JoePa's Legacy: Buggery and Looting. Moral: Retire At 70

Here's the buggery [pdf]. 

Here's the looting. 

As Pennsylvania Sports Tragedies This Week Featuring Guys Named Joe go, I've been more broken up by the death of Joe Frazier – a great boxer, entrepreneur, proud father and patriot who beat Muhammad Ali fair and square in a unanimous decision, fought Ali nearly to death in a rematch, and never got the respect he deserved – than I am by the downfall of eons-long Penn State Nittany Lions football coach Joe Paterno in the wall-of-silence scandal surrounding alleged sex offender Jerry Sandusky. 

Criminal accusations generally, sex accusations broadly and child-related accusations specifically are prone to witchmob kangaroo hunts, and Sandusky has not been convicted of any crime. But the failure to report seemingly credible reports of rape is an institutional problem, and Paterno needs to be held responsible for the institution's behavior. 

The many observers and supporters who have been clogging up the airwaves with testimonials to Paterno's decency and integrity, not to mention the Penn State students who rioted on his behalf, underscore how much authority and admiration JoePa has amassed since becoming Penn State's head coach in 1966. (Prior to that he worked for the program as an assistant coach, beginning in 1955.) 

In fact, Paterno's shameful end testifies to a problem that is more prevalent than either child sex abuse or connivance at evidence of sex crimes. If the 84-year-old coach had retired just a few years ago – after duly passing along a report about Sandusky to the proper channels – he would still have the sterling reputation his supporters are strenuously working to clean up. 

Football may be especially prone to the overstaying phenomenon. Consider that our nation might have been spared the sight of Brett Favre's penis had the greatest quarterback in NFL history taken his curtain call gracefully. But outworn welcomes are by no means limited to football, or even sports. In my experience most workplaces – closed shops and open, public and private sector – suffer from alter kockers who don't know when to move on. 

Though I do not share the urge to elevate Joe Paterno as a semi-divine person, I do give him respect as a coach. In the interest of trying to show people at their best, here's Penn State's surprise victory over the Vinny Testaverde-led Miami Hurricanes at the 1987 Fiesta Bowl. Blow your mind by recalling that even back in the Reagan era, Paterno was already considered an iconic éminence grise who surprised both young and middle-aged alike by outfoxing the up-and-comer Jimmy Johnson: 

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

If he wanted to go out on a high note he shouldn't have diddled those kids.

[Fist of Etiquette]

All inappropriate joking aside (see Hank below), Penn State's legacy now should be that they don't handle situations correctly. Whether it's the Mann investigation, or the Sandusky investigation, or the way in which the most beloved coach of all times was fired.

Disclosure: I attended last year's Northwestern game where JoePa celebrated his 400th birthday.

[Legendary Coach JoePa]

Sandusky has not been convicted of any crime. But...

Everybody's got a big but.

[Matt C]

Is this a serious post Cavanaugh? Really? With all that is being alleged, you are going to link a highlight of a Penn State football game? Wow.

You call this a "witchmob kangaroo hunt???" Have you even read the Grand Jury testimony?

Even if Paterno was dead by now, this scandal would come back to haunt is ghost. This is the most egregious scandal in sports in my lifetime. You have a lot of balls to say you respect the guy as a football coach.

This has nothing to do with him not knowing when to "move on." It has everything to do with power, with the messiah-like worship that individuals in positions of authority receive from the ignorant masses, and with evil. There is no doubt in my mind that the entire staff and administration knew, to some level, about Sandusky, and they all just turned away. They should all be fired and never heard from again.

Can you imagine if these allegations were against, let's say, and Obama administration official? Would you be posting a video of a great speech that person gave? Again...Wow.

[BakedPenguin]

You call this a "witchmob kangaroo hunt?

He didn't say this case was. He said "Criminal accusations generally, sex accusations broadly and child-related accusations specifically are prone to witchmob kangaroo hunts". If you doubt this, Google "McMartin Daycare".

[Ted S.]

The Baylor basketball scandal involved a player getting murdered. I would think being murdered is rather more egregious than being sexually assaulted. You can recover from being sexually assaulted; recovering from being a cadaver is rather more difficult.

[BelowTheRim]

Great point Ted S. People also forget the McQueary was a first account eyewitness and did virtually nothing to stop the issue.

JoePa probably deserves blame but he is like number 5-10 down on the list.

I hate how we are seeing a manifestation of ESPN type reporting and opinion on what I thought was the only coherent news site left in this country.

[Dave]

Don't care much about football - but yes, the news media is generally rotten, and has been complicit in the witch hunting insanity. Hard to say where this incident fits. If there were two different people who witnessed actual rapes of children, why did neither of them act immediately to stop the rapes, and choose instead to mention it to someone at the school later? I suspect that there is something else to this story - such as the children being very willing - but naturally neither law enforcement nor the media will ever admit to that because it would contradict their carefully constructed narrative - which gets back to why protesters are correct to attack the media (in general).

[Anal-Raper Roman Polanski]

I suspect that there is something else to this story - such as the children being very willing ...

Yes, they were not unresponsive....

[BelowTheRim]

Dave I love your take.

Keep Posting! You are coherent.

Mainstream media blows

[KDN]

For the longest time I was hoping for some scandal to erupt at PSU, if only to knock the holier-than-thou smugness of their fans down a notch. I wasn't looking for an episode of SVU, though.

BTW, Sandusky was the architect of the heart of PSU's greatest teams. Kind of taints those wins a little bit.

[Hank]

Kind of wins those little taints a bit.

[Jerry Sandusky]

Did somebody say "little taints"?

[bill]

This guys taint is insane!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....aints&aq=f

[Sandy Smith]

For the longest time I was hoping for some scandal to erupt at PSU, if only to knock the holier-than-thou smugness of their fans down a notch.

...and we have the real reason everyone was so insistent that Paterno be fired right here. It really galls other universities who all wink-wink for the student part of student athlete when someone takes the student part seriously, and then has the rudeness to do that and actually win (some years). Who does he think he is?

