I'll bet not many of you know this little tid-bit about Penn State this year and why Coach Joe Paterno in my book, is one of the greatest Coaches of ALL-TIME!
When any football team travels to Beaver Stadium to play the Nittany Lions, it’s a good bet the mammoth 107,282-seat stadium will be standing-room only. This year, though, the Penn State players won’t be happy about that. Not happy at all.
Because they’re going to have to clean up the entire stadium afterward. And at every other home game this season. They must also build a house for Habitat for Humanity and volunteer for the Special Olympics during the summer.
That’s because of the actions of at least 15 players who were involved in an ugly off-campus brawl resulting in six arrests, and because of the courage and principles of 80-year-old head coach Joe Paterno, who handed down the edict.
"Our kids were wrong; this is a team embarrassment," he told the Harrisburg Patriot-News. "We’re all going to do it – not just the kids involved -- ‘cause we’re in it together."
That means picking up the garbage, sweeping the stairs, and hosing the stands down. The nasty job is traditionally done by students who play in club sports like rugby and crew, which need the $5,000 the stadium normally pays for clean-up. Paterno said the clubs will still get their money, but the multimillion-dollar football team will do the work.
"This is easily the greatest punishment in recent collegiate history," declared Yahoo sports columnist Dan Wetzel. "In a coaching business so full of phonies who talk character only to bend the rules, here’s Joe Pa four decades on the job and not giving a damn – except about what’s right."
1 comment:
Joe Pa has always been a class act, and I heard the other day that he only makes about 570K/yr. Alot of money, yes, but not when compared to some of these other coaches around. Cheers!!
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