Too bad that Joe Paterno croaked before seeing what was revealed in the courts these past weeks. Something HE could have halted 15 years ago with a simple phone call to the police, instead of to those who cared more about Joe Paterno's legacy and Penn State football, than the lives of his victims.
Paterno got of easy.
Perhaps not, the guilt may have been what killed him.
I wouldn't want to take that with me on my journey after this world,
if indeed he knew and did nothing. All the love and admiration in the world would not
remove that.
Too bad that Joe Paterno croaked before seeing what was revealed in the courts these past weeks. Something HE could have halted 15 years ago with a simple phone call to the police, instead of to those who cared more about Joe Paterno's legacy and Penn State football, than the lives of his victims.
Paterno got of easy.
agree, and where are all those idiots who protested his firing now.
Too bad that Joe Paterno croaked before seeing what was revealed in the courts these past weeks. Something HE could have halted 15 years ago with a simple phone call to the police, instead of to those who cared more about Joe Paterno's legacy and Penn State football, than the lives of his victims.
Paterno got of easy.
Perhaps not, the guilt may have been what killed him.
I wouldn't want to take that with me on my journey after this world,
if indeed he knew and did nothing. All the love and admiration in the world would not
remove that.
maybe but the question becomes where was the guilt before charges were brought. once you knew how did you allow the guy to stay around the program and into the buildings. how did you ever see the man around children again? how did any of them sleep at night knowing sandusky was still invovled in the Second Mile? mind boggling
Too bad that Joe Paterno croaked before seeing what was revealed in the courts these past weeks. Something HE could have halted 15 years ago with a simple phone call to the police, instead of to those who cared more about Joe Paterno's legacy and Penn State football, than the lives of his victims.
Paterno got of easy.
agree, and where are all those idiots who protested his firing now.
...
It all comes down to doing what is right, versus what is right for you.
Paterno was more than likely more concerned about his own job and that of Penn State's football program than the impact of a sex scandal would reflect on himself and what it would do to the program and the money that pours into the university because of it.
Fuck Paterno. Hero... MY ASS!!! Coward... more lke it.
Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
Hail, Hail!!!
I hope the cycle is being broken with the knowledge of man/boy victimization.
Both Sandusky and Paterno and many others came from era where this and all child abuse
was more prevalent and yes more ignored. Thank God this is changing, that victims
are being empowered.
That hopefully those who have been abused know to seek help and not repeat the cycle.
And that fewer will be victimized in the future.
We can only hope pedophilia will be on the decrease not increase.
0
g under p
Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,200
Sandusky's first night in jail might be something like this....
The first day of prison was always the hardest
The first day of prison, the hallways the darkest
Like a gauntlet
the voices haunted
Faggot, sissy, punk, queen, queer
Words he used before had a new meaning in here
As a group of men in front of him came near
for the first time in his life the young bully felt fear
He'd never been on this side of the name calling
Five against one they had his back up against the wall and
he had never questioned his own sexuality
but this group of men didn't hesitate in their reality
with an awful, powerful, showerful, an hour full of violence
Inflict the strictest brutality and dominance
They didn't hear him screaming
They didn't hear him pleading
They took what they wanted and then left him bleeding in the corner
The giant reduced to jack horner
But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler
It's like breathing with a respirator
It eases the conscience of even the most conscious
and calculating violator.....
....lyrics Michael Franti 1992
Peace
*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The two former Penn State administrators who are facing charges in the Jerry Sandusky case and former university President Graham Spanier allegedly exchanged emails discussing the best way to respond to the 2001 report that Sandusky was seen in the shower with a boy, according to a report that aired on CNN Friday night.
According to the report, an email then-Senior Vice President Gary Schultz sent talked about discussing the incident with "the subject," the charitable organization - The Second Mile - and the state Department of Public Welfare.
CNN, citing "sources with knowledge of the case," said the four emails refer to Sandusky as "the subject" and "person."
The report goes on to say that former Athletic Director Tim Curley said he discussed the situation with Joe Paterno and "am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps. I am having trouble with going to everyone but the person involved. I would be more comfortable meeting with the person and tell them about the information we received and tell them we are aware of the first situation."
Curley allegedly commented on getting "professional help" for Sandusky.
The report goes on to cite an email Spanier allegedly sent, saying in part, "I am supportive. ... The only downside for us is if the message isn't heard and acted upon and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it. But that can be assessed down the road."
