, most ruthless organizations ever created by mankind,” Rush said of the NCAA at a congressional forum on college sports. “I think you would compare the NCAA to Al Capone and to the Mafia.”
The congressman spoke after testimony of two mothers of former student-athletes who complained of ill treatment by schools after their sons suffered injuries. Two former NBA players testified that college was difficult and that athlete’s schedule were like full time jobs. We knew that, and, on top of it, athletes, if they had the time, were prohibited from having jobs (even work-study jobs) that could give the athletes money in their pockets for extra expenses.
But that isn’t the worst of it. These kids are treated like meat; at many schools, they are given easy courses, or tutors who do the work for them. The schools look the other way at under the table money payments (if they aren’t paying the athletes themselves).
At the heart of it is the NCAA, supposed to police the member schools, but joining in the money grab and, until recently, mainly protecting the schools from paying their athletes legally Plus, the fact that the NCAA can produce video games with former players’ likenesses and pay them nothing was the ultimate ignominy (and I hope that Ed O’Bannon’s lawsuit costs them billions).
The recent decision to allow schools to have scholarships to increase by $2,000 per student to be paid in cash for the student to use is a step in the right direction,. However, according to Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, it still isn’t enough. His group has calculated the average scholarship shortfall for men’s basketball and football at the FBS level at around $3,200.
And, I’m waiting for the various universities to screw this up – giving money to one kid and not to another. The “stars” will be a little more “poor” than the bench warmers, who’ll get nothing, which will lead to more money under the table. Will every student athlete get money, or only those from the “revenue sports?” And while I’m generally on the athlete’s side on these things, how many of them will get greedy and want more and more.
The NCAA declined to respond to Rush’s comments. Of course they didn’t – they were too busy looking at the six schools being asked to join the Big East Conference and how many millions that will add to the school’s athletic departments.
The conference jumping and the conference networks upped the ante of disgust for me. College athletics have always been crooked; but now, we get to see how much money is actually raked in from television and, until recently, the athletes were unpaid serfs. But the schools still own the players’ likenesses in perpetuity.
Again, I appreciate the congressman’s concern and comment, but too much of what the NCAA pulls is perfectly legal; just not at all ethical.