Two Ugly Scandals Hit Well-known Philly Figures

          Two stories have broken in the last 24 hours or so that are nothing short of scandals surrounding major figures in the Philadelphia sports world.

          Bill Conlin is reportedly the subject of a pending Inquirer article detailing child molestation allegations, according to deadspin.com. The word “reportedly” may be a stretch. It seems incredibly odd that this story is coming out a) via a blog post and b) a blog post that has words literally crossed out when I read it this afternoon. I essentially do not report news on this blog. I react to it. But this is just strange. Obviously, there are numerous unanswered questions here. At the moment the biggest might be: How could a blog get wind of this story? Newspapers aren’t in the business of giving blogs the crux of pending stories.

          This is on the heels of a former St. Joseph’s basketball player, Todd O’Brien, stating that the university is not releasing him to play for a university that he has already transferred to. Details are incredibly sketchy, though Mike Missanelli is reporting – and I don’t need quotes for the word with him – that the player was involved in some type of incident involving stolen merchandise. Another person involved, according to Missanelli, was removed from the school. He said the university went out of its way to protect the player, and they were infuriated when O’Brien asked for a transfer after the period in which they could have used his scholarship for someone else. O’Brien makes no mention of a disciplinary issue in his SI.com piece.

          I don’t see how SJU head coach Phil Martelli, the most media friendly coach in Philadelphia who is suddenly muzzled by lawyers, and SJU don’t come off as anything but spiteful in this situation. I’ll give SJU the benefit of the doubt that there is more to the story. I’m guessing that “teaching the kid a lesson” of some sort will be part of their explanation. But they’ll need some luck selling that if they don’t have more than hurt feelings to reveal.

          It’s not exactly what you’re looking for in the week leading up to Christmas, eh?