IT'S TIME TO RECALIBRATE FOOTBALL'S VALUE -- for Just A Minute Radio -- Friday 111111

‘Tis hard to believe but college football’s “winning-est” head football coach was fired along with the President of Penn State on Thursday evening and notified of it by a telephone call.

The Board of Trustees had come upon information that a member of Paterno’s coaching staff had been involved in what amounts to a sexual crime in one of the school’s showers with a youth. A coach had observed this and reported it to one or more of the coaching staff, it had also come to Coach Paterno – he said it was reported to the school Administration. This was all quite a few years ago. The details were not totally clear.

However they were clear enough for the Administration to dismiss Paterno and the School’s president along with others who knew about the infraction but did not report it. Full details were not yet public. But they were public enough the Trustees did not want to have more pictures taken and therefore notified the Coach by telephone rather than have him subjected to the gathered mob of media and fans.

Violence erupted on the campus. The campus police came to calm it down. A TV Van was toppled and the pictures of the crowd demonstrated incipient violence.

Undoubtedly there will be further actions since observing an underage sex crime and failing to report it is a Federal crime. At the point of the preparation of this report all those details are unclear. But it is obvious Penn State’s Board of Trustees believe their responsibilities called for their resignation and that of the coach or coaches involved. All that remains to be worked out. One of the former assistant coaches was taken into custody in handcuffs… he was later released on Bond. If you’re interested in further details they are in major U.S. papers.

Coach Paterno had mentioned a day earlier that he planned to retire as soon as the season was over – the Board of Trustees moved it up till Thursday evening.

News columnists like George Will had already written about the muscular surroundings of college football – and the fact it was becoming a scene in which it was the tail wagging the dog. The damage and violence done on the Penn State campus did not help the situation. Penn State has been due to play Nebraska this weekend. There were unconfirmed rumors the game would be cancelled.

[I had intended to write about Veteran’s Day on Friday…. But these events intervened.]

Have a great weekend.

Cordially, IN HIM

Jack Buttram

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“JUST A MINUTE”

IT’S TIME TO RECALIBRATE FOOTBALL’S VALUE

Just a Minute: Here’s what happened in 1873. Andrew Dickson White, Cornell University’s first president, turned down permission for Cornell’s football team to travel 400 miles to Cleveland to play Michigan. He said: “I will not permit 30 men to travel merely to agitate a bag of wind.”

The moral mess at Penn State tolerated by the head coach and from the University President on down, shows a horrible case of the tail wagging the dog. Money, muscle and misplaced adulation makes correction and reformation virtually impossible.

Turning a blind eye toward degrading, unrighteous and immoral behavior is despicable in any setting but especially in an institution dedicated to training and educating young people. In this particular instance and others, those in charge have lost their way. Penn State is a tax supported institution. Tax–payers, as well as moral citizens need to rise up demanding immediate and total eradication.

<> I’m Jack Buttram. (END)

Jebco Editorial Service

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