JoePa Moves to Shore
Up Legacy
This week Penn
State kicked Chris Baker
and Phil Taylor off the team. The players had previously been suspended
following an assault in the spring at the Student Union Building.
Suspicious Timing?
This move comes a few days after a special report on ESPN’s Outside the Lines about the state of the
football program at Penn
State in recent years
under Paterno. The show emphasized a recent string of arrest and violence
committed by Penn
State players and Joe
Paterno was not portrayed in positive light.
Was this About the
Team or Something Else?
The timing of this move, following the critical ESPN Story,
makes this look like an attempt to restore discipline where it has been sorely
lacking. Paterno has been criticized in recent years for being too “hands-off”
but he claims that he is as involved as he ever was.
This is obviously an attempt to restore JoePa’s legacy, he
is trying to remove the tarnished reputation that the program has earned in
recent seasons. This too little, too late. JoePa and Penn state should have
been stricter with their players and never let the situation spiral out of
control like it has for the past decade. |