OT: OTL report on Nassar and MSU

Submitted by NFG on
Airing now. Who will cover up decades of child sexual abuse? Spartans Will.

Wolverine62bc

January 16th, 2018 at 5:05 PM ^

Some people need to held accountable, to the full letter of the law. Loosing a state position ie employment, is nothing. White collar crime, of this magnitude, should = prison time.
These leaders-gatekeepers are highly intelligent, college-educated people - who put their head in the sand!
Absolutely a horror!
So sad for the victims and their loved ones.
Justice must prevail.

Boulderine

January 16th, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^

MSU conducted a sham independent investigation and there’s substantive evidence to suggest people at MSU aided Nassar. Being critical of MSU can be viewed as separate from the rivalry. In fact, the whole “Spartans Will” really has nothing to with sports and is a university-wide slogan. MSU is a top notch institution with high caliber people and standards. Their handling of this situation should be no different and yet it has been.

Aero01

January 16th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^

Can we not take glee in the fact that this is happening at State. This is a horrible situation. Too many people on this board seem glad that there's more ammunition for making fun of their Sparty associates.

/soapbox

NittanyFan

January 16th, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^

when the person who runs this board refers to MSU as the "Fightin' Larry Nassars" when recapping Saturday's basketball game ----- many posters will go down that same road.

I'm an outsider, I get it, I'm not the audience for this board.  But why on Earth go there in celebrating a basketball game that U-M fans should be very proud of???  Focus on the hoops and the great victory.

Gordon

January 16th, 2018 at 2:32 PM ^

Not taking glee, but I'm paraphrasing a comment below that the Spartan fanbase should really just shut up for a while after this.  The endless trashtalking nonsense needs to stop, and I can't ever recall it being this bad from them.

And it's not just due to football.

I had a corporate presentation given by a Michigan State fan that was two straight hours of Michigan basketball plane crash jokes.  In April.

You Only Live Twice

January 16th, 2018 at 3:37 PM ^

that everything MSU has built related to athletics, since this reprehensible situation started is in essence a fraud.  They have managed to avoid modern-day ethics/compliance/accountability structures with the result a compulsive, serial pedophile was supplied with a limitless supply of victims as young as 6 years old.

No one is taking any "glee" that this is happening because it's MSU.  As Gordon says, the fanbase is obsessed and constantly trashtalking Michigan.  MSU has demonstrated conclusively that winning is absolutely, literally all that matters, and at ANY cost.  MSU didn't win Gold medals at the Olympics, but "their" doctor had pictures of Olympic gymnasts all over his office... reflected glory, again at any cost.  

Longballs Dong…

January 17th, 2018 at 12:52 AM ^

You sound like you're taking glee since now you have a retort when an annoying MSU fan talks shit to you about an unrelated game. Are you disgusted that M claims Phelps as one of their own and has Olympic pictures on the walls? He never swam for M, he was never on the team, but we love him right? Doesn't that sound like reflected glory? I don't think UM helped Phelps get any of those medals yet he's listed in the Bentley library and heavily celebrated as one of our own. I hate to break it to you, but you aren't the victim just because annoying fans annoy you. The victims were children and there are hundreds of them testifying. Go listen to or read them and seriously come back here and tell me that you think it's important to try to discredit their football success as reflected glory and win at any cost or labeled as a fraud. I'll take this statement back only if those MSU fans are shit talking you about gymnastics. Then you might have a slight point, but we all know you're mad that UM lost to MSU in football and that just isn't fucking related to this story.

Ahriman

January 16th, 2018 at 7:52 PM ^

trashy administration. I think we should start calling them Penn State West.

https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-state-officials-couldnt-bothered-drive-three-miles-watch-larry-nassar-sentencing-223911625.html

Here are some quotes from a Yahoo article about MSU officials skipping out on Nassar's sentencing hearing:

“After much consideration, President Simon and Board of Trustee Chairperson Brian Breslin chose not to attend,” MSU spokesman Jason Cody said. 

If they did, indeed, watch the live stream and did, indeed, listen intently the way the silence and seriousness of open court demands, they would have heard that the victims want them there, too, want to make sure their words and stories and suffering are coming through loud and clear. They want MSU to confront its role the way they want Larry Nassar to confront his. They want State to know it failed. 

USA Gymnastics had the decency to come. New CEO Kerry Perry believed it was imperative, and while it hardly exonerates or excuses the organization, if nothing else, good on Perry for that.

“To those at MSU, USAG and the USOC who knew about Larry Nassar but did not act, the sin of omission is just as bad as the sin itself,” victim Megan Halicek said. “You added a heartless, depraved level of denial and victim-shaming to the mix.

superstringer

January 16th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^

Since I'm not a resident of the state of Michigan, I can confidently say that I'm not contributing to MSU's defense of itself. But all of you living in the state are probably having some portion of your tax dollars go to MSU's legal defense.  MSU hired not only the biggest-name firm in the state (Miller Canfield) but also one of the most expensive firms in the country (Cravath) to defend itself.

Priorities, man.

kevin holt

January 16th, 2018 at 2:25 PM ^

To be fair, although Cravath is one of the most profitable firms in the country (hovering somewhere between 1st and 3rd yearly), its partner billing rates aren't the highest (e.g. Jones Day who put together the internal "investigation" is higher, I believe). Also Cravath is effing good at what they do, so if we're worried about taxpayer money we're hoping they can minimize monetary penalties, I guess. On the other hand, in this type of scenario it would be nice if we could make sure taxpayer money doesn't fund legal defense and payment of fines once fault is found?

