STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -Penn State defensive tackles Chris Baker and Phil Taylor, who were involved in off-field fights last year, have been kicked off the team by coach Joe Paterno. Team spokesman Jeff Nelson said Wednesday no information was available on why they were dismissed. Baker and Taylor were disciplined by the school and Paterno for the fights last year. Baker was sentenced to two years' probation in Centre County court in May for his role in two separate fights. He was allowed to work out with the team. Taylor was sentenced to one year of probation for his role in a campus fight. He was not scheduled to rejoin the Nittany Lions until Aug. 16.
I'm not sure if anyone else saw it and I can't remember the precise numbers but Penn State has as much, if not more than, trouble off the field as virtually anyone. If I remember correctly there have been over 200 arrests and 46 convictions there recently. I can't remember the exact time frame. When the journalist asked Joepa about it, he didn't have a whole lot to say. I think there may be a really big grey area with JoePa. It looks like he is starting to take a stronger stance though so good for him. Really, it's still about winning football games though and JoePa has been really good at that over the course of his career.
There was a rather scathing "Outside the Lines" on the Penn State football teams off the field problems. JoePa didn't look good in his interviews for the show, he sort acted like he didn't know anything about what the reporter was talking about, but that even if he did it was all being blown out of proportion. <object width="440" height="361"><param name="movie" value="http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3506616"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3506616" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="440" height="361" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object>