Joe Paterno, Penn State Administration, Covered Up Sandusky's Sexual Abuse

They covered up the raping of children for AT LEAST 14 years, and this went all the way to the top of Penn State. Maybe some of it was found in this FBI investigation, but at what point do we need to ask the question “what else did they cover up over the last 30+ years?”

If they wouldn’t report child rape, what about the rape of a woman? What about a murder?

culpability. No Question.

All it would have taken was for one out of the group to go to some policing entity outside of psu. Whistle blowing would not have gotten them fired.

They were implicitly afraid of Paterno’s power and as the evidence is mounting, there may be indications of more than implicit fear. All under the guise of “horseplay”.

I’m not sure what does. Whether or not the NCAA decides to investigate and sanction Penn State’s football program (and since it was coaches and administration involved, not the players, I would be shocked if they did), if I was sitting on the Board of Regents for PSU I would either, 1. cancel football for at least two years, or 2. direct that every single penny generated by the football program go towards assisting the victims.

One thing is certain: Penn State’s attorneys will be writing a lot of checks in the next few years.

Just some thoughts…

1. It’s going to be much harder for PSU to get past this than they think. PSU has had 14 AP Top 5 finished. Sandusky is in the team photo for 12 of them.

2. Sandusky is the real villain, but it is mind-boggling how many people had to ignore, deny or compartmentalize to allow it to happen. However, we saw it time and again with the Catholic abuse scandal. People and organizations are screwed up.

3. Perspective-

In 1999, 12 kids died, and dozens more were injured, when TAMU’s bonfire collapsed. The report noted that TAMU’s administration was negligent (although, not criminally) in supervising this construction project on their campus.

Thanks to sovereign immunity, liability was capped at $50k per. They built a monument to the victims. If you ask any Ags today, they will tell you that was their finest hour.

Side point- Can you imagine what would have happened, if in 1998 a new Aggie administrator had proposed reviewing the whole bonfire construction enterprise? They would have been crucified. I’ll give PSU this much- they fired Paterno, and the university president, although too late. They have done more than the Ags ever did.

First, and most importantly, this is a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with those that suffer, on all sides of the horrible story.

For those of us on the outside of this story (thank God), the take away is simple: When we lift men up beyond a level men should go, we create the environment for abuse and horror to happen. Be it athletics, beauty, power, sex or any other category, mankind’s nature creates the environments like this one. We all must remain ever on guard in order to protect those unable to protect themselves. Those that are evil constantly lurk, and those that are blind constantly aid the evil, whether they know they are doing it or not.

was one I sought out when this broke. Good job being a voice of clarity and sense on an emotional topic.

You have the outrage. You are acquiring the tools. Do you have the passion?
Kids out there need an advocate, an attack dog on their side. Consider it.

but I never had a good feeling about Paterno since I heard the story of the 1969 season. The fact that he backed down from playing Texas but continued to campaign for a MNC was odd to me. So when people said things like Paterno was “all that was right”, I also had to some angry things to say under my breath.

Now looking back, it does seem like there was some cowardice in him. It was manifested in a benign way in 1969 but in a really horrific way later. Same issue though.

No one can handle being worshipped whether you are a politician, a rock star, or a football coach. Paterno and Sandusky to a lesser degree were worshipped and thought they were God and that they could do what they wanted. That made everyone else around them less important than the “gods” and so justified the abuse and the cover-up.

If the administration of PSU is wise they will quickly cancel the football season in mourning and encourage all their athletes to transfer wherever they want. Can you imagine how ugly this will continue every Saturday of the fall, every time that PSU plays?

I think that things will go much easier for Penn State if they did cancel the season. It will say in no uncertain terms that “we get it,” that football has become more important than the University and this is a clear, unmitigated manner to state that. I also think it is the only way to really have this behind you for the future in as quick a manner as possible.

As others have said, this has been a cover-up that has been ongoing for at least 15 years. I personally would want UT to drop football for at least two years and then start anew if this happened in Austin.

There’s going to be a lot of pressure on the NCAA or PSU or both to do something drastic like impose the death penalty, cancel the season, etc. I don’t think either of those are appropriate, and I’ll state my reasons:

1. The acts we’ve seen committed both in and of themselves (Sanduskey) and the coverup, are seriously heinous and deserve divine retribution. I have nothing to argue with in that statement. But let’s remember who committed them, and who didn’t, and choose who we punish appropriately. “Penn State” as an entity, hasn’t done anything to anyone (for purposes of this argument about NCAA enforcement, I’m ignoring civil liability). PEOPLE have acted here, and it’s PEOPLE that should be punished. I see 5 people as primarily responsible: Sanduskey, Paterno, Spanier, Curley, and Schultz. One is already dead, and thus we’ll have to let God sort that one out. One is already in prison, and good riddance. The other 3 are staring hard at prison time for perjury and other stuff, and that’s as it should be.

2. Who is being punished if the NCAA levies the death penalty on the football program? In my opinion, that isn’t going to matter much to any of the 5 people we know are responsible. Especially the dead guy. To my mind, you’re punishing student athletes, the student body, and fans, all of which had NOTHING to do with the scandal.

3. Penn State isn’t a person. It has no conscience, no remorse, no feeilngs. As justifiably horrified and pissed off as you might be about this, you have to acknowledge that you have no ability to make Penn State feel bad about what’s been done.