And so we have cries for his responsibility even before people read the report, and far beyond cries for administrators who were the proper ones to report to be fired, but mostly it's about removing that one goody two-shoes who makes everybody feel bad...so they call him sanctimonious and saint-like even though he's been neither, but merely that he had strong standards and held to them.

Does that mean he acted perfectly correctly? No, of course not. But the motives being ascribed to him ("Yeah, it turns out all along he was football or die, screw everything else including little kids, amirite?") are exercises in projection...and also extremely unlikely to be true given how his program was run over those six decades. You can say "Yeah but WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN" all you want, but it's notable that this piece is about Paterno instead of, say, Sandusky. Who, you know, is alleged to have actually buggered children. As opposed to simply not being sure that everybody else was doing their job, even your boss and your boss's boss. But in a country where a guy gets a harsher sentence for possessing child porn than molesting kids, I suppose that's par for the course.

[KDN]

And such smugness rears its head. Congrats.

For the record, I never disliked the program and had a lot of respect for the way Paterno ran his shop and didn't really think he should have gotten immediately fired. But Tressel right next door got run out of town for essentially the same reason JoePa did: he failed to properly act on what his associates and underlings were doing (with the small difference being the Vest didn't much care about his kids dealing free shit they didn't want for free shit they did whereas JoePa was less than troubled that his close friend may have diddled a few kids in Joe's locker room).

If you were giddy and agreeable when the former happened but are outraged at the latter then you're just being a hypocrite. I may not agree with it, but you can't act like this isn't understandable.

[Comment Tater]

didn't really think he should have gotten immediately fired

Why not? It's not like he's a priest.

[BelowTheRim]

Good points Sandy Smith. See my comments below. You would probably appreciate although my call out Cavanaugh, someone whom I usually enjoy reading.

[tarran]

OK, Patterco didn't diddle anyone.

The question is did he err in merely reporting an observation to his superiors with no followup, or should he have pursued the matter more rigorously.

The fact is, many organizations that are mandated reporters have policies in place that one person does the reporting. So, a teacher who observes abuse tells the principal, who discusses the matter with some preselected group which includes soemone who knows the law's requirements very well, and then a designated rep calls the authorities and files the appropriate report.

That's how the school my ex-wife worked at used to handle that sort of thing. The teacher who observed the abuse was not expected to call anyone other than the principal.

Someone at Penn State seriously fucked up, we know one of the people was someone other than Paterno. I am less certain that Paterno was one of the ones who fucked up.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, no diddling by Paterno, I know. The absurdity of the situation made me post that. Of all the people to lose their jobs over this, it's a little early for any of them to be the coach's.

I never really cared for the internal policies excuse. I know organizations have them, but that doesn't absolve a direct witness of going to the authorities himself. If you see something like that and report it the designated supervisor, but find that no law enforcement officer comes to you with followup questions, it might be time to close the policies and procedures manual and go to the police yourself. (See Zeb's comment below.)

Paterno, apparently not being a direct witness, pretty much had to rely on others to do an investigation.

[Episiarch]

Agreed, but the fact that all of these people knew, and saw nothing getting done, means their organization is fucked up and a bunch of people need to be fired.

Oops, sorry guys, but you did nothing about kids possibly being raped. You're fucking fired.

[Apatheist]

Yep, he deserved to be fired. No question. If this was one year later he might be able to say, "well I was letting the organization handle it" but after a fucking decade he is well past having that excuse. Plus, lets not forge that Joe Paterno might as well be God there. He wasn't going to be fired for not following proper procedures. The GA barely has that excuse but hes still a giant fucking pussy for running to his daddy instead of stopping a rape in progress.

[Rob]

84 years old. He shoulda been a teacher. He coulda retired 50 years ago, with a better pension and nobody would care about being incompetent.

[Dave]

Reading between the lines, there may have been something else going on here - like the kid might have been gay and was seriously getting into it. Writing a law that says that teenagers can't have sex is kind of like the law that says the great Salt Lake can't overflow its banks - except that a person can be found to punish when nature happens.

[banga]

The kid was 10. You think a 10 year old can consent? An adult with a 10 year old is not 'nature'.

[free2booze]

Paterno was the most powerful person at PSU. His football program generated over $70 million in revenue for the University. If he wanted something done, it got done. Following up on these unfortunate incident was obviously not a priority for Joe Paterno.

[Episiarch]

You can't have people covering up credible accusations of child molestation. This is a miniature secular version of the Catholic Church scandals. A number of people need to be brought up on charges here; anyone who was made aware and did nothing about it.

[Warty]

ANOTHER FAILURE OF ANARCHISM

[Episiarch]

Isn't everything?

[Barney Gumbel]

Homer: "I miss my couch."

Frazier: "I know how you feel. You lost the couch. I lost the heavyweight championship."

Homer [scoffs]: "Heavyweight championship. There's like three of those. That couch was one of a kind."

Frazier: "Homer, I know things are tough now. But one day, you'll be walking along, and you'll see a piece of furniture you can love just as much."

Barney: "Hey Frazier, shut up!"

Frazier [getting angry]: "Barney, you've been ridin' my back all night."

Barney: "Oh yeah! Care to step outside?!"

Frazier: "Let's do it."

The two exit the bar and before the door can swing shut, a punch is heard hitting Barney and his blood splats on the door. As Homer exits the bar, he sees Barney upside down in a trash can exclaiming:

"Alright, a peanut!

[BelowTheRim]

Episiarch you are seriously advocating nanny statism. Joepa was cleared of any illegal doing.

You often post libertarian type messages but this totally contradicts any of your previous quality posts.

The "did nothing about it" section is the most disturbing. That outrage should:

1) be directed at Sandusky
2) be directed at McQueary
3) be directed at the Administrators who actively covered it up
4) Includes the AD
5) Victims who never said shit until recently.
6) JoePa

P.S. There still hasn't been enough due process.

[rather]

Victims who never said shit until recently.

They were little boys, and they were most likely afraid to tell, and ashamed later. Who are you to decided their recovery?

Let me know how that works for you, after you're raped?

[rather]

JoePa was part of the conspiracy not to protect those boys; does he get a Mulligan for moral failing?

He's a piece of shit

[BelowTheRim]

Rather:

Are you aware that there is a statute of limitations on rape?

Whether it is right or not it still exists.

If you are a victim you need to speak up. Not speaking up until now doesn't mean the crimes weren't committed against you...except our laws which sucks but still exist.

Rather you should join MSNBC for your ranting w/out any facts.

Maddow would be glad to have you.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

... had the greatest quarterback in NFL history taken his curtain call gracefully.

Greatest QB in NFL history? Really? I don't think so. Just because John Madden (and NFL on FOX) spent the last 10 years polishing Favre's balls, doesn't mean he was the best QB. Hell, he only won a single Super Bowl. Favre would be lower on the list than Unitas, Starr, Staubach, Montana, Young, Aikman, Brady, and at least two Mannings. But yeah, it sucks that JoePa went out like that.

[Almanian]

Way to rock it old skool w/Starr and Johnny U (one of my all-time faves).

Respeck...

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Hey Nick, you misspelled "one of the top 5 QB's of the last quarter-century."

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

And I misspelled Tim.

[Almanian]

TIMMEH!

[Pro Libertate]

Marino.

[More QBs better than Favre]

Stabler, Bradshaw, Marino, Elway, Phil Simms, Otto Graham, Bobby Layne, Fran Tarkenton, Y.A. Tittle, Warren Moon, Sid Luckman, Sammy Baugh

And that's just off the top of my head

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Will we be able to say Aaron Rogers in a few months?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Yes. And Roethlisberger, too.

[Tulpa]

Ben is just glad someone else in PA is getting the rape allegation attention this year.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Phil Simms? OK, now this is getting ridiculous. If you had said Jim Kelly, I'd have let it slide.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Broadway Joe Namath.

[BelowTheRim]

Joe Namath is even more overrated than Favre.

Namath threw more INTs than TDs.

Namath was/is a joke...and a friggin drunk to boot (not that that even matters, he can get blitzed for all I care)

[Proprietist]

I heard Tebow's pretty good. Is he on that list?

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Sandusky>Tebow ?

[CE]

Isn't Andrew Luck in the top 10 NFL QBs of all time yet? Or does he have to play an NFL game first?

[Ted S.]

Peyton Manning has a worse playoff record than Brett Favre.

[Tulpa]

He also played on worse teams.

GB didn't go 0-9 after Favre left.

[Tulpa]

And of course by that standard Big Ben is one of the greatest QBs of all time. 12-3 in the playoffs.

[wareagle]

which is why that standard is pointless.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Peyton Manning has a worse playoff record than Brett Favre.

Yep. But he has just as many Super Bowls. It's all about the rings.

[Ted S.]

If you could have one QB in his prime to start for this year's Minnesota Vikings, which would you pick:

Zero-time SB winner Dan Marino
One-tim SB winner Kurt Warner
Two-time SB winner Ben Roethlisberger
Four-time SB winner Terry Bradshaw

(As a Packer fan, I'm just irritated with the other Packer fans I know who who have decided to throw away all logic because they're pissed about what Favre did to the franchise from 2008 on. They're perfectly willing to use postseason performance when they want to say that even somebody like Trent Dilfer could win a title, and perfectly willing to ignore it when it comes to somebody like Peyton Manning or Dan Marino. You should see how a lot of them don't want to give Favre any credit for 1996 either. Revisionist history really bugs me.)

[BelowTheRim]

you da man EDG reppin' LBC.

Aaron Rodgers might end up showing that Favre was maybe 3rd best in his own FRANCHISE history.

Eli shouldn't be on your list though. Otto Graham would be been a better choice by far.

Eli isn't even elite.

[Zeb]

I still don't get why all the criticism has been on Paterno and higher ups. Yeah, he knew about it and should have done more, but the fucking guy who saw a boy getting buggered is the one who should have called the police (at the very least. He probably shoudl have yelled "what the fuck are you doing you asshole" and then beat the shit out of the guy adn then called the police), not the people who hear it second or third hand. Not trying to excuse anyone here, but it seems silly that all the attention is on Paterno.

[Zeb]

I mean, if you are the person who actually witnessed the awful abuse, I think you have far more of a duty to do something about it than people who heard about it second hand.

[romulus augustus]

McQueary was 28 and a friggin linebacker. He could and should have knocked Sandusky through the wall.

I don't agree with the observation that Paterno's rep would have been sterling today if he had retired after merely reporting the observation made by McQueary. His employment situation had nothing to do with the disappointment and disgust we feel with this PSU icon's moral lapse.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

McQueary was a QB, not a LB, but anyway, he still should have been able to take a 60 year old. Also, he will be on the sidelines Saturday for the Nebraska game. Seriously, WTF? If Joe Pa didn't live up to his moral obligations, McQueary didn't live up to his moral obligations x a billion. How he still has a job, I have no idea.

[John Thacker]

Oh, I agree that McQueary shouldn't be on the sidelines against Nebraska, even though he will be.

He should be fired as well.

[Tank]

Quarterback. But your point stands.

[Dave]

Agreed - and this happened on two separate occasions, with two separate witnesses.

Which is why I find the reports suspicious. I'm guessing the witnesses were freaked out because the boys were enjoying it. Possibly gay boys who were happy to have a chance at a man. But of course, the law doesn't allow that, and after the cops and the therapists are done with them, these poor boys will be in awful shape.

[Gray Ghost]

Go read the indictment some more. Victim #2, the 2002 rape victim witnessed by McQueary, was estimated to be 10 years old. Victim 1 was 11 to 12 when the abuse started. Sandusky's preferred alleged victims were in the 10-13 year old range.

