McQuery Placed On Administrative Leave By PSU
I believe our mod overlords have stated tthat starting a thread on something such as this is legal but time will shortly tell.
Multiple media outlets are reporting that Penn State Assistant Coach Mike McQuery has been placed on paid administrative leave by the university. ESPN is also reporting that McQuery notifiied the team tonight that he "is no longer their coach" with no further comment at this time.
November 11th, 2011 at 8:55 PM ^
So...is that TMZ thing real where he told the team that he was "double fisting booze"? or was it just that he was being double fisted.... anyway...weird.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:00 PM ^
including McQueary himself.
After thinking about it, I find it ironic that McQueary is catching hell from all sides by speaking up (by relaying his "discovery" to JoePa) but then not following through by going to the police when the matter wasn't pursued.
He'll find somewhere else to coach. I'm sure he has regrets, but he NEEDs a new start.
I find it sickening that the pro-molestation faction has communicated death threats to him. Absolutely disgusting.
In regards to a dismissal from PSU, as the low GA on the totem pole when the incident occured, I don't think he should be fired by PSU. (But for his own sake, he should leave and start anew elsewhere.)
He did something right, he passed along his observation to JoePa. He obviously should have followed up with the police, but MM wasn't responsible for the environment at PSU. JoePa was (and had complete ownership of it).
I don't think the PSU institution should fire the little guy when the institution itself, personified by JoePa and the university president, did less than MM did with their knowledge of the incident. I think it sets a bad precedent to fire the little guy for a moral obligation half-performed. It would only serve to incentivize future would-be little guy whistleblowers to remain 100% silent.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:14 PM ^
I agree with this. He shouldn't be fired, but he should leave for his own career path.
Well put.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:49 PM ^
It was dead as soon as this story broke. It's not a question of whether he should be fired for how he reacted to seeing what he saw, either. Coaches get fired all the time. They aren't civil servants and their job security is very low.
Quite simply, I don't see how he can be an effective coach. Are players going to have any respect for him as a man? What school would want him representing them when talking to recruits, their parents and their coaches?
November 11th, 2011 at 10:19 PM ^
I could be wrong, but I have a hard time seeing how McQueary ever coaches again, anywhere. That whole staff is now tainted by Sandusky's (alleged) crimes. My hunch - and I realize that I may be saying the obvious here - is that this situation, as bad as it is, is just going to get worse and in turn the PSU coaching staff will look even worse than it does now. There are still a lot of details left to be uncovered, and they will be very ugly.
November 12th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
Including a head coach under contract. Hey have no job security. All the cause you need (which is really nothing, because if your at-will, there's not really a lot of justification needed) is they can't do their job effectively. MM can't go into households and recruit, or coach young men to do the right thing in any way that a parent is going to want to send their kid to play for him. He's a pariah for the program. His coaching career is done, he has no case, and he better hope someone out there is into second chances in the insurance industry or whatever.
November 12th, 2011 at 12:50 AM ^
And our administration, including the university president, didn't sit on information handed to them by the then-GA that you want to fire
Methinks some lawyer would beg to differ
November 12th, 2011 at 2:58 AM ^
McQueary possibly qualifies for whistle blower status. Meaning PSU cannot legally fire him over this.
November 12th, 2011 at 8:46 AM ^
I think that's probably right. He'll stay on leave until a new coach is hired. Then it's adios along with the rest of the staff
November 11th, 2011 at 10:48 PM ^
It started with:
<br>MM - kid raped
<br>JoePa - something sexual might have happened
<br>AD - Horseplay
<br>President - an employee is upset by something he saw.
<br>
<br>It's disturbing that each level this went up the story got played down and less important.
November 12th, 2011 at 5:11 AM ^
The little guy to scream what he had seen 100 times louder when his words fell on deaf ears the first go-around.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:03 PM ^
Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:22 PM ^
He was in the right place at exactly the right time and he failed miserably.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:40 PM ^
Seriously. He had a chance to be a great hero and save the lives of countless boys. That is being at a wrong place at a wrong time?
Why are people having a hard time with this? This is about as simple as it gets. You have a HORRIFIC crime being committed. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CALL the police or child protective services. THAT IS ALL!!! You don't even have to tackle that guy.
How is that so hard??? I just don't understand this mentality that McQueary is some sort of a victim. He is a miserable failure of a man.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:09 PM ^
Amen.
November 12th, 2011 at 11:26 AM ^
What if this was an ongoing rumor and he had been threatened against talking about it? Would you call the cops if you saw the governor commit a crime? Would you expect something to get done, or would you know that the perpetrator would get protected and you'd be destroyed? Would you risk your own life to save someone else's child if you knew that not only could you NOT save the child but you'd still be ruined in the process? How do we know McQuery is the only one who saw something?
