Sex Abuse Scandal Rocks Penn State

[Ruhskins]

Also, isn't the Athletic Director technically on leave right now? Shouldn't he be fired as well? He's the guy that Paterno reported to I believe.

[Dirtbag59]

Bomani Jones on Around the Horn had a great point that with the firing of Joe Pa saying Penn State is doing the same thing it's been doing. Protecting the institution.

[Hog1]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag59

Bomani Jones on Around the Horn had a great point that with the firing of Joe Pa saying Penn State is doing the same thing it's been doing. Protecting the institution.

I think that philosophy will prove to have been in error.......

[NC_Skins]

Smoot. Do me a favor and give Mark May a hug for me.

May- Everyone At Penn State Must Go - ESPN Video - ESPN

Love this rant from him.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by NC_Skins

Smoot. Do me a favor and give Mark May a hug for me.

May- Everyone At Penn State Must Go - ESPN Video - ESPN

Love this rant from him.

I loved his rants to. He said all the things that needed to be said but in the back of my head I kept hearing "Pittsburgh Alum" "Pittsburgh Alum"

Slight conflict of interest

Same goes for Kirk Herbstreet, everything he's said about the situation has been dead on but with him to I keep on hearing the voice in the back of my head saying "Ohio State Alum" "Ohio State Alum."

Wait, whats that voice? Oh no we can't do that, theres no way we'd ever get away with it. Hey guys I have to go.

[saden1]

I just want to know what their thinking was in this whole mater from the beginning. You have an incident in 1998 that you could have handled immediately but you got caught in a game of "keep it a secret" and the problem will go away. Years later a graduate assistant coach sees a little boy being rapped at your facilities and you thought to yourself we got to cover this shit up so revelation of our past handling of similar matter wouldn't surface?


Where is the logic in covering up for Sandusky? Was the intent to save the institution from embarrassment and liability? It's hand for my brain to handle the madness....and the really sad part is Sandusky wanted to get caught only no one wanted to catch him.

[NC_Skins]

YOu want to know the kind of people supporting Joe Paterno, well here you go.

Sister of Jerry Sandusky victim talks about the pain of life at Penn State where students are joking about being 'Sanduskied' | PennLive.com

[itvnetop]

I think the fact McQueary didn't react when he witnessed what he did is twofold. The easy answer is that the man lacks a sense of moral compass... hence everyone else outside the situation is incredulous by his response (going to his dad first). The other answer may reflect more about the culture at Penn State. McQueary's a former QB, definitely athletic enough to do something about what he saw. A former D1 football player, where most men have grown up their entire lives in an alpha-male environment... Normally one where instinct would have driven McQueary to act immediately.

But because he didn't, I'm wondering if the program is placed on such a pedestal that a simple graduate assistant's first reaction is one part fear of retribution and the other part filial obedience to the deific football culture. We can hypothesize all day, but I'm wondering if McQuery reacts differently had he gone to another school. This isn't to say Penn State breeds cowards or miscreants... I've never been to Happy Valley. But perhaps Nemo can shed some light here: Is football bigger than life at Penn State? I've witnessed Texas high school football, SEC country, etc. While those areas are highly fanatical, is pigskin almost transcendental at your alma mater?

The cover-ups, the demonstrations (in spite of), the general student body and alumni reaction... it's just too strange to ignore. I was reading a Penn State forum last night and some guy was recanting a talk he had with his daughter earlier. I can't sift through all of the posts now, but it went something like this (paraphrasing from memory):

Daughter: Why did Joe hurt that little boy?
Dad: It wasn't Joe. It was another man.
Daughter: Why didn't he stop it?
Dad: He didn't see it. Another man did and then told him about it.
Daughter: Did Joe help?
Dad: Yes, he told his boss.
Daughter: So he did something good?
Dad: Yes.
Daughter: So why is he getting fired? If you do something good, why does something bad happen to you?

Then the dad said he was at a loss for words and couldn't answer his daughter's last question. Then there were several replies commending this frustration. My initial thought was, "Dude, your daughter was on the right track (post first question). You totally swayed her to believe that Joe is a total victim! Why would you raise your daughter to believe this man's lack of action is not only acceptable... but a good thing?"

I sincerely don't believe these are evil people. I'm starting to think the minds of many within this community have been twisted by an abnormally prioritized culture.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by itvnetop

I think the fact McQueary didn't react when he witnessed what he did is twofold. The easy answer is that the man lacks a sense of moral compass... hence everyone else outside the situation is incredulous by his response (going to his dad first). The other answer may reflect more about the culture at Penn State. McQueary's a former QB, definitely athletic enough to do something about what he saw. A former D1 football player, where most men have grown up their entire lives in an alpha-male environment... Normally one where instinct would have driven McQueary to act immediately.

But because he didn't, I'm wondering if the program is placed on such a pedestal that a simple graduate assistant's first reaction is one part fear of retribution and the other part filial obedience to the deific football culture. We can hypothesize all day, but I'm wondering if McQuery reacts differently had he gone to another school. This isn't to say Penn State breeds cowards or miscreants... I've never been to Happy Valley. But perhaps Nemo can shed some light here: Is football bigger than life at Penn State? I've witnessed Texas high school football, SEC country, etc. While those areas are highly fanatical, is pigskin almost transcendental at your alma mater?

The cover-ups, the demonstrations (in spite of), the general student body and alumni reaction... it's just too strange to ignore. I was reading a Penn State forum last night and some guy was recanting a talk he had with his daughter earlier. I can't sift through all of the posts now, but it went something like this (paraphrasing from memory):

Daughter: Why did Joe hurt that little boy?
Dad: It wasn't Joe. It was another man.
Daughter: Why didn't he stop it?
Dad: He didn't see it. Another man did and then told him about it.
Daughter: Did Joe help?
Dad: Yes, he told his boss.
Daughter: So he did something good?
Dad: Yes.
Daughter: So why is he getting fired? If you do something good, why does something bad happen to you?

