Paterno Family Requests Review of the NCAA Decison

I don't know which article it was announcing this, but I got to the bottom and continued to read. Wow.

yet the fucking Paterno family just can't let it go - God forbid they allow the victims to start to heal. The Paternos seem to have this irrational need not to HEAR the truth, and just want to pick this scab until only they are satisfied,

Last I checked, Joe Paterno's good name was not an enumerated liberty for which due process protection must be afforded. None of the Paterno's have been deprived of due process in any way. They have no actionable cause. They are only wasting money. Money that they will need as none of the have jobs or job prospects and are likely going to themselves be sued in civil court.

It's pretty amazing how self-serving they are. Their renouncement of Sandusky was so, so weak compared to this. Whether the NCAA was correct or within its jurisdiction, moves like this make the Paternos even more unsympathetic. 

I wish the Paterno family would just go away. They went from  iconic status to maybe the most hated/annoying family in sports.

I guess the cult of personality begins at home.

The timing of this reports' publishing made this whole sanctions mess much more awkward than it needed to be. Emmert doesn't look fantastic in this whole situation because of this "quick striking" decision (as if he/they only began formulated this after the Freeh Report's release), but there's a pretty obvious time constraint as far as trying to let kids transfer. This is all garbage that probably would have been handled in the usual manner had the report come out at a time giving the NCAA more lead time. Not that there's a whole ton more to discuss here, but some people from Penn State/Paterno family still would have laid out some sort of rebuttal.  

On that last point though, how do the Paterno's have any stake in this sanctions process at this point? I don't see how they can come in and protest. 

Continues to grow.

Alternatively, why can't I send a letter to the NCAA and demand them to rethink Ohio's penalties?

That's a very heavy-hitting law firm, King & Spalding, and he's the managing partner in the D.C. office.  Of course, he's the guy who's been working for Paterno all along since Joe Pa was fired and I don't think he ever worked for Joe before that.  Sollers is a white collar criminal investigations specialist.

He may be on to something; he may be seeking to sue Penn State on behalf of the estate someday.

I know; defending Joe Pa these days is like defending Hitler (Godwin's Law - check), and apart from the fact that Don Canham seemed to like Paterno, not only don't I give a rip about PSU, I didn't even want them in the Conference to begin with.

But as morally "right" as the NCAA sanctions appear to outsiders, what is very clear is that they threw their procedural book out the window in this case.  It sort of goes to the very nature of the NCAA.  They may think that as a voluntary organization of self-policing member institutions, if they negotiate a punishment deal with a member university, they can together agree on anything.  And so they did.  And they aren't punishing Joe Pa; he's not coaching any more games, he was fired by Penn State before the sanctions, and he's not exactly handing out any more schollies.  They decided to vacate Penn State victories, not Joe Paterno victories.  As such.

Still, I am going to look into more about what it means to be an "involved party" (32.1.5) for purposes of an NCAA appeal. This story might read like a headline from The Onion, but I bet that the NCAA's infractions committee counsel and general counsel aren't laughing.  Penn State sure isn't laughing.

Edit. - One thing that immediately comes up; the bylaws allow an "involved party" to appeal, but not necessarily demand a hearing.  Is the Paterno Estate an "involved party"?  Or did Paterno's right to an appeal die with him?

Already. Go away!

I never really got why a half-crippled 80+ year old man was so insistent upon remaining a coach.  In hindsight, I believe it was a horrible case of ego and entitlement which, I believe, was the salient reason why Sandusky was allowed to molest children for at least 13 years longer than necessary.  I think the whole family is permeated with this same sense of entitlement.  Judging from some of the comments that come from Penn State fans, there remains abject denial that Paterno was anything but a saint. 

I also wonder what else was covered up for the program.  I'd bet at least one or two NCAA infractions over Paterno's career were quietly slipped under the rug.

This latest challenge is going to be interesting.

I have a question for those of you familiar with the FOIA.  Penn State is exempt from FOIA requests due to a Pennsylvania statute.  How then can Paterno's family/estate obtain information from the university unless it is part of the discovery process and then only after a suit has been filed?

The NCAA is forced to go back and use their usual procedures.  The NCAA then punishes PSU the same as they did before.  The Paternos have spent a bunch of money to make this happen, and the amount of Google hits for "Joe Paterno" and "child molestation" go up by a healthy amount. 

The neon god is dead. His standard cannot be scrubbed of its tarnish.

I have a feeling that further investigation (by an independent source, not the Paterno family buddy) will only end up making things look worse for Paterno and PSU in general.  

bluebyyou's second link at the bottom of the original post -- the ESPN.com article by Don van Natta Jr. -- is such fantastic reporting, so ridiculously better than the usual crap spilling out of ESPN and SI.  Don van Natta is one of the handful of the best investigative reporters in the world.  He was one of the New York Times' go-to guys, regularly winning Pultizers and crap like that.  Not sports; real news.  On the front page of the Times.  I had no idea he worked for ESPN!  At first, I thought that maybe the ESPN ("Jr") van Natta was the son of the guy at the Times.  But it's actually the same guy.