Fall Guy

The police have arrested a man in connection with 'pot gate'

A man faces a misdemeanor drug charge after police said marijuana residue and related items were found in a Penn State apartment rented by four Nittany Lions football players. University police say Ronald Bridges, of Bear, Del., was charged with the controlled substance drug, device and cosmetic act.

Deputy police chief Tyrone Parham says Bridges was not a student, and that he was visiting the apartment the night of April 25, after the Blue-White scrimmage. Parham said Thursday the case is closed.

Considering Joe's reaction to the whole thing I would say little if anything is going to come in the way of punishment. You may now resume your normal lives.

Let’s blow this thing way out of proportion

JoePa said Tuesday that the Pot incident is getting "blown way out of proportion." Paterno says the four students renting the apartment weren't there when the police arrived.

Which is consistent with what the Post-Gazette is reporting.

Police said no one was home when they responded to the incident shortly after 11 p.m. on April 25 at Nittany Apartments.

It also appears that the items that were "in plain view" were not as egregious as they originally sounded.

Penn State police confiscated marijuana residue and drug paraphernalia during their search of an on-campus apartment where four football players live.

According to a police report, other items collected from the apartment hours after the annual Blue-White spring game include hollowed-out cigars in the kitchen and a multi-colored pipe in a bedroom on a television stand.

So it sounds like whoever was smoking the wacky tobacy finished it off before the police arrived and apparently they must have smoked enough of it to set off the smoke detectors. Criminally speaking we're probably talking a slap on the wrist if anything but to whom I have no idea, is the "multi-colored" pipe enough evidence to pinch the resident of the bedroom? Can they get fingerprints off the "hollowed-cigars?" Where's a legal expert when we need one. With the frequency of offseason incidents occurring at Penn State lately I may have to hire a legal department here at TNL just to muddle through all the legal ramifications.

As for Joe's "blown way out of proportion" comment, well… I usually don't disagree with Joe but you've had three incidents of players smoking pot in the past year; I think it's time to send a message. Let's face it; whether or not anything comes of this legally, we know that someone in that apartment did smoke pot and enough of it to set off the smoke detectors. Let's not turn a blind eye to this, Evens got suspended for smoking pot last season, do the same for all four of these guys. Maybe some, or most, did not smoke any but they knew what was going on and should have tried to put a stop to it.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Celebrate Mexican Heritage today! Just remember it's not Mexico's Independence Day, a common misconception in the US but rather a celebration of the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 when an outmanned Mexican army beat the snot out of the snooty French army. See, I like to educate as well as entertain and now you know and knowing is half the battle. The other half is bombs.

Corona with lime – that's my kind of celebration!

Jay Paterno is my blogspot neighbor

Since April 7^th Jay Paterno has been writing (well sort of) on his blog (the appropriately named) HD Journal. Writing in the sense that he has three posts in a month's time: one to explain the site, one to talk about baseball and one to answer his twitter questions that became too numerous to answer in 140 characters or less.

All this time Jay's been my blogspot neighbor and he's never stopped by to say hi or borrow a cup or sugar or something. I'm so disillusioned.

Why can’t our football players keep from getting high?

You would think that after watching Maurice Evans completely annihilate his chances of an NFL career by smoking some weed his teammates would learn a lesson. Apparently not.

Penn State police searched an on-campus apartment of four football players for marijuana the night of last month's Blue-White spring football game, according to court records obtained Monday.

So who were the four players?

An application for search warrant identifies the apartment residents as Stephfon Green, Devon Still, Eric Latimore and Johnnie Troutman.

Yeah, kinda… sorta.. important. But wait there's still more. It was a police setup right? I mean they weren't doing anything to draw attention to themselves right?

According to the affidavit, police responded to a report of a loud party at Nittany Apartments. After arriving, police heard a fire alarm and ''detected a strong odor of burnt marijuana'' near the apartment, the affidavit states.After knocking on the door and receiving no response, police entered the apartment ''for health and safety reasons,'' the affidavit states.

Oh, so it was a loud party…. With FIRE ALARMS GOING OFF!!!! WTF?!? Who is so Goddamned stupid to sit around smoking pot while fire alarms are going off?!?! But the pot was well hidden you ask?

Upon entering, police observed marijuana ''in plain view in the kitchen,'' the affidavit states.

Just amazing. The affidavit does not say if any of the players were present but if they were there should be some fallout from this. Not only was it stupid to smoke pot when you have such a bright future but to do it in such a brazen way is completely unforgivable.

Paterno and Big 10 expansion

JoePa created a bit of a mild stir by suggesting last week while visiting Alumni that the Big 10 should expand to 12 teams and have a conference championship.

He said the Big Ten should add a 12th team and play a championship game, and that it hurts the league's chance to win a national title by ending its season earlier than the other major conferences.

Whether or not you agree with him, the comment does make sense; most other conferences are playing their championship games while the Big 10 season is long over. So the OMG IT'S THE SEC!!!! and Big 12 dominate the talk in the sports world while most people forget the Big 10 exists. It hurts in the polls and it hurts in the pocket book because the championship games generate a lot of revenue. So I found it completely odd to read this kind of commentary. Once again it's lazy reporting at its finest. Start out by calling Joe old.

Sometimes when a person stays up past their bedtime, they talk nothing but gibberish. Sometimes they say and do the craziest things. Sometimes their wisdom makes you wonder why this person doesn't speak up more.

Legendary 82-year-old Penn State football coach Joe Paterno did all of the above late Thursday night.

Yeah he's old and old people have early bedtimes so old crazy Joe must have been up past his bedtime or something like that. Just for the record, the only time I talk gibberish because I'm up past my bedtime is when I'm drunk (not that that happens much).

