Posted on 11/12/2011 8:13:38 AM PST by Kaslin
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.”
The color man was George Paterno, brother of the coach.
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.
That must be one hell of a secret.
The people around him knew. There had to be ribald locker room jokes and rumors about his proclivities.
Yep. More to this story than has come out. The old media acting aghast at a homosexual, child-raping pedophile is not their normal behavior, or they’d have run Barney Frank out of the country.
Bingo. The best insight is from people who report on and participate in other major college sports programs. These types are the best rebuff to all the pederast-enablers that have suddenly revealed themselves on FR.
Hopefully the “secret” is not as horrific as the one Mark Madden put out on Wednesday.
Has anyone every worked in an office? How much stuff do you know about people's private lives? (whether you want to know, or not) The more salacious, the more it spreads.
Let's be brutally honest. This is way beyond a few people knowing.
Rumor has it that the creep gave access to boys for other freaks. Could be an entire ring of depravity.
Sometimes, I don’t want to or feel the need to comment further, but just to agree with the previous posts.
FreeRepublic needs a “like” button like FaceBook.
I don’t think it is a secret. I think all Paterno and the administrators could see was money.
Questions abound now but with all the parties being inolved to one extent or another it does give one to question what "else" is being hidden more sinister. Hopefully the rumors are not true...but as this moves forward there does appear more was going on then what we have yet to learn.
The grand jury also noted that the 1998 report involving Sandusky and boys in the showers was reviewed by University Police and Child Protective Services, with the blessing of Wendell Courtney, who at the time served as University Counsel and was (and remains) counsel to The Second Mile - though no criminal charges were ever pursued.
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/press.aspx?id=6270
It is not possible that Wendell Courtney did not know Sandusky was an active pedophile.
I "second" that. I have been thinking that a lot lately.
Some people need to be lined up against a wall and shot.
I wonder where he is now?
The NCAA needs to shut down the football Sandusky's Perversion has been well know Paterno was receiving a million dollars
a year to keep quiet; Hush money.
program at Pederast University.
for over 15 years.
Department heads are shaking in fear.
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