OT: Penn State emails reveal... stuff

I didn't see any other existing email than this screen shot so I may be speaking with only having partial info...but...

legally speaking, can you really tie this email to this scandal? Common sense says yes, but is there enough there to make a concrete link?

I actually agree, but at this rate they will do it themselves.

 Punishing an entire community for the acts of a few is cruel and unusual punishment.

Yes, this is nauseating, but the sins belong to those who did the covering up, not all of Penn State.

Hopefully there are a just a few people involved in this potential cover-up. Penn State is still a great institution. Let the corrupt few go to jail. I'm not in favor of kicking them out just for shock value.

Because the mistakes, though unbelievably disgusting and unforgivable, shouldn't bring down an entire university. 

Matt Hinton at CBS Sports wrote an interesting piece against the Death Penalty for Penn State earlier this week. He acknowledges the moral strength behind the argument, but argues that it wasn't done with the intention of gaining an advantage for the football team, so it therefore isn't really doesn't fall under the NCAA's mandate. Unfortunately, I have to agree that Penn State shouldn't get the axe, but on a technical basis rather than his argument.

To me, the point of not going to law enforcement with the information was probably done to prevent the scandal that has erupted, which I think would have been done to help the football team. Sandusky was directly associated with the team, so the coverup points to not a lack of institutional control, which is punishable by the NCAA, but a complete lack of institutional morality. However, peoples' crimes have never been punished by the NCAA and it probably sets a bad precedent to start. Besides, this isn't a circumstance covered in the NCAA rulebook and a death penalty imposition would probably not stand up to the civil suit Penn State would be forced to launch to stop it.

As for Big 10 membership...I'm really not sure what I'd do. Being kicked out of the conference and the AAU would be a much worse fate for Penn State than any NCAA penalty, but my guess is that wouldn't stand up in court either. These types of unions typically don't have provisions to kick members out.

Because the NCAA does not have jurisdiction over this, it is a criminal matter. If this were say, a scandal involving the top executives of Apple instead of Sandusky, you would or expect the company to be thrown out of the NYSE.

I'm not sure about that, but I'd put them on double secret probation.

PSU needs to make some changes, far beyond just replacing a few criminal administrators. I'd like to see what they do. So far I'm completely unimpressed.

This is an institution in which every person in authority in a position to stop a child molestor decided to hinder legal investigations, apparently even when it meant breaking the law. Their identity as an institution was overshadowed by their worship of a man and his football program, and the myth that he and they were morally superior. Even when a prosecutor finally decided to pursue the case, he waited until Paterno set the career win record before filing charges. Even so, he complained during Sandusky's trial about the continuing lack of cooperation from PSU.

I'm sure most Penn Staters are fine people and were genuinely disgusted by what went on. At the same time it certainly seemed that the outrage of many was the strongest when it came to how Paterno had been treated. In response PSU offered to name the stadium after him, without waiting to see where this investigation ultimately goes. .

At the very least, PSU needs to do a thorough self-examination. Somebody like Jerry Sandusky could be anywhere. But the reasons he was enabled need to be addressed. I expected they would take some steps to rein in the football program and to cleanse it thoroughly. A new coach gets hired from the outside, but he is allowed to retain the assistants he wanted. Setting the football program back by losing a top-notch recruiter was just not an option. I realize that cutting loose all of the coaches isn't necessarily fair to them, but this wasn't a situation that called for giving them the benefit of the doubt either.

That was their mistake?  Putting it in an email?

How about letting a child rapist act freely under their umbrella for a decade?

Also, never ever Brett Favre anyone.

He was probably intending to create a pause in the reading

It's hard exactly to figure out how to punish PSU.  I mean on one hand their medical center treated my mother and many other people for cancer.  I have no desire to see that burned to the ground.

On the other hand they enacted a coverup of child rape to keep the legacy of Paterno and their sports program intact.  The punishment clearly needs to be PSU restitution to the victims.  They also need to very clearly admit fault and the football program needs to suffer in some way.  TV ban, bowl ban, something in the history books regarding it.  Basically they tried to bury their head in the sand to keep the stain of child rape off their program, so now that stain needs to be afixed in a way that it can't be removed.

The really sad part is if Sandusky had just been outed and handed over to the cops the moment PSU found out, PSU would not have their legacy tarnished.  No one would blame Paterno for lacking some sixth sense that let him detect Sandusky raped kids in his free time.  The coverup only made everything worse.  It gave Sandusky more time to prey on victims and it threatens a large research school now.  Society loses twice because of it.