The List :: RUTS fights back

It's become evidently clear that ESPN--in its ever-growing sensationalism--is going on a witch hunt against Penn State's "legal issues" to generate ratings, knowing Penn State brings out the masses. There's been the infamous List of all the charges filed against Penn State players in recent years; 61, I think it is. Well, RUTS decided today to rev up the fact checking, and has come up with some great stuff.

I don't want to rip off RUTS completely, but here's some of his closing comments on The List:

"Some of these things aren’t even things, such as Paterno’s “road rage”, Phil Taylor and Chris Bell being temporarily banished for academics, whatever happened with Damone Jones, the prank phone calls, and the drug rumors about Ed Johnson and Austin Scott. Those are nine items on the list that don’t belong on any list entitled “Penn State Players Arrested Since 2002″, by any standard. Also, Dan Drogan’s DUI happened over ten years ago, over five years before this supposed reign of terror began... We have a number of incidents in which criminal charges were either never filed (the Ice Pavilion fight, Ed Johnson’s expulsion), dropped before trial (Rashard Casey, Austin Scott’s rape case, the King / Sales / Hayes / Sargeant quartet in the apartment fight), or in which the defendants were flatly acquitted at trial (Phillips, Cosby, Luke, Paxson’s indecent assault)... All in all, the Penn State Nittany Lions don’t have a widespread, 1988 Miami Hurricanes style criminal gang disguised in plain football uniforms. They have a drinking and fighting problem. Players aren’t shooting guns or selling drugs. They’re getting loaded and brawling. While I take modest comfort in the fact that the football roster doesn’t double as a suspect list from The Wire, there is still a rather obvious behavioral problem within the program."

Check out RUTS's analysis of The List He put a lot of work into this, and should get his due for it.