Powerful speech by a Penn State student last night:

It takes tremendous amounts of courage to do what he did  I applaud him for doing whats right and whats not popular.

We too have had an iconic football coach and thank God he did not have any type of scandal, but if he did there would be students supporting him as well at first. 

Those students that booed will grow up have kids and be disgusted by this one day.  All though they are wrong now, they will come around.

.

Why are people neglecting to mention this?

The police WAS IN FACT involved after Paterno took this issue up to the highest position in the athletic department.

The police NEVER CHARGED Sandusky.

The university has been around for 156 years (1855) and likely 100 more. It doesn't need a rally from the students to preserve it.

On the other hand, Sandusky's victims (particularly the ones not even included in the grand jury report) appear to me to be getting the least amount of recognition and support.

For christ-sakes, has an apology even been issued yet by the university? By law enforcement? Anyone?

Guys, if it suddenly came out that Bo was involved in something like this, we'd be in denial too. It will sink in soon enough though, Penn State has to move on.

Paterno's name is coming off the trophy. Yost's is not on a single one (an outrage in itself!). This would be fitting, I think, because these two were such great rivals (even if Yost left the western conference BECAUSE of Stagg) and both helped make the conference was it is today.

Let that kid replace Spanier.

and I think he's right.  I don't want to be dramatic, but I felt like rending my garments when I first read the indictment.  http://espncleveland.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/how-did-we-get-here/

How did we get here? How did we bastardize college athletics into something that clouds the judgment of supposed shapers of tomorrow’s generation when the right thing to do is so clear? What pressures must the chase for one more championship inflict on the men in charge of the nation’s elite programs that their moral compasses become so skewed? . . . .

 . . . It is against this horrifying backdrop of multiple young boys’ lives either ruined or irreparably scarred that they will nevertheless pack 105,000 fans into Beaver Stadium this weekend for the customary revelry of Penn State football. The 40 counts of sexual abuse against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and head coach Joe Paterno’s and university administrators’ roles in covering it up, are apparently not enough to stall the machine that churns inexorably on. . . . 

Penn State cancelled Paterno’s press conference on Tuesday, when it should have cancelled the final home game of the season Saturday against Nebraska. It’s simply wrong to conduct business as usual when we have overwhelming evidence from the Pennsylvania Attorney General that Sandusky used Penn State football as an allure to entrap and violate the boys he preyed upon. Knowing that, who can tailgate, sing the alma mater or stand and cheer for a touchdown like nothing happened? Penn State’s students clearly demonstrated Tuesday night, when hundreds gathered on Paterno’s lawn in a chanting, hand-clapping show of support, that they will further embarrass their school if given the platform. They sang the raucous theme from Seven Nation Army, as if this entire ugly episode is some third-and-12 the Nittany Lions can escape with adequate pass protection and a well-placed downfield throw.

That crowd was full of majorly butthurt dudes, and impotent rage.

Have NO Concept of what Paterno Did..He KNOWINGLY alowed this man to keep doing what he was doing..He chose to turn the other way as Young Boys lives were being destroyed..

These students could care less about the Victims.

He put his reputation or the schools reputation over the lives of these kids and were supposed to applaud this man..?

Im sorry I cant...The entire University Higherups , the AD and the Head coach ALL KNEW...

and DID NOTHING

Shame on all of them

Last night he said this outside his home:  "You know, the kids are the victims, whatever they want to say.  I think you ought to say a prayer for them.  Because you know, tough life, when people do certain things to you.  Anyway you have been great…."

Seriously, "tough life when people do certain things to you."   Yeah and a hurricane is "a little rain".

Jesus, just what hell is in the water in State College anyway.  Does anyone there have a soul?

We shouldn't be surprised.  The kids at PSU are just being human.  I don't fault them for it; but it doesn't mean they're right.

Politics are not permitted on this forum, so I'll use TWO political examples, from opposite ends of the spectrum.  Republicans supported Reagan during Iran-Contra, because they loved the man and hated the Congressional rules against helping the Contra rebels -- even though it wasa blatant violation of federal law.  Many Democrats supported Clinton even though he flat-out committed perjury.  Not saying either president should have been impeached; all I'm saying is, die-hard fans of a leader will always contort reality consistent with their views.

As Adam on Mythbusters says, "I reject your form of reality and prefer to substitute my own."

Eventually, as they get away from it, most of the kids at PSU will see things differently.  But what they intimately and passionately love is being disgraced in the most inhuman of all ways, so if within 48 or 72 hours they still don't want to let go of what they love -- JoePa's reputation -- then they just need time.

BTW, the BOT needs to indefinitely suspend, if not fire, JoePa immediately, he can't coach any more games for them.

Sort of like the demonstrations of support for Joe Paterno, my guess is that this is a group of people who have been so bombarded by so much horrific, tragic news about what Sandusky did and what others failed to do to stop him that, for the time being, they've shut down and gone into full denial. I wonder when it progresses to anger, and I can't even fathom what bargaining will sound like....

The last  thing they apparently want to hear  is a reasoned, reflective statement that hits the nail  on the head. 

That one guy really wants to point out that Tony Dorsett went to Pitt.

Powerful? I didn't see it. But it definitely took some courage to speak in a crowd like that.