Athletic director Tim Curley explained that based on the information he had, "we felt it was appropriate that [Phillips] could participate." And when Paterno was pressed for an explanation, he responded defiantly.
"That's nobody's business but mine," he told reporters. "It's not the fans' business and it's not yours."
Phillips was eventually acquitted of the charges in court and returned to the team, but the incident remains indicative of the stonewalling and defiance of authority that apparently was standard procedure for the football team and the athletic department it dominated.
Now, nine years later, after a child sexual abuse scandal that has cost Paterno, Curley, and university president Graham Spanier their jobs and shaken the school to its core, it is becoming increasingly clear that Paterno felt player discipline "nobody's business" but his.
That attitude might help explain why Curley and ex-Penn State official Gary Schultz allegedly tried to cover up the behavior of longtime football assistant, Jerry Sandusky, who has been accused of sexually assaulting eight boys.
According to e-mails obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Vicky Triponey, a vice president for student affairs who headed the university's disciplinary arm, judicial affairs, bumped heads with Paterno whenever a football player was in trouble.
The coach, those messages indicated, wanted Triponey to consult with him before deciding on punishment for his players, even though Penn State's regulations did not require that.
Frustrated by Paterno's efforts to keep all discipline within the program, Triponey said that on several occasions she pleaded with Spanier to intervene. Instead, she said, Spanier told her "you can't expect to change the culture."
In a 2005 e-mail to the president that in light of the current scandal, seems prescient, Triponey wrote:
