Friday Penn State Thread (See Moderator Sticky - Put all PSU information here)
I know people are peeved about this, and I'm sorry. For now, this thread should serve as the home for:
- All "Sandusky/Paterno/McQueary/Curley should be ashamed" opinion pieces
- All predictions
- All conspiracy theories
- All rumors
- All interviews or other public figure reactions
New, actual news (McQueary fired, PSU/Nebraska game cancelled or moved, etc.) can be posted as its own thread.
Also, a reminder that while pedophilia jokes are never really "acceptable," for the foreseeable future they are worth a one- to two-week trip to Deepest, Darkest Bolivian.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:08 AM ^
It's the equivalent of learning of a threat to assassinate the President and telling the Secretary of the Treasury about it. The Secret Service is technically part of the Treasury Dept., but you see the issue. Just a bureaucrat, not a law enforcement dude.
November 11th, 2011 at 12:02 PM ^
That's what I was looking for in an answer.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:55 AM ^
IIRC, it was the guy in charge of finance for the Campus Police or something like that. This shouldn't have been taken care of internally.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:50 AM ^
The Westboro Baptist Church will be at Penn State on Saturday (don't click, just trust me) for the game. Kids will be drunk. There will be blood. Things are going to get ugly.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:04 AM ^
I keep waiting for the earth to open up and swallow them. Hasn't happened yet, though.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:19 AM ^
will those idiots be protesting, seriously? I can honestly see them saying that what Sandusky did was punishment for [insert illogical and stupid ideal]. They're such fools.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:49 AM ^
I'm sure they'll make up some official reason that tangentially ties this incident to the group's mission, but it's really to get attention for themselves by constantly showing up at the site of big news stories.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:17 AM ^
Beaver Stadium in University Park, PA November 12, 2011 10:00 AM - 12:00
PM WBC will picket the Penn State vs. Nebraska "Senior Day Clash." Now there are two doomed states if ever there were. On the one side you have Nebraska who arrested one of the servants of God for allowing her son to stand on this nations idol. On the other side you have the state that started the mischief of putting the church of the Lord Jesus Christ on trial for preaching! Now, Penn State has the wrath of God raining down on them in righteous judgement! They have taken from the playbook of the Catholics. Let's diddle the little kiddies and hide it from top to bottom! Fitting that the head cover-up artist is called the Pope of Happy Valley. How sick is that! Not surprising, but sick!
College in this country is nothing more than a giant party, with a few classes set to instruct in sin thrown in for good measure. What you have turned out of those classes are raping priests, raping coaches, raping marines, along with various other violent dangerous brutes that are poised to be tomorrows "heroes" in this vile land. Wake up! You have angered your God beyond recovery. More and worse is coming! America is doomed!
-Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 6:15 & 8:12
November 11th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
Protestors ranting about the wrath of God (and slandering our servicemen as usual) surrounded by thousands of beer-guzzling students who idolize Paterno—what can go wrong? As if the security concerns of the Happy Valley police weren't serious enough without this....
November 11th, 2011 at 11:02 AM ^
They're going to use this as an opportunity to equate homosexuality and pedophilia. "This is the kind of thing that inevitably happens when you let gay men work in schools etc. etc. etc."
I hope they never see a single camera the entire day and I kind of regret even giving them the attention of a post on this thread.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:05 AM ^
Oh Jeebus. There goes the rest of the neighborhood.
November 11th, 2011 at 1:04 PM ^
They are not a Baptist church by any means. They stand alone on their wrong ideas. They are not following Christianity.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:50 AM ^
First recruit to re-open his recruitment. Bound to happen, I am not commenting on whether this is good or bad, it is something that is just happening.
http://pennstate.247sports.com/Article/OConnor-opens-things-up-48193
November 11th, 2011 at 11:59 AM ^
First one per the link above is Joey O'Connor, 4* OL from Colorado. I imagine the scandal plus the uncertainty surrounding the coaching staff for next year were the main issues.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:06 AM ^
Looks like Cars.com is not happy:
Damning statement: "As a proud, longtime supporter of ESPN College Football, it's important to us that we're building our brand and raising the visibility of our advertisers in a way that celebrates the sport, the dedication of its student athletes and the many reputable universities that field teams. We will still be sponsoring a game this weekend." (emphasis added)
November 11th, 2011 at 10:28 AM ^
Good PR move on cars.com's part...they just got free advertising for being the first to pull their ad...without having to pay for advertising.