And you are claiming they were gay, and possibly enjoyed the abuse...

Everytime I think that a behavior can't be rationalized or excused, someone comes along and proves me wrong.

[JD]

Oh yeah, nobody would be upset about it if he was doing a 10 year-old girl in the shower instead.

Fuck off back to NAMBLA, Dave.

[ClubMedSux]

I think your argument has merit, though I'm not sure I agree with it. What I am sure of, though, is that anybody who has expressed more anger over an 84-year-old rich egomaniac losing his job than the fact that dozens of grade school kids were raped and Penn State did nothing about it can go fuck themselves.

[Old Bull Lee]

This is what bugs me too. I would not commit violence to prevent or get justice for my favorite entertainment figure getting fired.

I would commit violence to prevent or get justice for children being raped.

Then again, I'm not a college football fan.

(Not to smear everyone who is a fan, but the fanaticism of some college sports fans perplexes me.)

[Zeb]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to excuse anyone, and I don't give a fuck about Paterno or college football. I'm just observing that the person who really had the greatest moral obligation to do something in this case seems to be the one getting the least blame and punishment here.

[ClubMedSux]

I totally understand and my comment wasn't directed at you. It's just a distinction that my Penn State alum friends don't seem to get.

[John Thacker]

It is sad that McQueary's apparently still going to be on the sidelines against Nebraska.

[Episiarch]

Yeah, rioting is totally unwarranted in the first place, and then having it be because the fucking coach got fired and not because possible rapes were covered up...that's just fucking repulsive.

[Ted S.]

Somebody needs to do a mashup of the PSU rioters and the people wailing because Casey Anthony wasn't convicted.

[Proprietist]

To the janitor guys' credit, they were all concerned they'd lose their jobs. And the main witness was having a nervous breakdown. Still, should have gone to the cops. A job is less important than justice, and he'd be a hero for stopping future abuse.

[CE]

Yeah, someone breaking the school rules is something you report to the higher ups. Witnessing a felony violent crime against a minor requires immediately contacting law enforcement as a minimum.

[Number 2]

I am not familiar with Pennsylvania criminal procedure, but is Penna is like New Jersey, grand jury presentments need to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. If a prosecutor can induce a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich -- as the saying goes -- presentments are even less reliable.

After the Duke lacrosse case and the trumped-up child abuse scandals of the 1990s that turned out to be the product of over-zealous prosecutors and self-appointed "childrens' advocates," I reserve the right to see actual evidence before I condemn anyone.

[T]

Yes and no. While I ordinarily agree with you, this is State College, PA and you are going after the heart of the Penn State program. Any prosecutor with a brain knows this is going to start God's own shitstorm, so you'd better be right. It's a make or break case. If you're right, your career is made. But if you're wrong, you'll be lucky to be defending speeding tickets in Potter County.

[BigT]

The prosecutor should not consider the fame of the suspect. We are a country of laws, right?

BTW it appears Joe Pa may have been required to report child rape under Pa law. That may be why the Trustees were so quick to fire him. Absent that, Joe Pa did what was required.

[BigT]

Read the Grand Jury report:

http://media.nbcphiladelphia.c.....ntment.pdf

[Mike M.]

Sure, innocent until proven guilty, and all that, but this isn't remotely like those other cases you mentioned. There are adult firsthand eyewitness here who will be testifying.

To me, the most damning thing of all is that, since posting bail five days ago, this sick SOB Sandusky has gone into hiding somewhere instead of publicly proclaiming his innocence.

[Number 2]

"There are adult firsthand eyewitness here who will be testifying."

We are not sure of that. We have a report in which the author gives his or her version of what the adult witnesses will say. Maybe my experience with presentments makes me cynical, but we need to see whether the actual testimony matches what the report claims it will be.

And with respect to Paterno -- I am interested in seeing specifically what he was told by McQueary, and specifically what he was told when he passed the information on. Did the University attorney tell him to keep the matter confidential? Was he assured that the University would look into the matter? There can be a variety of facts that we do not yet know.

The older I get, the more this sort of rushing to judgment bothers me.

[John Thacker]

And with respect to Paterno -- I am interested in seeing specifically what he was told by McQueary, and specifically what he was told when he passed the information on.

According to the indictment, McQueary claims he was quite specific to JoPa (as well as to Curley and Schultz in a later interview), whereas JoPa reduces it to a vague "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature."

JoPa agreed that McQueary was "very upset."

[Apatheist]

This isn't a court of law and in this instance I think a rush to judgement is entirely appropriate. His act was heinos even by child molestation standards and there doesn't appear to be any question of his guilt.

[Proprietist]

There's enough separate, credible witnesses spread out over a decade and a half at least that, yeah, there's very little room for doubt.

[Dave]

Given patterns of violence against sex offenders and suspected sex offenders, it is only reasonable for Sandusky to go into hiding. You may not have heard about the fact that registered sex offenders are routinely assaulted with impunity, even though most of those offenses are relatively small - but once again the government and media collude to keep the public ignorant. The police simply don't investigate such attacks.

In short, sex offenders (real or imagined) are America's scapegoats. The sins of the majority are heaped upon them, and then they are killed or isolated in an insane orgy of fear and hate.

[Beloved Rev. Blue Moon]

Given that the grand jury dtarted this investigation 18 months ago, and these rumors have been going around 12 years, I would hazard this is no show trial.

[BelowTheRim]

Good point Number 2.

(his name...is number two!)

(his faja Dr. Evil.)

(his farjer?)

[rather]

http://rctlfy.wordpress.com/20.....etire-now/

[rather]

http://rctlfy.wordpress.com/20.....niversity/

[rather]

and http://rctlfy.wordpress.com/20.....niversity/

[R C Dean]

(1) The guy who allegedly witnessed actual abuse, and responded by tiptoeing away to file a report: World class asshole. Wouldn't want him anywhere near my organization.

