Stall Purge Promote

Great article today by Jeff McLane at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He tracked down Jerry Sandusky for comments about Joe Paterno’s situation. For those of you too young to remember, Jerry Sandusky was Tom Bradley about 15 years ago.

Football is still part of his life. He holds yearly football camps and has Penn State season tickets. He also works out at the Lasch Building, home to Nittany Lions football. He doesn’t see much of Paterno, and when they rarely do encounter each other, it’s more cordial than friendly.

It’s not that much of a secret that Paterno and Sandusky frequently butted heads, or that they parted ways on rather rocky terms. By 1999, Sandusky essentially said “I don’t need this crap anymore,” and focused his full attention on The Second Mile.

Still, “more cordial than friendly”? It’s been nine years!

Sandusky’s resignation marked the beginning of Paterno taking full control over the program by minimizing the coaches — the “heir apparents” — who directly challenged him on a frequent, public basis. Four or five years later, Fran Ganter would be shuffled off to an administrative position.

You’ll recall that Ganter’s situation boiled over on the Penn State sideline in 2003 when he was overridden by the Paternos on a late-game playcall that ended up failing miserably:

The biggest noise from Ganter this season was something only those on the sideline could have heard. Sports Illustrated reported that Ganter threw his headset to the ground and yelled “That’s a [expletive] play!” after Michael Robinson, a right-handed quarterback, rolled left on a fourth-and-three play late in the still-winnable Minnesota game and ended up throwing the ball away.

The play was apparently called by Jay Paterno. Ganter’s reaction was far from the most extreme. Many Penn State fans said, “That was a [expletive] [expletive] call.”

Steve Stilley, PSU running back from 1969-72, called bullshit too.

Stilley, who is now a sales manager living in Medford, N.J., points to the retirement of long-time Penn State defensive coach Jerry Sandusky as part of the program’s downfall. Stilley is also suspicious of Fran Ganter’s move to an administrative position. He believes the former assistant head coach was “pushed out” and set up for failure by an entangling play-calling system on offense.

“You have [quarterbacks coach] Jay [Paterno] in the booth and Joe on the sideline and Fran is supposed to be offensive coordinator, so you tell me what’s going on,” Stilley said.

This is how the game is played in the mind of Joe Paterno. Don’t let anyone become too much of a threat while finding ways to both protect and promote his son. Three or four more years, three or four more years. Stall, purge, promote. The only way Tom Bradley’s ending is any different from Sandusky or Ganter would be for Graham Spanier to pull the incredibly delicate and unlikely move of firing Joe and Jay Paterno while somehow retaining Bradley. It’s impossible to see Spanier leaning that way or Bradley wanting to accept the job under those circumstances, even though 85% of Penn State fans would immediately take to the streets in celebration.