Paterno: just chill out

I'm starting to wonder if Joe Paterno himself was snuck out the window of 4103 Nittany Apartments the night of the Blue White Game. At the "Evening with Joe Paterno" event in Arlington this Tuesday, Paterno was quoted as saying this about the recent drug bust at some of his players' apartment. (Note: None of the players were present at the apartment, and we now know they are in no legal trouble)

"That's been blown way out of proportion," Paterno said at a function with more than 400 Penn State alumni and boosters in the Washington, D.C., area. "It's a party, and my guys horsing around with marijuana? You know, we test them all the time. And the four kids who were renting the apartment were not in the apartment when the police got in there."

Is Paterno completely justified in saying that? Certainly. But is it downright shocking that he's been so level headed about the whole incident so far? A bit.

We're used to the "You damn kids!" version of Paterno of old. However, more recently, he's been holding less of a hair trigger. I'm not trying to fish for something that isn't there. But I just think it's important to note that Paterno still has complete control over what goes on with his team, and his handling of the last two incidents (this, and Navorro Bowman*) in this way, shows an element of pragmatism that seems to be lost in modern college football.

*It's also important to note that Paterno said he planned a meeting today with Bowman. Hopefully we hear some decent news out of that. I personally don't think Paterno would have a "meeting" with Bowman if he was just going to kick him off the team. Looks like a good 'ole suspension is in order. Could have been worse.

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Weed raid update

Looks like things aren't as hot as we thought they were. According to sources, Daryll Clark is not currently living in the apartment; he did last semester. Also, another individual, supposedly not on the team, has come forward to claim ownership of the weed. I'm not going to jump to conclusions as quickly as I did when this story broke. However, I'm very hopeful, if not optimistic that this was all just blown out of proportion from the get-go (by blogs like this one), and things will simmer down quickly.

But that doesn't help the matter that Penn State football players were within 100 feet of mary-jane. We've been calling for leadership on this team for four years. Where is it now? Clark, Lee, and the other seniors need to get mad and start cracking skulls. If not, at least Lee can lay a few good hits on these guys in practice.

I'll try to keep on this, as I don't want to give any more false impressions.

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Here we go again; Police 'respond' to players' residence

Not much is known about this yet, but it seems right now that it's nothing. We'll see. I'm sure it will get blown up, if the media has anything to do with it. Penn State should just call up ESPN right now, sort of a preemptive strike.

"Police entered apartment 5204 late last night for unknown reasons. According to the directory, defensive end Maurice Evans, cornerback A.J. Wallace and defensive tackle Abe Koroma live in apartment 5204."

Wow, that's some fine investigative journalism there, young Collegian grasshopper. Keep it up, and someday you might work for Outside The Lines.

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