Qmatic

January 16th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^

It is shocking the amount of people who knew, or the people who just disregarded allegations. Multiple institutions contribuited to growing the monster of Nassar, and those who knew and did nothing, should face the harshest penalties out there for this.

Boulderine

January 16th, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^

People negging this because the OP used “Spartans Will” need to clarify why this is a problem. Assuming the OP was reducing this to a sports rivalry is a generous interpretation of the original post. Telling someone to “grow the fuck up” for being critical of criminal behavior is strange.

yossarians tree

January 16th, 2018 at 1:57 PM ^

In the state of Michigan, there is a general rivalry as well as a sports-only rivalry between the two institutions. It is more pronounced and on display during sporting events, but there is an overall culture war that goes beyond just sports. In that light there are the usual slings and arrows (to us they are a "cow college" filled with people who couldn't get into Michigan; to them we are elitists, arrogant, not "tough", and our women are unattractive).

As of late the noise has been pretty bad from their side of the table due mostly to the fact that their football ebbed exactly as our waned for the first time in decades. And while I certainly don't blame all Sparties for this Nassar catastrophe, I do wish they would show a modicum of humility, stop talking trash at everyone, and, you know, just generally SHUT THE FUCK UP. With they wave of sex assaults in their athletics program and now this debacle that really does rival what happened at Penn State, I will demand of any mouthy Spartans around me that they stay down, shut their goddamn mouths, and get their own house in order before I have to listen to any more of their bullshit.

 

 

 

Jed Eckert

January 16th, 2018 at 3:50 PM ^

This all day.  All I hear is them talking - especially after the football game.  Even then they were given it to me about basketball.  Since this weekend they have been amazingly quiet to me - and I havent said a word (which is always the case when Mich wins).

BG Wolverine

January 16th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^

As a state university, MSU is owned and operated by the state of Michigan.  I am befuddled by the fact the state also seems unwilling to dig into this.  Why don't they just form a comittee and get going?

FauxMo

January 16th, 2018 at 7:04 PM ^

Both Gretchen Whitmer (the likely Dem nominee for governor) and Bill Schutte (the likely Rep nominee) are demanding additional investiations. Whitmer has called on Simon to resign from MSU already. Contrary to some of the "nobody is paying attention to this story" stuff here on MGoBlog, people are listening, as this ESPN story shows. I do think it gets less attention than PSU, because of the little girls vs. little boys angle, as sad as that is. 

FYI, Larry Nasser may very well be the worst documented serial child abuser in US history. There are more than 140 victims that have come forward now; the current "title holder" is the doctor in Delaware with just over 100 victims. If that "spin" is put on the story, as some are now doing, attention will pick up even more.

NDP1075

January 16th, 2018 at 12:59 PM ^

I don’t live in Michigan so I wasn’t aware of the severity of this but how is this different from what went on at the other land grant college we hold so dear?

Marvin

January 16th, 2018 at 1:11 PM ^

Read the article I linked above from CNN. I think all of this will hit Michigan State very hard. I don't know that there were similar levels of willful ignorance that we saw with Sandusky and PSU, but there is an awful lot of smoke here, and this is just the beginning. The way Nassar's accusers are talking it sure looks like they are laying the grounds for massive lawsuits, and it will be all over the news. 

As I side note, I could not agree more with the above statements about not making a joke out of this, or seeing Nassar's unthinkable behavior as some sort of victory in the UM/MSU rivalry. Nassar's crimes are hideous and horrific. He tortured children. 

gruden

January 16th, 2018 at 1:17 PM ^

It's probably going to be worse because there was documented evidence of complaints of what he was doing and MSU wrote them off.  It's amazing to me more people haven't lost their jobs over it.  In both cases it's plain to see to what lengths people will go to protect an institution over the well being of young people.  This is where we are.

yossarians tree

January 16th, 2018 at 2:10 PM ^

I agree that this could get ugly, especially now that virtually all the members of probably the greatest Olympics gymanstics team in history are claiming to be victims. This amplifies the story profoundly. The USOC and MSU are tied to one another on this. Both are going to pay through the nose. That poor dumb gymnastics coach's life will be a living hell for its duration.

The politics on this are going to get interesting too. If this ends up costing the taxpayers of Michigan, it is going to be incumbent on state government to see that heads roll over this. Governor Rick Snyder is a Michigan grad and also basically a lame duck--but he also fairly or unfairly has at least some blood on his hands over the Flint water crisis. Attorney General Bill Schuette could act, but he is running for Governor and could piss off a lot of pro-MSU voters if he comes down to harshly on the university. 

The Fugitive

January 16th, 2018 at 1:54 PM ^

You would think a female gymnastics coach Kathie Klages and female university president Lou Anna Simon might handle the situation differently. That's what's most shocking to me. The two most powerful and influential people connected to this ARE WOMEN, and they sat on their hands.

Nassar is looking at 185 years in jail. Spread that around to Kathie and Lou Anna for covering this up.

MSU is being sued by 150 women. Pay them all and shut athletics down. Burn it to the ground.

Tex_Ind_Blue

January 16th, 2018 at 5:30 PM ^

I guess Ms. Klages would have understood what type of harrasment a woman goes through in day to day life. So when minor or any girl comes and complains about a man doing something (I am not lessening the importance of the assault, but giving her benefit of doubt), she should have atleast thought of checking it out. 

I guess I wanted her to act on her "instincts" not necessarily "maternal" instinct.