Doesn’t anyone in the world of “journalism” use the word “alleged” anymore?

While ESPN is picking up articles from the AP which do not include statements from Rutherford’s attorney, our local newspapers did.

Clearly there are two sides to every story. In this instance, the national media is only bothering to report what the alleged victim is claiming.

RR admits that he smashed out the window of a car that contained three women, two of which he went to HS with. The “victim”, according to RR, threw a glass at RR after he exchanged phone numbers with her, then paid a little too much attention to his former classmate. It was in response to the glass being hurled at RR that he used his forearm to break the car window.
His attorney insists he has a wound on his forearm that is consistent with this version, not the version which alleges he used his foot to kick out the window. According to RR’s lawyer, Jim Wymard, the indecent assault allegation is not in the original police report.

If witnesses can verify RR’s side of the story, perhaps the veracity of this victim will not hold up in court.

As someone who has personally represented unnamed Pitt athletes in court, I can tell you that “victims” often have dollar signs in their eyes when talking settlement, even if the athlete in question has yet to sign a pro contract. Perhaps this alleged victim demanded more money that RR’s family was able to produce? Hell, the kid did grow up in Northview Heights, which is a low income public housing community on Pittsburgh’s North Side. I wonder if that will ever be reported in the papers.

So, anyway, our QB is in the doghouse, and yet I still can’t help but feel o.k. about my beloved Panthers. Why? Becuase they don’t have to run around in those god-awful “Mellow Yellow Ligtning/Hunter Safety Gear” uniforms. Is Oregon punishing their players?

(When did I get this catty? I think I gotta go look at some Salma Hayek pictures to get some of my machismo back.)

Here’s a debate topic: Charcol or propane, which serves football fans’ needs better? Discuss…

P.S. Hey Chas, I finally posted, yeah?

P.P.S. Even more impressive, I’m doing this sober!

OK, Chas and Pat (see his comment under here), should I start to get worried now?

PITTSBURGH — Pitt quarterback Rod Rutherford was charged Friday with kicking out a car window and assaulting a woman outside a nightclub.

Rutherford forced his way into the car early Monday after she refused his advances, police said. Rutherford got out of the car and grabbed the 19-year-old woman through a partially opened window, causing her to strike her head and face, police said Friday. As the woman drove away, Rutherford kicked out a window, police said. Two passengers in the car were not injured.

Rutherford was charged with indecent assault, simple assault and criminal mischief. He has disputed the woman’s account, saying she threw a glass at him in the parking lot.

So, Pat, now that we’ve moved past criminal mischief — the likely limit of this case that you suggested — to indecent assault and simple assault, should I start to worry about Rod Rutherford’s career at Pitt?

Admittedly, criminal charges of assaulting women are nowhere near as serious in the twisted world of college football as NCAA rules violations are. So I would be surprised if Rod Rutherford’s problem goes anywhere near as far as Maurice Clarett’s case has. But you never know. Either way, I wouldn’t get too smug about Ohio State’s troubles, Chas.

All I know is that this is not what Pitt needed on the eve of its most important season in 20 years.

For years now, the regular presence of The Penn State Football Story on Fox Sports Pittsburgh’s television lineup has bothered me. Penn State is certainly entitled to produce its own propagan… er… television show about its own football team. And Fox Sports Pittsburgh is certainly entitled to air said show on a regular basis, especially if a lot of Penn State fans watch it.

What bothers me, of course, is that Pitt has no equivalent to The Penn State Football Story — either on Fox Sports Pittsburgh or on any other network that I know of. This is probably more Pitt’s fault than anybody else’s. And I’m not even sure if Pitt has a production department capable of producing such a show.

But what I do know is that now West Virginia University has placed both shows and games on Fox Sports Pittsburgh under the guise of MSN (the Mountaineers Sports Network… did Bill Gates forget to trademark that or something?). I watched a genuinely good show on the West Virginia/Wisconsin game Tuesday afternoon.

But the last damn straw was what came on next. A well produced show dedicated to the intercollegiate affairs of Lehigh University. That’s right, Pitt fans. We’re getting beat for air time on our own hometown network by a tiny school in… heck, where the hell is Lehigh? Bethlehem? Allentown? Easton? I honestly don’t know and definitely don’t care. Worse yet, Fox Sports Pittsburgh will show all eleven of Lehigh’s football games this fall.

Will somebody in Pitt’s P.R. department do something on camera for Fox Sports Pittsburgh, please? Heck, hide a camera in the men’s room for all I care. Just make sure that there’s a Pitt logo somewhere in the background.

And I said to take Kent State and the points on Tuesday.

Hail to As Many Jokes about May 4, 1970, as We Pitt Fans Can Cook Up This Saturday

When Jim Brown first appointed himself as the spokesperson for Maurice Clarett and his family, I remember wondering why so many football fans in Ohio grimaced and groaned. Now I’m beginning to understand why.

“I think Mr. Geiger wants to start a revolution. He’s acting like a slave-master,” Brown said Thursday night. “If Andy Geiger wants to act like God, than this ball game is over.”

I’m pretty sure that all Slave-Master Geiger (OSU’s Athletic Director) wants is for your “client” to stop changing his story so that Ohio State can finally propose a fair punishment for him to the NCAA. Slave-Master Geiger didn’t make Maurice accept that 2001 Monte Carlo packed full of goodies. Slave-Master Geiger didn’t make him lie to the police when said goodies were stolen. Slave-Master Geiger didn’t make him lie to the NCAA when they understandably asked why Maurice had so many goodies to steal. And Slave-Master Geiger hasn’t made Maurice change his story several times since.

Geiger, one of the most respected ADs in college sports, is merely trying to run the largest college athletic department in the United States in accordance with the NCAA’s very strict regulations. He is certainly in a position of authority over Maurice Clarett, and that position certainly requires Geiger to ask some questions and propose some penalties. But that doesn’t mean that Geiger either thinks or is acting like he is God or an antebellum slave master. For one thing, he’s entirely too much of a nerd to pull that off.

It’s interesting that Jim Brown, of all people, would go so quickly to the race card. Brown certainly did see enough real racism in the 1960s and in his admirable gang-related work since. You’d think that he’d be fairly careful about playing the race card now, but whatever. I wonder if Brown thinks that any of this is Maurice Clarett’s fault.

By the way, Brown’s assertion — made yesterday — that Ohio State is making Maurice Clarett a scapegoat to protect others is particularly laughable. Maurice is too intelligent, well-spoken, self-assertive, and high-profile to be a decent scapegoat candidate. Besides, what else does Ohio State have to hide? No other Buckeyes were caught with free cars, and the academic fraud charge was an apparent dead end.

So why is anybody even listening to this paranoid, washed-up crackpot? Because the public is genuinely interested in this case, Jim Brown is talking, and Andy Geiger and Ohio State aren’t saying crap. That much is Geiger’s fault. Say something already. What did the NCAA accuse Clarett of? Does Ohio State agree with all of those accusations? I mean, defend yourself and your university, dammit. You were just called a slave-master, fer chrissakes.

And, of course, the scariest part of all of this is that now Clarett seems to want to challenge the NFL’s early entry rule. This threatens the entire college football landscape as we know it. Clarett’s past actions embarrass me as an Ohio State alumnus. Clarett’s proposed actions terrify me as a Ohio State fan, a Pitt fan, and a college football fan in general.

Hail to Slave-Master Harris’s Suspending Rutherford