It sounds a bit silly to say that this scandal had nothing to do with football, but in a sense, it’s true. This could have happened in any sport. It’s about POWER. And the individuals who had power are gone, and either being punished or punishment is pending. Even if you accept that the NCAA has jurisdiction on something like this (which is probably worthy of its own thread), what are you accomplishing by cancelling the season or imposing the death penalty?

I was a bit unclear when I talked about canceling the season. I think this should come from Penn State, not from the NCAA. And it should come quickly FOR THE GOOD OF THE PSU FOOTBALL PROGRAM.

As people have said, anything short of canceling the season is going to be perceived (rightly or wrongly) as somehow condoning to a limited degree what happened. We have already seen the JoePa apologists from PSU come out and say he wasn’t tainted.

PSU has to have a reset button and that is the only way I can see of realistically doing it.

I keep on thinking Matthew 10:39: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” The supreme, bitter irony of this is that more than anything else, Paterno loved his reputation, but his evil ended up costing him the very thing that he loved most. Karma might not be instant, but it’s generally going to get you sooner or later.

First let me establish my Bona Fides.

I was born in Pennsylvania and was inducted into the Paterno/PSU cult at an early age by an alumnus brother. The high school I graduated from populated the University with a large segment of its top 10 %. I was accepted to PSU - Main Campus, although I wisely chose to attend a far more beloved institution, originally situated on 40 acres and intended to educate the best and brightest of an exotic land to the south. I also grew up watching PS play cupcakes week in and week out throughout the 70’s and was the primary apologist for them up till the year I began attending college.

As for my Longhorn credentials, I attended and graduated the University a long time ago and have bled burnt orange since setting foot on the campus. I refer to UT as ’the mother of us all" since I feel it is the parent that educated, nutured and made we the alumni base the men and women that we are. Penn State may have “We are…” but we all feel the Eyes of Texas on us once we graduate.

We are the University and the University is us. Our respective actions reflect positively or negatively upon each other. A disreputable MBA grad from UT says something about the values instilled by his/her educator. An engineer who cuts corners and gets people hurt, speaks volumes about the ethics of his professors. Penn State and Paterno are no different. Their sins speak to the essence of what Penn State has become. As such, the whole institution is suspect and not mitigated by a few football players who graduated. In point of fact, the horrid antics of the student body and the continuing excuse making of the Penn State faithful, reaffirms the point that the institution is corrupt and has warped and compromised values.

As such, I believe the proposal that Penn State be given the Death Penalty is off the mark. While it is true that such an action would punish PSU and knock it off the track as far as football success, it would only foster even more fierce, fuhrer-like devotion to the notion of big time football at PSU. And engender a feeling of martyrdom. Better that they be booted out of the Big Ten and discontinue big time football entirely, a la University of Chicago. Let them devote themselves to academics.

And the Paterno statue should be consigned to the scrap heap of history along with the Sadam statue and Stalin’s.

Every time I see any PSU student, athlete or booster quoted I am shocked and horrified and want to punch them in the mouth that is spewing moral equivalence trash. I had held out hope that the school would do the right thing and voluntarilly shut the son of a bitch down, but reading articles abour normalacy of life on campus or hearing students, players, fans and alumni say you can’t ignore all joe pa’s good deeds makes me realize it won’t happen from psu’s own volition. So, the ncaa needs to nuke it from orbit.
I am as big a ut fan as ever lived. My SR year was ricky’s heisman and I drove to every game (manhattan, LA, stoolwater, lincoln etc). I wenrt to law school in st louis 12 hour drive away and still attended 9 games a year. I named my dog vincey after VY and would name my son TJ if the wife would allow it. I camped out at the football stadiun for courtside hoops tickets every sunday night for my 3 years at ut (graduating a year early I still consider my dumbest college decision). UT football of the VY era literally was the only positive thing in my life for 3 or 4 years as I was in a disaster of a marriage- it actually saved my sanity and mental health as I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. This is all to establish my bonafides when I say the following:
If this were mack I would be leading the charge, pitchfork in hand to destroy anyone associated with the cover up. I would want us to take at least a 5 year break on football, and I could be talked into every sport on campus since the AD/President were complicit. I would burn all my memorabillia and never watch another game if we did not come to grips, in a serious way, with our part in feeding the beast, that allowed this to happen.
I believe I would end friendships with people who said it was ok for mack to protect and condone child rapists b/c “you have to also remember his good deeds too.”. I literally can’t wrap my mind around being friends with someone with that warped a world view.
The average PSU stakeholders response has sickened me almost as much as anyone in the power structure. Burn that motherfucker to the ground.

Turns out he saw what was coming and quickly negotiated a lucrative exit plan for himself.

On a bigger note, our society has its priorities screwed up big time. On the heels of this story of a football- obsesed school tolerating pedophilia, this week Alabama unveiled a giant statute of Saban, one of the least likeable human beings alive.

Per espn sources close to the board of trustees.
I defy anyone to read that article and not be incensed. Those gutless cowards on the board of trustees have an opportunity to lead and they are circling the waggons. I no longer want to see their football program shut down I want to see their university cease to exist. Just incredible the callousness from those idiots and why- to try to whitewash the legacy of a man who is directly responsible, through his galling silence and cover up, for probably dozens of young men being raped?
I feel like OT justice should be meted out in the showers with a red hot fire poker on some of these guys. Their behavior is a slap in the face to the victims, and a denial of basic human dignity. Shocking.