Posted on 11/07/2011 9:23:41 PM PST by Colofornian
For every moment Joe Paterno keeps his job as Penn State's head coach, the institution as a whole and the athletic department in particular loses a significant amount of credibility.
Paterno must be fired immediately for not appropriately reporting his knowledge of the despicable, horrific, mortifying, inhumane sexual crimes Jerry Sandusky is accused of committing against young boys -- some of which happened at Penn State's athletic facilities, according to a Pennsylvania attorney general report. The problem, though, is some of the people in charge of making such a decision to fire Paterno have been equally culpable of failing to properly investigate and report Sandusky's alleged actions.
For that, the parties who turned away from the allegations are just as deplorable of human beings. Their ability to hold positions of power at an educational institution is disgustingly pathetic and disturbing. Everyone involved with Penn State has to feel ashamed that the school's greatest icon can hear claims of rape on campus and fail to notify the police.
Part of the irony is Paterno almost certainly swept it under the rug in 2002 to preserve his reputation as one of the greatest coaches in sports history. He protected Sandusky -- Paterno's assistant for more than three decades and a heralded defensive coordinator who was considered to be Paterno's successor before retiring in 1999 -- to keep his program's sterling record intact.
Now, with the truth laid out in court records, Paterno's abhorrent irresponsibility should be his undoing. It shouldn't just be a stain on his Hall of Fame résumé. It should be the single most dominant aspect of a shattered reputation.
Whether Sandusky is found guilty is not the issue here. Paterno was told of at least one alleged incident when Sandusky was raping a boy in the showers of a Penn State football locker room, the report states. Paterno passed the information along to athletic director Tim Curley a day later, according to the report, attended a meeting about the incident and then never let it publicly surface.
This should never have been about football or a chain of command at a university. From the moment Paterno knew of these allegations, he should have made sure they were handled appropriately. He is responsible for that much -- if not for being the figurehead of the university, then for acting like an actual human being.
Sandusky may have destroyed countless lives with sick, twisted selfishness. (If you've got the stomach for it, you can read the grand jury testimony here or the attorney general's press release here.) The mental anguish of the victims will haunt them for an eternity, and the helpless feeling of their families will extend to no end.
And this is what Penn State stands for? Is that worth the sanctity of two national championships or the race to boast the winningest coach in college football history?
If so, Sandusky's alleged path of destruction deterred the judgment of everyone around him at Penn State. By not acting, Paterno, Curley and the university's senior vice president, Gary Schultz, used their moral compass to deem appalling behavior of which Sandusky is accused as actually acceptable enough to protect some victories on the football field.
The totality of this merits one of the most disgusting scandals in sports history.
For this, Paterno's legacy as a brilliant football mind means nothing -- absolutely nothing. His lack of judgment, as a human being in charge of representing so much for Penn State and the college football world, is pathetic.
Paterno no longer deserves to go out on his own accord. He lost that freedom nearly a decade ago, even if it's only being brought to light now.
Sandusky has been painted as a dirtbag whose revolting actions were concealed by Paterno. Penn State must fire the legendary coach immediately if it wants to save the smallest iota of decency.
Agree 100%. Throw the book at Sandusky but wait until all the facts are out before condemning Paterno. Everyone from the president to Hollywood to liberal parents and teachers think it’s A-OK to push the homosexual agenda on our children as normal behavior and are shocked when a horrific story like this surfaces. it’s degenerate homosexual behavior as well pedophilia.
I’m still kind of confused about the graduate assistant who apparently walks in on a grown man sodomizing a little boy, and then goes....and calls his father?!?
How long should we wait to find out why Schultz, Curley, Paterno, McQueary and Spanier didn’t call the cops? Or to find out why Sandusky was allowed on campus recently, or why he was allowed to conduct camps at satellite campuses? Just curious.
