Scott Cordischi On Sports: Pats Cut Haynesworth. Paterno On His Way Out?
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
The Ohio State football program got busted for a memorabilia-for-cash scandal. The Miami Hurricanes were penalized for players having received benefits from a booster. But those scandals are nothing compared to the news coming out of not-so-Happy Valley these days.
The alleged pedophilia of former linebackers coach and defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky is far worse than any NCAA scandal including what happened to the SMU football program when it received the death penalty in the late 80’s. For this isn’t simply about breaking some rules, this is about alleged criminal activity which was extremely harmful to children. This was morally corrupt.
By NCAA standards, Joe Paterno has run as clean of a program as you could possibly have at Penn State over the last 45 years, all the while remaining highly competitive at the national level, which is why this comes as such a surprise.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTStill, at age 84, many have openly questioned if it were time for Paterno to step down and hand the reigns of the program to someone younger than him. Those questions are no longer being asked because the consensus is that the time is now.
This wasn’t supposed to be the way that it ended for the legendary Paterno at Penn State, but he and the university have no other alternatives. While Paterno claims to have learned of Sandusky’s alleged child sex-abuse in 2002, common sense would tell you otherwise after reading the grand jury transcript.
Could a full-fledged university police investigation of Paterno’s defensive coordinator have taken place in 1998 without Paterno knowing a thing about it? Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it?
It also seems to make more sense that this is why Sandusky quietly retired with no fanfare a year later in 1999.
And while we’re on the subject of questionable things, why did authorities wait until just after Paterno broke Eddie Robinson’s all-time record with 409 division one wins to release the details of this scandal?
From Penn State employees and officials to Joe Pa and the authorities, everything about this whole scandal stinks leaving the school no choice but to take firm and swift action immediately.
No more hiding behind the truth, no more cover-ups. It’s time to come clean and get this all out in the open so that the healing process can begin for all involved.
-Albert Haynesworth, we hardly knew ya!
-St. Louis may be a great baseball town, but I’m not sure I’d want to follow a guy who won two World Championships there if I were Terry Francona.
-And that goes double if Albert Puljos isn’t re-signed.
-While I am very happy for new Orioles’ general manager Dan Duquette, I must admit that I did not think that he would get another GM’s job in the Majors after he left Boston.
-College basketball season is underway. Sweet!
-Don’t look now, but the Boston Bruins are finally playing a lot like the team that won the Stanley Cup last spring.
-The fact that Jerry Sandusky's autobiography is entitled "Touched" proves that real life can be stranger than fiction sometimes.
-The Green Bay Packers are the 2011 version of the once-elite Patriots from last decade.
-If I were the NBA players, I’d take the 51% of total revenue being offered to me.
-Now that Fat Albert failed in New England, is there any truth to the rumor that Mushmouth will be brought in next?
-I have more of a problem with Bill Belichick the GM than I do Bill Belichick the coach.
-One of the few smart moves made this offseason by Red Sox management was their decision not to raise ticket prices for the 2012 season.
-If I had my choice, Houston, SMU and Central Florida would all join the Big East for the start of the 2012 football season allowing Syracuse and Pittsburgh to go to the ACC and West Virginia to the Big 12.
-Before we criticize Belichick for swinging and missing on veterans like Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ocho Cinco, let’s not forget that he did have success with other supposedly washed up veterans like Randy Moss and Corey Dillon.
-It’s the draft where Belichick has failed in recent years.
-Does anybody really care who the next Red Sox manager is?
-Rest in peace Joe Frazier, one of the great heavyweights who had some absolute wars with Muhammad Ali including the "Thriller in Manila."
-The (4-4) Dallas Cowboys host the (5-3) Buffalo Bills Sunday in a game that may very well separate the contender from the pretender in the NFL.
-With no Peyton Manning, it should come as no surprise that the NFL “flexed” the Patriots-Colts game in New England December 4th off of “Sunday Night Football” to a regular 1 o’clock game on CBS.
-Thursday Night NFL football starts this week. Yeah, baby!
-Alpine Country Club has some of the best, fastest and trickiest greens in the state.
-Speaking of golf, there are reportedly a lot of local private country clubs in financial trouble due to significant decreases in membership.
-Providence College men’s basketball coach Ed Cooley will hold a press conference at noon Thursday to discuss, among other things, his nationally-ranked recruiting class for 2012-2013.
-Saturday is “Senior Day” at Brown Stadium where the (7-1) Bears play host to Dartmouth College at 12:30pm.
-Speaking of the Bears, former East Providence Townie Nate Lovett was named the Ivy League’s special teams player of the week for his great punting performance against Yale last week. Lovett leads the league in punting average at 41.3 yards per punt this season.
-Lovett’s teammate – RB Mark Kachmer – was named Ivy League offensive player of the week for his 192-yard rushing, 3 touchdown performance against the Bulldogs as well.
-Were Miami Dolphins fans happy Sunday because their team won their first game of the year in Kansas City, or mad because they hurt their chances of drafting Stanford's Andrew Luck?
-Watching Eli Manning and the Giants march down the field against the Patriots defense for the winning touchdown Sunday just confirmed why Belichick likes to go for it many times on 4th down.
-Chad Ocho Cinco may be the best-equipped receiver on the Patriots to beat man-press coverage which is why it is imperative that he and Tom Brady get on the same page. That's provided he is around long enough to do so.
-Celtics fans may never get to see the final year of the current “Big Three” together.
-Let me see if I have this straight - a snowstorm on October 30th and 70 degrees and sunny on November 8th. Is that about right?
