Expose could undo Paterno

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By Bob Smizik PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

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.