Somewhat lost in the shuffle of discussions on who is going to be our next head coach, the B1G (and other conferences') championship games, Urbz and OSU, ripping ESPN for their hypocritical standards regarding PSU and Syracuse, and new aspects of and further delving into the details of the Sandusky scandal, is the fact that Joe Paterno has lung cancer.

I only heard it mentioned briefly in a few reports several weeks ago, and all of those mention that doctors expect him to beat it. Still I don't think that we should forget that we need to be focused on supporting the man through what I feel is a more critical battle than either the impending trial or the challenge to restore his legacy - the fight for his life against a horrendous disease.

That being said. Has anybody heard of any new information regarding JoePa's health?

I've been struggling with this question for the past couple of days, once my outrage and - as Joe Posnanski so eloquently phrased it - howling died down. If I was in the same situation as any of the individuals involved in this sordid cover-up, and I didn't have the benefit of hindsight, what would I have done?

Everybody voicing their opinions, from mainstream media commentators, to local journalists, to the general public, fans of other programs, fans of Penn State, and non-fans alike, including most of us here on BSD, unequivocally agrees that if they were in the same situation, they would have called the police right away. Why? Because it would be the right thing to do. This much is obvious. 

But, and I know this will anger many people and I'll probably see that in the comments below (if anybody decides to write any), I would say that if we were in Joe Paterno's (whom I will focus on for the remainder of the post for brevity's sake) shoes, about 99% of us would not be telling the truth. We would not call the police right away. And make no mistake, I am including myself in that 99%. I'm not saying that we would be lying, because lying implies that the untruth that we speak is intentional. I think that most of us are saying an untruth that we ourselves are not aware of. I'm also not saying that if, tomorrow, any of us were put in this identical situation, that we would not do the just and (morally) right thing in calling the police. I am confident that we all would. But I do think that this is because this is so fresh in our minds, and the benefit of hindsight has shown us the need to be more vigilant.

"How could you not call the police immediately?!" many of you will and already have asked. No, it's not that I'm a pedophile, of that I condone that behavior. And it's also not because I'm solely interested in my legacy or winning at all costs. And it's not because I'm a phony. I'm just trying to be as honest with myself as possible. I am a man, and I am as fallible as anybody else including Joe Paterno. I agree that Paterno made a grievous mistake and as such should not be our coach anymore, and I agree that while it wasn't handled well (actually it was handled piss fucking poorly), the BOT made the right call to fire him when he didn't resign immediately. But all of this was done with the benefit of hindsight. And hindsight is far more illuminating than foresight.

I am 32 years old. My lifetime is shorter than Sandusky and Paterno have known each other. Some of my closest friends are individuals I've known for only 5 or so years. If I was informed by the police that any of these friends was the subject of a criminal investigation into such a heinous crime (as Paterno most likely was in 1998), I would certainly be in utter disbelief. I would likely side with my friend, and believe him if he told me the allegations were false, especially if I had no firsthand knowledge to suggest otherwise. Because that's what friends do. And when the investigation closed with no charges being brought, I would be buying the first rounds at the bar for him toasting it with a hearty "Fuck those police and their BS charges! We all knew you were innocent!" And, like I wrote before, I think that 99% of us would have done the same. That is why this post isn't meant to insult the general public. We all have friends, and we are loyal to them. Without the benefit of hindsight, we can be loyal to a fault. 

If 3 or 4 years after the initial investigation, somebody whom I trust, but probably trust less than my friend, comes to me to say that they did, in fact, witness my friend committing the same vile act he was seemingly vindicated of, my first reaction would be disbelief. "WTF?! I thought we were through with this" would be my likely response. Even if McQueary did give Joe the XXX version rather than the PG-13 one, I would have a hard time believing it at face value. Still I would be compelled to act somehow. But, I still highly doubt that I would have called the police then and there, just as I doubt that the vast majority of us would have. To me, calling the police implies a finality to things rather than a beginning. I know that if I dial 911, I am effectively terminating my friendship, because if a friend did that to me while I was innocent, even if there was cause for it, I would not be able forgive them. Unless I see the act with my own eyes, I don't care if it was my mother who told me, I am not willing to stake an entire friendship on hearsay. Especially if that hearsay is covered-up and not repeated to me over and over again, seemingly fading away just as the first accusations did. And I believe this will be the sticking point with most people, where many of you will disagree with me. This will be where things become most hazy in terms of really predicting what you are and are not capable of, and will be the most difficult to be truthful with one's self.

