Wetzel article on new Penn State emails
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--joe-paterno-role-jerry-sandusky-cov…
I know there is a thread a few slots down, but I felt this article was so well written and summed up the horror of the situation so perfectly that it deserved its own thread.
Dan Wetzel has done a great job of covering this story.
It won't happen, but that statue of Joe Paterno should be taken down.
"Graham Spanier is a bad person."
Did Spanier realize the stakes of his decision? You bet he did. His email back to Curley concerning not going to child welfare says as much.
"I am supportive," Spanier wrote, according to CNN. "The only downside for us [is] if the message isn't heard and acted upon, and then we become vulnerable for not having reported it."
He should probably just stick to the retail pretzel industry.
All three need to be locked up, ASAP
Every evil and messed up thing that PSU has been accussed of (molestation, cover up, JoPa's involvement) has all been substantiated.
These emails (assuming they're accurate) really do amount to smoking guns. From a purely legal standpoint, perhaps, Paterno et al have a little wiggle room. From a practical standpoint, though, they're cooked.
Yes, let's get the petition started, to tear down the statue. That was my conclusion back when Brian first wrote on this. Because, it is the cover up of the higher ups that is the scariest, and most reprehensible, part of child abuse scandals. See, Catholic Church.
Because it wasn't just a couple people, it was the institution that failed these kids.
It seems like it was just a handful, right?
It's scandalous, heinous, egregious and maybe just short of criminal. But the university is bigger than these cowardly men and has done too much good to ignore. Don't worry, there will be penalties and I think they will be severe. I don't think expulsion from the B1G will be one of them.
And as such are responsible for making decisions FOR the univeristy. This is an institutional problem, which was deeply-ingrained into the culture of PSU. Do what JoePa says! Don't harm the reputation of the football team! Do that at all costs!
Even if it results in at least 4 more kids getting raped after your non-decision.
Sorry if I'm hot under the collar, but this just disgusts me like nothing else. I work and have spent half my life in universities, and this is one of the most egregious, horrifying and contemptable betrayals of the university's mission and spirit that I have ever come across.
You're right, though, that PSU probably won't get kicked out of the Big 10. However, as I understand it, they are under investigation for potentially violating the terms of their Title IX grants--which require officials to report potential crimes being committed to the relevant authorities. I'd feel bad for the kids on the water polo team if that got revoked, and would assume Title IX would still honor on-going scholarships, but the school simply doesn't deserve that money anymore.
There's little that could ever convince me that kicking PSU out of the B1G is the right course of action. You are punishing hundreds of athletes and their coaches who had absolutely nothing to do with what happened. You are punishing the fans for something they had no knowledge or control over.
At this point, I agree that PSU needs to completely disassociate itself from Paterno, but getting kicked out of the B1G is, in my opinion, not right.
Its not right to punish the entire PSU community for the actions of a few, even if those acts are a horrid abomination.
The Michigan basketball program suffered for over a decade because of the actions of a few. That's life. I'm not sure I agree that PSU should be kicked out of the Big Ten, but the Univeristy and football program should be hit with some very serious penalties.
I'm not sure why we are okay with things like USC football of Michigan basketball getting cripping sanctions and reductions in scholarships, yet when a comparably far far far more heinous actions occurs, we can't even talk about anything that might potentially "harm" the student-athletes?
Honor all PSU scholarships to the end. But please someone give me one compelling reason why an institution whose entire leadership covers up a child molestation scandal to protect the reputation of the football program should receive even $1 more in federal tax money to subsidize the athletics it can't afford on its own.
"Because I figured that Tim would handle it appropriately," Paterno testified on Jan. 12, 2011. "I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Mr. Curley and I thought he would look into it and handle it appropriately."
It is interesting to me that Paterno would say this in full knowledge that he would have then been handing the investigation to the person whom he picked to be his boss essentially. He must have realized that Curley would have then opened the door for some intensive questioning of Joe Paterno even eleven years ago, around the time of these e-mails, and that a product of that investigation could have been (but at that point, may not have been - we'll never really know) his dismissal even if it had been handled appropriately then. There was no way Curley was able to make a detached decision given the culture around him.
