The NCAA Drops the Hammer

Because this is such an emotional issue, and because I have many friends, as well as family members, closely associated with Penn State, I have tried not to get into the fray too deeply over the Penn State/Freeh/Sandusky affair, but with the announcement of the sanctions by the NCAA and Big Ten today, well, I do have to say something.  I won't rehash everything - you all know what went down today - but will make a couple of random comments.

• I do not think that the sanctions were too severe.  Neither, apparently, does the Penn State President and Board of Trustees.  I think the NCAA got it right this time.
• The vacating of the 111 victories since 1998 was the real shot to the gut, and was obviously intended as a means to purge Joe Paterno from the record books.  It also addressed the issue of the "cult of personality" predominant in so many major college football and basketball programs.
• Sadly, I doubt that this will end such things on our university campuses (quick: who do you think of when you think of Duke University?).
• The fact that a staggering figure like $60 million represents only one year's revenue of the PSU football program boggles the mind.  It is a big reason why this whole cover-up took place.
• The NCAA is coming off today as the simon pure guardian of collegiate athletics.  Please.  They will soon be negotiating a television contract for the College Football Championship playoffs that will begin in two years that will involve amounts of money that are unimaginable.
• ESPN learned it's lesson, apparently.  They did not use Matt Millen as a commentator on their coverage of the NCAA announcement today.
• They did have Les Miles of LSU (of the SEC) on commenting on the evils of the culture of big money in college football.  That was so ludicrous that I couldn't even think of a snarky comment to make about it.
• I heard someone on the radio saying that if you are a fan of a college and are wondering which Penn State scholarship players you could get to come play for your school, you are a part of the problem.
• In the end, I do feel bad for Bill O'Brien and the current players.

Some Off Season Football Thoughts

Wow, the cost of doing business in the NFL wide receivers sure went up yesterday, didn't it? $132 million over eight years for Calvin Johnson??? OK, so only $60 is guaranteed, but still. Plus the mega-contracts handed out to Vincent Jackson, Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon, Marques Colston, and even an ancient Randy Moss? It all spells out one thing for all us Steelers fans: Mike Wallace may play here in 2012 thanks to the arcane NFL salary/free agent/tender machinations, but don't expect to see him here beyond that. Same goes for Antonio Brown two seasons down the pike. In my wildest imagination, I can never see Rooney U. dishing out that kind of dough for a wide receiver.

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Did you catch the TV commercials for Pitt Football that began airing this past weekend? It features Pitt players talking about "my school, my city" in promoting the 2012 football season. No extravagant promises and claims from a blowhard head coach. A hard Lesson Learned in the Pitt Sports Information office, I'd say.

Still, Pitt is going to need a lot more than nice commercials to get people out to a home schedule that has to be one of the least attractive in anyone's recent or even not-so-recent memory.

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I never read stories about hotshot, can't-miss high school recruits, but a glance at recent headlines seem to indicate that Bill O'Brien is hooking some attractive prospects for Penn State, particularly quarterbacks. Penn State has an awful lot to overcome, including a late start by O'Brien, but I hope that he, O'Brien, is able to overcome all that and get the Lions into the elite soon. I also hope that the fanatics in Happy Valley give him a fair chance.

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Anybody got any extra tickets for the Power's home opener? Anybody know when it is? Do the Power have any players, or have they all been fired again?

Saints March, Pitt Goes Quietly, New Era in Happy Valley, and Other Thoughts

Some Football Thoughts halfway through Wildcard Weekend:

• Unlike many football fans, I seldom watch any non-Steelers NFL game from start to finish until the playoffs begin. As a result, the only time that I saw the Detroit Lions all season was when they got thumped by Green Bay on Thanksgiving Day. Despite their 45-21 loss to New Orleans last night, I was really impressed by them. I came to three conclusions: (1) Matthew Stafford is really good, (2) Calvin Johnson is really, REALLY good, and (3) unless he is the coach of the team that you root for, Jim Schwartz can be really, really, really irritating.


• I thought going into the weekend, that the Lions-Saints game could be the best one of the weekend, and both games today will have a long way to go to top it. With a 24-21 score after three quarters, you might have said the Saints were in control, but you wouldn't have bet the mortgage payment on that, would you? Early in the fourth Stafford made his first big mistake with an interception, and, to use a tasteless metaphor for a New Orleans game, the levees burst wide open from that point forward.


• No special insight on my part here, but the Saints look awfully good.


• If you are a San Diego Chargers fan, how did you feel watching Drew Brees and Darin Sproles playing for the Saints last night?


• Texans beat the Bengals. I missed most of this one, but was anyone really surprised?


• While out and about in the car yesterday I listened to Pitt fall behind 21-0 in the first quarter of the Compass Bowl. Thus, a nightmare of a season comes to an end for the football Panthers. In all honesty, I don't know how any of those Pitt players could have had any heart or enthusiasm in playing this game.


• Saw Paul Chryst interviewed in the booth on TV during the second half of this game. Good luck to him in building this team up. I hope that everyone will give him the "honeymoon" that Todd Graham said he didn't need.


• Attendance at the Compass Bowl was 29,000 and change. Should have felt like a home game for the Panthers.


• Staying on the college front, Penn State finally hires its new head coach, Bill O'Brien, currently the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. PSU boosters and former players have angrily denounced this hiring. "He has no roots at Penn State," they cry. They want him out before he even coaches a game. (Seriously. Bob Smizik posted a link to some Penn State booster blog that stated this very sentiment.) Seems that the Lions boosters, who haven't had to see their school hire a football coach for the last 45 years now get to do what boosters at every other school get to do every five years or so: act like that hundred dollar check they write to the booster club each year gives them the right to set University athletic policy.