Curley and Schultz are facing perjury and failure to report abuse charges. They maintain their innocence. Spanier has not been charged. He is in a legal battle with the university about whether he can have access to old emails. He said in a legal suit that he needs the emails to properly respond to the investigation the university is conducting on the scandal.
How can they not wipe Paterno off their entire campus? If it wasn't clear who was running the show before, it's only getting clearer. I know Norm posted a similar article. Has there ever been a bigger fall from grace? Joe Paterno: Poster Boy of Enablers Worldwide
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The two former Penn State administrators who are facing charges in the Jerry Sandusky case and former university President Graham Spanier allegedly exchanged emails discussing the best way to respond to the 2001 report that Sandusky was seen in the shower with a boy, according to a report that aired on CNN Friday night.
According to the report, an email then-Senior Vice President Gary Schultz sent talked about discussing the incident with "the subject," the charitable organization - The Second Mile - and the state Department of Public Welfare.
CNN, citing "sources with knowledge of the case," said the four emails refer to Sandusky as "the subject" and "person."
The report goes on to say that former Athletic Director Tim Curley said he discussed the situation with Joe Paterno and "am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps. I am having trouble with going to everyone but the person involved. I would be more comfortable meeting with the person and tell them about the information we received and tell them we are aware of the first situation."
Curley allegedly commented on getting "professional help" for Sandusky.
The report goes on to cite an email Spanier allegedly sent, saying in part, "I am supportive. ... The only downside for us is if the message isn't heard and acted upon and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it. But that can be assessed down the road."
Curley and Schultz are facing perjury and failure to report abuse charges. They maintain their innocence. Spanier has not been charged. He is in a legal battle with the university about whether he can have access to old emails. He said in a legal suit that he needs the emails to properly respond to the investigation the university is conducting on the scandal.
How can they not wipe Paterno off their entire campus? If it wasn't clear who was running the show before, it's only getting clearer. I know Norm posted a similar article. Has there ever been a bigger fall from grace? Joe Paterno: Poster Boy of Enablers Worldwide
There are several people I know personally who were convinced Paterno did "nothing wrong." What's sad is, there seemed to be nothing behind their convictions other than his success as a coach.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The two former Penn State administrators who are facing charges in the Jerry Sandusky case and former university President Graham Spanier allegedly exchanged emails discussing the best way to respond to the 2001 report that Sandusky was seen in the shower with a boy, according to a report that aired on CNN Friday night.
According to the report, an email then-Senior Vice President Gary Schultz sent talked about discussing the incident with "the subject," the charitable organization - The Second Mile - and the state Department of Public Welfare.
CNN, citing "sources with knowledge of the case," said the four emails refer to Sandusky as "the subject" and "person."
The report goes on to say that former Athletic Director Tim Curley said he discussed the situation with Joe Paterno and "am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps. I am having trouble with going to everyone but the person involved. I would be more comfortable meeting with the person and tell them about the information we received and tell them we are aware of the first situation."
Curley allegedly commented on getting "professional help" for Sandusky.
The report goes on to cite an email Spanier allegedly sent, saying in part, "I am supportive. ... The only downside for us is if the message isn't heard and acted upon and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it. But that can be assessed down the road."
Curley and Schultz are facing perjury and failure to report abuse charges. They maintain their innocence. Spanier has not been charged. He is in a legal battle with the university about whether he can have access to old emails. He said in a legal suit that he needs the emails to properly respond to the investigation the university is conducting on the scandal.
We will never know why a man that did so much good would conceal and harbor a child molester. I was one of those that gave Paterno the benefit of doubt ... but to conceal this man's crimes and allow him free stay on campus ...
I wonder what the NCAA will do? If USC has to forfeit a title because a star running back who made them millions of dollars got a smidgen of a kickback, what happens to State?
I know so many from my childhood, victims of sexual abuse,
so many looked the other way parents, family, neighbors...
hushed.
It was more the norm than to report and do something about it
back then.
Wonder how many have gone unpunished for what they have done in their lifetime.
How many enablers never to stand accused as those involved in this case.
Why do people enable when they know it is wrong?
With this case ...
the shock, the awareness, the outrage....
maybe now we can stop making victims out of children.
Fuck Paterno... and fuck those assholes that stood by him and still stand by him.
...
Hero... my ass.
and fuck his sons who are still defending what their dad did (or didn't do)...i mean, i get it, it's your dad but reading some of the quotes from them this morning is just ridiculous!
Yeah those 3 figure heads that are still alive should all be put in Jail the cover up is a total crime against all the boys that were assulted this is sickening , and Franco Harris is another asshole who still defends the old goat Paterno yeah fuck you Joe Paterno even in your death bed ....
