November 12, 2011

"He gets drilled at the 22-yard line! What a stick!"

So says the ESPN announcer at the Penn State/Nebraska game — not noticing the accidental double entendre. Earlier they played this statement by Penn State's new president...

[VIEW VIDEO HERE.]

... and they had a reporter reporting from outside of Joe Paterno's house. They showed that earlier, 2 men came up and knelt down to pray — each in a manly on-one-knee stance. I'm pretty sure they were not praying for the kids. They were praying for Joe Paterno!

ADDED: Penn State should be super-careful what music they choose to blast over the public address system. Ridiculous to play "Tell Me Something Good":
You ain't got no kind of feeling inside
I got something that will sure 'nuff set your stuff on fire
You refuse to put anything before your pride
I got something that will knock all your pride aside...
Problem is you ain't been loved like you should
What I got to give will sure 'nuff do you good
NOTE: I am not finding anything funny here. I'm demanding more circumspection from ESPN and Penn State.

62 comments:

PaulV said...

I hope that people now realize that this abuse of children and young people is not that unusual and that people will take proper steps to end it when it happens and not look the other way.

Anonymous said...

Praying for Paterno, hmmmm, maybe he does need prayer. Maybe if you create enough bad karma here on earth, you may come back as a little boy in a shower with a scary old disgusting man.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Bit of trivia: Penn State's just fired president, Graham Spanier, was the chancellor of Nebraska before he got to Penn State.

Psychedelic George said...

Has anyone raised the possibility that Sandusky was not the only person in the football program molesting children?

Anonymous said...

This is like having Beavis and Butt-head doing color commentary. I like it.

Alex said...

Moody's is downgrading PSU's credit rating. Also prospective students are cancelling their plans to attend "pedophile state university". Sorry but that's what American thinks of it now. The damage will last a generation if not forever.

rhhardin said...

Sandusky is still an Ohio landmark to me, passed while flying from Oberlin up to Port Clinton in a rented airplane, to see the Ford Trimotor there. Any excuse for a destination. Sort of a cool city name.

Someday it will be the name of a football play.

rhhardin said...

Iowahawk tweet: We are. State Penn.

Amexpat said...

...not noticing the accidental double entendre.

Is it possible to announce any sort of sporting event without saying something that could be construed as a double entendre?

rhhardin said...

He gets Sanduskied at the 22-yard line!

Wince said...

"We are Penn State."

"Err...at least the 99% that don't fuck children up the ass."

Tell Me Something Good should probably be replace with "You Should Probably Tell Me the Bad News First".

Meade said...

"Someday it will be the name of a football play."

I don't think so unless you mean prison football.

Revenant said...

I don't see what's wrong with "Tell Me Something Good". It is a woman singing a song to (presumably) a man she's interested in.

No connection to child rape.

edutcher said...

At least it wasn't "Somebody's Knockin'" or "Strangers In The Night".

Allie said...

Praying for Paterno, hmmmm, maybe he does need prayer. Maybe if you create enough bad karma here on earth, you may come back as a little boy in a shower with a scary old disgusting man.

So much for compassion and tolerance.

Phil 314 said...

Professor, are you searching for humor in this?

Ralph L said...

At the last Navy game I went to (nearly 20 years ago), the midshipmen played "YMCA".

Ken Green said...

Sport is full of such metaphors. We watch a lot of hockey in my house, and I'm amazed at some of the things they say.

"He's having trouble getting it out of his own end"

"And the puck is driven deep into his own end."

"And the captain takes a high stick in his own end."

You get the idea. I think this is because most sports are simple metaphorical wars where victory involves inseminating some sort of net/goal/crease/end zone.

It all lends itself to sexual metaphor.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Iowahawk tweet: We are. State Penn.

lol

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
living1nbf3 said...

Watched the post game wrapup after the OSU Texas Tech game. Wrapping up all the games.

They were talking about how if PS won, they expected a march with the game ball to paternos house to present it to him!!

