Last weekend we had family for house guests. They flew down all the way from Pennsylvania claiming to want to see the Notre Dame and Florida State game - but deep in their hearts - they came to town to appeal to the football gods.
Cathy and RuthAnn are hearty Penn State and Joe Paterno fans. They believe that PSU and Joe got a raw deal in the rush to judgment of Jerry Sandusky. You may re-call that the NCAA fined Penn State $60 million and also took away several of Joe Paterno's coaching wins. The sad part is the Governor Tom Corbett led board of trustees agreed to the penalties.
Now fans are having second thoughts.
Ruth Ann and Cathy hand lettered a sign and held it up at GameDay here in town. It made national television - and got several comments on the blogosphere. Many were surprised to see such a sign appearing at a game between Florida State and Notre Dame. The girls want Joe's wins to be re-instated. Ironically - the coach that is now considered the winningest coach Bobby Bowden is the former FSU coach. Bobby and Joe were very good friends - but I do not hear Bowden pushing to have Joe's wins added back on. Both coaches claimed they were not interested in being the top winning coach ever - but both coaches stayed on way too long - both hurting their teams and schools with their old age.
Now that they lifted the bowl ban they should reinstate wins too say the girls. And they want Joe's statue up too.
Ruth Ann and Cathy - sisters from the Lehigh Valley could complete each other's sentences when it comes to the Nits and Joe.
They said, "They judged too harshly and quickly. We must show Penn State pride.
We want to demonstrate freedom of speech. And no one speared us. We enjoying atmosphere of good sportsmanship. We wanted those watching to agree and say "yes!!" We hope to start a movement to vocalize and get others excited.After living in Pennsylvania for 55 years - I love the Penn State fans and admired Joe Paterno. But I think if they re-instate the PSU wins - they would have to re-instate Bobby Bowden's wins too. He lost wins when his player simply cheated on an online exam for a music course.
It will be interesting to see if the NCAA changes anything else for the people from Happy Valley. The Pennsylvania fans do not deserve the punishment - they did nothing wrong.
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