While sitting in an unlocked media room adjacent to a Texas Tech practice field on December 19, 2009, Adam James sent his father, ESPN announcer Craig James, a series of text messages.

The text messages, sent while practice was underway on a 66-degree day in Lubbock, included the following:

Hey, you’re going to like this.

Leach thinks it’s impossible for me to have a concussion and that I’m just being a pussy.

So for punishment he had me locked in a pitch black shed for the whole practice.

And they won’t let me out.

And if they catch me even so much as leaning against the wall they’re going to kick me off the team

After receiving the text messages, Craig James replied via text, “can you call me?”

Adam James, who had been directed to the media room by head TTU trainer Steve Pincock, replied to his father, “no, just text.”

The ESPN announcer then text his son the message, “call me when you can and think about what you will allow me to do.”

On March 13, 2010, during his sworn deposition, Adam James recalled his thoughts when he first text his father:

“We have the same sense of humor and personality, and I thought — we thought it was funny. So I said ‘you’re going to like this.‘”

Adam James also said on March 13, 2010, that he had never spoken to Leach about the concussion he referenced in his texts to his father, nor did Leach or anyone else ever tell him he would be punished for “so much as leaning against the wall.”

On Dec. 19, 2009, after spending 90 minutes in the media room, Adam James eventually let himself out of the building as no one was outside to open the unlocked door.

After Craig James received the texts from his son on Dec. 19, 2009, he contacted then-Chairman of the Texas Tech Board of Regents, Larry Anders. Anders later recalled during a sworn deposition on March 23, 2010, how he was first introduced to the situation by the ESPN announcer:

.. there was a message on my wife’s cellphone from his (Craig James) wife Marilyn. That I needed to talk to Craig and it was a matter of life and death.

Anders, who had been set to attend a wedding event, contacted the ESPN announcer who told him his son had been “shut in an electrical closet” while “humiliated” with “extreme profanity” by Leach. Also during the call, which came on the same day Craig James had received the Dec. 19 texts from his son, Anders said the ESPN announcer demanded Leach apologize and “recommended” the coach be fired.

During his sworn depositon on April 13, 2010, current Texas Tech Board of Regents Chairman Jerry Turner, who was Vice Chairman at the time, reported what Anders told him of his exchange with Craig James on the same day the ESPN announcer received text messages from his son at TTU practice:

Larry said that based on his conversation with Craig James, Craig James wanted Mike Leach fired. I said to Larry, ‘I don’t believe that.’

Obviously I was wrong, Craig James did want Mike Leach fired.

Craig James also called Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance to report what his son had told him. Later, Hance recalled the conversation with the ESPN announcer during his March 11, 2010, sworn deposition:

He (Craig James) wanted an apology and he wanted him (Mike Leach) fired and I said, “‘Craig, if you fire him do you think he will apologize? Both things are not going to happen.’”

When asked at the same deposition if he thought a Leach apology to James could’ve saved the coach’s job, the Chancellor of Texas Tech said, “no.”

On the same day Adam James sent text messages to Craig James while Texas Tech practice was underway the son of the ESPN announcer also shot cellphone video of an “electrical closet.”

The space, which appeared well-lit in the video and included footage in which two chairs were visible, was located next to the media room where TTU Trainer Steve Pincock had ordered Adam James to stay for the remaining moments of practice.

Public relations firm Spaeth Communications founder Merrie Spaeth later indicated to SbB that, “immediately after the second (cellphone) video was shot (on Dec. 19), Craig James contacted Spaeth to advise him.”

The next day, Dec. 20, 2009, Texas Tech investigator Charlotte Bingham interviewed Adam James in response to the complaint from the James family about Leach to Texas Tech administrators.

On Dec. 23, 2009, Bingham provided a report of her fact finding to Hance, Anders, Turner, TTU President Guy Bailey and Athletic Director Gerald Myers. During her March 5, 2010, deposition, Bingham noted of her report about the James family complaint:

I informed President Bailey, Chancellor Hance, Larry Anders, Jerry Turner and Gerald Myers that Mike Leach had not required Adam James to stand in an electrical closet.

Adam James told me that he went into the electrical closet and that he stood in the electrical closet for approximately five minutes.

Bingham noted in her investigation that the son of the ESPN announcer had stayed in the media room for “one and a half hours“, with the door to the building “opened every 15 or 20 minutes” so TTU trainers could check on Adam James.

Bingham later said that TTU President Bailey’s Chief of Staff, Grace Hernandez, reported during the same Dec. 23, 2009, meeting that her own investigation had determined that Adam “never had to stand in an electrical closet.”