This is screwed up beyond belief. And the sports media is just going along with it.

Sad day in College sports.

Anonymous said...

Eddutcher, no compassion and tolerance for pedophiles and child rapists, AND those who protect them, karma is a bitch.

11/12/11 2:48 PM

living1nbf3 said...

Read the grand jury report.

I made it to the second page before I puked and quit.

Penn State deserves everything that happens to it over the next 20 years. Hopefully it will be sanctioned by the NCdonothingAA.

There is a sickness in college sports, and it needs to be fixed.

edutcher said...

Allie said...

Eddutcher, no compassion and tolerance for pedophiles and child rapists, AND those who protect them, karma is a bitch.

And here I thought the Lefties had believed in Constitutional rights and stuff.

In this country, Paterno, and anyone else, will go before the bar. If he's guilty under the law, he'll pay, but only for his transgressions, not his karma.

Karma I leave to the hippie crowd.

If you want to talk sins, he'll go before that bar, too.

Unknown said...

I watched part of the game. Thought the team and school did very well. Admired the prayer (when do the atheists register their objection?) but then burst into tears and turned it off.

cassandra lite said...

Even if the announcers could keep themselves from reflexively using the phrases they've been uttering all their lives, so what? Football is already the most homoerotic of men's sports, and the visual imagery at the end of every play looks like an orgy.

Should the verbal prohibition be on just Penn State games or all games? The rest of the season? Forever?

Jenny said...

The sickness isn't just in sports. It is a sickness of the culture; institutions promoting perversion as diversity.

Almost Ali said...

Great game, Penn State! The only thing missing was a naked, 10-year-old boy pinned against the scoreboard.

jacksonjay said...

Is JoePa a Catholic?

He musta figured that if the Pope of the RCC can allow it happen, so can the Pope of Pennsylvania!

Patrick said...

You know if Sandusky had just sold his conference title ring he would have been banned from the sport entriely. Oh no, wait that only happens to Ohio State players. Pedophiles get to continue to play and the national outrage accepts the school image and pays them money to play today.

Player offends... gone.
NCAA offends.... well they still need to make their money.

Jaye said...

Ann, you are so much better than this. I am sick to the core at the heinous child abuse and think Sandusky deserves to be tried and executed. I think anyone who failed these children should be punished, legally and socially. My heart goes out to the thousands of students at PSU who are devastated by these revelations. As an alumnae, I am crushed, stunned, and don't know how to deal with all the ramifications, and I am 70 years old. Give the kids a break.

Palladian said...

"Football is already the most homoerotic of men's sports..."

Never been to a wrestling match, eh?

Paddy O said...

"Give the kids a break."

Ironic.

And more so to make it about Ann "being better than this."

Because Penn State wasn't better than this. This is what Penn St was.

That's the problem, and it wasn't just with Sandusky. If it was just him, this would have been addressed years and years ago.

Palladian said...

Maybe they should play "Fiddle About" from Tommy. Hell they could get Townsend to come perform it live at halftime.

sorepaw said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Carol_Herman said...

Well, how can any adult male walk into a shower room (here, used by Penn State football players), and not PULL THE SON OF A BITCH WHO IS RAPING A 10 YEAR OLD BOY ... OFF CHILD!

That's what didn't happen.

Now, you tell me.

Put men you know into that situation. You know Sandusky is NAKED! He can't pull a gun on you. Where would his head be?

What would it take to PULL HIM OFF A 10 YEAR OLD KID?

Save your prayers.

Across America Sandusky would have found his head opened on a shower room wall.

Then the police would have been called.

Because Sandusky would have needed medical attention.

Carol_Herman said...

Let's add that "your son" comes home and tells you (and, it's close to midnight). That he just witnessed a kid getting raped on the campus of the school where he works.

Why did he run home to tell you?

Because "he got afraid."

Got a gun?

