More To The Story At Penn State

Back in 1999, I was driving into State College for a Penn State football game, listening to the pregame show on the radio.

They were interviewing Jerry Sandusky about his impending retirement. The play-by-play man asked him how much he had enjoyed working with Joe Paterno.

“Nobody enjoys working for Joe,” Sandusky said. “He’s hard on everyone. He demands perfection, and perfection is hard to achieve. And he lets you know about it when you fall short.”

The host sort of recoiled from the answer, but the color man cackled and said, “Yeah, Joe and Jerry don’t exactly see eye to eye.”

That’s what makes the defense of Joe Paterno offered by Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post and others so absolutely misguided. Jenkins’ idea was to call a shrink and ask him about the psychology of reporting one’s friends for the acts of which Sandusky has been accused.

But Sandusky wasn’t a friend. He was a co-worker, an underling – and one, by then, whom Paterno knew to be capable of some ghastly things. So what if we rethink this and view Paterno not as a man of honor who protected his friend out of misguided loyalty but as CEO of a corporation – which, essentially, is what a major college football coach is – who has discovered misdeeds by a top executive?

And make no mistake, whether he liked him or not, Paterno did protect Sandusky. He knew about the 1999 incident. He knew about the 2002 incident. He probably knew much more. Yet, he allowed this alleged predator to go on for another decade, even though he knew Sandusky was a foster parent and head of a charity that brought vulnerable children into his orbit.

And remember, Sandusky would be on the loose today if it were up to Joe Paterno. The coach can say what he wants about hindsight. But for hindsight to be meaningful, it has to come before the frog march. Ask Jack Abramoff.

The I-told-my-boss defense also does not fly for Joe. It’s fine if you start out that way. You tell your boss. You get the paper for a week. If you don’t see a story in the paper about what you told your boss, you take other action. Particularly if you’re Joe Paterno.

Because if you’re Joe Paterno, your boss – the athletic director – is not actually your boss. He can’t fire you – the AD tried once, with the help of the president of the university, and Joe rebuffed it. He can’t discipline you – Paterno’s version of right and wrong is infinitely more credible than the ADs to the people who care about Penn State football. And the performance review is done by the TV-watching, ticket-buying, suite-reserving, game-attending public, which cares all about Ws and Ls and nothing about your opinion.

It’s a little more complicated if you’re Mike McQueary. To him, Joe is much more than a friend. He is a mentor, a boss, an example of what manhood and leadership are supposed to be. If he thinks the Sandusky secret should stay in-house, it is not as easy to go against this. But go against this you must.

But back to the original question: If Paterno didn’t protect Sandusky out of friendship and loyalty, then why? And why did those whose ties are not as strong – the president of the school, the VP of finance, the athletic director – not only not come forward but affirmatively lie on Sandusky’s behalf?

There is a good chance the AD and vice president could go to prison for awhile … and perhaps longer if more details emerge.

And how big is this cone of silence? Does it include the university police? The local police? Other state officials and/or office-holders? And, again, why? What are these victims to make of the community they live in and the men who run it? Did nobody care about them enough to stand up and stop this?

This time last week, we all assumed these were decent men. The rioters in State College obviously still think Paterno is.

Why then? Why was this hidden? A lot of people think the secret inside the secret has been revealed – what on earth could be worse than a 40-count indictment for child molestation? But some other secret was bigger. That secret is worth keeping even if it means prison for some of the top officials at Penn State and, for Paterno, the loss of the job that seemed to be his for life and a reputation envied by all in his profession.

With numbers come safety, in that they can't/won't finger each other, but they CAN pull strings to quash any investigation of the procurer.