When asked during a deposition if he had heard that Adam James had “napped” during his 90-minute stay in the media room on Dec. 19, 2009, Texas Tech Chancellor Hance replied, “I’d heard that.”

Bingham also reported of Adam James during the same interview:

He stated that Coach Leach was verbally abusive to players, hated by the entire team and had made it living hell on the receivers.

Bingham also interviewed Craig James on Dec. 20, 2009 as part of the official internal Texas Tech investiation and later said that the ESPN announcer had made a”threat of litigation” against the school to her “and that (litigation against Texas Tech by the James family) would be a can of worms and it would not be pretty.”

The same day Bingham and Hernandez presented their findings of fact to Texas Tech officials, Craig James sent an email to TTU Chancellor Hance reporting that the claims of his son had now been “verified” and that, “if any organization or person did what Mike Leach did, they would be fired. Which is exactly what we expect to happen to Mike (Leach).”

Current Texas Tech Board of Regents Chairman Turner also received the email from the ESPN announcer and supplied this reaction to Hance:

I interpret his (Craig James) email as a threat he will go public if we don’t take the action he requested.

The next communication Turner received from James - via Hance - confirmed exactly that.

On Dec. 26, 2009, Hance received an email from Craig James that he forwarded to Turner, then-Board of Regents Chairman Anders and Texas Tech President Guy Bailey that included the following:

Bottom line: Tech is absolutely exposed as a university with each hour that passes. The team, the staff, and increasingly others at the school know that a substantial charge has been made, and we understand it has been verified by your own investigative team.

Kent, I ask you and the board members this: Have each of you seen the shed and electrical closet Adam was confined to? I’d recommend each of you visit the Places … walk in them and turn the lights off. NOW, imagine standing there for three hours in the cold without being allowed to sit down or lean against.

This story will become public at some point and you can count on the fact that some television cameras will show this picture.

During his March 13, 2010, deposition, Craig James was asked, “When you wrote this email of 12/26 you did not believe Adam had been confined to the electrical closet for a total of three hours, fair?”

Craig James replied, “Yes.”

On Dec. 27, 2009, TTU President Guy Bailey drafted a letter addressed to Mike Leach that included a private reprimand and $60,000 fine. The final line of the letter read:

This concludes the inquiry into allegations made by Adam James and his parents. If other information about other incidents emerges, we will investigate them and take appropriate action as warranted.

Instead of the letter being delivered, on the same day TTU investigator Bingham left a voicemail with Leach’s attorney that stated, “if there’s not just some incredible objection, Mike needs to sign the letter — that he sign the letter that he was presented with (earlier) — and return it to (TTU attorney’s office) or return it to the president (Guy Bailey) and then he needs to work on some sort of apology.”

No deadline of when the coach was required to fulfill the request was given by Bingham - or anyone at TTU - to Leach or his attorney.

In the same voicemail to Leach’s attorney, Bingham referenced “outside pressure” from Craig James as a reason Texas Tech was looking to resolve the James family complaint as soon as possible.

The next day Texas Tech announced that Leach had been suspended.

90 minutes after Texas Tech released a statement reporting that Leach’s suspension was in response to a complaint by the family of an unnamed Texas Tech football player, ESPN reporter Joe Schad broke the news that Adam James was the player in question.

Schad next provided the following details of the treatment of Adam James at the hands of the newly-suspended Texas Tech football coach:

A source close to the James family said Leach called a trainer and directed him to move James “to the darkest place, to clean out the equipment and to make sure that he could not sit or lean. He was confined for three hours.”

A source told The Associated Press that James said Leach told him if he came out, he would be kicked off the team.

According to the source, Leach told the trainer, two days later, to “put [James] in the darkest, tightest spot. It was in an electrical closet, again, with a guard posted outside.”

The claims by the anonymous “source close to the James family” were not noted in the ESPN report as being alleged, though the same claims had already been debunked by Texas Tech’s own internal investigation as part of the aformentioned report by Charlotte Bingham and Grace Hernandez to Texas Tech administrators seven days earlier.

Three months later, on March 13, 2010, deposition testimony by Adam James revealed that the claims that had previously - and repeatedly - been presented by ESPN as the primary facts that led to Leach’s Texas Tech ouster were actually completely incorrect.

After ESPN broke the news that Adam James was the player who had initiated the complaint - via his ESPN announcer father’s public relations firm - Spaeth Communications released a statement to the media that included, “The entire James family is supportive of the University and looks forward to a resolution of the matter.”