That's about the only excuse that would work. McQueery went home to tell his dad ... so they could go back, there, together. "And bag the perp."

That's why there's such a stink, now.

You'd think, after the pedophilia mess blew up onto the Catholic Church ... (circa 1991). That practicing Catholics, at least, would be better prepared at dealing with perps caught in the act.

Apparently not.

Now, go ahead and recruit future football players ... who want to go on to play for PEDD STATE's football team.

Praying should help people think straight.

It's not something you do to escape responsibility.

Carol_Herman said...

Oh, and while there are 8 child victims who have testified ... It was, in fact, a MOM who blew the whistle.

I kept looking for that!

And, it turns out her 14 year old son was very hesitant to explain to his mom that he was being raped by Sandusky.

There's also a dead DA.

So, yes. Sandusky, and his pedophilia ring, are very rich guys. And, very powerful men.

With access to thousands of young males through Sandusky's "charity."

I hope the IRS comes along ...and takes up this "charity's" BONE-E-FACTORS. Or benefactors. Because donations to a pedophilia foundation should really dry up!

You've just hit the tip of the iceberg on this story.

Unknown said...

PatCA --

"(when do the atheists register their objection?)"

When to religious people quit baiting?

dhagood said...

@rhardin: my first ride in airplane, in either 58 or 59, was in a ford trimotor. i was 6 or 7 at the time. the occasion was the missoula county, montana annual fair. a barnstorming troup (!) performed their show, and then used some of their aircraft to give rides.

my dad and i (to my mother's disapproval) took a ride, and ended up in the trimotor. it was very loud inside, and the visibility was nonexistent. there was a single, tiny porthole in the fuselage door. i asked and as able to look through the window for about 30 seconds.

51 years later and i can still vividly remember the thrill.

cassandra lite said...

Penn State comes up short.

It's fourth and long.

Penn State has the best tight end in the conference.

This is such a well-conditioned bunch of young athletes, their recovery time between plays is almost nothing.

Carlson goes deep...he scores!

Carol_Herman said...

Penn State can't recruit, ahead.

And, by having JoePa as it's face ... for something like 61 years ...

The story will not go away with a single loss of 3 points.

How bad is it?

Well, it's as bad as it gets for Paterno, who learned nothing at all from his Mother Church. Except, perhaps, how to hide the facts from view. What he couldn't guess is what happens when the power he owned, fails.

No one on the coaching staff will survive this.

Because even if a new coach comes in ... He'll bring his own people with him to staff all the coaching functions.

As to the "charity" ... WOW! Sandusky was raising millions! And, he had acess to lots of kids. All of them coming from troubled homes.

I hope the IRS eats "Second Mile" donors alive!

Ann Althouse said...

"Professor, are you searching for humor in this?"

No. I'm doing the opposite. I'm objecting to the business-as-usual revelry. Penn State needs to humbly claw its way back into civilization. It shouldn't be playing songs like that and the announcers should notice that their usual imagery is out of place today.

Carol_Herman said...

Well, Kubler Ross says the first response to devastating news is DENIAL.

It seems to me that the "mafia" that ran the pedophile ring. And, used the football locker rooms as some sort of "bait" ... to lure in their young pray ...

Is going to bring years of exposure, ahead! While IF Paterno, who has 16 grand kids ... found out that Sandusky anally raped even one of them ... WHAT WOULD HE HAVE DONE?

I'll guess there would have been an order put out to "make" Sandusky DEAD.

And, the DA that "disappeared." He's now declared DEAD. Will anyone spot him, alive? Will the Net produce pictures of what he could look like "disguised?"

Did the DA (who was forced to reopen the case in 2005 ... after shutting it in 1998 ...) get his story told?

The DA that came in ... after the case "went cold" ... because the DA "disappeared" ... turns out to have politically advanced. And, he is now the governor of Pennsylvania.

On the other hand?

Were their peophiles from "big oil," involved? Mobil is headquartered in Pennsylvania.

