At this point, I'm kind of like Centre County DA Mike Madeira -- when I hear about anyone in State College getting arrested or charged with something my first reaction is: "Please don't let football players be involved." But all too often over the last few years, football players have been involved. And while I still think the ESPN Outside the Lines piece was a "witch-hunt," to use JoePa's words, is it really a coincidence that Phil Taylor and Chris Baker were thrown off the team only three days after Outside the Lines ran? Even if it is, bad news. Look, at this point, if I'm a football player I'm locking myself in my room and only coming out for practice, games and class. HAHA! Class. Oh, that's funny.

If you haven't heard by now then you seriously need to get an RSS feed or pick up a newspaper or something, but defensive tackles Baker and Taylor were thrown off the team yesterday according to Penn State sports information director Jeff Nelson. This news coincides with a report that police are investigating an "incident" at a pool party at The Pointe during Arts Fest. See, I told you nothing good comes from Arts Fest, this is just another example.

Although the dots have yet to be connected on this one, it seems that this pool party incident has something to do with the citation Baker received July 15 when police say his pit bull (named Abby, riiiiight) attacked two people leaving them with bite marks on their necks, backs and chests. The rumor is that this pool party was for Chris Bell, who was thrown off the team earlier this year after pulling a knife on some teammates. It would seem this is the incident that set this whole thing off, but the only thing that strikes me as odd is July 15 was a Tuesday and Arts Fest essentially ended the previous Sunday, July 13. And if Baker is the one getting the citation, what does Taylor have to do with this?

Regardless, Taylor (seen above) seems to be thrilled that he's out of "State Penn." Phil, seriously, leave the jokes to me OK. But hey, have fun. You can take those 6.5 tackles and 3 sacks to Maryland or Tennessee. Good luck with that. There's no word on Chris Baker's Facebook status yet.

Of course, this is not the first time Baker and Taylor have been disciplined by the team. Baker was involved in the Meridian Melee which was well documented by ESPN and the fight at the HUB which ... well, which ESPN didn't even touch (racism?). Taylor was involved in the HUB fight and both players received suspensions from the university and probation from the court.

Anyway, according to David Jones's column in today's Patriot-News, the players on the team don't even fully know the reason for the dismissal of Baker and Taylor. A player, who Jones did not name, said, "[Paterno] didn't give any specific reasons why. Those guys haven't been in any more trouble." He also says the idea that players would attend a party for Chris Bell is absurd, "No, no one would have done that. Everyone resented Chris for what he did."

It really doesn't matter what the reason for the dismissal is. It's going to look like it was a knee-jerk response to the Outside the Lines piece. After all Paterno just returned from Chicago and the Big Ten Meetings, so it's not like he could have dismissed the players earlier this week since he doesn't own a computer and can't send text messages.