Andrew Quarless and Willie Harriott, Penn State players cited last week for underage drinking, are back with the team, according to unnamed sources quoted by Blue-White Illustrated.
The Penn State sports-info office neither confirmed nor denied.
Elsewhere on the police blotter:
- A Centre County judge dismissed four charges against Penn State safety Anthony Scirrotto, including the two big ones - felonies of burglary and criminal solicitation - stemming from the now infamous on-campus fighting incident of last spring.
- While Scirrotto is almost certainly not going to jail, Michael Vick certainly is. He could face up to five years in prison (and a $250,000 fine) for the dogfighting mess. Federal sentencing guidelines would likely put the jail time in the 12-18-month ballpark, although the judge, a U.S. District Coury judge, Henry Hudson, is not bound by the guidelines or the plea-bargaining deal copped by Vick after his “friends,” Quannis Phillips and Purnell Peace, made deals with prosecutors and agreed to testify against him.
- There’s a report out of New York that Tim Donaghy, the NBA ref facing charges for gambling, is about to name 20 other NBA refs Donaghy claims are involved in gambling. The report comes from Mike Missanelli, the former WIP talk show host, a fact I’ll report without comment.
If you need an antidote to all this, and to the tendency, in and out of the media, to draw grand conclusions from events that are as rare as they are hideous, consider this superb essay.
Based on many of their draft and personnel decisions, the Eagles don’t value linebacker play much more than, say, the Phillies do. That’s the context in which to view the news that today, the Birds said goodbye to Jeremiah Trotter.
Trotter, who made four Pro Bowls, is arguably one of the best handful of LBs in club history. The truth is he wasn’t much of a player the latter part of last year, though. With the damage his knees have supposedly suffered, maybe Trotter, 30, should read this as a sign to get out, in order to be ambulatory in middle age.
Frees up the middle LB spot for Omar Gaither, one guesses. Or will Takeo Spikes move inside and Gaither back to the weakside, where he started much of last season? As this story points out, this is not a salary-cap move. The Birds, as usual, are way under the ceiling.
Andy Reid and Co. do cut ties and move on, don’t they?
I’m already dreading tommorow’s Ruppie tirade.
In other news: After fretting that he didn’t know who his captains would be or even how they’d be chosen, JoePa has quietly gone with the default choices, Dan Connor, Anthony Morelli and Terrell Golden.
That Golden is a default choice is itself interesting. He’s a senior WR who doesn’t start, but has gone from a self-described semi-head case as a freshman to a guy everybody looks up to. Pretty impressive kid.