"Second Mile" could easily have been a feeder operation for grown men to get young kids ... whom they could fuck in the ass. And, do so in the Penn State locker rooms.

When did Joe Paterno know? He's gonna claim he didn't know very much ... and he never heard from anyone how the football players locker rooms became a haven for pedophiles to shower in late at night.

With the Internet, do you need book publishers?

Look how far Drudge got on the Monica story that got spiked by Newsweek. Made Drudge famous. Not Isakoff.

At Penn State? How long before the mural of JoePa gets painted over?

How soon before those who recruit football players, AND students in general, see a "decline?"

Oh. And, wait for the lawsuits!

Carol_Herman said...

Paterno "knew" of the dead DA.

Paterno "knew" that the showers at Penn State were used by pedophiles.

And, one reason this story is exploding like this, is that the "secrecy" just didn't work out.

It also didn't work out for the Catholic Church. Now, you're learning instead of vulnerable alter boys ... who couldn't tell their moms in a week of Sundays ... You've got small boys (some only 8). Who fell into the hands of those who "promised" charity.

The adults were making bundles of money.

Even the "kid" who saw the rape ... back in 2002 ... got onto the "charity" bandwagon instead. It gave him a "career boost." But he had to shut up, first.

The victims are gonna pile up, now.

And, the lawsuits will begin.

ndspinelli said...

Jerry Sandusky, Michael Jackson, Charles Manson, etc. are just poor possible victims of sexual abuse as are the myriad of Catholic priests who preyed upon innocent kids. We need to understand this and not judge them.

My tongue just poked through my cheek. However, there are folks who prowl this blog who tried to peddle this horseshit a few days ago. They imlpoded.

God doesn't care about ball games..except maybe today. Nebraska 17 PSU 14.

DADvocate said...

Really stretching it. I guess if you stretch it far enough anything is a double entendre. Weak, very weak.

Humperdink said...

It's easy for the Althouse crew to pile on the school. Don't lose sight of the fact that 50,000 students had nothing to do with the tragedy. Don't lose sight of the fact the current football players had nothing to do with the tragedy.

I am not minimizing the effect on the victims - these students are crushed. They behave and have feelings just like any other college students of any division 1 or 2 school.

I was at the game today and the mood was very somber.

Imagine that,a pregame prayer at mid field for two state related schools.

Rick PSU 1973

Howard said...

Unimpressed with Penn State's collective response. Praying for the victims is great and all, but you need to come correct on your responsibility for this. Every member of the coaching staff should be turned out, and the players all given leave to transfer at will. The university as a whole has culpability for the culture that deified JoePa and transitively allowed this to continue for 15 years after it should have been stopped.

DADvocate said...

Hey, Rick, remember that Tennessee/Penn State game, Dec. 4, 1971? Penn State had future pros Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell in the backfield.

Tennessee won 31-11. Go Vols!!

Craig said...

Drilling really should be restricted to the end zone. The ref should have thrown a flag. I'm disgusted.

Humperdink said...

@DADvocate. Nope. I do remember Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer being afraid to travel to Alabama for fear of being served with a subpoena.

Kinda give new meaning to term "Go Vols" ... just don't go to Alabama.

DADvocate said...

Rick - Interesting selective memory. You don't remember a game played while you were at Penn State, but you remember something about Tenessee 25 years later.

Plenty of subpoenas being served in College Station nowadays. I'd recommend anyone from Penn State being very careful criticizing other schools. This may well be the biggest scandal in the history of college football.

Paying players, cheating in the classroom, recruiting violations, Woody Hayes punching a player are nothing compared to this.

Humperdink said...

@DAD What is so surprising about remembering some recent vs. not remembering something from 40 years ago?

And it's State College, not College Station, but I am sure you remembered that.

You apparently missed the point of my original comment.

Conserve Liberty said...

Ann Althouse said...

"Professor, are you searching for humor in this?"

