When you’re about to get blown out in the Rose Bowl, and you have a bum leg, the last thing you want to do is answer a random reporters set of pregame questions. Well at least that’s how Joe Paterno felt before yesterday’s game. ABC’s Lisa Salters was trying to get a hold of Joe Pa before the game, and even went so far as to stand outside his booth, drawing the ire of the Penn State Coach. Via Farther Off The Wall….
Paterno didn’t come down on the field during pre-game warmups. Nor did he do “a scheduled interview with us even though he was contractually obligated because of our Rose Bowl game deal,” she reported.
Paterno instead told Penn State officials he was tired of the focus being on him all week, and rather than draw more cameras and reporters to him before the game against USC started, he’d just retreat to his press box seat.
“I can tell you Paterno has been on a slow boil about this (attention) issue all week long,” said Salters, who relayed a story about asking him before the game if he’d talk to the team on the field before heading up to the press box, he snapped back: “Stop talking about me!”
Salters added that Penn State could be “fined up to $10,000” for Paterno’s refusal to let her interview him before the game, “and apparently he doesn’t care.”
Well that’s a salty way to be, isn’t it? In all seriousness though, coaches give the media a ton of information leading up to the game, that they shouldn’t be forced right before the start of a big Bowl Game. Plus, $10K isn’t a lot of money for a University like Penn State. Just pay it with, straight cash Joe Pa.
JoePa snubs Lisa Salters, and neither she (nor ABC) is happy about it (Farther Off The Wall)
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