This is yet another situation that reminds me of the ancient Greek story where the closing thought was: you can't judge whether a man has lived a good/happy life until the very end of his life. Certainly nearly everyone would have agreed just a week ago that Paterno had lived an exemplary life. A role model. A great coach. A living legend. Someone whose name would echo down the ages as a worthy man and a great leader of men. But now? Now his whole life is thrown into a totally different light. His legacy is on the verge of ruin and will likely be forced to resign in disgrace. It is truly stunning. No one could have predicted this.
I agree with you. Until the "almost certainly" is changed to "proven guilty", I'm inclined to untie him from the stake......
Thanks for the link.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that you actually started a thread that didn’t somehow connect the Mormon Church to this scandal.
After doing a Google search using “Joe Paterno + Mormon” keywords I found that you already had done so here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2803939/posts
It must have been disappointing to you after your exhaustive search to find out that he is not Mormon.
Maybe next time.....
Something else....if a coach had been accused of raping female students, women's rights groups would be all over that campus. Where are the children's advocacy groups? Has anyone seen any of them anywhere, in the media or on that campus? Why does the assault of adult women inspire more outrage and protest than the assault of children?
ESPN radio mentioning the Gricar angle......Gricar’s the DA who refused to prosecute and later disappeared.
I agree with you.
For all the crap and criticism that gets thrown at college sports, particularly "revenue" sports, some of it deserved...
Now this happens. I've never really felt strongly about PSU either way, although I enjoyed it when they showed up in ties and beat Miami back in 1986 or whenever...
I'll just have to say that was in Joe Paterno's prime and that whatever happened here, later, might have been something like "Joe, you just go look like you're coaching football and let us take care of this."
I ain't sayin' it's right, I'm just sayin'...
I'll leave it to the folks in PA who oughta be showing up at the university today to get to the consequences.
You know, sports journalists are not all one monolithic beast that move & operate as one tentacled giant.
However, you wanted him to go some quest without all the facts...
He had one fact in front of him: A reliable eyewitness who saw his former defensive coach sodomizing a kid.
Secondly if you bothered to read what the prosecution has put out, this wasn't new news. There was already info flying about in 1998. And the prosecution condemns people like Schultz for doing nothing then as well.
It’s obvious you have some sort of beef agains Joe Paterno
There ya go again. Judging internal motives. I guess you just can't help yourself. You'd rather side with the pedophiles and those who cover their sodomy rapes up that mention even a single word about the victims.
You're pathetic like the Penn State crowd.
(How many of them were boys?)
I have nothing against Paterno, Penn State, and until this thread, really had no idea about his politics (couldn’t care less). So you will not be able to use your rather spurious argument against me.
Let’s put you, sprite, in Joe’s shoes.
Someone you have trusted for decades is accused of homosexually raping an at-risk, vulnerable child in a univ facility. And you have been given a first hand account by a witness to the crime.
What would you do?
What Joe did? Or something more?
It is my understnading that Joe learned of it SECOND HAND and did not witness it FIRST HAND. Agree with you if he saw it first hand. If you witness it, then that is where you need to draw the line.
This is what to do when learning something like this second hand. Do whatever the policy say to do... Then that is what I would do. There are so many laws and lawyers in a business (yes a college is a business)... you have to follow what are the proper steps. You can’t go on some Vigelante mission. It will only backfire on you. Now that is what I understand Joe did back in 2002 when he heard something second hand.
Now if Joe eye witnessed it, then like I said he did not do enough. However, I don’t think that is the case.
Please excuse my spelling and grammar mistakes.
It is my understnading that Joe learned of it SECOND HAND and did not witness it FIRST HAND.
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And if you were reading this thread without blood in your eyes, you would have seen that is exactly what I wrote.
What you are calling second hand information the courts refer to as eyewitness testimony.
Yes, Joe Paterno did the absolute minimum he was supposed to have done. And in the case of homosexual rape by authority figures, that’s good enough for you.
OK. I guess I expect a bit more.
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