All of these adults involved should spend the rest of their lives in prison. Fucking awful what they let happen to these kids. I wish Paterno was alive to face the cameras on this. Disgusting.
This show, another show, a show here and a show there.
Not the biggest fan of ESPN, but this isn't an ESPN issue. If anything, they are being even handed. If Millen wants to look like a Paterno protector, they put him on and let him embarass himself. If you don't think that's part of the story, you are missing the point.
But, there is a Mark May video where he basically buries Paterno, the University and Penn State Football for 5 minutes. Reporting the news means putting all sides on, not just the ones you or I agree with.
Not the biggest fan of ESPN, but this isn't an ESPN issue. If anything, they are being even handed. If Millen wants to look like a Paterno protector, they put him on and let him embarass himself. If you don't think that's part of the story, you are missing the point.
But, there is a Mark May video where he basically buries Paterno, the University and Penn State Football for 5 minutes. Reporting the news means putting all sides on, not just the ones you or I agree with.
That's all I want to hear from Penn State today. It's all I want to hear from Joe Paterno's family. It's all I want to hear from Graham Spanier, Tim Curley, Gary Schultz. From the Board of Trustees. From Penn State fans.
You're sorry.
Why can't you say that? Why haven't any of you said that?
The Freeh Report was released Thursday morning, released to much fanfare, though I haven't the foggiest idea why. There was nothing special in the Freeh Report. Nothing we didn't already know. Jerry Sandusky raped kids for years? We knew that -- he has been convicted.
Penn State officials chose not to stop it? We knew that -- Jerry Sandusky raped kids for years.
But what we don't know, what we're about to find out, is how Penn State responds.
We're sorry.
Would that be so hard, Penn State? Would it, family members of Joe Paterno? Don't magically find another 712-word column allegedly written by Paterno himself, at some point after he was fired, which means he wrote it from a spot damn close to his death bed. Don't release his missive that defends Penn State, defends Paterno, assures all of us that, "This is not a football scandal and should not be treated as one."
Don't do that, because we don't want to hear it. Don't whine that Paterno never had the chance to defend himself because he's dead -- not when he had a personal biographer at the end of his life. Paterno never defended himself? The book's coming. If the publisher sends me a copy, I'll rip out the pages and use them to line my cat's litter box.
We're sorry.
That's all we want to hear from anyone associated with Penn State today, and yes, that means Penn State fans. This was not your fault, so don't confuse what I'm saying with what a lot of other people will be saying today -- that you created this culture of hero worship, that you empowered Paterno to the point that he ran that school. Part of that is true, of course. You did create a culture of hero worship, and you did lift up Paterno so high that he looked down upon all he surveyed like Yertle The Turtle, a wonderful book by Dr. Seuss that I'm positive was read, when they were kids, by many of the boys who would be abused by Jerry Sandusky.
Anyway, even if lots of that is true, it's not all true. You didn't rape kids, Penn State fans; Sandusky did that. You didn't fail to stop it; Paterno and his underlings did that. But for months you -- not all of you, no; but lots of you, OK? -- have been attacking anyone who would dare acknowledge what is pretty much fact: That Joe Paterno's gross negligence allowed Jerry Sandusky to roam free, to roam your cherished Happy Valley, for years.
We're sorry.
Be sorry for attacking us, when we were mortified and then furious that these atrocities were allowed to continue while Joe Paterno continued to win football games, as if football games mattered.
Penn State officials, those now still in charge? Apologize for what happened, what was allowed to happen, at your great school. Jerry Sandusky is your legacy, and so is the coverup that kept him free for years, and we're tired of fighting you about it. It happened. You can't just change the subject like you're changing the channel on the TV at the student center when CNN broke the Freeh Report on Thursday morning. Don't tell us what's wrong with the Freeh Report. Tell us you're sorry.
As for Graham Spanier and his pathetic band of enablers, Curley and Schultz, come out and say it. Apologize for not stopping Sandusky more than 10 years ago, before countless boys were taken into the Penn State football showers or into the Sandusky basement, or both.
Apologize to the world -- for God's sake, apologize to the victims -- for not stopping it when you could. And then apologize again for defending yourself so vigorously since November. That's just another layer that none of us can understand, your need to put your own welfare above everything else once this scandal went public.