Less than 48 hours later, Mike Leach was fired.

After Leach’s firing, Craig James said of the media publicity that immediately preceded the coach’s ouster:

Anyone who thinks we were asked to go through this, think again. We had to do it.

This (Leach firing) is all a result of what happened to Adam a couple weeks ago.

There’s not a mom and dad in this country who wouldn’t have done what we did if they knew what we knew about our son.

This isn’t something that we asked for. We continue to be a victim of something.

Less than a week after Leach was fired, ESPN’s highest-rated daily TV talkshow, PARDON THE INTERRUPTION with co-hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, addressed the subject of Leach’s firing and his future job prospects. As part of the debate, Tony Kornheiser said:

I think he will have to convince a college president he won’t lock a kid up in a tool shed or put him in a cage.

It was arrogance and stupidity and behaving like you are above the law at all times.

He didn’t get fired for coaching.

Five months later while speaking to a church gathering in Dallas, ESPN’s Craig James stated:

My son was being treated in an unfair, unimaginable, and unthinkable manner. We filed a complaint with the university; private, hoping to quietly protect Adam to stop the insanity that was being done to him. Not once, but twice.

The lies, the accusations, the death threats, police sitting outside our home. The bounty on our lives. The insanity that comes from someone’s actions, are crazy.

Adam and my footprints, and what we’ve done in life when we hit the wall we can look around and our character, our honesty and our integrity are in place.

Now the other side of the equation, the party (Mike Leach) that’s accusing, I wonder what their beach looks like?

I have felt strongly that we have been in a spirtual war for the past four months. Our faith, our christian family has sustained us.

It’s important to lead a godly life.

Adam James suited up for his final home game as a Texas Tech Red Raider on Nov. 12, 2011, against Oklahoma State.

Before the game, James participated in Senior Day festivities with family members.

Texas Tech later lost the game 66-6 after trailing 49-0 at halftime.

His father skipped the game.

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Not many are truly qualified to pass judgement on Joe Paterno’s actions following the the Nov. 4, 2011, arrest of former longtime Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on dozens of charges related to child sexual abuse.

Let alone those who might try to accurately characterize Paterno’s reaction to Sandusky frequenting the Penn State locker room in the nine years after Paterno was first made aware of a child rape allegation against Sandusky in the shower of a PSU football facility.

But, with the bolded text below, SbB hopes to accurately ascribe the behavior of the late Penn State football coach in the aftermath of Paterno first learning of the Sandusky child rape allegation in a Penn State football locker room in 2002.

–

Paterno (11/6/2011): “As coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at that time, I referred the matter to university administrators.”

Paterno (1/12/2012) “I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise that I did. I knew it was serious and I wanted to do something about it. And that’s why I went up the chain of command.”

I laugh at those who claim that we should have blind faith in our institutions.

Paterno (1/12/2012): “I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the University procedure was.“

I chuckle at people who blame the ’system’ for their problems.

Paterno (1/12/2012): “We never had, in 61 years, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn’t feel adequate.”

It is you who make the organization work for you and you who will become victims of this system, if you fail to execute your responsibilities to yourself and to your fellow human beings.

Paterno (1/12/2011): “Obviously, he was doing something with the youngster. It was a sexual nature.”

Paterno (11/6/2011): “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report.”

We must always act but when we are wrong, we must be mature enough to realize it and act accordingly.

Paterno (1/12/2012): “When I finally got the head job, I was 16 years here before got the head job, when I finally got it I said we’re going to have the ‘grand experiment,’ and my thinking then was let’s do it the right way.”

Seduced by expediency, by selfishness, by ambition regardless of cost to principles, this spectacle will surely mark the end of the ‘grand experiment.’

We cannot morally escape our responsibility to the rest of the world.

There’s only one person qualified to provide such prescient, applicable commentary to Joe Paterno’s tragic actions the past nine years.

Read more…

Two days before Mike Leach was fired, Dec. 29, 2009, Chris Fowler appeared on Colin Cowherd’s nationally syndicated ESPN Radio show.

(Leach’s life went up in flames thanks to claims by Fowler ‘close friend’ James )

Fowler appeared on the show to, in part, discuss complaints made about Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach by his ESPN colleague Craig James. The complaints to Texas Tech administrators about Leach were made by James on behalf of his son, Red Raider football player Adam James.Below is audio of the exchange and a transcription of the conversation.

Cowherd:

“When you first read about the Mike Leach story, what do you think? What is your first broad thought when you read the accusations, the player, so forth.”