(2) The higher ups who just passed this along and didn't do any followup at all: exposed as very weak leaders, both morally and organizationally, and termination is quite justified. Yeah, I'm looking at you, JoePa.

(3) Whoever actually sandbagged this so it would die quietly: should go to jail.

All assuming, of course, that early reports are somewhat accurate.

[Tonio]

Thank you, RC. Well said.

[Episiarch]

Agreed 100%.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm in.

[Apatheist]

Just about sums it up.

[John Thacker]

(3) Whoever actually sandbagged this so it would die quietly: should go to jail.

Didn't just sandbag it; the AD and the Senior VP (head of Campus Police, among other things) actively perjured themselves, lying to the Grand Jury about it.

[Gojira]

I would like to add that I believe the children involved should be provided a sandwhich, of their choice, free of charge, from the university, as recompense for what happened to them.

[R]

I would like to add that I believe the children involved should be provided a sandwhich, of their choice, free of charge, a free ride scholarship to the school of their choice from the university, as recompense for what happened to them.

FTFY.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

The version I heard is that Paternoster was given a vague description of "something" happening. He went to the AD as well as the head of the PSU Campus Police Department.

What the fuck else was he supposed to do? The guy was not a school employee at the time. He was not associated with Paterno's staff at the time. He was not acting in a capacity that Paterno's had control over at the time.

Seriously, why the fuck is Paterno's getting railroaded here? People need to look at Sandusky's employment timeline compared to the events timeline. Once they do, they will realize Paterno's did everything he could and should have. McQueary didn't, yet he is still on staff.

[Brett L]

So you'd put that guy back on your staff? I may not be able to fire you over vague allegations of sexual abuse of kids, but I sure don't have to hire you. I, personally, hope that there's a whole lot more firing coming down the line, but this is a decent start.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

He never returned to Paterno's staff after retiring years before the incident McQueary allegedly witnessed. I don't see how this keeps getting misreported. He was a professor emeritus at PSU. He had no coaching job After 1999, a full three years earlier.

[Beloved Rev. Blue Moon]

You want to hazard a guess WHY he had no coaching job after 1999? He was joepa's heir apparent then...nothing. he got no job offers, no

[Beloved Rev. Blue Moon]

Comment truncated,

No job offers, no analyst (har) positions. He was told to quietly go away in exchange for the coverup-

[romulus augustus]

My wife works with a PSU alumni leader who brought Sandusky into several speaking engagements. He laughs at the idea Sandusky was tabbed as Paterno's successor. "Seemed a nice guy and all, tactically a good coach, but was a weak leader and we all knew he'd never get a head coach position."

[Apatheist]

Nice inside information but I still find it unlikely that he wouldn't be hired anywhere as atleast an assistant. PSU is near the top of the food chain, there are plenty of schools even in Div I who would gladly hire him.

[Apatheist]

Yep, he was young for a coach and heir apparent to one of the greatest and yet NOBODY in the country would hire him, not even as an assistant. I call shenanigans! I get the feeling that word got around not to hire this guy.

[Beloved Rev. Blue Moon]

Dude he was a Professor Emeritus and had been banned from bringing kids onto campus.. joepa is getting as much blame as he deserves.

[John Thacker]

The version I heard is that Paternoster was given a vague description of "something" happening. He went to the AD as well as the head of the PSU Campus Police Department.

Read the indictment, which was linked. The Graduate Assistant's version of the story is that he specifically told JoPa that he saw Sandusky analy raping the boy.

JoPa's version of the story is that he was told it was "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature."

Their stories don't exactly match up.

[R C Dean]

What the fuck else was he supposed to do?

Follow. Up. On. It.

When it disappeared into a void, he could have (and should have) asked some very pointed questions. He was in a unique position to make sure the right thing was done. With great power, etc.

If he had any inkling at all that this involved sexual abuse of actual kids, then the great gaping void after his report could and shuold have demanded that he do something to find out what was going on.

Regardless of whether Sandusky was still on his staff or not. This was a kid. Being raped. In your house.

Just filing the proper paperwork doesn't cut it.

[John Thacker]

Just filing the proper paperwork doesn't cut it.

Legally, maybe it's the bare minimum. I don't know.

Morally, it doesn't cut it.

And if football and JoPa specifically are going to have a cult of honor and leadership and "teaching boys to be men" and being a role model and all that, well, doing the bare legal minimum and washing your hands just doesn't cut it.

[Apatheist]

Yeah this isn't 3 months later or something. A whole decade has passed without anything being done. I think Joe Pa is lieing his ass off.

[Dave]

You have to look at this in context. Schools have to deal with false accusations of sexual abuse all the time. One recent study in Britain found that well over half of reported cases were entirely groundless, and only 3% of reported cases were successfully prosecuted.

So if you get a report that something weird is going on, and you know that historically there is a 97% chance that there will not be a conviction, why would you spend much time on follow-up after reporting it to the proper authority? Especially knowing that broadcasting a false accusation could ruin an innocent man?

[Almanian]

I never got the JoePa love.

But I'm a Division 3 product, where the football team was just the kids from Chem and Bio class, and the coach was a guy I still see at church on Sunday and whose kids I went to school with.

And I'm with Numero Dos - I need to see more before I go convict everyone. BUT....if what we've heard so far is anywhere near the truth, fuck all you rioting punkass college kids in the ass with Jerry Sandusky's bloody dick, you fucking biological anomalies.

[Todd]

Here's where Joe Paterno screwed up morally. Not only did he not figure out what the heck was going on after the initial report, but he didn't ask the accused what was going on. Remember, this guy wasn't merely an employee, but Paterno's closest collaborator. If someone I worked with for that long was accused of something like that, you'd better believe there would be a serious heart-to-heart on the matter. That nothing of the sort happened is saddening. It's one thing to be lied to. It's another to never ask the question in the first place.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

He was neither an employee or collaborator when this happened. He quit three years earlier and had no association with the football program.

