SMSSS TailGreat - Thanks for Your Support!

STATE COLLEGE, PA - Thanks to everyone who came to the SMSSS tailgate this weekend and made our "big push" for SMSSS and FramingPaterno.com a great success. 

The weekend got off to a great start on Friday with Freehdom Fighter Eileen Morgan's full page adverstisement in the CDT hitting the streets early on Friday morning.  Eileen also made an appearance at the tailgate on Saturday morning and worked her charm to get a camera crew from a Hazleton, PA news station to come by and give us some air time.

SMSSS enlisted the help of PSU Prof Spencer Niles and his student recruits, led by Senior Kevin Berkon, who handed out nearly 1,000 FramingPaterno tee shirts at the football even celebration.  For those of you who don't know about Kevin, he is one of the students who guarded the Paterno Statue and is also a criminal justice major.  It goes without saying, Kevin knows more about law enforcement than a certain former FBI director.


Saturday morning brought the "big push" for SMSSS/Framing Paterno and the petition drive was in full swing with Freehdom Fighter Bill Porter stopping by to check our progress.  By the end of the day, the tally was 188 for repealing the NCAA Santions (opposing the BOT) and 0 for Moving On (supporting the BOT).   You can see below that some students really do want to go to a bowl game and have the PSU experience that most of us had.

Freehdom Fighter Liz Grove also came by with armloads full of printed copies of Jessi Lillo's Straight From the Heart Post, Eileen Morgan's Freeh Report Summary, and numerous other op-eds that supported our causes.  Liz's friends, including Brian Hand, who was responsible for the film "The Joe We Know" also came by to lend their support.

Unfortunately, some things did not go off as planned.  Kevin Slaten was not able to make it by the tailgate, nor did Walter Uhler.   Many Kevin fans dropped by and hung around all day waiting to see him, including a set of twins, Cheryl Fleagle and Sandy Lane, who became fast friends with superwoman Debbie Rider, who did our banner and t-shirts (and also happens to be my better half).  Also, note the gentleman in the "We Are Pissed Off" shirt -- the second most popular shirt of the day, behind "F__k Emmert." 

John Ziegler made two brief appearances during the day, but was busy doing his thing, lining up interviews for his documentary.   John related to me later that Jeff Nelson, of PSU media relations, was hesitant to provide him with his press credentials, as views counter to the "move on" agenda are not tolerated well by the PSU Politburo, er, BOT.   There were many requests to see the top Freehdom Fighter, Barry Bozeman (aka Aurabass), who we promised would be at a tailgate later this season.  It is also notable that our strategic location in the South Lot gives us access to a lot of people, including a certain former player who is now a BOT member - Adam Taliaferro.  I gave Adam some encouragement about fighting, as did John Ziegler.

The administrations influence is very strong, as they control the students ability to tent at Nittanyville and they also employed the stadium ushers and staff to quell any chants of "Joe Pa-ter-no" by the students.  The CDT and the area Chamber of Commerce have also backed the "moving on" agenda according to this op-ed in the Sunday paper.  My initial response to the "moving on" poster campaign is when you see the sign, "JUST WALK ON BY."   That is, boycott those businesses.

Sunday was a big filming day for John, as he was at the Hilton meeting a number of people including former special teams standout long-snapper from 2008, Andrew Pitz and former PSU great, and NFL Hall of Famer, Franco Harris.   I had the opportunity to talk with both of these men and came away extremely impressed at their dedication to the truth.  Debbie and I spent two hours with Franco and his wife, Dana, talking about all things related to the scandal and how we need to unify the effort and make it known to the current BOT just how strong WE ARE.  

Finally, I spent an hour in the hot seat with John Ziegler giving him the facts about 1998, 2001, the Second Mile, and "Judge" Freeh.   I think I left everyone in the film room wondering how a "Judge" could know so little about justice and the law.

All in all, an absolutely wonderful weekend, with the great experience of meeting our tremendously gracious and generous supporters - who came from near and far (including California) and offered nothing but kind words and encouragement to our cause.

With the support that we have, I am extremely confident TRUTH WILL PREVAIL.

John Ziegler JoePa Franco Harris

409 Wins T Shirt

JoePa Hanging Out in Franco's suite

JVP Field at Beaver Stadium

More JoePa Banners at the Tailgates

The No Corbett Zone

Flying Banner

OUST ERICKSON - TRUSTEES

PS4RS TAILGATE

PEACHY PATERNO

WHERE THE STATUE STOOD

WE STAND WHERE JOE STOOD