One of the uncounted tragedies (and hopefully, for the future's sake, learnings) here is this - when you have this sort of backwards structure where someone is making decisions beyond the scope of their work, and around whom a virtual cult of personality exists, situations as serious as this one will likely not be handled appropriately, or indeed, at all.
If Paterno testified to a grand jury back in January 2011, how was this story kept under wraps until November? I don't remember hearing a word about this until after JoePa broke the win record, when it suddenly was front-page news.
I'm a guy who always says, "Don't rush to judgment." However, if these emails (these are press reports, not copies as far as I know) are true, I really have to question PSU's place in the Big Ten.
After all, once the President of a university and other university officials make a decision about something like this, it isn't just an individual error, it becomes an institutional decision.
So we are left to ask, based on its institutional history, should the Big Ten be associated with a school that put its football team's interests ahead of the safety and welfare of other human beings, especially children?
Regardless of whether the NCAA does anything about this based on lack of jurisdiction, I think the Big Ten should at the very least consider a ban from Big Ten competition and revenues for at least a season, if not more. And I do think it should at least vote on expulsion from the B1G.
Membership in the Big Ten should be a high privilege, not only for its level of competition, but for its perks, like the CIC, the gigantic revenues its network takes in, its access to research grants, etc.
There is simply no excuse or justification I can think of to continue rewarding this institution with membership in our conference. At the very least, there should be a ban from competition or other significant consequences.
In PSU's case, basically the entire administration committed a horrific crime/cover-up. Which means it was institutional. Which means you're wrong on multiple levels.
Though as another person pointed out above, it's not going to happen.
It won't happen, but that statue of Joe Paterno should be taken down.Why do you think that? I'm assuming the opposite - his name is so tarnished that they can't keep it up.
The one with his finger in the air? Now you get the sick feeling he was about to stick that finger in some poor kid's bum. If I was a PSU alum that thing would be melted down into spittons in a nanosecond.
If you can't protect the children from known and horrifying abuse, you deserve every bad thing that comes your way.
This article came up over twitter.
If your institution is looking the other way at sex crimes being committed, couldn't that well qualify as lack of institutional control?
I think the NCAA and/or the Big Ten needs to step in and issue some kind of sanction. PSU's brand name - and by extension the conference's and college football's - is seriously damaged by this scandal.
intervened to prevent another football coach from being brought up for crimes committed in their showers, and the miserableness not only continued but apparently continued in their showers, with Sandusky using the program to gain access to the kids. They aided and abetted. Odds are it will also emerge that they had previous warnings, as well. Anyone who argues that this is somehow not the football program at fault is not seeing the issue clearly.
Pretty much every ounce of respect, I ever had for Joe Paterno is gone.
PSU message boards are surreal. There is still widespread denial that JoePa could have possibly known anything was going on.
http://bwi.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=36&mid=156050174&sid=890&tid=1560…
If this isn't lack of institutional control, than I honestly don't know what is.
I'm not trying to look at it like a Michigan partisan, and I have respect for the football program, they are a team I want to win every week except when we play them, but this is just utter insanity.
So it is wrong for a player to sell his golden pants, but it is ok for a coach to bring underage boys that are not related to him to hotel rooms during a bowl game? I can go all night in how angry I am, so I will end now.
Go read black shoe diaries and shake your head at the denial. Its unlike anything I've ever seen. I just want to troll them its so bad, but that really doesn't do any good. I guess sometimes when your identity is so closely entwined with your image of a man, that cult of personality makes you remove your brain from your skull.
- The media is making the story.
- The emails are vague/out of context.
- The "Joe" in the email could be a different Joe
Its hard to believe they are still offering up straw men and red herrings - many even to doubt that it was anything more than horseplay. That fucker is convicted. If you really want a lesson in how hero worship can dull your intellect, go over to bsd and read the comments. Incredible.
i cant stand to read those comment. all you have to do is read their comments to see how and why there was a cover up. stupid fans and sad human beings.
Or an athletic department issue. It's a human being issue. Punishing the athletic programs makes it seem like the NCAA matters in cases like this. If any punishments should rain down upon Penn State and its personnel, it should come from Pennsylvania State Police, not a group of morons at the NCAA headquarters.
What if the rationale for PSU's inaction was that it wanted to protect the football program's reputation? Is it not an NCAA issue then?
I still think jail is better than a bowl ban. One matters--like the crimes--the other doesn't.