How many coaches would do this?


http://www.centredaily.com/126/story/103622.html

The community service in terms of helping the Special Olympics I think is great but the cleaning out of the stadium??! Umm...I don't think so. If I was a player who had nothing to do with that melee I'd be pissed about that.

I've had former coaches that penalized the entire team for a team members getting out of line. It builds a cohesive unit.

I doubt Joe Pa would have done this if it were just a couple of players. Since it was a group, this is probably the reason he wanted to send a message.

I've had coaches punish the whole team for screwing up at practice or during a game. But asking me to be responsible for a couple of guys' off field antics? While I see what he's trying to accomplish, I'm not sure that is really fair. How is the team supposed to monitor the activities of a couple of rogue players? The assistant coaches better be cleaning that stadium as well since they should be equally accountable. I'm all for working with the Special Olympics and building a house, but having to clean the stadium after playing a game is a bit much IMO.

Part of this is building team unity and cohesion. Part of it is pure PR. Incidents like this have happened in the past, but usually they were dealt with internally, and the authorities and media generally cooperate. The environment has changed, and now when something like this happens, it gets splashed all over every media outlet, and often blown out of proportion because it is Penn State and it is the football team.



However, most of it is a pre-emptive strike. Penn State has something called the Office of Judicial Affairs, charged with upholding the Code of Conduct. They do their own investigation, hold their own hearings, and mete out their own punishment. Irregardless of what happens in a court of law... this is strictly a Penn State organization, upholding Penn State's code of conduct. If I'm not mistaken, there have been incidents where Judicial Affairs has handed out punishments on cases that went nowhere in the court system, were dismissed, etc. It's a bit of a kangaroo court at times, and as of late has not been very friendly to the football team. JoePa wants to send a message that the issue has been dealt with internally, is being dealt with in a court of law, and that they (Judicial Affaris) should basically not feel the need to overreach and send their own message.

I wouldn't agree with him if it had only been 1 or 2 guys, but 15 or more guys could have been involved. That's a pretty significant number of players. Kudos to Joe Pa

I believe only two players are facing charges. Everyone else, the charges were dropped. The DA was overreaching, trying to make a splash.

Speaking of Joe Pa, he's 80 now. Is this the guy in line to succeed him?

PSU's loyal assistant:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/stor...&id=2903926

Most people think he is the heir apparent. But then, they thought that of Sandusky, and he retired before Joe. Larry Johnson, Sr. also gets some votes in the PSU community. There's talk that Schiano would get the job if they go outside the staff... it wouldn't be a total outside hire, as Schiano did a stint at PSU.

Many think Bradley will get the job, figuring it will be hard to replace a legend with an outside hire. He has a familiarity with the program and fans, is well liked, and probably doesn't desire to coach as long as Paterno. So he most likely would be a "bridge" hire, filling the gap between Paterno and whomever takes over later... sort of a steward of the program as it transitions. Replacing Paterno will be difficult, not because he's a great coach (we can find another coach who can win), but because it's rare that a program is as defined by a single coach as this is. He's been the head coach longer than many of the fans have been alive. There are a lot of people who cannot remember when he was not on the sidelines. He won his first National Championship before any of his current players were born. His values have become the entire athletic departments values. It's a rather large shadow, and whomever takes over, when the time comes, will have to live under it.

Well it looks like the team might be doing more than cleaning the stadium. Maybe the guys not playing will be ticket takers or sell concessions too?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/foot...e.ap/index.html

You will note that the authorities have dropped charges against all but 2 players, and issued citations to 2 people (non football players) on the other side of the incident for their involvement.

However, as I said above, the Office of Judicial Affairs is doing their usual BS, expelling some players for summer session (which amounts to a slap on a wrist). Notice that all of this was done without a single person being convicted in a court of law... in fact, charges were dropped against most of them before it went to court. But the Office of Judical Affairs is above it all, imposing university sanctions as it sees fit. It's amazing how quickly they can look at things and pass judgement... perhaps our entire court system should emulate them

As for what the team is doing... well, they aren't all cleaning the stadium after every game. The team was broken up into 7 groups (one for each home game) and those players will have one game where they have to do the cleaning. Also, they have already been working with Habitat for Humanity.

Isn't Joe Pa the only coach to coach in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries?