Expose could undo Paterno

PITTSBURGH — Most college athletic programs like nothing better than for ESPN to visit their campuses. It’s an almost certain guarantee of nonstop, slobbering happy talk about the greatness of that particular school and college athletics in general.

But if it’s a visit from “Outside the Lines,” the ESPN show that often takes a look at the seamy side of sports, well, that’s different.

Penn State football received the “Outside the Lines” treatment Sunday, and it made the once-admired program look like a renegade outfit with its revered coach seemingly out of touch with his team and its players.

The numbers were damning but no more so than the responses from coach Joe Paterno.

The show found that since 2002, 46 Penn State players have been charged with 163 criminal complaints. Forty-five of those complaints resulted in guilty pleas or convictions. Of the 46 players charged, 27 pleaded guilty or were convicted.

More recently, to show the problem is getting worse, 17 players were charged in 2007 with 72 crimes. Nine charges resulted in guilty pleas. The numbers screamed about a lack of control by the coaching staff and a lack of discipline by the players.

The response from Graham Spanier, the university president, was expected.

“They’re staggering numbers,” he said. “They’re very high, and they shouldn’t be that way. It’s embarrassing to the university.”

Professor Paul Clarke, who is vice chairman of the faculty senate athletics committee, also had an expected response: “This is really a black mark. It diminishes all of us.”

To those who have followed Paterno closely in recent years, his response also was expected.

“I think you’ve done an awful lot of probing, which bothers me that you might be on a witch hunt,” he said.

The show focused on in an incident that occurred April 1, 2007. In response to one of their teammates and his girlfriend being involved in an altercation with three Penn State students, a group of about 15 football players broke into an apartment on campus. Several students were beaten, including some not involved in the original altercation.

According to the show, one student was attacked with a beer bottle, another was struck with a wooden stool and a third was kicked in the face.

According to a report by the Judicial Affairs department, which is the university’s disciplinary arm, one of the football players involved said, “We knew we were going there to beat up people.”

As a result of these vicious attacks, which no one on a college campus should expect, four players were temporarily expelled. The expulsions occurred during summer school, thus severely lessening the punishment. Additionally, the players were permitted to practice before their period of expulsion expired.

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