There are any number of possible mitigating factors here, and until this whole sordid mess comes out, I think we need to be less sure in our judgements of McQuery. He may be as bad as you say. But it's also worth remembering that if he had remained completely silent, this stuff would still be going on, so there is at least that.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:10 PM ^
Yeah I just caught the Protective Custody thing too. That appears now to be not the case.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:22 PM ^
In no way do I agree with how JoePa or McQuery responded, but they are also victims in a sense. It was another person's crime that put them in this situation. For all we know, JoePa and McQuery were great people, and were innocent until another man placed them into an unfathomable situation. Everything after that point is not for me to judge. All I know is that they didn't deserve to be put into that situation. Some people pretend that they are in the same boat as Sandusky, but their mistakes never occur if Sandusky never existed. Sandusky is a horrible person that did horrible things. McQuery and Joe are good people that made horrible mistakes. There is a difference IMO.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:36 PM ^
If they had reported him at the time to the appropriate authorities, it rests solely on Sandusky. Yeah, it's a big scandal, but it's largely Sandusky's scandal.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:43 PM ^
so your take is McQueary and Paterno "reported" this so they are all good?
November 12th, 2011 at 8:15 AM ^
LSA can speak for himself but I think his perspective has validity. It is likely that Paterno and a host of other University officials know, or at least suspect that Sandusky is a pedophile. If someone came to them in the manner Mcquiry did, basically confirming he (Sandusky) is a pedophile, they must have realized they would be culpable for the 1998 alleged crimes. Paterno and the University officials had an interest (their jobs, protecting the University, etc.) in covering up the crime, Mcquiry did not.
There is no way Mcquiry could have known everything that had happened before he was forced to become involved. He went to Paterno, which in hindsight was a bad decision, but he couldn't have known that at the time. There is no question he should have gone to the police and there are and will be consequences to that bad decision. Sandusky should have been taken put of society in 2002 (or 1998, but that is a different conversation) and Mcquiry should lose his job.
In my opinion, what Paterno and the other University officials did was criminal conspiracy while what Mcquiry did was negligent. All are culpable, but I don't think (based on the facts presented in the grand jury report) Mcquiry's actions are at the same level as the rest who are involved.
One thing I find interesting is that the University officials who were charged basically told the same story as Paterno yet there testimony was deemed unreliable in the grand jury report, while Paterno's wasn't commented on. Mcquiry's testimony was called extremely reliable (paraphrasing).
November 12th, 2011 at 8:23 AM ^
Damn, spelled his name wrong, like 50 times!
For the record, I think McQuery should lose his job but the rest should go to prison. This is based on the facts that are known. There is a lot more to the story...
November 12th, 2011 at 8:29 AM ^
You need to stay 500 feet away from elementry schools, don't you?
November 12th, 2011 at 11:15 AM ^
Did you even read what I wrote? This isn't a black and white situation.
That is a pretty fucked up thing to say to someone.
November 12th, 2011 at 11:37 AM ^
It is pretty black and white to most flolks with a soul. This nearly 30 year-old former college football player saw an old man raping a child; and did NOTHING to stop it. He can burn in hell for all I care.
November 12th, 2011 at 12:36 PM ^
He did something to stop it, just not the right thing.
November 12th, 2011 at 2:27 PM ^
but still not be fired by the institution whose former leadership should burn in the place that's far worse than hell.
November 12th, 2011 at 11:01 AM ^
who is LSA?
November 12th, 2011 at 12:36 PM ^
LSAclassof2000
November 12th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^
only asking because my comment was not in response to LSAclassof2000, so wasn't sure what you were saying
have another ale
November 12th, 2011 at 2:21 PM ^
'Doh!
Mgodroid doesn't sequence things correctly.
My mistake.
November 12th, 2011 at 5:48 AM ^
By all accounts, it would have been too late already by the time McQueary has brought this to Paterno's attention. Sandusky had been retired for a few years at that point because, as it seems now, the first investigations into Sandusky's behavior took place in the late 90s. There's no way that either Paterno or the department's administration (or indeed, university leadership) didn't know about that. By the time Mike McQueary found himself an eyewitness, it was already an institutional problem with several key people sharing enormous blame, and one moment of misjudgment added him to the list of people now involved andhe has to live with that.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:42 PM ^
It is during the time of crisis we find out what people are truly made of.
What we found out is that Paterno and McQueary are small, small man and cowards. I couldn't care less what great things they have done. All of that is for their own benefit. Truly great man stand for the fellow human beings.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:30 PM ^
Their charector was just exposed in a different way than sandusky
November 12th, 2011 at 5:03 AM ^
But they didn't deserve to be in that situation. If Sandusky never exists, then both men live normal healthy lives. Nobody should be put in that position. I agree they failed miserably once put to the test. Sandusky ruined a lot of lives.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:31 PM ^
According to McQuery, he is in protective custody, away from State College.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:45 PM ^
dude is drinking pretty heavily by his own admission...would hold off on quoting him
November 11th, 2011 at 9:38 PM ^
Tonight I am going to hang out in Washington Heights, or parts of Marcy Projects, and watch some people be beat, men or women be raped, observe. Wait a day, then call my co-partners and say "gee Tom, I saw a rape. can you circulate this information to the others? great. have a nice day." Isn't that a screwed up process? Yes, that's why there's moral outrage re PSU.
