Tuesday was a day like no other at Penn State. More to follow, no doubt.
It was a day that was supposed to include a news conference, but instead saw some of the biggest news emerge from outposts far from State College.
A day when one of the biggest stars in the Nittany Lions rich football history questioned from afar Joe Paternos approach to the alleged sexual assaults by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and a large group of current students gathered in front of the legendary coachs home to offer support.
And a day that ended with Paterno (see more coverage of JoePa) still the head coach, though the New York Times reported in the afternoon that his support on the schools board of trustees was eroding and that university officials had begun discussing how to handle his departurespecifically the timing of his removal. That report was later dismissed as fiction by Scott Paterno, the coachs son. (See story.)
The general tenor of the day was perhaps best summed up by Mark Robinson, an All-American safety on the first of Paternos two national championship teams, in 1982, and now the business manager of a Montessori school he and his wife founded near Tampa in 95.
Im really shocked and upset by the accusations, he told me over the phone in late afternoon. I hope its not true, but whats coming out, its disheartening. I dont know which way its going to go because quite frankly, Coach Paterno and Coach Sandusky are two of the people I looked up to.
And no matter how the case is resolved, Robinson said, it will be a black eye for Penn State, with far-reaching implications.
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If the allegations are true, the people responsible have to be accountable for that, he said. But just because someone tells you its true doesnt mean its true.
Curt Warner, who until last year was Penn States all-time leading rusher, was even more blunt during an interview with John Canzano on a Portland, Oregon, radio station.
I love Coach Paterno, but I think he has to take on some of the responsibility, maybe all of it, Warner said, according to Canzanos Twitter feed.
Paterno himself was supposed to address reporters at his news conference, a Tuesday afternoon staple throughout his 46 seasons as head coach. At least 125 reporters, many from national outlets, lined up on the sidewalk outside the entrance to the media room at the south end of Beaver Stadium, awaiting the start of the conference. But they were told less than an hour beforehand that it had been cancelled by university president Graham Spanier. (See story.)
(Left with few options, reporters began interviewing each other. A favorite target was Sports Illustrateds Joe Posnanski, who has been living in State College while he works on a book about Paterno. But there were others, too. Were like piranhas, one member of The Fourth Estate observed. If were not eating somebody else, were eating each other.)
Nor did Paterno make his regular weekly appearance on the Big Ten conference call, though Scott Paterno said his dad would address the Sandusky situation, perhaps as early as Wednesday. As it was, the elder Paternos appearances were few. A regiment of reporters was on hand to watch him driven from his home to practice by Guido DElia, the schools director of communication and branding for football. Paterno later returned, left again (this time driven by his wife Sue), then came back to find the group of students.
He addressed them twice, saying at one point that he and Sue are gonna start praying for those kids that got involved with some of the problems that were talked about.
Gonna start praying? If he had done something more than that nine years ago, there might very well be fewer victims of Sanduskys alleged depravity. As it is, Philadelphia television station FOX 29 reported that the number of victims, said to be eight in the grand jury presentment, is closer to 20.
LaVar Arrington, once an All-American linebacker at the school, has done several interviews over the last several days, and said during a radio appearance Tuesday that unlike then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary, he certainly would have intervened, had he witnessed Sanduskys alleged sexual assault of a young boy in a shower room of the football facility in 2002.
Arrington had tweeted on Monday that he has not read the grand jury report, and doesnt plan to.
(Its) like seeing a family member in a casket, he wrote, referring to Sandusky.(Id) selfishly like to remember him the way I knew him.
Elsewhere on the Twitter-scape, the reactions to the scandal ranged from incomprehensible (Justin Brown, a wide receiver on the current team, wrote that its crazyor crazZy, as he put itthat the Lions are 8-1 and we only made it on ESPN for a scandal.(M)edia loves when we do bad) to spiritual (former quarterback Michael Robinson paraphrased Psalm 36:2: Dont think so highly of yourself that you think God will not discover your sins.God will condemn because he sees everything) to understandable (another ex-QB, Zack Mills, called the situation sad and scary.)
I also e-mailed Harry Hamilton, a teammate of Mark Robinsons on the 82 club and now an attorney, to gauge his reaction.
My first thought is about the victims, Hamilton wrote back. I am in deep reflection about and pray for any victims. I am saddened as details emerge.I hope the prosecutors have exercised and will continue to exercise their discretion soundly and justly. Too often in the court of public opinion we assume that has been the case.
Days end brought a call from a Penn State student named Willie Jungels, a South Jersey native and the grandson of a former newspaper colleague. A reporter for ComRadio, the schools online radio station, he had been everywhere during the dayin line at the cancelled presser, out in front of Paternos home, at a rally at Old Main, on the radio with stations in this area.
He called it a very sad day on campus, and believes Spanier might be dismissed as soon as Wednesday. And Paterno?
I cant see him coaching next year, he said. But I think hell fight it, tooth and nail.
Strange day, indeed. More to follow.
Gordie Jones covered Penn State from 1984-2003 for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.