Cheap Seats

That’s what you get for integrity

Penn State coach Joe Paterno defended his decision to pull his starters in the team’s recent 34-17 football victory over Pittsburgh and the two touchdowns the reserves gave up late in the contest.

“What I owe to my team is to make sure everybody plays and works hard and I have an opportunity to play them,” Paterno said. “I think that for me to take some kids who look forward to playing on a Saturday and not play them when I think the game is in control because I want to make sure that we win by X number of points so we can preserve a place (in the polls) would be irresponsible.”

Penn State remained atop The Associated Press poll, but its lead over No. 2 Florida dropped to 30 points from 73 points. The Nittany Lions also lost one first-place vote.

Penn State led 34-3 with 3:50 remaining. Pittsburgh then scored two touchdowns in less than 3 minutes to make the score more respectable.

Florida, the defending national champion, beat Central Michigan 82-6 that weekend.

“I think (playing non-starters is) more of my responsibility than to try to satisfy the appetite of a lot of people. … I don’t have much respect for their judgment in the sense that because you win by 25 points that makes you better than if you win by 15 points. That’s so unreasonable to me that I just don’t want to get down to that level.”

Well, coach, if you did, you’d get a chance to say hello to Florida coach Steve Spurrier.

Genius in marketing

Rocket Ismail landed with a thud last week while doing interviews to promote a regional McDonald’s hamburger named after him.

Talking about his burger, the Carolina Panthers wide receiver said: “It’s the primest, choicest cut of beef. It’s cooked to make sure nothing else is living in there.”

Don’t look for McDonald’s to take the Rocket nationally.

Time for an NCAA probe into Volunteerism?

Some people waiting in line to buy football tickets for the University of Tennessee’s game against Florida got a special gift from Volunteers quarterback Peyton Manning: free pizza.

Manning had around 100 pizzas delivered to hundreds of people who had started camping out to buy approximately 700 tickets for the Volunteers’ biggest regular-season game this year.

Manning, who paid for the pizzas with a check, likely would have been the first pick in the National Football League draft. Instead, he passed up millions of dollars to remain at Tennessee.

Hmmm, so, how does a college athlete afford to buy 100 pizzas?

Take that!

As a rookie with the Washington Senators in 1955, Pedro Ramos struck out Ted Williams in his first start against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Exuberant, Ramos kept the ball and after the game asked Williams to autograph it. Williams complied. A month or so later, the Senators returned to Boston and Ramos again faced Williams. This time Williams belted a Ramos pitch into the bleachers in right-center field. As he rounded second he shouted to Ramos: “If you can find that S.O.B., I’ll sign it too.”

The last word …

“You don’t go to weddings (on game days). You don’t go to funerals. You don’t even dare die during the football season.”

- Carol Collingswsorth, a 49-year-old flight attendant, who attends every Nebraska Cornhuskers football game