Fowler:

“I read it from a different perspective than most people because I’ve known Craig James for 20 years. He’s been a close friend and I’ve worked with him on (ESPN College) GameDay since the early ’90s, so I definitely feel for him and his family and what they’ve gone through and how tough it would be for them to notify the administration in this case.

“This is not a hot-headed guy who is going to fly off the handle at the first complaint from his son. He knows what football is, it’s a tough sport and you have to endure so I know for him to make the move that he did, and be aware of the repercussions that it would have for Leach, the program and his own son and he’s got a younger son Andy that also goes to Texas Tech and was thinking about playing football there next year so I feel for what he (Craig James) went through to make that decision.

“Everybody that’s a parent who has kids that plays sports, you get confronted with these things at one some point or another, an overzealous coach that’s my perspective. It’s kind of tough for me to step back and comment with distance because I’ve known Craig and I’ve known Adam for a long time.”

Cowherd:

“I would imagine there was some reluctance, and I said this earlier, when you’re a public figure, you know you’re going to get beat up on a story like this. Can you tell us how long Craig considered this? Obviously this is difficult but for a public figure it’s even more difficult.”

Fowler:

“Well they considered it for awhile but I don’t know if he’s being hammered about this. I don’t, I mean, the sense I have is, again, it’s a pretty fresh story with the identity of Adam only being revealed publicly yesterday though it’d been whispered around. 

“I think that most people feel that when it’s a head injury, and I speaking just in general terms Colin, a head injury, if you’re a coach in football these days and you don’t understand the importance of that and the need to take it seriously and the need to treat each case individually, listen to the medical experts, listen to the player, understand the long term ramifications of dealing with a guy who has a head injury you’re out of touch. I mean, you’re clueless, if you don’t understand that.

“This isn’t a sprained ankle where you’re made at the kid because he isn’t able to go, this is a head injury and I think that’s what has coaches shaking their heads. Guys you run into, and talk to the past 24 hours about this story. They don’t understand how a head injury, you can’t comprehend the seriousness of that.”

Two days after Fowler’s comments on ESPN Radio, Leach was fired by Texas Tech and remained unemployed for two years.

Craig James, meanwhile, worked the 2010 and 2011 football seasons with ESPN and is currently running for political office in Texas.

On Dec. 31, 2009, two days after Fowler’s comments were made on a nationally-syndicated ESPN outlet, the DALLAS MORNING NEWS published the following statement from Texas Tech team physician Michael Phy, dated Dec. 25:

I saw Adam James as a patient on December 17th. At that visit I diagnosed him with a mild concussion. I made recommendations regarding level of activity and treatment. These were shared with Adam and the athletic training staff and are documented in Adam’s medical record.

I was not aware of any incident until I was contacted by (Texas Tech representative) Charlotte Bingham. She provided details of a complaint, and I completed a short phone interview and answered questions for her. According to the information given to me, no additional risks or harm were imposed on Adam by what he was asked to do.

Also on Dec. 31, 2009, the DALLAS MORNING NEWS published the following, excerpted statement from Red Raider football team head trainer Steve Pincock, dated Dec. 31:

“In regard to the Adam James situation, the first building was an athletic training storage garage, two of which were adjacent to the football field.– Adam was placed in the sports medicine garage, there is no lock on this building.

“On the second occasion, practice was in the stadium, and Coach wanted Adam to be in a dark location to help his concussion and wanted him out of public view because of his poor attitude and bad work ethic.– Zack Perry, our equipment manager, suggested using the visiting team media room.– I walked Adam to the room, which was at least as big as a two-car garage.

“Inside the room there is an electrical closet.– I looked in the closet and stated that there was ‘no way that Adam would be placed in there’. I shut the door to the electrical closet, and it was never opened again.

“At no time during this practice was Adam ever placed in the electrical closet. The door to the media room was never locked, and trainers attending to Adam stated that he was sitting at times during the practice.

“Adam was never locked in any facility, and was never placed in an electrical closet or tight space, or instructed to do so.

“I received calls about both incidents from Charlotte Bingham, and was asked and answered many questions on the subject, and pictures were taken of both locations. Adam exhibited no symptoms of a concussion after the first day: no memory loss, no confusion, and no dizziness.”

Texas Tech attorney Charlotte Bingham headed the school’s investigation of the James complaint. In her report, she noted that during her interview of Adam James he indicated to her that he “stayed in (electrical) closet (for) five minutes.”

Of his punishment by Leach, Adam James stated in his own deposition that the coach’s treatment of his condition was “funny” and that, “being in the shed was not causing me any medical harm.”

While in “the shed” on Dec. 19, 2009, Adam James admitted under sworn testimony on March 13, 2010, that he shot the cellphone video of the “electrical closet” in question which he subsequently provided to the public relations firm his father had hired to assist in his handling of the Leach complaint, Spaeth Communications.

Craig James, who also called Texas Tech coaches during games he worked for ESPN in 2009 to complain about his son’s lack of playing time, then authorized Spaeth Communications to release the video publicly on Youtube with the following description:

This video was taken by Adam James, a player on the Texas Tech Red Raider football team on Saturday, December 19th, after being confined by Coach Mike Leach in an electrical closet off the Press Room at Jones AT&T Stadium. James was suffering from a concussion received during an earlier scrimmage game. James was ordered to stand in the darkness until released several hours later. James momentarily turned on a light to record his surroundings with his cell phone.

Craig James later said in his own sworn deposition on March 13, 2010, that he authorized the public release of the video, which led to innumerable airings on various nationally-televised ESPN outlets, because it “was going to help support Adam’s claim.”

It was Spaeth, which also famously derailed John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential campaign with its “Swift Boat” attack ads, that posted the “electrical closet” video on Youtube under an anonymous pseudonym with a description that reported Adam James was “confined by Coach Mike Leach in an electrical closet” for “several hours.”

The day after ESPN first aired the Adam James video uploaded by Spaeth Communications, Leach was fired.

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Last October the Mountain West and Conference USA announced the “consolidation” of the 22 football programs from each league into an “association.”

As first noted last month by Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com and two weeks ago by Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com, the conferences are now entertaining the prospect of merging to form a newly-named conference spanning all sports.

SbB has learned from multiple sources that discussions between the leagues has advanced to the point where the matter has been handed over to attorneys to explore the legal ramifications of such an arrangement. Of particular interest is any legal entanglements that might be presented in the dissolution of existing television contracts involving each league.

While Conference USA and the Mountain West already have TV broadcast deals in place with Fox Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports and Comcast/NBC Universal, a broadcast contract for a newly-branded, 22-team league might provide a more significant windfall for the schools involved - if TV networks agree to tear up existing deals.

A source also indicated to SbB this week that Mountain West conference television outlet The Mtn., has recently informed some of its employees that the network may cease operation - at least as an exclusive Mountain West outlet - after the MWC baseball tournament in late May.

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During an appearance on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network Wednesday, an attorney for Mike Leach provided more striking revelations about the behavior of Craig James while directly under the auspices of ESPN.

(Leach lawyer for ESPN suit: James called TT coaches from ESPN booth)

Lead Leach attorney Steve Heninger reported to Finebaum that “well before” James ever lodged a complaint to Texas Tech about Leach’s alleged mistreatment of his son, Red Raider football player Adam James, the former ESPN announcer, “was calling (Texas Tech) coaches from the booth during games and telling them to put Adam in and let him play.”

Excerpt of Heninger’s comments to Finebaum Wednesday:

Heninger:

“He was calling (Texas Tech) coaches from the booth during games and telling them to put Adam in and let him play. Disrupting games. Then at night he was leaving voicemails that he was upset that Adam wasn’t … (Finebaum interrupts)”

Finebaum:

“So Craig James from the ESPN broadcast booth was calling Texas Tech coaches? Is that correct?”

Heninger:

“On some occasions, that’s right. I think he called three or four games that year, that Tech had … the coaches were worried and went to Leach with the problem, (they said) ‘what do we do? This is the ESPN guy telling us that we need to be playing Adam more’

“In fact, Mike met with Adam and said, ‘we’ve got these voicemails Adam (from father Craig), do you want your teammates to hear these voicemails? To hear that your dad is calling the coaching staff trying to get you more playing time? How do you think that’s going to play with your teammates?’

“Adam asked him (Leach) not to play the tapes and he didn’t. And this was all well before the controversy about an electrical closet that never happened. That’s the backdrop of this whole thing.”

During the 2009 college football season, James worked at least three Texas Tech games for ESPN, including Tech’s Sept. 26 game against Houston, Oct. 17 game against Nebraska and Nov. 14 game against Oklahoma State. James was also originally scheduled to work ESPN’s telecast of Texas Tech’s meeting with Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl on New Year’s Eve - but was pulled off the broadcast after his complaint helped create Leach’s ouster at the school.