I mean, we get that your nature is to put your own welfare above everything else. It's what you negligently malevolent monsters did for years, knowing what you knew about Sandusky but never taking the proper steps -- never making sure -- to protect kids from being raped by Sandusky on your own campus. That's what you did, Spanier. You, too, Curley. And Schultz. And Paterno, may he not rest in peace. That's what all of you did for years, and it didn't work out so well for you. Nor will it work out for you now, when the world doesn't want to hear more defenses, more excuses.
What does the world want to hear? We want to hear that you're sorry.
the penn state football program should have the death penalty for their cover up of this scandal. this cover up/failure to act goes all the way up the ladder in the program and the university. they hid this to protect the football program and the millions in revenue that that program generates. i say abolish the program.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
the penn state football program should have the death penalty for their cover up of this scandal. this cover up/failure to act goes all the way up the ladder in the program and the university. they hid this to protect the football program and the millions in revenue that that program generates. i say abolish the program.
...
I wouldn't go that far.
I would rather see the money raised by Penn State Football to go to the victims... the victim's families... towards organizations that fight child abuse... and Pennsylvania public works (the latter being punative damages and gives the people in the State of Pennsylvania repaved roads, rebuilt bridges and upgraded sewage and water systems) for the next 50 years... the length of Paterno's reign.
...
And call it the 'Paterno Penalty'. Let THAT be the Paterno legacy.
Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
Hail, Hail!!!
the penn state football program should have the death penalty for their cover up of this scandal. this cover up/failure to act goes all the way up the ladder in the program and the university. they hid this to protect the football program and the millions in revenue that that program generates. i say abolish the program.
...
I wouldn't go that far.
I would rather see the money raised by Penn State Football to go to the victims... the victim's families... towards organizations that fight child abuse... and Pennsylvania public works (the latter being punative damages and gives the people in the State of Pennsylvania repaved roads, rebuilt bridges and upgraded sewage and water systems) for the next 50 years... the length of Paterno's reign.
...
And call it the 'Paterno Penalty'. Let THAT be the Paterno legacy.
Shut it down. No more football at Penn State. Not for a while, anyway. And please don’t wait to be sanctioned by the NCAA, which moves at a glacial pace.
Now there can be no doubt. The sycophants, enablers, and excuse-makers can go away and stay away. The Penn State Board of Trustees can finally do the right thing and kill the school’s football program. Effective immediately. Football can come back to State College, Pa., someday. Not now.
This is not a hard decision anymore. Nor is it radical. It’s the decent thing to do, after a decade and a half of institutional indecency.
Please. No weeping for the players and coaches who are at Penn State now. We know they did nothing wrong. But they can transfer. Coaches can get jobs at other schools.
Football simply cannot go on after what we heard Thursday from former FBI director Louis Freeh.
Hired by Penn State’s Board of Trustees in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal, Freeh concluded that for more than a decade there was total disregard for the safety and well-being of children/victims by the most powerful men at Penn State. And that includes the fabled Joe Paterno.
Penn State needs to give its own football program the death penalty. The pompous NCAA, ever-reluctant to sanction big-revenue, elite members, will eventually figure out what to do about the obvious lack of institutional control in State College, Pa. The Big Ten could also step forward in the wake of Thursday’s disclosures. In the meantime, Penn State needs to stop the nonsense of attempting to play its 2012 season.
The games cannot go on. Playing football this fall would be just another demonstration that the vaunted football program is more important than protecting innocent children. Happy Valley needs some silent Saturdays to ponder how this happened and to make sure nothing like it could ever happen again.
As of this moment, the Nittany Lions are scheduled to open at home against Ohio Sept. 1 at noon. Two weeks later, the United States Naval Academy team is slated to play at Penn State. It’s “Military Appreciation Day.’’ Disgusting. If Penn State doesn’t do the right thing, the Naval Academy should refuse to send its team to State College.
The NCAA, quick to sanction phone calls to recruits or booster-paid tattoos, says Penn State needs to address four key questions regarding institutional control and ethics policies. The collegiate sports governing body says Penn State’s response will help decide what action needs to be taken.
There wasn’t much ambiguity in Freeh’s 267-page report, which was compiled over eight months and included interviews with 430 current or former college employees.
“In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the university . . . repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse.’’
The four men cited are former school president Graham B. Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley, former school vice president Gary Schultz, and the late coach Paterno.
The facts are the facts. With their appalling inaction, grounded in the belief that they were saving football from disgrace, these men allowed child rapes to go undetected and unreported for 14 years after they were first alerted of Sandusky’s crimes. They concealed facts and failed to go to authorities to protect the football program from “bad publicity.’’ They allowed rapes to continue in order to preserve King Football.
