scandal Page 18 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Press Conference By Lawyers For Former Penn State President Graham Spanier Was An Exercise In Bullshit
As expected, the blame-shifting from those at Penn State implicated by the Freeh report has begun. Lawyers for Graham Spanier, the university president fired last November in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, held a press conference in Philadelphia this morning to try and explain their client'...

Minnesota State Head Football Coach Busted On Child Porn Charges
Minnesota State head football coach Todd Hoffner faces child pornography charges after being booked by Eagle Lake cops at his home today. The Division II Mavericks' coach has been on administrative leave since Friday after university officials escorted him off the practice field....

The Six Things You Should Know About Joe Posnanski's Paterno Book
Joe Posnanski has written a mostly sympathetic biography of Joe Paterno, which shouldn't be a surprise, given some of Posnanski's previous statements. It's a book at war with itself. At its best, it's a clear-eyed biography of a guy who became a cautionary tale about the dangers of mythmaking; at it...

Meet Joe Paterno. He Lives In Paterno, Italy.
PATERNÒ, Italy—Heading west from the Sicilian port city of Catania, I see two things—the volcano that has destroyed Catania seven times since the age of the Greeks and, a little farther down the road, an exit sign for a city whose name would remind any American of calamity: Paternò. ...

Joe Posnanski Says He Told Joe Paterno He Should Have Done More To Stop Jerry Sandusky
We've obtained a copy of Joe Posnanski's book, Paterno, which is scheduled for release Tuesday. We've already shared some reactions from others who have had a chance to read an advance copy. And while we're still parsing through the book, we're passing along certain details as we come across them....

Joe Paterno: "I'm Not Omniscient!"
Joe Posnanski's book on Joe Paterno will be released next week (and includes the quote from Bill James you see above), but various members of the media have obtained a copy. Among other things, the book reveals that Joe Paterno had to be coerced into reading the grand jury presentment by his family ...

Posnanski: "No, I Don't Feel About Joe Paterno The Same Way I Did When I Started Writing The Book"
But what exactly has changed with Joe Posnanski's thinking? Doesn't say. We're five days away from the release of the former Sports Illustrated star's Joe Paterno biography, and Posnanski took the opportunity to justify the book in a USA Today column today:...

This Classy T-Shirt Is Available At A Penn State Student Book Store
Onward State's Kevin Horne is on a field trip to the (non-university-affiliated*) Student Book Store in State College, tweeting pics as he goes. Maybe you'd like a framed photo of the Joe Paterno statue? It'd go great with this t-shirt, rebranding the NCAA the "National Communist Athletic Associatio...

Penn State Is Making Some Changes To Its Football Uniforms
Penn State kept its football uniforms remarkably plain over the years (except for the right price), but those famous blue and white duds are getting a slight makeover this fall, the school announced today. Individual players' names will now appear on the backs of the jerseys, and there will also be ...

Canadian Women's Soccer Players May Face FIFA Discipline For Claiming Yesterday's Semifinal Was Rigged
Members of the Canadian women's national soccer team are under fire for comments they made after yesterday's thriller of a match won by the U.S. with seconds to spare....

Report: Some Penn State Trustees Are Appealing The NCAA's Sanctions, And A Federal Lawsuit Is Planned
The Paterno family announced its intention to appeal the NCAA's sanctions on Friday, and the NCAA responded almost immediately to more or less say, "So?" Now here comes a newly elected member of Penn State's board of trustees, who filed an appeal of his own this afternoon, according to ESPN's Don Va...

And Now The Paterno Family Is Appealing The NCAA Sanctions Themselves
Onward State has the complete letter the family sent this afternoon to the NCAA, but here's the gist:...

German Rower Quits Games Over Nazi Boyfriend Allegations
German rower Nadja Drygalla has left the Olympic Village following a media firestorm in her home country about her boyfriend's ties to an extremist right-wing political party. (Drygalla is the third rower from the left seen above.)...

Recruiter In UCF Scandal Tries To Clear His Name With Bizarre YouTube Explanation
The University of Central Florida football and men's basketball teams were hit with one-year postseason bans Tuesday for allegations that both squads conducted under-the-table business, primarily with a man named Ken Caldwell, that basically amounted to shady recruiting tactics between a third par...

Disgraced Badminton Player Announces Retirement, Blames Poor Performance On Injuries
One of the eight badminton players who was disqualified from the Olympics for match-fixing is fighting back against those allegations, while also announcing her retirement from professional competition. ...

NCAA Names Former Sen. George Mitchell As Penn State's "Athletics Integrity Monitor"
The appointment of an Athletics Integrity Monitor (note the capital letters) is part of the oh-so-serious sanctions the NCAA dropped when it smacked Penn State with its shithammer. This is straight from the statement the NCAA issued today:...

Want To Know What Jerry Sandusky Thinks About Penn State's NCAA Sanctions?
You really shouldn't. You shouldn't care what Sandusky, awaiting sentencing on scores of counts of child sexual abuse, thinks about his old football team not being able to play in bowl games for a few years. The penalties and the way they were handed down are controversial, and there are lots of sma...

Don't Blame Badminton Players For Throwing Matches. Blame The Sport's Crappy System.
Four teams of women—two from South Korea, one from China, one from Indonesia—were kicked out of the Olympics after they all attempted to lose their matches in the group stage. It was a farce, bringing boos from the crowd and condemnation from the Olympic and badminton communities. Yet the fault lies...

Eight Badminton Players Who Tried To Throw Games Disqualified From Olympics
A bizarre scene unfolded yesterday at Wembley Arena as badminton teams from China and South Korea both attempted to throw the match in order to attain a preferable elimination round seed and drew massive boos from the audience for playing roughly in the manner you or I would while drunk at a back...

70,000 Penn State Fans "Like" This Facebook Post Demanding An Apology From ESPN For "Dragging Joe Pa Through The Mud"
Every time we publish one of those "look at all these crazy Penn State fans" posts, Nittany Lions fans pour in with the complaints that the Paterno defenders and child rape-enabler deniers are a small but vocal faction and that the majority of the PSU community doesn't think that way. We're incline...