No matter how true the grand jury report turns out, the details are absolutely horrible. If true, holy cow. Horrible. And that’s putting it lightly.

The real victims are the kids. Remember that.

Joe Pa’s legacy will be safe. Regardless of whether you’re pro-Paterno or anti-Paterno in this, his clean record will have a smear to end it, but time will heal. He will mainly be remembered for his many exploits on and off the field.

But he had to go. If he stayed, Penn State wouldn’t be an institution. It’d be a circus.

The victim here isn’t Joe Pa. It’s the kids. The fight for justice really should be for them if the allegations prove to be true.

5 % voter turnout for the Sept. primary– really, seriously?!?

For all the complaining I hear on the street about our politicians and the economy, that is an unbelievable number.

For all the ease in registering to vote, relaxed rules for absentee and early voting, etc., we have no one to blame but ourselves for not exercising one of our most basic freedoms, duties, and responsibilities.

Yes, I realize there is a battle royale between Democrats and Republicans over everything from collective bargaining to health care to a new congressional map– but c’mon, you want to see it change? Do something about it. Vote.

Don’t trust the board of elections because of a long line of shenanigans, including a current investigation into an email breach? Again, it’s an excuse.

The worst one I hear is “my vote won’t matter anyway.” Wanna bet? If everybody else stays home and YOU vote, then it’s even more likely to make a difference.  Low voter turnout simply means each and every one of us who DOES go to the polls CAN have an impact on the outcome.

Go. Vote. Now.

“It’s 5 o’clock in the morning… the conversation got boring…” – T-Pain

It’s actually literally 5 o’clock in the morning right now. Just got back from preppin for Hardcore Football. Back at it in 6 hrs at Scott Park at Toledo’s women’s soccer MAC semifinals against Buffalo.

#thisisthelife

Imagine being in a place where you have no family remotely close to you.

Imagine working most holidays.

This is my world – a world where I’m lucky to see my family in Houston twice a year, eat foods that I loved as a kid, hang with friends from my days in Texas.

For the longest time, I thought about my long-term future as far as starting a family (seeing friends get married in bunches does that to ya) and having my own kids to raise. I mean, I wasn’t looking for this to happen immediately, but I had kind of a plan of when I wanted to do what.

But then a strange thing happened.

I went out west recently and visited my cousins and their kids.

I love this kid

I love this kid too!

I mean… wow.

They’re kinda cute.

And playful. And they love to laugh.

And whatever cost it took for me to get out there for ONE DAY, it was worth it. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. I love my cousins.

Anyway, back to the original point at hand, I got to thinking – I’m SO SO grateful that I have my cousins and their kids in my life. I pretty much live vicariously through them.

So while I’d love to have kids someday, for the moment, my perspective’s been shifted to being grateful for what I DO have rather than what I DON’T have yet.

Maybe I’m screwy for not thinking about my own priorities in family, but for now, I’m hoping that my focus on other goals will pay off. I have aspirations to influence as many as possible to live out their dreams, no matter how difficult the road may seem. I need to focus on that and put the family stuff on the backburner, for now, because you know what?

I HAVE a family.

And one that I’m darned proud of at that.

LOVE my cousin’s kids!!!!!

Currently the Detroit Tigers/Texas Rangers game is on in the Fox Toledo Newsroom.

Who woulda thunk it?

Detroit fans have a lot to get excited about these days– the Tigers taking on the New York Yankees in the American League baseball playoffs, the Detroit Lions are 4-0 for the first time since 1980, and the Michigan Wolverines now are ranked #12 for the country– the highest in recent memory. If that isn’t enough, the Detroit Red Wings have everyone dreaming of another Stanley Cup as they play their way through a preseason hockey schedule.

Writing this blog is a bit painful for me, because I’ve rooted for Cleveland professional sports teams and graduated from Ohio State.

But at the same time, I’ll be the first to admit Detroit sports fans are overdue. Way overdue.

But that much sports success has its way of making any community feel better about itself– and after all the economic turmoil in the Motor City, and by extension, Toledo, too, because it is known as little Detroit– we can all use something or someone to root for and put a smile on our collective faces.

Just think back to Crystal Bowersox and her American Idol success  a couple years ago. The community rallied around a homegrown talent and rooted for her to win for months. A parade was held in her honor– and she gave a concert on the downtown green. That was a feel-good story unlike any other.

Now I know it’s early in the season and all, but the above-mentioned are four more possible feel-good stories that could last well into a cold winter. What would be wrong with that? Just sayin’.

First off, just to get this out of the way, yes I’m a Syracuse grad. However, I am also a big fan of the Toledo program and of Tim Beckman as a human being and coach.

I’m looking at this issue as an objective outsider.

Toledo got hosed, but the Syracuse win should NOT be vacated, as Toledo is requesting.

The whole issue obviously stems from an extra point that was ruled good when it was missed. When officials checked the replays, they inexplicably kept the play as is. There’s no disputing how bad the call was. The Big East acknowledged as much afterwards. Of course, by then it was too late. A Ryan Casano field goal in the final seconds of regulation would’ve won it, but instead, it tied the game, sending the game to overtime, where the Rockets lost 33-30.