As reported by SbB on Jan. 16, 2010, Leach’s lawsuit against Texas Tech alleges that Craig James called then-Texas Tech Director of Football Operations Tommy McVay and then-Tech assistant coach Lincoln Riley on the same day in 2009 about his son, “stating, in effect, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing. Adam James is the best player at the wide receiver position. If you’ve got the balls to call me back, and I don’t think you do, call me back.’”

In his deposition for the Leach lawsuit against Texas Tech, Craig James testified the following on March 13, 2011:

Paul Dobrowski: Did you call (Tech assistant coach) Lincoln Riley at that time (2009)?
Craig James: Yes.
PD: What did you say?
CJ: Left a message for him to call me.
PD: What did you say on the message?
CJ: “Give me a call. I would like to talk to you.”
PD: Why did you call him?
CJ: The same reason, to find out what Adam had done, what we could do to keep him on track here and not go into the tank.
PD: And did you leave a message to the effect that, “if you have the balls and I don’t think you do, call me back?”
CJ: I may have. I may have.
PD: Well, when you say you may have, that indicates to me that that kind of rings a bell or sounds familiar.
CJ: I could have. I could have.
PD: Okay. As you sit here today, do you believe that you left that kind of a message?
CJ: I believe I could have, yes.

Later during the 2009 season in which Craig James made the complaints referred to by Heninger yesterday, the ESPN announcer accused Leach of mistreating his son after an alleged injury. That accusation led to Leach’s firing by Texas Tech.

Heninger also told Finebaum Wednesday that as soon as the Texas Supreme Court renders a verdict in Leach’s appeal for a jury trial against Texas Tech in his wrongful termination lawsuit against the school, he will pursue his defamation lawsuit against ESPN.

A lawsuit which prominently documents James’ specific, behind-the-scenes role - which included providing son Adam’s cellphone number to ESPN reporter Joe Schad - in ESPN’s on-air coverage of the coach’s ouster at Texas Tech.

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UPDATE: (Jan. 25, 2011, 9:21aPT): Jay Paterno Tweeted the following Wednesday morning:

To clarify: Our family looks forward to welcoming everyone to a celebration of Joe Paterno’s life tomorrow afternoon.

UPDATE (Jan. 24, 2011, 5:13p PT): The HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS reports that Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, who ordered all state government flags lowered to half-staff following Joe Paterno’s death, will not be attending the Thursday memorial service for Joe Paterno, “at the request of the (Paterno) family.”

From a report Tuesday evening by Charles Thompson of the Patriot-News:

Corbett’s press secretary, Kevin Harley, said today the governor is “not planning” on attending the service.

Asked why, Harley said, “I am not aware that any members of the (university’s) board of trustees are attending, at the request of the family.”

Corbett, he said, wants to respect that request.

Though reporter Thompson did note that, according to sources, the Paterno family qualified the ban on PSU Trustees:

Other sources said the family was discouraging the trustees from attending as a group. That would leave the way clear for individual members with long ties to the Paternos to attend.

As noted in the original post below, Sara Ganim of the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS recently reported that Corbett voiced his feelings to the Penn State Board of Trustees at the fateful Nov. 9, 2011, meeting in which Paterno was removed from his position by school officials:

Moments before Penn State’s board of trustees voted to fire Joe Paterno, Gov. Tom Corbett uttered a final thought.

“Remember that little boy in the shower,” Corbett said via speakerphone, acting in his role on the 32-member board.

It was the last thing the board members heard before being asked if anyone objected to relieving Paterno of a coaching job he’d held for 61 years.

With that, Paterno was fired Nov. 9 in a late-night move that led to student riots in State College and boiling animosity toward the board by alumni.

What motivated Corbett to make such a strong statement in the final moment before the Board of Trustees voted to terminate Paterno after 61 years at Penn State?

Keep reading.

–

Current Pennslyvania Governor Tom Corbett officially learned of allegations of child sexual abuse against Jerry Sandusky in March 2009. As Attorney General of the state at the time, Corbett assigned a single state trooper to investigate the allegations - though that law officer was not authorized to bring charges against Sandusky because Corbett decided not to assign an agent from his office to directly supervise the investigation.

When Corbett became governor two years later the children’s charity Sandusky had founded in 1977, The Second Mile, had not officially been notified by Corbett or anyone in law enforcement that its founder was being investigated on multiple allegations of child rape.

Despite that apparent disconnect, the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS reported on Dec. 10, 2011, that at the same time Corbett was conducting his two-year investigation of Sandusky as Attorney General, Corbett’s gubernatorial campaign benefited financially from Sandusky’s charity:

Corbett accepted more than $25,000 from state board members of Sandusky’s charity, The Second Mile, during his gubernatorial campaign last year. On top of that, he accepted thousands more from the charity’s regional board members, according to Pennsylvania Department of State campaign contributions website.

