Penn State’s legal problems: Wow

I watched the Outside the Lines report on Penn State’s arrest problems, and was blown away by how much trouble the football program has been in.

And I’ve been in the middle of a season in which a football program has had some jailhouse blues.

Last year, beginning in the summer months prior to the season, the Texas football team had more encounters with the law than I can count on one hand, including a couple of felonies. Like Penn State’s issues, there was an apartment assault involved. There was also one crazy dude who tried twice in one night to break into some cars.

I must admit that I drank the anti-burnt orange kool-aid during the entire season when it came to character issues with the team, which I was covering then. I was on high alert for arrests and accusations and kept my eye on the local blotters. I got a little too deep into it toward the very end, and I learned a lot of lessons from that season when it comes to what people find appropriate when covering athletes and crime.

But I cannot imagine being a reporter in State College.

Can Christian Bale make the Terminator movies good again?

I think it’s safe to say that Christian Bale has reinvented the Batman character for the better. I will always have a place in my heart for Michael Keaton’s portrayal of the Dark Knight, and I actually liked Val Kilmer when he played the character.

But I think my pal Ryan said it pretty well in his post about The Dark Knight, the movie which prompted this post.

Like you all did, I saw the trailer for the new Terminator movie, Salvation. My first reaction to learning there would be a new movie in the series was an audible groan.

When I was a kid, I absolutely loved Terminator and Terminator 2. I had my family buy me sunglasses so I could look just like the Governator Terminator. I tried my best to say lines like, “I’ll be back” in that accent. But when I saw the third movie, Rise of the Machines, I was so disappointed.

Maybe it’s because I’d grown up and my taste in movies had changed. I don’t know, but I was thoroughly unimpressed.

But after I saw that Christian Bale would be playing John Connor in the newest installment (coming out next summer), I got excited again. After what he did with Bruce Wayne, I now have hope that he can salvage the brand with Salvation (see what I did there).

I understand that Christopher Nolan is probably mostly responsible for making the last two Batman movies supremely better than any that came before. And I’m a little worried that Salvation may also disappoint me since McG is directing the movie. He’s done TV show classics like “The OC” and the search for the next Pussycat Doll (obvious sarcasm).

But I love Christian Bale as an actor, and I have faith that he can take the John Connor character and make a kick ass film.

Related: Bale is also going to be in the movie Killing Pablo. Stay tuned for a post about that.

Vince Young talks to The Big Lead

For those of you who may not know, I am a big Vince Young fan. I went to Texas during the 2005 season, watched him kick ass in both Rose Bowls and have spoken to him a couple of times.

In fact, one of those times was a 10-minute, one-on-one interview before Texas lost last year’s Kansas State game. I will forever consider that interview the most important one of my college writing career (that distinction used to belong to Roger Clemens, but F him). It resulted in this story, which had gotten me a lot of positive feedback over the past year from readers and fellow writers.

Today I got a great surprise when I saw that my favorite sports blog, The Big Lead, scored an interview with VY. TBL had to do the mandatory questions about his new shoe, which is why Vince was talking to anybody in the first place.

For some reason, a lot of the commenters were pissed about hearing about the shoe. Unfortunately, in the sports world we live in, the athletes and their handlers determine when and why they talk to the media. For the interview which resulted in that story I linked to a moment ago, I had to write this story about TicketReserve, the company Vince was plugging at the time.

It’s all playing the game, and until the rules change, there’s no reason to get mad at TBL for following them. Highlights of the interview after the jump.

Austin should be on the ballot for Titletown USA

I hate this whole Titletown USA thing on ESPN. Hate it. I hated the Who’s Now contest. It’s cheesy filler for the summer months when it’s too early to cover football at full steam and baseball is the only major sport operating.

That being said, I can’t help but notice how Austin has been grossly left off the final ballot.

It’s pretty obvious that college towns are the main focus of the “contest,” given both the opening animations (marching band) and by the number of cities which are big-time college towns (eight of 20). And given the name of the contest, it seems logical to assume that colleges with gaudy amounts of titles would have to be on the list.

Austin, which is of course home to the Texas Longhorns, fits this criteria to a T.

It seems that ESPN wasn’t totally lost on this concept. They put Palo Alto, Calif., (home to the Stanford Cardinal) on the list of 20 finalists, which was absolutely the correct move. And Palo Alto’s nomination is exactly why Austin needs to be right beside it.

Finally moved into my new apartment

Yes, I am coming to you from my new apartment in Fort Worth. I live on the third floor, so moving everything in sucked. Badly.

But, everything is in here now, so I am finally able to relax a little. And my new 42″ HDTV is bad ass. I’m watching the Angels hit back-to-back jacks off of Tim Wakefield.

Anyway, I have internet, obviously, so I can get back to doing this self-publishing thing we call blogging.