No. I'm doing the opposite. I'm objecting to the business-as-usual revelry. Penn State needs to humbly claw its way back into civilization. It shouldn't be playing songs like that and the announcers should notice that their usual imagery is out of place today.
11/12/11 6:10 PM

Think this through.

Penn State has for years held itself out to be better than everyone else - Penn State was an aspirational college application decision and sponsor association.

That brand is forever destroyed.

The only way for Penn State to humbly claw its way back into civilization is to terminate the entire football program, wait several years and start over.

According to Moody's, "Penn State has $1,000,000,000 indebtedness. Penn State’s football programme contributes about 2 per cent of revenues. Additional large contributors are tuition and other student-based revenue at 40 per cent and federal research grants at 19 per cent. The university receives 7 per cent of its operating revenue from the state government of Pennsylvania." Moody's is reviewing Penn State for possible downgrade.

If you were a Trustee - most are CEO's - what would you do when a fiduciary, entrusted with with those numbers?

Penn State will study the problem for a year or two. The machinery of justice will keep this in the news for years if the media chooses.

The higher quality portion of the applicant pool will decline dramatically, though that might not matter at a 45,000 student University.

"Association" sponsorships will decline.

Viewership revenue will decline.

Federal Grant revenue will decline. Marginal better faculty hires and student admissions - especially research grad students admissions - will decline.

After several months of reflexive sympathy donations, alumni revenue will decline.

Moody's will eventually downgrade PSU debt.

What is the good business decision?

Rebrand yourself as something other than "better than everyone else". Keep winning football games. Keep the revenue flowing. Blame Paterno and move on.

Anonymous said...

Penn State should be super-careful what music they choose to blast over the public address system.

I went to the Rice-Northwestern game yesterday and encountered, for the first time, the recorded music being played over the PA. What the heck is that all about? There should either be silence or the band playing, but there is no reason to blare Pit Bull to an unwilling crowd. Or at least, to an unwilling me.

Also, I have never been to a game before where Every Single Thing is sponsored. There were more commercials during that game than there would have been on TV.

I miss the Southwest Conference. No music, no ads, just football.

Humperdink said...

Interesting commentary at the American Thinker:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/11/when_penn_state_went_wrong.html

Focus is now on PSU and Paterno as opposed to the pedophile.

DADvocate said...

And it's State College, not College Station, but I am sure you remembered that.

Wasn't sure and didn't care to look it up. This morning I went to the Penn State website. You have to dig pretty deep to find where the main Penn State campus actually is if you only have passing knowledge.

Over the past few years, when I was visiting a lot of colleges with my son, I noticed this problem with a lot of schools, finding their actual address on their website wasn't that easy. You'd think the geniuses that run these places would make it clear.

Paddy O said...

"Don't lose sight of the fact that 50,000 students had nothing to do with the tragedy. Don't lose sight of the fact the current football players had nothing to do with the tragedy."

This is an important point, because on the surface it is true.

However, it's also true that most Germans weren't aware of the extent of the holocaust. But, the German response since then has been a model. There is a collective guilt, not because they were all involved or responsible, but because they were part of a nation in which actions like that took place.

If you have pride in your school, and there are probably many reasons you should, you have to understand that this present issue isn't about a single incident or one coach doing a very bad thing.

This is about a culture and a atmosphere in which things like that were happening behind the scenes for a very long time. It's precisely because you take pride in your school that you should be aware how the tone has to reflect much more than "hey, we didn't do it!"

Because the atmosphere is what allowed these things to happen, and that's a shared responsibility. No, you didn't do it, nor did the present students, but the filth of it was allowed to fester and spread so it covers everyone. That's a sad fact. Making yourselves out to be the victims, instead of acknowledging the shame for what it is for the school as a whole, seems like everyone is trying, yet again, to push this aside. Something terrible went wrong there, and part of it was a culture in which a coach was seen as above not only the law but also human decency, and others in authority looked away. They could do that because they knew that, at the end of the day, a good reputation and a winning season was more important to the campus than a number of at-risk boys.