The reporting on this story is horrible.

[ClubMedSux]

There are former football players who directly dispute that. He may have not technically been an employee, but from what I've heard he had full access to everything and was around all the time. If you have evidence to the contrary, I'm happy to check it out.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

So, you want me to provide evidence that he wasn't somewhere all the time? Ok. Let me know how I'm supposed to prove a negative and I'll get right on it.

Methinks if he was around all the time, there would have been some news stories trumpeting his affiliation with the program between 1999 and 2011. My google search turned up nothing saying he had anything to do with the program until the conjecture reported after this story broke.

[ClubMedSux]

I don't want anything. However, I'm inclined to believe this statement:

"A person familiar with Sandusky's relationship with Penn State told The Associated Press that the former coach long maintained an office in the east locker room of the football team's building, and was on campus as recently as a week ago working out."

unless I'm given a reason to believe it's not true.

[Apatheist]

You are pulling a dunphy on this sloopy. Think about that for a second.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Then I apologize. I just think people are piling on JoePa when there are certainly a shitton of people who should have a lot mre blame heaped upon them, namely the head of campus police (whom JoePa reported it to), the AD and McQueary.

[John Thacker]

namely the head of campus police (whom JoePa reported it to), the AD

What, the two guys who have been fired/resigned and charged with perjury for lying to the Grand Jury? They're getting theirs, and well deserved.

McQueary deserves firing too, not remaining a coach.

[Rob]

Total dunphy. Counselor Dean is 100% correct, except that the Board of Trustees should also resign in shame.

[Todd]

Agreed. He was legally an employee of the university, complete with office, email and a parking pass. Also, Paul Posluszny, a NFL linebacker who played for the team from 2003-2006, reported him as being present at CLOSED practices on a regular basis. Simply put, while he was "around" the team with at least the tacit approval of Joe Paterno.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

If that is true, then I am completely wrong here. I just haven't seen a story that says that and supports it by statements of school officials not named "anonymous."

But I will restate: if that is true, then my defense of JoePa is dead wrong.

[Rob McMillin]

According to the grand jury report, Sandusky had his keys to the football facility stripped (haha) after the incident. So, he may not have been on the payroll but he may as well have been.

[Beloved Rev. Blue Moon]

There is going to be heapbig blame when this shakes out. Google mark madden's "a state secret". Penn state knew for years.

[Almanian Beavis]

Also -

That dude's name is McQueary. McQueary....mmm heh heh...yeah....heh heh....heh heh...McQUEERy...heh heh...heh heh...heh heh....that rules...

[tarran]

Ah yes, the Rather method of linguistic analysis; Report McQUEERry to the agricultureal POLIS for gambol lockdown.

[White Indian]

Why do you have to bring her into all our conversations?

[Whyte Indian]

Why do you have to bring her into all of our discussions?

[rather]

Whyte Indian, just be glad you don't get a picture of his micropenis through email -It's so sad that even my printer asks "what the fuck is wrong with his shit?"

[Warty]

I'm just amazed that Joe Paterno manage to leave in so much more disgrace than Jim Tressel.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Hah Ha! No shit, right? I was embarrassed and sad about the way tOSU scandal went down. But it was a lot better than this unsavory business.

[Nick]

Yeah, what everyone else said.

The second villian in this story is clearly McQueary. I can understand not intervening directly in the incident he witnessed: to see a PSU icon and family friend doing what Sandusky was doing would be unimaginably shocking. That said, once the shock wears off, how the f**k do you not do the right thing and call the police?

It's possible that he downplayed the incident when he described it to Paterno, and that JoePa just didn't grasp the seriousness of the situation, and as such no one up the chain took it seriously either. But the right thing to do would've been to fall on your sword once you realized what was happening under your nose. Even in the best-case scenario, that didn't happen here.

[John Thacker]

It's possible that he downplayed the incident when he described it to Paterno, and that JoePa just didn't grasp the seriousness of the situation, and as such no one up the chain took it seriously either.

If you read the indictment, McQueary not only claims he specifically said it was anal rape to JoPa, he also had a face-to-face meeting with Curley and Schultz where he said that.

JoPa, for his part, downgrades to "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature," and Curley and Schultz deny everything and say that they heard NOTHING.

[John Thacker]

It's possible that the graduate assistant is overstating how directly he told everyone about it. The Grand Jury's opinion is that McQueary was the most credible of the four, though.

[Tulpa]

Excuse me, but if a grown man under your authority is taking a private shower in your team's facilities with a 10 year old boy without the parents around, you have a responsibility to find out WTF is going on.

You can't plausibly say "oh, I had no idea he was molesting the kid!"

[Gojira]

Does smacking the kid in the forehead with his penis count as "molesting"?

[Dave]

Keep in mind that Sandusky and Paterno are from a generation in which the men and boys swam at the YMCA and women and girls swam at the YWCA because everyone swam stark naked. This is something that has been whitewashed from our history, but I have known quite a few people who have confirmed that this was the norm in the 1950s and not uncommon in the 1960s.

So, men of this age would find nothing strange or controversial about men and boys showering nude together in the locker room. The moral panic didn't start until the mid-1970s, and much of the older generations still don't really understand what happened.

[Almanian]

OH! Speaking of "hung around too long", I meant to mention one of my all time faves, Woodrow Hayes. I LOVED that guy when I was a kid.

He stayed around juuuust long enough to go utterly, COMPLETELY batshit crazy (you could see the signs building) and punch that kid from Clemson or wherever...DOWN GOES WOODY, DOWN GOES WOODY, DOWN GOES WOODY!

And OSU/UM has never been the same since.

[Mitt Romney]

Those young men at the front of the overturned media van are Muslims and probably terrorists. I know. I can tell by looking.

[Killer-Drone Barry]

Thanks for the heads up, Mittens. LAUNCH!