"So you put your own selfish friendship with a monster above the wellbeing of childern!?!?!" you ask incredulously. No. The benefit of hindsight makes you say that. The dimness of being in the moment clouds this decision. My loyalty to my friend is certainly wavering at this point. I'm seeing smoke, but no fire just yet and I wouldn't yet be where I am willing to this frienship it away yet. But at the same time, I cannot just ignore this, somebody else must be told. Somebody impartial but more importantly somebody who has the authority to do something should it be deemed necessary. Hindsight will tell me that I was wrong in this decision. But the uncertainty of the moment would not allow me to make any other one. And I doubt that many of us would have either. 

One theme of this ramble, I suppose, is that hindsight is the great illuminator. It tells us everything about our choices and if they were the right ones or the wrong ones. Another would be that the loyalty of friendship can lead us to make mistakes, and that is not a criticism or a call to be more untrusting of our friends. After all, if you can't trust your friends, who can you trust?

It is easy to say "I would have done the right thing!" Comforting, even, since it reaffirms to yourself that you are a good and decent human being. Perhaps I'm being harsh in saying that 99% wouldn't tell the police right away. Certainly more of us would have called at some point (but we're still unsure of if and how Paterno followed up on things so I won't speculate on that). There's likely also a lot of talking heads and internet tough-guys out there who can show bravado when they're not in a difficult situation, but fold when the going gets tough, but I'm not accusing anybody in particular of that.

But it's certainly not the 100% of people out there that's currently being espoused by the internets. Whatever the percentage is, Joe Paterno was in that group, no matter how much we expected him to be in the other one. It was a horrible mistake and one that will haunt him for the rest of his life. But he wouldn't be alone. I would be right there with him, and I'm sure a lot of others would as well.

As per the Kansas City Star, Missouri officially holds an offer from the SEC. http://www.kansascity.com/2011/09/20/3155336/source-mizzou-has-sec-offer-but.html

"The Southeastern Conference has an offer on the table for Missouri to join its league, and SEC officials are willing to wait for an answer from Missouri until the future of the Big 12 is decided."

While I do trust Delany is scheming something, I can't help but be unsettled that the last school from the Big 12 that seems to match with the B1G culture might get snatched away before any moves are made. 

ND, or ACC schools or bust now?

I know a lot has been said about how we start out games slowly on both offense and defense, and then come to life and play pretty well (defense at least) for the last 3 quarters. What I can't tell is who's responsibility that is. I can't diagnose play well enough to determine whether it's the coaches coming in with a poor game plan, but then adjusting well after getting kicked around for a bit. Or if the game plan is there, but the players aren't executing until they take some time to settle down.

Continue reading this post »

Ok, so one thing that we learned at media days is that the conference is definitely making the push for 9 conference games. My thinking aloud question is "How is this going to affect men's basketball?" It's already been mentioned a few times how this move has the potential to drop the average number of home football games, and hence football generated revenue for the athletic department. 

For schools like Indiana, MSU, OSU, etc who actually earn something via their hoops teams, this probably won't have too much of an affect on them. But for Penn State, where our hoops don't pull in the $$$ and football revenue funds pretty much everybody else, what's going to happen?

Continue reading this post »

We need to get over ourselves. The NFL administration doesn't care about us. Ok… maybe that's overly harsh, but the NFL administration doesn't cater to us. They are a business, and they want to maximize profit. We, the serious football fans, will continue to supply the NFL with money regardless of whether we agree with their decisions because we like the product so much. I don't think that any serious Steelers fan, or any other football fan, is going to stop watching football, stop going to games, or stop buying NFL merchandise because of any NFL administrative decision, including suspending one player.

The NFL cares far more about what the casual fan thinks and does. The fan that might not tune into the game on Sunday if he/she thinks there's either something better on TV or something else to do. The fan who, if there is a scandal involving a player, won't buy a jersey at all, rather than just buy one with a different number on it. The NFL needs to cater to these fans more than to us, because this is where their revenue can grow or shrink. If they put out a product that is broadly appealing (read: wholesome), then they'll win more of these fans and their money. If the product is not appealing (read: scandalous) they will lose these fans and their money. It's nothing personal to us, just business.

And that's what the NFL is, a business. We all know that. We all complain about how money drives the league. But, since we are serious fans, we don't let that drive us away from the product that keeps getting put out.

As in any business, the boss has the right to discipline his/her employees as is seen fit. You can get promoted or demoted for any variety of reasons. Same with getting suspended or fired. 