Joe Pa brought Penn State 409 wins, five undefeated seasons and two national championships. He put the school on the map and was honored with a statue which stands outside Beaver Stadium. Today it stands as a monument to the worst scandal in the history of college sports. The statue needs to come down.
According to USA Today, donations to Penn State are on the rise since the news of the scandal broke last year. More than 190,000 contributors have donated $209 million, which represents the second-best year in school history. Way to rally. Ya-hoo.
Penn State is going to need a lot of money to settle the lawsuits certain to follow Thursday’s report. Shutting down football for a few years will be another financial hit. No football means no TV money and a drop in alumni pledges.
Too bad. The Nittany Lions need to close shop for a while. No tailgating. No boola-boola. No Homecoming game. No Senior Day. There is no price tag to measure an institution’s lost soul.
Comments
I wouldn't want to take that with me on my journey after this world,
if indeed he knew and did nothing. All the love and admiration in the world would not
remove that.
agree, and where are all those idiots who protested his firing now.
maybe but the question becomes where was the guilt before charges were brought. once you knew how did you allow the guy to stay around the program and into the buildings. how did you ever see the man around children again? how did any of them sleep at night knowing sandusky was still invovled in the Second Mile? mind boggling
It all comes down to doing what is right, versus what is right for you.
Paterno was more than likely more concerned about his own job and that of Penn State's football program than the impact of a sex scandal would reflect on himself and what it would do to the program and the money that pours into the university because of it.
Fuck Paterno. Hero... MY ASS!!! Coward... more lke it.
Hail, Hail!!!
Both Sandusky and Paterno and many others came from era where this and all child abuse
was more prevalent and yes more ignored. Thank God this is changing, that victims
are being empowered.
That hopefully those who have been abused know to seek help and not repeat the cycle.
And that fewer will be victimized in the future.
We can only hope pedophilia will be on the decrease not increase.
The first day of prison was always the hardest
The first day of prison, the hallways the darkest
Like a gauntlet
the voices haunted
Faggot, sissy, punk, queen, queer
Words he used before had a new meaning in here
As a group of men in front of him came near
for the first time in his life the young bully felt fear
He'd never been on this side of the name calling
Five against one they had his back up against the wall and
he had never questioned his own sexuality
but this group of men didn't hesitate in their reality
with an awful, powerful, showerful, an hour full of violence
Inflict the strictest brutality and dominance
They didn't hear him screaming
They didn't hear him pleading
They took what they wanted and then left him bleeding in the corner
The giant reduced to jack horner
But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler
It's like breathing with a respirator
It eases the conscience of even the most conscious
and calculating violator.....
....lyrics Michael Franti 1992
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... tions-2001
These jackasses need to be sitting in jail right next to Sandusky. They are all human garbage.
I read this this morning. Unbelievable.
There are several people I know personally who were convinced Paterno did "nothing wrong." What's sad is, there seemed to be nothing behind their convictions other than his success as a coach.
Godfather.
We will never know why a man that did so much good would conceal and harbor a child molester. I was one of those that gave Paterno the benefit of doubt ... but to conceal this man's crimes and allow him free stay on campus ...
I wonder what the NCAA will do? If USC has to forfeit a title because a star running back who made them millions of dollars got a smidgen of a kickback, what happens to State?
so many looked the other way parents, family, neighbors...
hushed.
It was more the norm than to report and do something about it
back then.
Wonder how many have gone unpunished for what they have done in their lifetime.
How many enablers never to stand accused as those involved in this case.
Why do people enable when they know it is wrong?
With this case ...
the shock, the awareness, the outrage....
maybe now we can stop making victims out of children.
...
Hero... my ass.
Hail, Hail!!!
and fuck his sons who are still defending what their dad did (or didn't do)...i mean, i get it, it's your dad but reading some of the quotes from them this morning is just ridiculous!
http://deadspin.com/5925472/espn-trots- ... eeh-report
ESPN has become a fucking joke.
All of these adults involved should spend the rest of their lives in prison. Fucking awful what they let happen to these kids. I wish Paterno was alive to face the cameras on this. Disgusting.
Not the biggest fan of ESPN, but this isn't an ESPN issue. If anything, they are being even handed. If Millen wants to look like a Paterno protector, they put him on and let him embarass himself. If you don't think that's part of the story, you are missing the point.