[CE]

They should have learned from the Vancouver riots to not let their faces be photographed. They will be tracked down on Facebook no doubt.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

At least as important as what is happening at PennState: The Ohio State University is self-imposing a reduction in scholarships by 5 over the next three years because kids in it's program traded their own property for tattoos and a few others got paid mileage for driving to, and working at, a charity golf tournament.

[Beloved Rev. Blue Moon]

Gene Smith, despite past retardation, is a genius here. Release a minor infraction penalty in this shitstorm? Awesome.

[ClubMedSux]

Another thing I would add that certainly tarnishes my opinion of JoePa. Even if he truly is innocent of ANY wrongdoing (legal or moral), it seems clear to me that if he truly had the best interest of the current players and the school in mind he would have stepped down. Instead he had the gall to announce he would retire AT THE END OF THE SEASON. And then he doubled down by suggesting that his announcement would mean the Board of Trustees wouldn't have to worry about him. It was an incredible display of arrogance and/or na?vet? (I would guess a healthy dose of both).

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

I do agree with this. That was the height of hubris.

[Joshua]

Yiddish AND French?! You're feisty today!

[R C Dean]

Oy vey! C'est la vie?

[pgt]

Once again Tim Cavanaugh gets everything wrong, especially his "Moral: Retire at 70" applied here.
If Paterno retires at 70 and nothing else happens his heir apparent is Sandusky. Instead he stays on and makes it clear that line of succession won't happen.
To do that he remained at a position with responsibilities beyond his remaining capability. Those around him had to know that but they wanted to continue a fiction just as much as Joe did. Responsible decision making around the aging figurehead mostly muddled through on the field and, as we now know, broke down completely elsewhere.
As for Mike McQueary, several ignorant comments have been posted here. James Leroy Wilson wrote an insightful column yesterday, posted by Thomas Knapp. Here is my ineffective attempt at posting a link.
http://partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=3686

[Beloved Rev. Blue Moon]

If the child pimping rumors are true, PSU would have to close entirely.

[Zombie Jimbo]

If those rumors are true, I want the salt concession when State College is plowed under and sowed with salt.

[Mr. FIFY]

Stupid shits rioting and destroying property, yet again.

Welcome to the future. The Occutard movement should be ratcheting up the violence soon, if this sort of incident is any indication.

[OccupyPennState]

OPS: Hey, no snitch rule, don't tell the Man. We'll handle it.

Q: Wait, we're a STATE institution. Aren't we the Man??

OPS: Yeah, we'll handle it.

[JoePa's Legacy]

Has left Woody Hayes in the dust; has OJ in his sights.

[Penn State Pope]

Dozens of resignations from the Penn State hierarchy need to be submitted before I'll be happy. My own included....

[Mr. Mark]

Thoughts of atheists on the worship of sports and entertainment figures?

[Apatheist]

Nothing to do with the existence of God as it seems to be a common trait worldwide whatever the religion/non-religion of the people.

[Fartriloquist]

Absurd, but if the owners of a country can persuade the masses that crap like fuhball matters, that's a lot of time and energy diverted from stuff that actually does.

[ChrisO]

The 1998 incident is the key to this whole thing. The university police investigation had Sandusky dead to rights, then all of a sudden the Commonwealth's Attorney decides not to prosecute and the investigation is shut down. All supposedly without the knowledge of Joe Paterno.

Right.

[ChrisO]

Oh, and that district attorney? He's missing and presumed dead under mysterious circumstances. His laptop was found in the Susquehanna River with its hard drive missing.

[Sharkweek]

They found the hard drive, but it was too damaged to get any information from, and a search of his home computer showed that he was looking up, "how to wreck a hard drive" May or may not be related, district attorneys can make more than one enemy at a time and could have plenty of reasons to want to destroy evidence.

[Colonel_Angus]

Knocking over a broadcast van is pretty badass. I don't even give a fuck.

[hello?]

What does this have to do with "free minds and free markets"?

[Apatheist]

Penn State is a part of the Penn. government. These were government officials who covered up the rape of a child. Enough of a nexus for you?

[Sailor]

alleged rape, right? Just hearing about this.

[Apatheist]

This isn't a court of law and I'm not a journalist. I think once you read all about this clusterfuck you'll start dropping the alleged too.

[Sailor]

I have no intentions of reading more about this. I dislike football and rape.

[Apatheist]

Good luck, it is going to be everywhere for a while.

[Another Phil]

Drink!

[NAMBLA]

We're libertarians too.

[A fan]

Does NAMBLA gambola?

[NAMBLA]

Sure, why not? Anything goes! Except sheep.
We're anarcho-libertarians, not perverts.

[NAMSLA]

What have you got against sheep, you jack-booted thugs?

[NAMBLA]

The pretty ones? Nothing at all. We let the regular libertarians have 'em.

[Rob]

This story gets uglier by the day. It's tragic that the well being of children is considered of less value to some than the reputation of Paterno or what some are referring to as Pedophile State. The other tragedy is that the original report went to Paterno instead of the police (as PA law requires, methinks) and then from Paterno to another staffer instead of the police. I wonder why Paterno made that decision?

[John Thacker]

Cowardice. Paterno didn't want to be the one to talk to the police or turn his friend in or confront him. A coward.

[Tulpa]

Consider that our nation might have been spared the sight of Brett Favre's penis had the greatest quarterback in NFL history taken his curtain call gracefully.

How would Joe Montana's retirement have prevented Brett Favre's penis from being exposed?

[Tulpa]

What I don't get about this is that a couple of years ago, Dave Wannstedt was fired as coach at Pitt because they didn't win the Big East.

Yet people are acting as if firing JoePa requires a trial and conviction for felonious conduct.

[Apatheist]

Seriously, he could easily have suffered greater consequences than being forced to retire in his 80s.

[Esteban]

Wow I'd forgotten about that game. Lotsa Miami turnovers.

Oh and Penn State. Glad you fired the old guy finally. You should have forced him out 10 years ago.