• Bill O'Brien may be great head coach. Or he may be a lousy one. There is no way to predict how any new coaching hire will turn out anywhere in Big Time sports, but he certainly brings strong credentials to the position at Happy Valley and seems to deserve the opportunity that he is getting. Lions fans who have watched Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin battle it out for the QB job the last few years should realize that O'Brien has most recently coached a guy named Tom Brady.


• I admit that I am an outsider here, but my own thought is that Penn State was probably wise to go with someone who has NOT been associated with the program of recent years.


• That said, I do feel bad for Tom Bradley. None of the Sandusky Stink has seemed to brush off on to him, he has served the University loyally for decades, he stepped in as interim coach under the absolute worst possible circumstance and held the team together, and for all that he is now looking for a job. I hope that he lands on his feet somewhere, but his association with the Penn State will probably now end up hurting him in his career. Another victim of the collateral damage done at Penn State over this whole mess.


• While I can be supportive and optimistic about the O'Brien hiring at Happy Valley, I have to wonder why it took over two months to fill that position. Somebody is probably going to write a very good book on that subject one of these days.


• And on the topic of Tom Brady (I did mention him a few bullets ago), there is a very good article in the current Sports Illustrated about him while he was at the University of Michigan, how he struggled there, and how he battled with super recruit and two-sport star Drew Henson for the QB position while at Ann Arbor. If you now see Brady as the Golden Boy prima donna of the NFL, this story will give you different insight. It also tells an interesting cautionary tale where Drew Henson is concerned. Recommended reading.


• To recap, The Grandstander went 2-0 with his Wildcard predictions yesterday. I'm calling for Giants and Steelers wins today.


• With each Steelers playoff game, we face the possibility of seeing Hines Ward's final game as a Steeler. Call me a sentimentalist, but I sure would love to see one final big game for Number 86 somewhere during this post-season.

Football Bowl Thoughts

As halftime of the Fiesta Bowl approaches with the score now tied at 21, a few thoughts on what has transpired today.

Full disclosure: I watched most of the Penn State game, the fourth quarter of the Rose Bowl (The Grandaddy of Them All), and have been watching the Fiesta Bowl while reading a book.

Didn't watch any of the other games.

So, here are my thoughts.

**How did Penn State manage to win nine games this year? They looked slow, plodding and unimaginative against Houston today.

**I can't imagine any team to be as glad that a season is over as Penn State must be tonight.

**I found myself feeling bad for Tom Bradley today. The guy's life dream has no doubt been to be the head coach at Penn State. He gets the job this year under the most unimaginable of circumstances and because of those circumstances, he will no doubt soon be dismissed by PSU, and find himself almost unhireable by any other school.

**Apparently, I should have watched all of the Rose Bowl (The Grandaddy of Them All) because that was quite an offensive show the Badgers and Ducks put on. However, did anybody else have trouble actually SEEING the Oregon players in the green uniforms against the green grass?

**Stanford and Oklahoma State are putting on quite a show. Am enjoying watching the presumptive #1 draft pick Andrew Luck playing. He looks pretty good. Now, we will spend the next three months hearing the draft geeks saying what is wrong with him. Poor arm angle, slow feet, bad vertical leap...all the crap that you always hear from the people who said that Jeff George was going to be a Hall of Famer and that Ryan Leaf was a better pick than Peyton Manning.

**As for that beard that Luck wears, it's pretty scraggly. If you can't grow a good beard, the don't grow one at all, Andy.

Not sure if I'll be up until the end of this one or not, but I'll give it a shot and see where it leads.

On Penn State

Throughout the last several days, there has been some terrific writing and reporting from all across the country on this subject. I will not add to it except to say this.

If you have grown up, lived, and worked in Allegheny Country, western Pennsylvania, and the state of Pennsylvania, chances are very good that, if you are not one yourself, you know someone who is a Penn State alumnus and a dyed-in-the-wool Penn State fan. A family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, someone from church, you know these people, and this week I feel truly bad for these people. They are certainly not "victims" in this case, but they are indeed part of the collateral damage that has resulted from this mess.

It is easy to tweak and kid the caricature of the "bleeds-blue-and-white" Penn State fan. I've done it myself, but let's face it, part of that teasing stems from jealousy. I am envious of people that have spent a portion of their life at a place and institution that has engendered a passion and devotion that has lasted their entire lives. I wish I felt that way about any institution with which I have been associated over the years. These folks have not been well served by the stewards of their University.

As I mentioned, there has been some absolutely terrific writing from writers and reporters all over the country on this topic. Locally, I can point to Gene Collier, Dejan Kovacevic, Joe Starkey, and Bob Smizik. Smizik has also posted on his blog links to writers from papers all over the country to make it easier to find these stories.

No writing that I have read, however, was as eloquent than an email that I received from my nephew George, now age 41. George is the son of two Penn State alums, was born and raised in Centre County, and is a Penn State grad and a proud member of the Blue Band. As his thoughts came to me via a personal email, I will not share it here, but I can assure you that his thoughts summarize the sadness and disappointment that has been felt by these loyal alums and fans over this matter. I am sure that he speaks for thousands of Penn Staters across the land. I will take the liberty to share one sentence from his note to me:

It is "exquisitely ironic that a culture (Penn State football) that was in the business of creating upstanding and heroic men, didn't create a sufficient hero in this case."

This will probably be the last thing I wrote on this topic. It hardly falls within the fun-and-games part of life that I usually opine on, and I doubt that there is much of anything that I could add to what will be written in the weeks, months, and years ahead as this story continues to evolve.