...was when they were detailing the confrontation on the street which was the impetus for the beatdown.

They’re attempting to give a play by play of what happened, while a copy of the police report is floating around in the background. I can clearly read (after the punchy-kicky) ”...Scirrotto took out his cell phone and [the guy] slapped it out of his hand, onto the ground.” I would have liked to read some more of that.

But I guess ESPN ignored that part, because it doesn’t mesh with their version of events.

Lastly, the dig on Scirrotto being named captain is what annoyed me the most. The guy made a mistake, was punished by the law, and is trying to own up to it. JoePa sees this, and attempts to use Anthony as an example to inspire the team, highlighting the fact that he is attempting to rectify a past mistake (we’ve all made them). Somehow that gets twisted into “Come to PSU and commit some felonies…you’ll be named captain!!” Ludicrous.

is what players were kicked out of school in the past for things that are being done by current players? That’s an honest question.

Also, I suspect he means the team, as (1) Paterno has nothing to do with who is allowed to actually stay enrolled in the school, and (2) I know of situations where students did things an awful lot worse than anything the football team has done and been allowed to remain at penn state.

By the way, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Said non-football players owned up to their mistakes and were able to get their lives back together.

Also, SAS’s segment could not have been any more typical SAS. I’m not even mad.

Come on August 30th…..

1] Penn State was loosing, so we started recruiting thugs, rather than the choir boys that used to play for us. Obviously the criminal charges provide a ton of smoke for this point, and certainly there is a little fire. But three things to consider;

1) Certain guys, who committed serious crimes, were kicked off the team;

2) Guys who got caught doing petty misdemeanor things were punished.  I don’t care how temporary an expulsion is, I certainly wouldn’t want to explain it to my parents; and

3) the graduation rate is still high, and for African Americans, it is unprecedentedly high.  We may be recruiting players differently than we were before, but we are still graduating them.

2] Penn State has changed it’s method of discipline. This is not true. I’ve followed this program for more than 20 years, and the myth that 15 years ago these guys would have gotten kicked off the team no questions asked is just that, a myth. Kicking a guy off the football team and giving away his scholarship for an underage drinking arrest is draconian and cruel. Joe Paterno didn’t do that thirty years ago and he doesn’t do it now. For lots of these kids football is there only chance to go to college, if you take football out of the equation they are lost, to set some sort of blanket zero tolerance policy is foolish.

What I didn’t like about the story is that OTL went in with their minds made up. They made a case against Penn State, rather than reporting a story about Penn State. I liked that PSU made Paterno, Spanier and (especially) Scirotto available. It did not appear that PSU was in massive cover-up mode, rather, they wanted to make as many facts available to the reporters as possible.

Would someone of an age to remember, please enlighten me to the turbulent year of 1979 in Penn State football history? I’ve heard of some of the goings on from the offseason and spilling into the season, but I did not exist yet. Seems that situation was so much worse than what we’re currently dealing with.

Not impressed in Florida.

Most irresponsible story

ESPN’s Outside the Lines does such outstanding work that it’s all the more noticeable when one of its stories fails to meet the high standards it sets. And when a story fails to meet most journalistic standards, it’s disturbing.

Such was the case with Steve Delsohn’s sloppy, irresponsible story on Penn State football. The piece tossed out a bunch of numbers to make it appear as if Joe Paterno’s program is out of control because of off-the-field incidents. The emphasis was on charges and arrests as opposed to convictions. though all numbers were revealed. Worse, the numbers were given no context as to how Penn State compares with other Division I programs, or even the regular student body. That’s Journalism 101.

Only a couple of incidents were mentioned in detail, giving the viewer no clue as to how serious all of the incidents have been. (The highlighted incident appeared to be little more than a late-night party fight.) And the most powerful interviews came from students whose credibility could not be verified.

Paterno, on air, said the piece was a “witch hunt,’’ and he’s right. It’s as if a bunch of producers sat in a room, decided they were going to go after Paterno and his program, and then geared the story, statistics and interviews to fit their agenda. This story fails to pass journalism muster, and it’s quite shocking that a quality show such as OTL would air a piece with so many holes in it.

Everyone’s favorite Penn State writer, David Jones.

Gets a bad rap…I think he is much better reporter than most…he is fair in most cases…being fair can sometimes open you up for attack by PSU kool aid drinkers.