Then the dad said he was at a loss for words and couldn't answer his daughter's last question. Then there were several replies commending this frustration. My initial thought was, "Dude, your daughter was on the right track (post first question). You totally swayed her to believe that Joe is a total victim! Why would you raise your daughter to believe this man's lack of action is not only acceptable... but a good thing?"

I sincerely don't believe these are evil people. I'm starting to think the minds of many within this community have been twisted by an abnormally prioritized culture.

This...and I don't think it is isolated to PSU. The football life/culture is one where it consumes you...everything in your life becomes integrated with football. It is the way it works at a place like PSU...it is why coaches are so revered. My guess is that by going to Paterno he was going to GOD. And GOD was the one who could handle this the right way in the football world...where he lived and breathed. Remember in that place Paterno was above the police. He was above EVERYONE.

Look, none of us see something like that and run to our BOSS. The notion is silly. But none of us work in an industry that is nearly as insular and over-whelming and so life-consuming.

None of this is to say he was right...it's to say that I'm not surprised by his actions and I wouldn't be surprised if given the choice over he wouldn't do the same thing. In the skewed world of college football the moral decision was to go to GOD.

[NC_Skins]

@SPORTSbyBROOKS

SPORTSbyBROOKS A source close to Penn St football indicated to me this afternoon it is now a virtual certainty McQueary will not coach Saturday.


@SPORTSbyBROOKS

SPORTSbyBROOKS Source also said to expect an announcement to that effect as early as later today or tomorrow at the latest.
22 minutes ago via

[SmootSmack]

NBC says Paterno has hired a criminal defense lawyer

To the dads here. You're watching SportsCenter your kids are in the room. Maybe they like to watch with you. Maybe you're both big sports fans. How are you handling this? Do you shield them from the news? Try to explain it?

[mooby]

Nemo, I am willing to concede that you know more about people that go to Penn State than I do. You, obviously having gone there know way more people than the 2 I know that went there, and that are the basis for my opinion that Penn State is known more as a football/party type school than one of the most highly regarded schools in the nation.

My point is not to insult the people that went to Penn State, but yes, obviously I am against students that riot in support of a coach who knowingly did nothing about his rapist friend. But don't make me out to just be running around spewing blind hatred when that's not the case at all.

I mean really, my entire point of this horrible scandal is that everybody involved who stood by and did nothing, and thus enabled, needs to be punished. That doesn't include the football team, or the student body. If you'd read my earlier post in the thread you would know I don't even support NCAA sanctions against the football team, because the football team shouldn't be punished for the actions of a rapist former coach. Am I pissed off about this? Yeah. Just like everybody else. We can sit here and make excuses for Joe Paterno all we want, but at the end of the day he enabled Jerry Sandusky, just like a lot of higher ups at the school. And he deserves to be punished for it. Bottom line, end of story. And if the rumors are true that Penn State donors allegedly participated in his little pimping ring, every single one of them needs to be arrested and punished too.

[djnemo65]

Originally Posted by mooby

Nemo, I am willing to concede that you know more about people that go to Penn State than I do. You, obviously having gone there know way more people than the 2 I know that went there, and that are the basis for my opinion that Penn State is known more as a football/party type school than one of the most highly regarded schools in the nation.

My point is not to insult the people that went to Penn State, but yes, obviously I am against students that riot in support of a coach who knowingly did nothing about his rapist friend. But don't make me out to just be running around spewing blind hatred when that's not the case at all.

I mean really, my entire point of this horrible scandal is that everybody involved who stood by and did nothing, and thus enabled, needs to be punished. That doesn't include the football team, or the student body. If you'd read my earlier post in the thread you would know I don't even support NCAA sanctions against the football team, because the football team shouldn't be punished for the actions of a rapist former coach. Am I pissed off about this? Yeah. Just like everybody else. We can sit here and make excuses for Joe Paterno all we want, but at the end of the day he enabled Jerry Sandusky, just like a lot of higher ups at the school. And he deserves to be punished for it. Bottom line, end of story. And if the rumors are true that Penn State donors allegedly participated in his little pimping ring, every single one of them needs to be arrested and punished too.

Sorry man, I've been a little testy today. No problems.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

Sorry man, I've been a little testy today. No problems.

It's cool. From your pov I'm sure it must be tough to watch your alma mater go through something like this. It's crazy to think that one of the most iconic football coaches of our time could be involved with something so heinous. It's also crazy to think that on Saturday, for the first time in 46 years there will be someone else coaching Penn State from the sidelines.

[SolidSnake84]

It's looking more and more likely that Paterno could end up in jail....it certainly doesn't sound good for him.

It is sounding more and more like not only did he know of the sex crimes, he attempted to cover them up by helping put a retirement package together for Jerry Sandusky back when he stepped down....

Very very scary to the extent of just how big this cover up is. My next door neighbor graduated from Penn State in the 1980's. Talking to him he is very educated, the university is in grave danger. Their Football Program is going to be toast very soon and absolute worst case scenario the university itself implodes. The U.S. Department of Education is involved now, they are going to lose federal funding, grants, all that crap. Accredidation may be taken away, it will be a very, very long time before Penn State gets back to that "big school" status.

The cover up could have involved many, many more people than what we are being told. More people are expected to either resign or be fired in the coming days.

I have a feeling i'm seeing the scandal of my lifetime here, maybe the biggest sex scandal in American History, especially now in the light of news that Sandusky and The Second Mile foundation was pimping out those kids for money..... Un real...