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Johnson loyalty not returned by PSU

Football has become more of a business than it is a game.

Coaching is an important part in training a football team to play well together and to do what they are trained to do, but why does it have to be more about money than the game?

You read how much it will cost to see a Penn State game, how much the coach will get paid and how the stands will be packed for every game from now on.

Is any one person worth what these coaches are being paid? What about all the extras they get for sponsoring products?

The Mirror mentioned the new prices for seating will be $40 to $200 per seat. This would turn me against football or any other sport with prices like that. If a man, wife and three children went, it would cost $1,000 for good seats, and this does not count any snacks you may buy during the three-hour game.

By not going to these games, you could save enough money to go on a two-week vacation rather quickly.

Larry Johnson has left for another job. It has been said that he is angry because he didn’t get the coaching job. It is being said that he is sticking it to Penn State. Well, they stuck it to him first by not keeping him as coach just like they stuck it to coach Joe Paterno, who made Penn State what it is today.

Good luck to the new coach, and I hope his stadium is full like he says it will be for every game. Good luck also to Larry Johnson, and if he sticks it to Penn State, good for him.

Regardless of what has been said, he was loyal.

Lenny Metz

Hollidaysburg

Questionable choice

Cory Giger’s article on the sports page of the Jan. 10 Mirror went on and on about what a good choice James Franklin would be as the next Penn State football coach.

In the same day’s edition of USA Today is an article by Christine Brennan telling the story of four of Franklin’s players being charged with raping an unconscious girl in a dormitory and a fifth player pleading guilty to helping to cover it up. All five players were dismissed from the team. Penn State will attach itself to all of that, regardless of what part Franklin may have played.

Giger either missed this bit of information or chose to ignore it.

Why in God’s name would Penn State even consider hiring this man when the university is still recovering from the Jerry Sandusky fiasco?

If they decide to hire Franklin, all the progress the school has made in trying to work through the Sandusky nightmare will be erased. The reputation of the school and players will suffer once more.

Those responsible for the cover-up of Sandusky’s behavior as well as the possible hiring of Franklin when he carries the echo of a similar scandal should be thrown out on their collective behinds.

Elizabeth K. Shade

Hollidaysburg

(Editor’s note:?Giger reported on the Vanderbilt case as the PSU search process unfolded.)

O’Brien earns respect

I enjoyed Neil Rudel’s column about Bill O’Brien leaving PSU.

After reading the column, I am wondering about O’Brien wanting to be “just a football coach.”

O’Brien had no way to know how bad the Sandusky crimes were, and no way to know how that would affect his role at PSU.

O’Brien deserves respect for handling things professionally and with sensitivity.

But asking to be just a football coach at PSU is like asking to be just a basketball coach at Indiana. Do you think that Nick Saban is permitted to be just a football coach at Alabama?

These sports programs are legendary, and any head coach has to realize that the job will include more than just coaching football. I think O’Brien is too smart to expect anything else.

With that said, I appreciate what O’Brien did for PSU and wish him good luck in Houston. I hope James Franklin will have the opportunity to build on the work started by O’Brien.

Tod Jacobs

Reading, Mass.

Yesteryear item brings joy

I would like to thank the person who selected the yesteryear sports data for the Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 edition of the sports section.

My mother, Mary Lou Leighty, was one of the featured people in the “50 years ago” section.

A friend of mine spotted the small writeup, recognized my mother’s name and told me about it. I then relayed the information to my mother, who didn’t spot it.

She passed away in November from pancreatic cancer, but this small article was one of the last times she reminisced and laughed about how incredible it was to see her name and accomplishment in the paper, especially when it wasn’t about her bowling, but her rifle skills.

I hope you can understand that some of the smallest choices we make can bring such joy to others without us ever knowing it.

Ellen Breitenbach

Williamsburg

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