We'll start with the crazy. Paterno decided the Big Ten needs to add a 12th school to its conference and play a conference championship football game in early December. Listen, it's bad enough the Big Ten has 11 schools, but to add a 12th would mean to split the conference into two divisions and disrupt certain rivalries, although the SEC worked around this much better than did the Big 12 when both conferences expanded.

So he's crazy for suggesting the Big Ten add another team?? Note to lazy reporter guy: the Big 10 tried to expand by getting Notre Dame in the conference but they said no. Are you suggesting the entire Big 10 is crazy as well? The guy even contradicts himself by saying it worked for the SEC. So it worked for another conference but it won’t for the Big 10? That’s some good logic.

Finally, the gibberish. Paterno offered up Pitt, Syracuse or Rutgers as the 12th school in the Big Ten. Yeah, like that's going to happen. If the Big Ten ever got to this point, the invite would go to either Notre Dame or Missouri… Ultimately, Paterno's reasoning is flawed because what the heck would we call the conference? The Big 12 is already taken! Big Ten plus two? The Dirty Dozen?

Ok so the name thing would be a concern but would that stop the conference from expanding? Would Jim Delaney say "well we were going to expand but we can't because we would have to change our name?" Now that's crazy. As for the teams that Paterno offered they certainly would jump at the chance to be in the Big 10 something that Notre Dame did not, as I mentioned before. Admittedly, Paterno's choices are a bit self-serving, they were all old rivals of Penn State and they would add another east coast team to the conference, but adding Pitt or Rutgers would be good for the Big 10 and the schools. Either school would instantly benefit from a recruiting and money standpoint and the conference would get another "decent" team. Anyone that thinks Notre Dame is going to give up their lucrative T V deals and scheduling freedom to enter a conference is crazy. I was once against expanding the Big 10 but if the past couple of years have taught us anything it's that the long layoff between the end of conference play and the Bowl games is affecting teams especially ones playing in BCS games. Adding another team makes sense and let's face it if a Big 10 team can't go undefeated and win another game against a quality opponent then they don't deserve to be in the championship game.

I even question why someone from Naples is even writing about Paterno, for a far better take on this look no further than here: Bob Hunter commentary: Paterno gets it, but Big Ten fossils don't.

Blue & White Roundtable: Looking Towards the Past and Future

The Blue & White Roundtable was roused from its offseason slumber temporarily just before hitting the snooze bar until the fall. Questions come care of Zombie Nation.


1. Ok, so the Blue-White Game and spring practice is done. Whether you just read the reports, or actually watched the game...
(a) What's one glaring team/unit/player issue you're still concerned with?
(b) What are you most pleased with?

Like all offseason, my fears lie with the secondary and the Blue-White Game did very little to comfort me. There’s plenty of time to get it figured out before the season starts and they’re going to need every minute of it, but no one needs to panic yet. On the positive side of things, Gerald Hodges is going to Kim Herring/James Boyd it this year and knock a few guys unconscious out there, that guy hits a ton. Offensively, Newsome looked great, all the reports had been he was getting eaten alive in practice, if that’s the case, he’s already grown leaps and bounds in a very short time. There's lots of talent in his arm and legs, let's see if he can refine it.


2. Navorro Bowman was held out of the game for probation violation. He did admit his mistake to Joe Paterno, and took responsibility. But he still shouldn't have done it. What punishment do you think will be appropriate, and why?

The offense itself was minor, but the overall stupidity is inexcusable. It’s been a tough year for him and Joe’s probably gonna take that into account. As long as he gets things straightened out, when all is said and done, he sits the first game or three.


3. Penn State's offensive staff said after the game that things were kept pretty simple. Do you think this year's returning offense will be able to handle an offensive scheme with the same complexity as the 2008 version? Why or why not?

The offense will be fine, the most important piece is the quarterback and Clark is still running the show, along with Royster and Green in the backfield. Take into account the tune up out of conference schedule and don’t look for much, if any, drop-off from 2008. The better question might be, can Penn State maintain its offensive performance all season or will the Big Ten season grind it down again. Assuming, Clark can stay free of concussions, I would be inclined to say yes.


4. Five Penn Staters were drafted, while 10 more signed free-agent contracts. Was there any pick/signing that surprised you the most, either positively or negatively? What did this 2009 NFL Draft say about the Penn State football program?

I’m surprised Cadogan went undrafted, but keep an eye on and I honestly mean this, Anthony Morelli. The Cardinals are bringing him back in again, I'd be very interested to see if he's made any gains in terms of recognition and consistency. It’s hard to argue the amount of NFL interest Penn State has received isn’t a good thing, but take it with a grain of salt. I suppose you could argue the downside is more guys may leave before they should, because they get convinced their stock is far higher than it is, then you realize sometimes the NFL makes you go WTF?!? For example, Andre Smith, who raised every red flag possible, went in the Top 10, will get a big money contract to a team with a poor history of questionable behavior and lack of oversight – the Cincinnati Bengals (there’s no way that could possibly go wrong, right?).


Shooting from the hip...
1. Average PSU offensive PPG/defensive PPG in 2009?

With our schedule this year? 40/21


2. USC's Mark Sanchez (5th overall - Jets): Too high?

Yes, he had several disturbingly pedestrian efforts last year, but can thank Penn State for their defensive Rose Bowl performance that no one remembers them.


3. How many Lions drafted in 2010?
Just looking at the seniors – 5 (Clark, Lee, Odrick, Landolt, and, even with another subpar year, Quarless, because he has the talent that will cause some team to take a flyer on him in the later rounds, maybe add in a junior or two that have breakout years)

4. List you're top three Big Ten teams, as of today.

Ohio State, Penn State and given the Big Ten has a surprising team pop up the last few years, let’s go with Northwestern.