(its a sick way of thinking I know, to take advantage of this situation....but this is a company who is smart to think ahead for PRs sake,,,and make no mistake about it, corporate thought is largely based in that)
November 11th, 2011 at 10:19 AM ^
Wow, I never knew, but sadly similar to PSU.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:31 AM ^
The Red Sox story is an amazingly tragic story... we dont hear much about it today but there are some parallels for sure to the PSU story.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:42 AM ^
Barry Switzer pretty much sums up a thought I've had gnawing at me for a few days.
He says that more than one person had to have known about Sandusky being that coaching staffs are a tight knit bunch, etc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/joe-paterno-fired-barry-switzer_n_1087599.html
P.S. - Link at Huffpost. I know bad for some but it was the first link in teh Googles.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:56 AM ^
You would think that lots of people knew about what was going on, way more than the principals ousted from PSU. I can't believe that coaches didn't talk among themselves, unless, of course, they were told not to, which leads to its own set of questions.
I don't know if Sandusky will ultimately cop a plea, which I suspect PSU would love to see happen, as playing this horrible spectacle out in open court is going to keep PSU hanging from a rope for a long, long time.
I also wonder about Paterno's statement yesterday that downplayed the severity of what was reported to him. He needs to be very careful about what he says, particularly if it confilicts with his testimony before the grand jury, or he could be facing his own set of criminal issues, along with the civll penalties he may be ultimately face.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:22 AM ^
I'm with you on Joe Pa needing to be quiet but he really seems out of it now at his age. He was 75!! in 2002 so maybe there is a slight chance he had lost it back then (NOT AN EXCUSE) as well.
There are so many loose threads in this fiasco. Why does McWimpy still have a job? Was he promoted in 2003 to keep him quiet?
The whole thing is just sad and pathetic.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:54 AM ^
Joe Pa will not live to see a criminal trial, and he is behaving as such. PSU knows this and knows they won't be able to shut him up. They made a calculated legal decision to fire him now and reduce the liability if he ends up contradicting himself later.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:28 AM ^
It would be surprising if Tom Bradley did not know about Sandusky's reputation and the incidents.
November 11th, 2011 at 6:12 PM ^
All coaches, players, and admin people know. McQ cannot be the only one who have seen improprieties, especially when Sandusky was bringing boys to bowl trips. I would suggest that the cover-up goes beyond just the obvious; something more sinister was behind this.
I would love to see John U Bacon on this whole story.
November 11th, 2011 at 2:18 PM ^
...since Tuesday.
There's no way the entire staff didn't know, and since they allowed a predator around, they aren't fit to coach, either. Cancel the season, PSU Board of Trustees. It's not fair to the seniors who are at Penn State, but the victims will never get to have their innocence again. It's not right that these coaches be allowed to coach.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:56 AM ^
here's a few points I'd like to offer...
Reading the grand jury report, lets focus on Victim 1.
Victim 1 is from the Central Mountain School District. This school is located outside of Centre County, in Clinton County. When rumors of all things Sandusky were brought to the attention of the principal he reported it to law enforcement. This much is in the GJ report.
I was in Lock Have again yesterday and had a long talk with a friend there whose wife teaches at that school district.
There were other "incidents" involving the same boy that were not in the report. Since this happened in 2009, Sandusky has been under a microscpoe by the State AG's office. Victim 1's family requested that he be allowed to graduate HS (he was 14/15 at time) before things really got rolling assuming nothing else surfaced.