His openness to the charity’s board members’ contributions to his campaign didn’t stop there. Corbett also allowed S&A Homes president and CEO Robert Poole, who chaired Second Mile’s board, to hold a small fundraiser for him at Poole’s home in January 2010.

Following Corbett’s election as Governor, he “re-released” a $3 million state grant to The Second Mile as part of the charity’s effort to erect a building meticulously-planned by Sandusky himself - with Poole’s company handling the construction. The release of the state funds came four months before Sandusky was arrested on dozens of child sexual abuse charges stemming from Corbett’s own investigation as then-Attorney General.

After the background of the grant was exposed to the public, Corbett pulled the state funding.

(Corbett gave millions in state funds to Sandusky pet project in July!)

From the month he learned of the Sandusky allegations to the day he took office as Governor, Corbett’s Attorney General office issued 42 press releases touting hundreds of arrests by the Corbett-commissioned “Child Sexual Predator Unit” and “Child Exploitation Task Force.” (March, 2009 to Jan. 18, 2011.)

But Sandusky’s case was never assigned to either detail by Attorney General Corbett, even after Mike McQueary told a Pennsylvania Grand Jury of the alleged shower rape of a child by Sandusky in December, 2010, and the first-hand revelations about Sandusky showering with children from two police detectives contained in a 130-page, 1998 Penn State Police Dept. report.

Two weeks after Corbett left office as Attorney General, in late January, acting Attorney General Bill Ryan assigned four more state troopers to the Sandusky case and three agents from the state’s attorney general office, with the latter empowering investigators to bring charges against Sandusky.

10 months later, Sandusky was in handcuffs and the Penn State Board of Trustees was contemplating the fate of Joe Paterno.

Of the November 9, 2011, Penn State Board of Trustees meeting that resulted in Paterno’s ouster, Sara Ganim of the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS reported it was Governor Corbett who had the last word before a vote was taken to determine the Penn State legend’s fate:

Moments before Penn State’s board of trustees voted to fire Joe Paterno, Gov. Tom Corbett uttered a final thought.

“Remember that little boy in the shower,” Corbett said via speakerphone, acting in his role on the 32-member board.

It was the last thing the board members heard before being asked if anyone objected to relieving Paterno of a coaching job he’d held for 61 years.

With that, Paterno was fired Nov. 9 in a late-night move that led to student riots in State College and boiling animosity toward the board by alumni.

Appearing on FOX News Sunday four days later, Corbett said:

“In my opinion, when you don’t follow through, when you don’t continue on to make sure actions are taken then I lose confidence in your ability to lead.“

After learning of Paterno’s death on Sunday, Corbett released a statement which read, in part:

“As both man and coach, Joe Paterno confronted adversities, both past and present, with grace and forbearance.”

“Forbearance” as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “a refraining from the enforcement of something (as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.”

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Sunday night George Schroeder and Adam Jude of the EUGENE (OR) REGISTER-GUARD reported online that “University of Oregon football coach Chip Kelly has reached an agreement to become the head coach of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a highly placed UO athletic department source told The Register-Guard.”

(Unlike Online, where both correct, Print’s getting it right is role of dice)

More from the Eugene newspaper’s online report:

“It’s done,” the source said Sunday night. … Asked if Kelly might change his mind about leaving Oregon, the UO source said: “I can’t even fathom. … I think all the boxes have been checked.”

Earlier SbB had reported that Chip Kelly had accepted an offer to become the next coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was in the process of assembling his first-ever NFL coaching staff.

Subsequently, Schroeder and Jude reported on the Register-Guard website that Kelly had backed out on his agreement with the Bucs.

From Jude’s story:

University of Oregon football coach Chip Kelly told a highly placed UO source late Sunday night that he has reversed course and decided to turn down an offer from the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The source told The Register-Guard earlier Sunday night that Kelly had reached an agreement to become Tampa Bay’s head coach. “It’s done,” the source said.

Just before midnight, Kelly changed his mind, telling the source: “I’m staying.”

Why did Kelly back out of his deal with the Bucs after he had accepted a now-documented offer to become Tampa Bay’s head coach? Read more…

FootballScoop.com was first to report the news Sunday night that Chip Kelly has accepted an offer to become the next head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

(Kelly was in Tampa to visit USF Coach Skip Holtz last March)

SbB has since confirmed that Kelly is already assembling a coaching staff - from a source with direct knowledge of the process.

