Penn State Adds Names: Video

Standard video of nameplates being added for the first time to the back of State's unis.  Average guy won't care nor notice, but to any college football guy/historian, it will be a little odd.  No Joe Pa, no bowls, no nameless shirts.  Times they are a changin'.

Can't wait for a matte helmet and grey numbers next year!

Penn State Announces Uniform Changes

So kind of.  On twitter, naturally.  A blue ribbon will be added to support the victims of child abuse.  And also names will be added to the back to honor those who stayed.  For Penn State, that's a major change, which is fine with me.  It will be odd to see white names along with the numbers, but to the average guy it won't matter much.  And I don't give a shit what the PSU fans think.  The ones I have read, they can go f*ck themselves.  I used to think that Wisconsin and Ohio State fans (along with the entire SEC) fans were the worst, but Penn State fans hoping the NCAA would get raped like the boys did...I don't want to group all PSU fans into one group because I have a few good friends that are Staters, but my goodness...Anyway, stay tuned for next off season where there is a possibility of a "major" PSU uni change (I hope not).

[tweet https://twitter.com/BryanDFischer/status/232915722282627072]

Penn State Death Penalty 4.0

The NCAA took the hammer to the Penn State football program this morning.  The total damage as is follows: 4-year bowl ban, a total of 65 scholarship players for 4 years, all wins from 1998-2011 have been vacated (111), and a $60M fine, $12M as a yearly minimum payment.  Here’s the kicker:  Any player can leave, play this year, and not count toward another school’s total scholarship count.  So not only do incoming freshmen have no shot of playing a bowl their entire career, and the class of 2013 only have their senior year eligible for post-season, but any player can leave, play immediately and not take a scholarship away at their new school.  At least SMU was able to “start-over” after one year.  After 4 years, do you think State will be able to get any 3-stars?  The statue, the vacated wins, the fine, even the scholarships hurt.  But programs need players, and not only will just about every D-1 player leave, but State won’t get any talent for at least 4 years.  There is no death and start-over.  Their program will be untouchable for at least 5 years.  There will be frat flag-football teams playing at Fred Beekman Park at Ohio State who have more talent than Penn State will put on the field for the next five years.

At their recent best, they were 10-11 win program, a New Year’s Day fixture, but not in the overall class of Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and now Michigan State, not to mention the SEC bests, and the Big 12 and Pac-12 big boys.  They were a nice 3 to 4 star program that “did it the right way.”  Now Penn State’s program is dead and will be fighting Indiana for the Leaders basement for years to come.  Like I have said when this story broke; This is the worst thing ever and there are no winners.  At least the money goes towards child abuse victims and relief.

The Big Ten also came down on PSU, making their program ineligible for the B1G Championship for 4 years and not allowing Penn State to receive their share of the B1G’s revenue.

Punishing Penn State

Alright, if you read this, you know me.  And if you know me, you know how I felt when the Penn State story broke, when more and more facts came out, when the students rioted when Joe Pa was fired and that “presser” which was a bunch of Penn State fans asking why Joe Pa was fired that proceeded the rioting.

The main question right now, is what to do with Penn State and more specifically, what should happen to the 2012 Penn State football team?

There is the view that if SMU received the Death Penalty for paying players, then what happens to a program who had a coach who raped boys in the locker room and showers (and had the Iconic Head Coach along with the President, Assis. President and AD cover it up)?  Should the team this year be punished and the program hammered for a coach who is in prison and an administration who was fired, and one of the best all-time coaches fired and later passed away?

I have a hard time with this.  I do not think any of the players and coaches had anything to do with this, and the people responsible have either lost their job, lost their job and put in jail, or last their job and then passed away, I think the program has been punished enough.  I think it’s about coming together, moving forward, and learning about what happened.  This is the worst story in sports, but it’s bigger than a football program.  It’s about the victims.  They are going to sue PSU and sue PSU hard in civil court.  I just don’t think that the current players and coaches should be “put to death”.  They didn’t do anything, or have anything to do with the horrors that started 14 years ago.  You could say that the teams that have been punished, like USC and Ohio State, the actual teams that were punished had nothing to do with the players or coaches that violated NCAA rules, so the Death Penality or post-season bans are not out of the question.

If you/they want to take down Joe Pa’s statue, that’s fine.  If this year’s team doesn’t want to have a patch honoring Joe Pa, that’s fine.  But I think it is about rebuilding and moving forward.  This year’s team has nothing to do with the people responsible and those responsibly have or will have met their punishment.  Don’t take it out on the 2012 Nittany Lions.

Hopefully this is the last time I have to write about something this horrific.  Please pray for the victims and their families, and if you hear or see anything like this, please alert the police.