Since the Principal at Central Mountain handled this correctly, Sandusky was/will be brought to justice. A man making 1/10th the $ of JoePa and collegues did the right thing because it was the right thing. They apparently had too much to lose.
I think if Sandusky had kept his pedophilia to Centre County, we would have never known about this...That's just my opinon. It is only the actions of Victim 1, the principal, and Victim 1's family that got the Grand Jury started.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:09 AM ^
the AG at the time was now Governor Tom Corbett, correct? I guess he also deserves praise for actively persuing this case.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:13 AM ^
A friend that I grew up with worked at AG's office under Corbett and still works there. coincedentally, she works with sex crimes. I'm trying to get a hold of her.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:27 AM ^
What do you think about the Barry Switzer remarks?
He basically said that there is no way only a few people knew about Sandusky and that the secret was probably a well known secret but the Cult of Football kept everyone quiet.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:01 AM ^
November 11th, 2011 at 11:26 AM ^
This is definitely a great read - thanks for posting. The author sums up exactly what I have thought about the firing of Joe Paterno. It had to be done and it had to be done quickly, before it jeopardized the week of practice because it was clear that he should not be on the sidelines tomorrow. The author is more sympathetic to Paterno with respect to the way he was fired, but I'm pretty confident that Paterno knew what was coming. Even if he didn't know it himself, he had plenty of advisors informing him that this was how it had to be. Its too bad he only got a phone call, but that is what it is. That's the least of his worries.
November 11th, 2011 at 2:21 PM ^
As soon as they read the Grand Jury report, he should've been gone, if it was really about doing the right thing from a moral perspective. No, they fired Joe Pa b/c the university was getting a lot of negative publicity.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^
I think the University could not possibly have handled this worse. It was disgusting and disgraceful, the method in which they fired Joe Paterno after 60 years of service, and yes, I do think Paterno was a scapegoat. Of course he was. I’ve already said that he had to be let go. But to let him dangle out there, take up all the headlines, face the bulk of the media pressure, absolutely, that’s the very definition of scapegoat.I hate these kinds of arguments. Is there a "good" way to fire someone? If he had to go, he had to go. The way it happened is insignificant. (Besides, I don't think firing a guy only five days after the story broke is "letting him dangle" for a long time.)
November 11th, 2011 at 11:58 AM ^
There were only two ways out of this situation for PSU. Jo Pa resigns immediately or is fired immediately. Jo Pa took mumber one off the table when he said that hee would retire on his terms, at the end of the season - a line in the sand that the PSU BOT had to cross.
Make no mistake, Jo Pa through down the gauntlet and forced their hands - no one puts Jo Pa in a corner.
November 11th, 2011 at 12:15 PM ^
While I think he is one of the great MSM baseball writers, I think he loses the plot on this one.
The "we dont have enough information" crowd of which Posanski has joined is in the tank on this one. Brian nailed it in the UV earlier in the week. He allowed a known child molester to hang around his program, knowing or wilfully not knowing that that acts by the same monster who was far from persona non grata had not ever been reported to the proper law enforcement authorites.
Paterno was a media focus of the story because he is the most famous person involved in the story, and because he was personally involved. End. Stop. He wasnt dragged into the story, he was part of it, and he could have stopped it years earlier. He let Sandusky run camps at PSU, he let Sandusky hang around PSU with children -- all after he knew (unless Posanski thinks that Jo Pa lied to the grand jury - there is no question he knew).
No one left Paterno hanging. He made his choice to try to go gracefully into the night at the end of the season, and that choice was unacceptable, He forced the hand of the BOT and this is how it had to be done.
November 11th, 2011 at 2:14 PM ^
I usually love his writing, but he didn't win me over here.