That's a shame and that's a shame that is shared.

Lou said...

Ann, I was at the game. I booked my tickets before this news came out, kept them when it looked like this would be Joe's last home game, and still kept them when Joe was fired and we all leared more. I strongly considered not going, but I both wanted to revisit my university after a long absence as well as support the players and students.

It was such an intensely emotional game for the students and alumni. Prior to the game the usual exuberance was not to be found - we were mostly somber and sad. We were sad for the children and the pain they suffered; and we were sad for our university, the students, and the pain that will justifiably come for some time.

Before the game, during warm-ups, we cheered loudly for our players, more than usual I think. We desperately wanted to let them know that we supported them. They have nothing to do with what happened. They work hard, every day, to excel at a sport that we love, to play for a university that we love. How can we do anything less than to cheer them on?

When they soberly walked out of the tunnel, where for years they have run out with Joe in the lead, we could barely contain ourselves. They players were mourning so much - the loss of a coach, the loss of a leader, the loss of trust, and the damage to the university who they play for. It was so painful to be a part of, for we in attendance and the fans at home participated in that act as well.

Then, as they played the Alma Mater, I sang along until I cried at the start of the final verse and could barely choke out the last words. "May no act of ours bring shame; To one heart that loves thy name, May our lives but swell thy fame, Dear old State, dear old State."

Yes, there were a few stray calls of "We love you Joe!" Yes, we played our usual chants and cheers. Yes, we cheered "We Are... Penn State" as we always do, at some points with more heart than ever before. Yes, we tried to drown out Nebraska's audibles and we cheered our players on for good plays and clapped for missed opportunities. We nearly lost emotionally when we started our come back. We mourned the loss but were respectful to the many Nebraska fans there.

It is incredibly difficult to separate my feelings for Joe from my feelings for the football team that so bears his mark. And separating that team from the university is so hard. For decades they have been the same to us - but now we have to create boundaries where none were required before.

I am proud to be an alumnus of Penn State. I am proud of the players for forging ahead and taking on a strong opponent in Nebraska even while the effects of these charges are still being sorted out. I am proud of my fellow alumni who love our team and university so much that they would still come to the game, still cheer and celebrate the positive things we have. I am proud of the alumni and students who are lending each other whatever support we can as we try to work through this. And I am so proud of the students who were at the game, who brought their energy and love to the field, who organized the Blue Out, who raised funds for PCAR, and who largely kept their composure after the game.

I am so sad about what we are learning has happened, but withdrawing my support from the university and walking away from these students is not right. I cannot blame anyone who changes their mind about attending, and I understand the grief leveled at the university in general when it may more properly be directed at a few individuals. But I will not take my pain out on students and athletes who do love the same institution, that since 1855, has improved the lives of so many young men and women. I still love my university even as I shed tears while writing this.

ndspinelli said...

Lou, You don't owe anyone an apology and you have every reason to be a proud alumnus. Who need to be ashamed are jokepa and the sycophants who allowed this to continue for decades!

I would add to the list of shame Franco Harris. He is blaming the press for Joe being fired. He was on Chris Wallace's show and that's all he talked about. Wallace threw him a softball question @ the end hoping Franco would stop digging. Wallace asked Franco about the victims and Franco IGNORED IT..doubling down on the "evil press and cowardly Board of Trustees." Franco would be a great spokesman for "The Catholic Church is a victim of a horrible attack by feminists" crowd.

Lou said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lou said...

Thanks ND. I think the hardest thing the alumni are going through is separating our feelings of Joe from those of our football team from those of our university. For Joe's entire career they have pretty much been the one and the same. It's going to take a lot of time for that to happen fully. Until then I think there will be a lot of 'irrational' behavior when viewed from outside.

As for the music selection... yeah, it made me cringe a little.