The silence is deafening...


Penn State’s Spanier silent at wrong time
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports

[link to rivals.yahoo.com]


Over 16 years as Penn State’s president Graham Spanier earned a reputation for rarely turning down a media opportunity, no subject unworthy of his comment. He was known for never hesitating to personally call wealthy alums when a fundraising goal needed to be met.

You could hardly find an NCAA committee he didn’t sit on, if not chair, a chance to extend his influence beyond just State College. He’s done guest stints with the marching band, participated in intramural tournaments and run with the bulls wearing a Penn State shirt, lots of look-at-me everyman stuff.

Affable, likable and always available Graham Spanier was everywhere.

While his university community expresses outrage, nothing has been heard from Penn State president Graham Spanier.

On Saturday the world collapsed around Penn State with the breaking of a sexual molestation and systematic cover-up case inside its athletic department. It’s left former football assistant Jerry Sandusky facing a slew of assault charges and athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz accused of perjury and failure to report the abuse of a minor.

The campus is overrun with anger, accusation and satellite trucks. Across the country Penn State is the center of the ugliest scandal college athletics has ever seen. The whole thing is a disaster, hour by hour sinking even deeper and deeper.

And Graham Spanier is suddenly nowhere to be found.

Not a spoken word from Mr. President. Not a single interview with the media he once courted. Not a speech. Not a rally. Not a meaningful explanation to his students and alumni.

Penn State is desperate for a leader, desperate for some stability, desperate for an adult to stand up tall like the school always thought it would and Spanier is somewhere under a desk, hiding.