All this hand-wringing about JoePa's legacy, and how no one prominent is defending it (or him) seems premature. We're less than a week into it. We are in, as he says, the "howling" stage. Later, I expect, people will want to discuss what it means to be a man who did many great things but who also failed terribly at a critical juncture in his life. Those conversations will come. I'm not expecting them right now.
I suspect that JoePa is hearing, personally, from a number of people who wish to offer him their personal support. Maybe they will take a bigger part in the conversation when the whole truth comes out and people are over the worst of their shock. He's been in the public eye for many years; I am sure he & his supporters can endure a public coal-raking in the meantime, hard though it feels just now.
Given that Posanski may have a big role to play in that kind of evaluation, IMO he shouldn't be so distressed. So he thinks JoePa is a better man than this? Bigger than this story? Then go write about it in your book, dude. You've got a platform and chance to be heard, which is better than most people have. Why waste your breath trying to be heard now, during the fever pitch of it all?
November 11th, 2011 at 5:10 PM ^
longer a market for the hagiogrpahy of Joe Paterno that he was writing. Now he's gonna have to channel his inner Bacon and make this interesting.
November 11th, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^
I disagree.
This piece has a lot of merit.
PSU acted selfishly again with its only concern the PR for its football program. In so doing, they not only damaged JoePa's reputation to their own benefit, but they possibly could have made the situation WORSE for the abuse victims and the mental anguish they suffer.
The WAY it happened (letting go of JoePa) is very important to some people.
"The board of trustees got it wrong. They should have consulted the victims before making a decision on Mr. Paterno...They should have considered these victims watch TV and are aware of the students' reaction and may not want to be associated with the downfall of Mr. Paterno. The school instead elected to do what it felt was in its own best interest at the time. Isn’t that what put the school in this position in the first place?"
"The way the Board reached its decision raises more concerns than the decision itself. There is no indication the Board considered the impact of the decision on the abuse victims. The school let the victims down once, and I think they owed it to the victims to at least gauge how the immediate termination decision would impact them as opposed to Mr. Paterno's resignation at the end of the year. These victims do not live in a bubble. They see the students reaction to the termination, and to think this does not weigh on their minds would be naive."
-Civil Attorney Ben Andreozzi, Adviser of some of the alleged victims in this case
November 11th, 2011 at 1:00 PM ^
I'm cynical when it comes to the words of lawyers. I took Ben Andreozzi's comment as his way of adding fuel to the fire. Almost like: "Look at the abuse PSU continues to pile upon my clients!" I'd find the statement much more credible if those words had come from a Victim Rights Advocate or a Psychologist.
The way I see it the BoT was in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" situation. Wouldn't the sight of Paterno coaching in his usual way for the remainder of this season, through the bowl game, be more harmful to the victims? Wouldn't that send the message that even though the nation knows about your suffering, it's not as important as a victory in the next football game?
November 11th, 2011 at 1:04 PM ^
So, you think he is setting himself up to claim more damages in the even he is their attorney in a civil trial?
I see your cynicism. BUT, do you disagree with him?
Do you think he is wrong?
November 11th, 2011 at 1:55 PM ^
I cannot, truly, imagine what the victims have experienced, how they feel about Penn State University, its football program and its long-time head coach. The student's outpouring of emotion at the news of the firing was intense, but short-lived. It seemed to me the anger was directed at the media; I saw none of it aimed at the victims. I believe as the students think over all that has happened, talk it over with adults, they will gain perspective, and their concern for the victims will grow.
Bottom line: I don't know if he's wrong, but it doesn't feel correct to me, especially long-term.
November 11th, 2011 at 6:17 PM ^
Very good read. The author of this is spot on.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:17 AM ^
For those of you that work for corporations or are interested in corporate structures, I heard an interesting theory the other day that would explain why McQueary has not been fired . . .
The Board of Trustees is akin to a Board of Directors of a corporation (obviously). In corporate by-laws, the Board has the power to appoint and remove officers of the corporation. This is essentially what the PSU trustees did this week - they removed the President (consider him the CEO of the school) as well as Paterno (who is properly considered at least an executive VP of the school).