SACRAMENTO BEE reporter Joe Davidson also confirmed on Sunday night that with national signing day less than two weeks away, Kelly most recently canceled a Sacramento-area recruiting trip set for today. Justin Hopkins of DuckTerritory.com reported the trip was to include an in-home visit this evening.

Kelly’s departure from Oregon will cost the Bucs $3.5 million because of an applicable buyout clause in the coach’s college contract. Kelly signed a six-year extension with Oregon on Sept. 28, 2010, a deal which made him the second-highest paid coach in the Pac-10 at the time.

Kelly leaves as the school braces for the impending delivery of an NCAA Notice of Allegations, which may implicate the coach in NCAA violations relating to his relationship - as extensively detailed by Yahoo Sports - with Texas-based high school football scout Willie Lyles.

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A member of the Penn State Board of Trustees told the CENTRE (PA) DAILY TIMES Thursday that during an official briefing last May the Trustees were told by a Penn State lawyer that Jerry Sandusky had previously been the subject of four Grand Jury investigations.

(Same day Trustees claim tenured Spanier ‘fired’ he’s enjoying PSU facilities) 

Penn State Board of Trustees member Mark Dambly told the State College-area newspaper today:

“We were told in May of 2011, by Cynthia Baldwin, this was the fourth grand jury that was convened. The prior three led to no charges.”

Baldwin made the presentation to the Penn State Board of Trustees with then-Penn State President Graham Spanier, who was removed from his position by the board after the Sandusky Grand Jury presentment was released last November.

Tuesday Penn State announced that Baldwin, who has served as the University’s full-time general counsel and chief legal officer since early 2010, was stepping down. The “transition” was attributed to Baldwin having sufficiently staffed the school’s new in-house legal department.

The Daily Times also noted today that, “Penn State University spokesman Bill Mahon said he had heard there were prior grand juries.”

The NEW YORK TIMES reported yesterday of the same May meeting in which Baldwin and Spanier briefed the Trustees about the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky, with the newspaper noting that during the presentation, “No one (Trustee) asked questions.”

In the same New York Times story Wednesday, multiple Penn State Trustees reported that the board fired then-PSU President Graham Spanier after the Sandusky Grand Jury presentment was released last November because he failed to keep them properly informed of the Sandusky investigation.

Current Penn State Trustee Ira Lubert, who also helped lead the school’s recent search for a new football coach in the wake of Joe Paterno’s Trustee-led ouster, told the Times yesterday:

“He (Spanier) should have told us a lot more. He should have let us know much more of the background.”

News of the latest Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky was first reported by the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS in March, two months before Baldwin and Spanier briefed the PSU Board of Trustees on the status of the investigation.

The Patriot-News reported today that by the time the Board was officially informed of the Sandusky Grand Jury investigation by Baldwin and Spanier:

Several front-page stories in The Patriot-News and on PennLive.com had described two alleged sexual assaults of young boys by Sandusky being investigated by the grand jury - at least one of which was said to have taken place in the Penn State locker room while Sandusky was a Nittany Lions coach. All of the stories were also reported in the (State College-area) Centre Daily Times and the first one was fully rewritten and put on the national news wire by the AP.

Adam Smeltz of StateCollege.com also interviewed Penn State Board of Trustees members today, several of whom did not appear in the Wednesday New York Times story that detailed claims made by the leadership of the board regarding the May briefing by Baldwin and Spanier about the the Sandusky Grand Jury investigation.

In their interview with Smeltz today, the PSU Trustees who did not appear in Wednesday’s New York Times story disputed the claim made yesterday by the PSU Board of Trustees leadership to the newspaper that Spanier had deliberately misled them about the status of the Sandusky Grand Jury investigation.

Spanier, who was photographed playing racquetball in a Penn State athletic facility on Wednesday, is now on a Penn State-paid “sabbatical” while maintaining his status as a tenured member of the Penn State faculty.

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After co-opting the WASHINGTON POST with his own personal crisis communications manager and high-priced criminal defense lawyer last weekend, somehow Joe Paterno still ended up in the RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER’s department of corrections on Sunday:

That’ll come as no surprise to Penn Staters, who haven’t been shy in decrying the injustices they claim have been perpetrated on their hero by the media in recent weeks.

Yes, we’re talking about the same Penn Staters incited to riot on worldwide television by their hero after Paterno provided the media a personal statement expressly designed to marginalize the same Penn State leadership he hid behind when called upon to stop a former longtime employee who had raped a child.

Yes, you are. Penn State.

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