JoePa Moves to Shore Up Legacy

This week Penn State kicked Chris Baker and Phil Taylor off the team. The players had previously been suspended following an assault in the spring at the Student Union Building.

Suspicious Timing?

    This move comes a few days after a special report on ESPN’s Outside the Lines about the state of the football program at Penn State in recent years under Paterno. The show emphasized a recent string of arrest and violence committed by Penn State players and Joe Paterno was not portrayed in positive light.

Was this About the Team or Something Else?

    The timing of this move, following the critical ESPN Story, makes this look like an attempt to restore discipline where it has been sorely lacking. Paterno has been criticized in recent years for being too “hands-off” but he claims that he is as involved as he ever was.

    This is obviously an attempt to restore JoePa’s legacy, he is trying to remove the tarnished reputation that the program has earned in recent seasons. This too little, too late. JoePa and Penn state should have been stricter with their players and never let the situation spiral out of control like it has for the past decade.