[Stevie One Leg]

Sandusky's autobiography is appropriately titled.

http://www.amazon.com/Touched-.....163&sr=8-1

[DEG]

Penn State is a part of the Penn. government. These were government officials who covered up the rape of a child. Enough of a nexus for you?

Penn State isn't state owned. When I was at Penn State, they liked to play the game of "We're a public institution!"/"We're a private institution!" based on what was convenient for it.

Penn State gets lots of freebies from the state like an exemption from paying taxes. The governor and a few other state elected officials sit on the Board of Trustees.

I've heard that some Penn State employees are a part of the state government's employee pension program, though I'm not sure if they're considered actual government employees. During my time working for the University, I wasn't considered a state employee and I did have any access to the state employee pension system.

[The Other John]

Distinction without a difference.
The State of PA gives the school $.
The school has one tuition for PA residents and another for Out-of-Staters.

"Not a State School": We can pay our people crazy money without legitimate public scrutiny because we're a "private institution".

[rather]

The grand jury transcripts are brutal according to media reports
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/uploadedFiles/Press/Sandusky-Grand-Jury-Presentment.pdf
These men put football, and their wallets ahead of these little boys.  Anybody who knew, and kept it quiet has a diseased soul

[Michael Ejercito]

There is one factor to consider.

If the accusation against Sandusky failed to result in an indictment (as it did in the 1990's), then the university, and perhaps Paterno in his personal capacity, would have been open to a slander suit.

Paterno himself did not witness the purpoted crime; McQueary did. If Paterno went to the press or the public, he would essentially be making an accusation on the basis of second-hand information.

Now, it is obvious McQueary did not report the incident to the police at the time. And it is blameworthy for Paterno to have failed to fire McQueary for this conduct, either because McQueary failed to report a sex crime committed on Penn State grounds (assuming it happened) or slandered Sandusky (assuming it did not happen) But there was neither legal not ethical duty to pass on second-hand information. To illustrate it better, suppose someone told me that one of you committed child rape? Would I have a moral duty to go to the police, instead of telling, advising, or encouraging that someone to tell the truth to the police?

We all know what happened to Grant Snowden, Gerald Amirault, and Tonya Craft. We all know what happened in Duke University and Kern County. And we should keep those incidents in mind when judging this incident.

[rather]

The why we have trials; I know a man who is in this position, and the law has treated him unfairly.

If the police had been called, and even the next day, the showers would have had DNA evidence.

The child's anus is likely damaged indicating sodomy, and biological evidence.

You have to look at the facts of the case, it isn't ten year olds making the accusation but men who are now in their twenties. I 've forgotten the number but we all know some of them will never be accounted for

[Rob]

This clusterfuck of a news story just got Herman Cain off the hook.

[Tulpa]

To illustrate it better, suppose someone told me that one of you committed child rape?

Not even remotely comparable. You don't even know who any of us are so you couldn't report us to the police even if you wanted, and the alleged rape had nothing to do with you or any institution you're connected to, let alone have authority at. Poor analogy.

A better analogy would be if you were the manager of a Discovery Zone and received reports that an employee was raping kids in the ball pit.

We all know what happened to Grant Snowden, Gerald Amirault, and Tonya Craft. We all know what happened in Duke University and Kern County.

Yes, they were unjustly prosecuted. Which no one is saying Paterno should be.

[rather]

Tulpa, if he his a licensed teacher, and I really had never heard of him before this, yes, he has a legal obligation. Further, he may be contractually be obligated to report misconduct by students , or staff

[Marc Jacobs]

Speaking of the U.S. fashion industry, a handful of the few big-name designers. However, you must not forget Marc Jacobs. His designs are generally free, but the product is designed themselves. For example: Marc Jacobs Handbag, Marc by Marc Jacobs Handbag. In fact, his decks Marc by Marc Jacobs also stand out in the fashion industry. Marc by Marc Jacobs Bags as many types of styles, has also been sought after by many big Hollywood stars.

[*.*]

All is not well in fap fap fap fappy valley.

Too soon?

[Magic 8-Ball]

Signs point to yes.

[Rob McMillin]

In fact, Paterno's shameful end testifies to a problem that is more prevalent than either child sex abuse or connivance at evidence of sex crimes.

Yes, the existence of NCAA Division I football programs.

[BelowTheRim]

Cavanaugh, I used to respect you. Maybe I still do if you stopped writing about things you are clueless on.

1) Don't you dare tell people when to retire. Work until you no longer wish to work or no one wishes to employ your services. Stop being ignorant.

2) You have no idea where the breakdown between McQueary and Paterno manifested---because there has been no due process in any of this nonsense. McQueary still has a job and he did NOTHING to stop the alleged molestation short of notifying Paterno. No physical intervention, no calling police.

3) Stop calling protesters of Paterno's firing "Rioters". Are you a damn fool? Do you not support peaceful protest, which is what most of you so called "rioters" were doing? Most weren't destroying property or engaging in violence. Some were, shame the ladder and stop conflating the two.

5) You prove you know nothing about sports or sports history if you thing Favre was the best QB ever. But what the hell does that misguided opinion have to do with JoePa? Nothing. Favre won 1 superbowl and has thrown more interceptions than anyone in history. Favre has been overrated for a long time. I suppose you are going to tell me that Barry Bonds is the greatest baseball player ever too?

I often stand up for this publication. You don't help with your insane writing. Maybe you should work for ESPN because you basically, in one article, just spitballed major points of their corrupt media agenda.

[Nike Dunk Low]

thanks

[han]

As the Times publicly noted, they found no problem with any of the reporting I had done for them on OWS

[?????]

http://www.2l3abgame.com/2014/09/Cars-Games.html
http://www.2l3abgame.com/2014/10/Zombie-Cage.html

[?????]

http://www.2l3abgame.com/2015/.....rfers.html
http://www.2l3abgame.com/2014/10/kiss-love.html