As bad as the call was, vacating the result might be worse.

Coaches will tell you the game shouldn’t come down to one missed call. There are countless times in the game where mistakes can be corrected. Beckman even said after the game that if his team didn’t give up the touchdown, that whole extra point situation wouldn’t have happened.

And with the game tied in overtime, it’s not like it’s the NFL. Toledo had their chance to score and play defense. The official did not intercept Austin Dantin’s pass in overtime. Syracuse did. That obviously made it easy for the Orange to win it with a field goal that wasn’t close to being disputed.

That said, I understand the outrage. Toledo SHOULD have won the game, but one horribly blown call (at ANY point of ANY game) shouldn’t decide whether the end result should be changed.

THAT would set a horrendous precedent.

I don’t expect the Big East to vacate the win nor do I think they should.

Beckman’s right in calling this whole thing an injustice, but it would be a graver injustice to reverse what Syracuse fairly did to beat Toledo after the erroneous call was made.

As a member of the media, I’m able to have regular access to coaches of various programs, and from 2005-2008, that meant getting to know Gregg Brandon over at Bowling Green.

Brandon always struck me as somebody who was supremely confident., and for good reason – check his offenses during his time at BGSU. They were very dynamic. Josh Harris. Omar Jacobs. P.J. Pope. Charles Sharon. Steve Sanders. Those were some good teams.

He was also very goofy during press conferences. Once, he brought a mask and popped it on suddenly since it was Halloween week. Very goofy.

Gregg Brandon was always nice to me. He never wronged me.

That said, if you speak to the players from Brandon’s final years, and we’re not talking about the benchwarmers, they are more than willing to express their thoughts (one was interviewed the day after Brandon was let go and wasn’t afraid to have his name put out there) that they didn’t quite feel comfortable going to their head coach to talk about personal issues not related to football.

Now why is that important, you may ask? Well, most of these players are young kids leaving home for the first time. The team is a sort of family to them. The coach, often times, is seen as a father-type figure. It is in this area where Brandon seems to have failed his top leaders from his final teams. It’s simply not normal where so many of the team’s top players are unanimous in this.

These players all gush that Dave Clawson is different, that they felt they could go to Coach Clawson the next season with personal problems and Clawson would understand.

And THAT’S what makes this homecoming interesting for Bowling Green and Gregg Brandon when he comes back as Wyoming’s offensive coordinator.

It’s not exactly a lovefest between the two. Keep in mind Brandon won his final game at Toledo. That year, he won AT Pitt. Yet he couldn’t beat Eastern Michigan and Buffalo at home. Here’s guessing that the BGSU boosters didn’t quite enjoy seeing that when they watched those home games. Here’s guessing Athletic Director Greg Christopher didn’t enjoy seeing his boosters not enjoying the way things were going.

Therefore, the boot.

And this Saturday, Brandon’s back. Love him or hate him, this game should be interesting.

So as I’m surfing online last night, I came across this video made by Jin. It’s a summary of his last 10 years made into a 4-minute rap.

\"Shoot for the Moon\" by Jin

Google him for a second.

Jin went on to BET’s “Freestyle Fridays” and set a record for most consecutive wins. He parlayed that into a deal with Ruff Ryders. His journey has taken him to Hong Kong, where he continues to make records to this day.

His name hasn’t quite made it into the mainstream, but he is doing what many of us only dream of doing – he’s following his dreams and his talents.

Trust me. Google him. Jin vs. Sterling. That was my first impression of him when I watched this in my college days. I can’t really post that video here because some might not be able to take the language sometimes used in freestyle battles.

Most Asian Americans become doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen, or something to do with computers. That’s just been the stereotype.

Jin’s not that. He smashes that.

And for that, he is FOREVER an inspiration to someone who is trying to do a similar deal for broadcast television.

It may have been a 16-hour day, but I had a blast last week going to Chicago Bears camp at Halas Hall.

Just to be around that big-time atmosphere in a city like Chicago was pretty amazing.

So, without further adieu, here are my thoughts from Halas Hall:

1) The Bears media loves Central Catholic grad and former Buckeye MVP Dane Sanzenbacher. The two words that were most commonly said about Sanzenbacher were, “Good kid.”

2) Several Bears media members told me they’d be shocked if the team cut Sanzenbacher. They said the Great Dane had a better chance of making the team than Chester Taylor, which was proven pretty much correct today.

3) Chester Taylor may be a nice guy, but he doesn’t like to talk to the media. He also wasn’t ashamed to admit he hasn’t really followed Toledo football since Tom Amstutz “resigned.”

4) Chicago traffic forced me to channel my inner Houston to work the expressway.

5) Bears headquarters is located about 45 minutes north of Chicago.

6) It takes about an 1 1/2 hours to drive from Bears headquarters to Chicago during rush hour.

7) There’s a lot of Chicago culture in the downtown area. Had myself some Italian beef. Could’ve had some Chicago-style pizza at the same joint.

8 ) It costs about $20 each way from Toledo to Chicago and back in tolls.

9) Gas costs about 80 cents more a gallon in Chicago.

10) I love covering the pro game.