The United States of Apology

This item from the wires caught my eye, and also got a lot of play from Yahoo, who posted it to the front page today. (Yes, it's officially a slow day. But anyhoo.)

Texas A&M officials are angry over a yell leader's reference to Penn State coach Joe Paterno needing a "casket."

According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas A&M interim president Eddie Davis and athletic director Bill Byrne apologized to Penn State for the comments.

According to the newspaper, the yell leader took the stage during a pep rally, grabbed a microphone and said, "Joe Paterno's on his death bed. And someone needs to find him a casket."

Now, three quick points.

1) The twerp in question isn't a University spokesman.

2) He was booed by the crowd. Good on ya, A&M Fans.

3) Paterno didn't seem to give a damn. Here's his reaction:

"I think everybody's got to take things with a grain of salt," Paterno said yesterday. "It's some young guy up there, and he's trying to be funny - maybe he's accurate, I don't know."

So no harm, no foul. The twerp was sent home. End of show... oh, wait. Joe Pa's not done.

"I don't particularly care about it," he said. "My mom used to say to me when they called me a wop walking down the street, 'Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you.' "

Quick, someone apologize to the Italian Americans! Paterno used the word "wop"!