And these reasons don't have to be criminal.

Hell, you can get fired for just pissing off your boss (I know I have). Just, you usually don't have millions of friends on your side to complain to your boss if that's the case. And you always, ALWAYS, you get disciplined if you make your company lose money. And the NFL is, and always has been, no different. 

Criminal or not, Ben's behavior has cost both the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers money. He has driven the casual fan, and the money that they bring with them, away by tarnishing the NFL and the Steelers' image. Court of law doesn't matter here, it's the court of public opinion. As an employee, he is subject to whatever punishment his employer sees fit for that transgression. 

We serious fans might not like it. We might cry "but he's innocent in the eyes of the law." That doesn't mean jack squat. And it's because we'll keep buying what the NFL is putting out regardless. Personally, I have no problem with this. He cost his employers a lot of money, he's getting reprimanded. Business is business. You piss off the boss, you're gonna get punished.

Sorry if you're sick of reading more about all this crap, or if this is just restating the obvious. But, damn, some people on this board really need to get over themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugzwang

Dear God, the Germans have put a use to the supreme overlord's nether regions. The "compulsion to move" would indeed be strong if faced by such a threat as this.

This wikipedia chapter will illuminate you with sections entitled:

"Reciprocal Zugzwang"

"Zugzwang required to win"

and "Zugzwang helps the defense."

I would advise you to educate yourselves about Zugzwang positions before Spring Ball. I, for one, am glad football is back!

I’ll preface this by saying that I have no particular allegiance to the Penn State basketball team. I am not an alum, nor are any close friends or family. I’m a huge Penn State Football fan primarily because of the way I completely and unequivocally respect how JoePa runs his organization with "The Great Experiment" and could never imagine cheering for another team over PSU. It also didn’t hurt that growing up in Philadelphia, the ’87 Fiesta Bowl was the first national championship for any "home team" that I can remember, and that it came over a team that my father vehemently hated. But while I am a college hoops fan, due to a variety of reasons my allegiances lay elsewhere. That being said, I have an outsider’s curiosity as to the current mindset of PSU basketball fans. From what I gather from this site, the majority of you feel that men’s hoops will only gain a respectable following (from students, alums, etc) if they become a regular NCAA tournament team, as indicated by this poll http://www.blackshoediaries.com/2010/3/16/1376075/who-cares-penn-state-basketball. My question to all of you then, is what is a consistent NCAA team? 50% of the time? 75% of the time? 90% of the time? No team makes it 100% of the time. Arizona had its consecutive NCAA tournament appearance record broken this year. Additionally, perennial powerhouse teams that many would consider to be consistent national championship contenders (UNC, UCLA) also didn’t make the cut this year. Kentucky missed out last year, etc. I’ve compiled a list of 15 well known schools below, showing how many NCAA tournament appearances they’ve had over the last 25, 10, and 5 years including this year. Some of these schools are powerhouse teams that contend for national championships and Final Fours multiple times a decade (ie Kansas), some are historically strong schools but are are on a down turn currently (ie Indiana), some are (like Penn State) primarily considered football schools (ie Georgia), and others are just what I would consider good but not great programs (ie Memphis). Please note that I’ve only considered NCAA tournament appearances, not how each team fared in the tourney. So Florida’s back to back national championships don’t count any more than Stanford’s 2 appearances over the last 5 years. Also, vacated appearances (ie Memphis, 2008) don’t count. Back to my question: what makes a "consistent NCAA team"? What team will Penn State have to emulate to attract the masses to games?

Continue reading this post »

Rivals is reporting a tweet from Chris Fowler that ESPN will be broadcasting College GameDay from Happy Valley next week for the Iowa game (Link Here). I don't do twitter so I'm not sure how seriously to take this, or whether is official yet or not, but everybody better get your signs ready if it is. I recall a lot of posts dedicated to GameDay signs in the past, so I guess it's time to start another and possibly revisit some of the classics!

Definitely have to get some jabs in against Black Heart Gold Pants, and I totally see the Zug vs Leman battles escalate to beyond mythic/epic/heroic levels. 

Holy crap this will be a fun week if this is indeed true! Please God, let it be true!!!

(Update: It has been confirmed through ESPN, it is so on!)

First post here,

I can't take credit for this idea (nor even most of the wordsmithing). It was done on a Penn State blog that I also frequent, Blackshoediaries. Though I though it appropriate for Steelers football too. Enjoy.

Continue reading this post »