FInally, let's take How about if someone saw your son, daughter, brother, sister, mom, dad be raped? would you be so "hey, the law's the law?" or would you want someone to step-in.
I fear for our country for folks who wouldn't get involved.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:22 PM ^
Couldn't have said it any better myself. No offense to anyone one on here, but you really wouldn't know what to do in this situation? If you see a girl being physically abused at a bar by a guy, are you going to just shrug your shoulders, call your dad, and ask your dad what you should do? My guess is MOST people will step in and stop the assault. Why? Because it's the right thing to do.
I stress that this is my personal opinion, but how anyone can even defend this guy is beyond me. It's OK for you to step in when you see a girl getting pimp slapped, but you don't know what you'd do if you saw a boy being raped? To steal an old Jeff Foxworthy saying: "Here's your sign!"
The best, and the right thing for him to do right now is to step down. The whole AD, and coaching staff is gone after this year anyway, he might as well join them.
November 12th, 2011 at 7:48 AM ^
What would you do if you walked into your bedroom and saw your wife sleeping on the bed and a Lion standing over her?
I don't know what I'd do. This scenario is just as foreign to me now as seeing a 10 year old boy being raped was a week ago. I'd like to think I'd take appropriate action, but I don't even know what appropriate action is in the above (lion) scenario. In both cases an immediate decision could result in a very bad, permanent outcome.
November 12th, 2011 at 7:55 AM ^
In all due respect Jerry Sandusky, at 59 years old in 2002, was no "lion". To me the analogy would be "what if you came home and saw your wife threatened by a really angry alley cat. Would you still need to think about what to do?
November 12th, 2011 at 11:12 AM ^
The scenario is irrelevant. You don't know what action you will take when you see something that you haven't even imagined was a possibility and the stakes are astronomical if you make the wrong decision. You didn't answer the lion question because the answer isn't apparent just as McQuery's decision wasn't apparent to him at the time.
I don't know why he didn't make the right choice but he didn't and the consequences are huge. He is paying for his decision. In all likelihood his career is over and he has to live the rest of his life knowing he had an opportunity to stop a child rapist. That's a pretty big price to pay.
Think about the lion scenario again. If you make the wrong decision you and/or your wife will end up dead. It's not your fault you are in that predicament but unless you are Jack Hanna chances are you will not handle the situation as well as it could be handled and there are consequences...
November 12th, 2011 at 7:55 AM ^
November 12th, 2011 at 11:35 AM ^
Let's spin it. What if you saw a stranger's child getting raped, but you know the perpetrator is politically very powerful and will destroy your own life and likely get away with it. Leaving you ruined and hurting your own family. Do you still make the sacrifice when you know it will all be for naught?
It's not necessarily all black and white, is all I'm saying, and while most of us would like to think that, in a vacuum, we'd intervene to stop the abuse of a child, this did not occur in a vacuum and it may be a long time before we know the true nature of McQuery's position.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:43 PM ^
I think he needs to quit, resign, get fired from PSU. There is no way he can continue coaching football there after these transgressions.
My opinion is that he should be allowed to coach again, but who would take him anytime soon?
I also do feel terrible for him on one thing. He should not be getting death threats or threats of physical violence. He made a terrible mistake by not stopping Sandusky and not calling the cops. He should be shunned, his reputation should take a huge hit, and he deserves a lot of negative attention, but there is no way he deserves to be forced into protective custody.
Just a very tough situation to be in and I really don't know how he is going to be able to move on from this.
November 12th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
The worst part is, flawed as his response may have been, he's still the only reason this came to light at all.
It's funny that we all say "I'd definitely have done more" as if it would be so simple, and yet here is this guy getting death threats for "bringing down Paterno" just because he, far too late, actually told the truth to a grand jury.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:50 PM ^
I don't know anything about PA law.. but the rumor is that he has whistle blower status and that he can't be fired or disciplicned because he is a witness to a crime and he turned the person in. (PA state government or quasi government institution).
Not saying i agree with that.. just that that is what is being reported and it sounds accurate. I think it's a very complicated legal issue. It would explain a lot of PSU's actions in the last 72 hours with regards to MM.
November 12th, 2011 at 12:02 AM ^
Yes, either that or because he knows too much to get fired.
If he confirms that, on that Sat, he told JoePa about the incident using very specific words (such as "anal intercourse" or "sodomy"), JoePa is finished, along with PSU. Forget the all time winning record. He will be buried.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:11 PM ^
I hope he rots in hell. He (a nearly 30 year old man) witnessed a child being raped and just told his daddy. And then, told his boss the next day. He is a scumbag.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:31 PM ^
Imagine your child or little brother or sister being raped, and then you find out that, 10 years ago, someone saw the alleged rapist commit a similar act against another child, but did not go to the police.
He, Joe Pa, and the rest of them have a special place down there as well.