First, the trustees removed the President. The President has the authority to hire/fire the athletic director and all of the coaches. Once he was fired, with the athletic director on leave, there was no one other than the trustees with the power to deal with Paterno. So they dealt with him as well, BEFORE appointing an interim President. Once the new interim President was appointed, the power was vested in him to hire the new coach. Arguably, it was the President that appointed Bradley as the interim coach.
Now, the school has its CEO who is charged with the hiring and firing of employees. The Board can then remove themselves from the McQueary matter if they want and allow the President to exercise his authority. This could explain the delay with respect to the AD as well as McQueary. The President will perform his own due diligence and then recommend action to the Board for their final approval. So . . . I guess I'm saying that the house-cleaning is not over (which everyone probably knew before reading this tl;dr post).
November 11th, 2011 at 12:55 PM ^
McQueary should have tried to stop the child from being abused. There is no excuse for not trying to stop the abuse.
But, after that point McQueary appears to be the only one in this case that tried to do the right thing. He reported it to his superior (in detail according to McQueary). He reported in detail to other superiors. He appears to be the only one who told the GJ the truth. The GJ report states that "The Grand Jury finds the graduate assistant's testimony to be extremely credible" (page 8)
The GJ report also states that "portions of the testimony of Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are not credible" (page 11).
McQueary made a very bad split second decision but without his honesty it is very likely that Paterno and the rest of PSU would have gotten away with the coverup and would still be sitting smugly in their jobs.
That is why McQueary has not and should not be fired.
BTW, if is doubtful that anyone on the current staff will be retained in the future. The risk that they would be implicated in the future is just too great to take that chance. So, McQueary and all the other coaches, assistant coaches, etc. will be searching for work soon.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
top recruit decommits. expect more to follow.....
November 11th, 2011 at 11:54 AM ^
McQueary will not coach/attend Saturday's game
Didn't see it in the other thread and seems threadworthy as actual news. No word on if he's fired yet. Received threats (surprise).
November 11th, 2011 at 12:32 PM ^
Not sure this merits it's own thread per the initial guidelines, so I'll dump it here, but man, this is weird.
The DA who decided against prosecuting Sandusky in 1998 (when he was reported to have been showering with a boy) disappeared under very suspicious circumstances in 2005. They found his abandoned car and his laptop (with the hard drive destroyed), but no sign of him. He was legally declared dead in July.
November 11th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^
I thought some people might find these screen caps interesting. They are from our victory over Penn State from 1999 which just so happened to be Jerry Sandusky's final game at Beaver Stadium before retirement.
The camera zoomed in on him or referenced him over 40 times during that game. Statements made and the shots, knowing what we now know, it's just...weird...
This shot is from before the game where Sandusky's name was called for the final time and players circled around him for hugs...
After blowing a kiss and waving to the crowd, Sandusky hugs his son Jon who is crying pretty hard...
Ironic signs held by the crowd during the game...
The Sandusky love fest included a short profile and some ironic words from Brent Musberger and Gary Danielson, who were calling the game:
GARY: When you play against a Penn State defense, you have to face Sandusky, a guy who has been here a long time obviously and everybody who goes against him says, "you don't even know what their base defense is." Of course, it's already known now that his work in the future is going to be with the Second Mile charity that he's so proud of.
BRENT: He helps an awful lot of youngsters.
Even the Aflac trivia question that day was inspired from Sandusky...
After the Anthony Thomas touchdown in the 1st quarter, JoePa asks, "WTF?" to Sanduksy...
Sandusky throwing his headphones off in disgust after Brady runs up the middle for a TD...
After the final seconds tick off, Brent Musberger says, "Jerry Sandusky's final game at Beaver Stadium is an unhappy one."
November 11th, 2011 at 3:49 PM ^
But at least we did to that piece of shit.
And man, who outside knew, but that was very Brent-y, Brent.