IMHO, a theory (speculation):

a) Sandusky played for Paterno at Penn State from 1963 to 1965
b) He held assistant coaching positions at Juniata College (1967) and Boston University (1968) then returned to Penn State in 1969 as an assistant coach until his 1999 retirement.
c) Sandusky had opportunities for head coaching positions, including with U of Maryland in 1991, but turned them down. Hmmm... why.... (speculating starts here)
d) Sandusky gets the idea back in the 70's to start this kids organization to see it can help with his "urges" he's always had. He starts the Second Mile in 1977. It gives him everything he wants for himself. He never would want to leave his Penn State job and Pennsylvania as long as he has this charity going as it's his source of victims that he put so much effort into and would stick out like a sore thumb if he started another one in another state.
e) Slowly here and there in talking he comes across others interested in what he has. He accomodates them and starts charging them; nice cash payments.
f) after he starts the group, he comes into contact with a lot of wealthy people as he looks for donors
g) pedophiles absolutely know that such a charity is the mother of all motherlodes of potential victims, so they approach him and discretely inquire.
h) he accomodates whoever asks, and their donations form the perfect payment for illicit services rendered: they're hidden in plain sight, they provide indirect benefit in keeping the charity going but they are completely legitimate. He does not have to hide a lot of illegal cash, he just deposits donations into the charity's bank account. The payments are even tax deductible to the client (how sick is that ?). Not only that - it is impossible for the client's wife to know what is going on and she might even be writing the checks with a big smile.
i) Sandusky keeps detailed records of clients; he realizes that this trail of evidence is, in effect, a license to rape once he gets enough important people on the list, since it would blow up the Penn State football program in a Pedapolyptic PR disaster if the evidence ever went public, as clients are inside Penn State, others are well-known figures. Once he has all these "donating" clients, he can't stop filling orders, or the donations will rather suddenly dry up. He has to continue running the organization and stay very actively involved with the kids in order to keep the supply of victims; no one else can justify spending that much alone time with the kids and if anyone else is involved in that part of his operation he risks that person turning him in or trying to shake him down for more money.
j) Perhaps McQueary was a victim (another theory floating around FR) as a child, perhaps not. So perhaps Paterno found out about Sandusky's foulness in the 60's, 70's, 80's, maybe not until 1998. But he did find out in 1998 for sure. In any case - Sandusky has to convince Paterno to give him another chance just the first time, just once. Once Paterno agrees to not go to the police and does not insist on immediate prosecution of his former player, Paterno himself has broken the law by not reporting him since Penn State is a public school. And most certainly Paterno's reputation would go down with Sandusky's if it came out that he protected him. By the time the 1998 accusation pops up, Sandusky simply responds to the Attorney General and PSU administration with this: you take me down - and I take your football program down. PSU goes down hard in the mother of all PR scandals. But Jerry, they say, we know what you're doin', you are looking at hard time here with this accuser we have (the 1998 rape). He says listen, I've got files. The AG says lemme see'em, Jerry gives him a copy. That's what's on the AG's hard drive that can't be recovered. Some backchannel conversations take place, the list is checked out a little, at which time the AG gets the feeling that HIS life is in Jeopardy (I'll take scandals for $1200 Alex). The agreement is then made that Jerry will retire after 1999 - we don't prosecute you - you keep our reputation spotless. You harm the PSU reputation and the deal's off.
k) The negotiators feel like they've "saved" the program at Penn State. Jerry feels like a King - he thinks he won. He gets to run his business and pursue his gruesome hobby after 1999 - FULL TIME ! He keeps getting more daring, attacking more boys.
l) The 2002 rape is witnessed by McQueary, who's in way over his pay grade, he's scared to death of what to do. There are more negotiations, backchannel communication, coverup, but by 2005 Gricar the AG from 1998 is wetting himself with fear - clients know that he had the client list. The rumors are starting to circulate much more widely, and Jerry is acting as though he is BOUND to be caught again, which, if he's prosecuted for real, it would be the end of Gricar's career and reputation for failing to prosecute the 1998 case. He plans his disappearance/fake death, with a scene having an unrecoverable disk - his signal to all who read the news story that he is a) disappearing forever and b) no longer a threat to blow the whistle.

A new John Grisham novel: The Coach

("The Program" title has already been made into a movie that's nowhere near as complex a story)

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