The Seedy Under-belly of Penn State Football...

In what can be dubbed the State College equivalent of Watergate, David Jones of the Patriot News sheds "light" on the latest activity with recently un-suspended star Penn State LB Dan Connor.


It seems Connor was merely a "pawn" in an on going power struggle between Coach Paterno and Penn State President Graham Spanier. Jones paints the picture of a tenuous relationship between Spanier and Paterno. (Which comes as a surprise to me seeing as how Spanier was eager to extend Joepa's contract a few years back, during PSU football's darkest days and the fact that Spanier seems to speak out frequently on the coach's behalf.) Jones even goes so far as to say...

The perception exists in the (Penn State Football Building) that Spanier's attack dogs in Judicial Affairs and the university police are bent on building a dossier of a
program "out of control," however valid such a folder might be.

To a slick university president, that's higher caliber ammo to present before the 32-member board of trustees this December or next than the gauche "we've been losing an awful lot lately." Spanier can sigh and say, "I hate to do this, but I think we have to act."

Gentlemen, start you conspiracy theories!

This whole thing is starting to sound like a "movie of the week" script. Frankly, I'm not sure I buy all that Jones is selling here. To say Joe threatened to quit if Connor's original punishment had been upheld seems far fetched at best. The incident with Connor may in fact have been Joe's way of sending a message to the players to quit acting like idiots. OR Penn State's Office of Judicial Affairs may have just wanted to flex their muscles at first but then realized on appeal that the punishment doesn't fit the crime... it happens everyday in our criminal justice system.

So what is the REAL truth behind all this? Why does Jones want to shine a big spotlight on an incident that seems to have handled itself? My opinion... David Jones wrote this article as retaliation for Coach Paterno's recent comments about the media. That may not be true but it sounds as good as the theory Jones is pitching.