But, there is a Mark May video where he basically buries Paterno, the University and Penn State Football for 5 minutes. Reporting the news means putting all sides on, not just the ones you or I agree with.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8160289
I hate it when ESPN pretends to present 'News'... just gimme the scores and highlights, you thumb-headed jock assholes.
Hail, Hail!!!
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
(oh, and "Happy Valley"? Yikes.)
I wouldn't go that far.
I would rather see the money raised by Penn State Football to go to the victims... the victim's families... towards organizations that fight child abuse... and Pennsylvania public works (the latter being punative damages and gives the people in the State of Pennsylvania repaved roads, rebuilt bridges and upgraded sewage and water systems) for the next 50 years... the length of Paterno's reign.
...
And call it the 'Paterno Penalty'. Let THAT be the Paterno legacy.
Hail, Hail!!!
Wishing rape on a person - even a convicted rapist - just isn't right, in my opinion.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
Ummm... you DO realize that part of Sandusky's defense was he was 'just playing' with those kids... right?
Hail, Hail!!!
good call I like it.
Godfather.
Shut it down. No more football at Penn State. Not for a while, anyway. And please don’t wait to be sanctioned by the NCAA, which moves at a glacial pace.
Now there can be no doubt. The sycophants, enablers, and excuse-makers can go away and stay away. The Penn State Board of Trustees can finally do the right thing and kill the school’s football program. Effective immediately. Football can come back to State College, Pa., someday. Not now.
This is not a hard decision anymore. Nor is it radical. It’s the decent thing to do, after a decade and a half of institutional indecency.
Please. No weeping for the players and coaches who are at Penn State now. We know they did nothing wrong. But they can transfer. Coaches can get jobs at other schools.
Football simply cannot go on after what we heard Thursday from former FBI director Louis Freeh.
Hired by Penn State’s Board of Trustees in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal, Freeh concluded that for more than a decade there was total disregard for the safety and well-being of children/victims by the most powerful men at Penn State. And that includes the fabled Joe Paterno.
Penn State needs to give its own football program the death penalty. The pompous NCAA, ever-reluctant to sanction big-revenue, elite members, will eventually figure out what to do about the obvious lack of institutional control in State College, Pa. The Big Ten could also step forward in the wake of Thursday’s disclosures. In the meantime, Penn State needs to stop the nonsense of attempting to play its 2012 season.
The games cannot go on. Playing football this fall would be just another demonstration that the vaunted football program is more important than protecting innocent children. Happy Valley needs some silent Saturdays to ponder how this happened and to make sure nothing like it could ever happen again.
As of this moment, the Nittany Lions are scheduled to open at home against Ohio Sept. 1 at noon. Two weeks later, the United States Naval Academy team is slated to play at Penn State. It’s “Military Appreciation Day.’’ Disgusting. If Penn State doesn’t do the right thing, the Naval Academy should refuse to send its team to State College.
The NCAA, quick to sanction phone calls to recruits or booster-paid tattoos, says Penn State needs to address four key questions regarding institutional control and ethics policies. The collegiate sports governing body says Penn State’s response will help decide what action needs to be taken.
There wasn’t much ambiguity in Freeh’s 267-page report, which was compiled over eight months and included interviews with 430 current or former college employees.
“In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the university . . . repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse.’’
The four men cited are former school president Graham B. Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley, former school vice president Gary Schultz, and the late coach Paterno.
The facts are the facts. With their appalling inaction, grounded in the belief that they were saving football from disgrace, these men allowed child rapes to go undetected and unreported for 14 years after they were first alerted of Sandusky’s crimes. They concealed facts and failed to go to authorities to protect the football program from “bad publicity.’’ They allowed rapes to continue in order to preserve King Football.
Joe Pa brought Penn State 409 wins, five undefeated seasons and two national championships. He put the school on the map and was honored with a statue which stands outside Beaver Stadium. Today it stands as a monument to the worst scandal in the history of college sports. The statue needs to come down.
According to USA Today, donations to Penn State are on the rise since the news of the scandal broke last year. More than 190,000 contributors have donated $209 million, which represents the second-best year in school history. Way to rally. Ya-hoo.
Penn State is going to need a lot of money to settle the lawsuits certain to follow Thursday’s report. Shutting down football for a few years will be another financial hit. No football means no TV money and a drop in alumni pledges.
Too bad. The Nittany Lions need to close shop for a while. No tailgating. No boola-boola. No Homecoming game. No Senior Day. There is no price tag to measure an institution’s lost soul.
http://bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/07/1 ... ml?camp=fb