Its tough to be honest in PA when talking about PSU/Paterno…you will get blasted. Do I think he is going for a reaction sometime…yes but it doesn’t mean he is making stuff up.

I almost thought they were going to bring up the Tony Johnson DUI…I mean if you really wanted to discredit the university why not talk about the coaches son who got a dui on park road…or what about the paterno road rage incident…seriously why didn’t they just say that maurice clarrett was now enrolling at PSU or that JoePa required that every player be issued a glock upon enrolling in the school

SAS is a joke and his opinion has no merrit what so ever…he tries to act like he is calm and dignified but two seconds into his arguements he starts talking louder and talking street…I have never liked him and I never will, if I even see he is coming on sports center or any other show on ESPN then turn the channel immediately…I would like to see what the boys at PTI have to say about this b/c you know they would have a way better story and would have better opionions about the subject…atleast they would give the facts and if not Tony would say it at the end of the show any way

we need it to be August 30th sooner than later…I’m surprised they didn’t put anything in the story about us playing CC as the home opener…if you want to talk about our football team beating up on some hapless victims you should start there

(nothing against CC I’m sure you are a fine school with great athletes but lets face facts you are getting paid to come up here and take a butt wooping admit it)

I love how they just brushed over the Austin Scott rape charges. “Charges were later dropped”. Leaving out the fact the the “victim” has done this before and Austin was not guilty of anything other then taking the wrong girl home.

As for those two students who seemed to be enjoying themselves reliving the fight…if 7 football players went into that tiny apartment how could anyone see anything? If it was a crowded party and they show up there would be no way you could see across the room.

by mike missanelli (sp?)

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3506616&categoryId=2378529&n8pe6c=2

and since when is being 12th in the graduation rate a bad thing? Assume that Stanford, Northwestern, Notre Dame and a bunch of smaller schools are ahead of PSU. Where is USC? Florida? Oklahoma? 12th in D1 is a great stat that shouldn’t be overlooked.

If your really think fighting didn’t take place in the 60’s 70’s, 80’s and 90’s you are sorely mistaken AND YOU CAN NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. It is just prosecuted today (by an overzealous DA looking to make a name for himself) when then it was just kids being kids. As for people who claim Paterno didn’t used to give second chances…..anybody care to remember why Bobby Engram missed a year of football??? Have PSU football players put themselves in positions they don’t need to be in…..yes. Is it a sign there is a problem with the program…..NO! EVERYDAY STUDENTS were the instigators in the Scirotto incident…...remember the police report states Scirotto was punched and his girlfriend WAS PUSHED TO THE GROUND. I don’t know about the rest of you on here but if somebody pushed my fiance to the ground you had better believe that I would be looking to beat some ass! As for his buddies going with him…....that is football mentality and it is something that is instilled by the coaches. YOU ARE ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO HAVE YOUR TEAMATES BACK! What went on inside and who started throwing blows…..no one can say for sure. What is for sure is that MULTIPLE witnesses say that Justin King was attempting to act as a peacemaker (ahh didn’t hear that in the OTL piece).

Same thing with the HUB incident…..by most accounts started by the non-athletes. Should the boys have known by this point to walk away …...sure. But at 20 years old and getting punked by some frat boys a desire to respond (THOUG WRONG) should be understood by all of us old foggies!

As for Paterno fighting with JA. I HAVE NOT HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT IT! From the information I heard…....he was not significantly involved in the Chris Baker hearing. Witness testimony is what saved Baker with JA…...not Paterno.

The fact that Austin Scott and Scott Paxson were not issued public apologies by the University, by the Daily Collegian and by the Centre County DA is disgusting. AND THE FACT THAT IS WAS GLOSSED OVER BY OTL tells me that we can not take them seriously as reporters. To be a good reporter…...you are supposed to cover all sides of a story. Too frequently today news stations think it is their civic responsibility (ah-hem CNN) to put a political slant on its reporting…......all that does is question credibility. Since OTL didn’t present all parts of the story….... the piece they did is a piece of crap and deserves to be taped over. Maybe if they would have portrayed to good our student athletes do, including both D-Will and Scirotto the piece would have been slightly better.

I look forward to our guys doing it the right way…..the PSU way…...THE PATERNO WAY in 2008! WE ARE!