Fmr. Penn St. coach Jerry Sandusky charged with Child Sex Abuse

It doesn't matter what Paterno's "ethical" obligation was. He's a football coach, not a priest (though that would have made the problem worse). His job is to win football games. He reported it to his superior just like he should have and went back to his job, his superiors are the ones that should have done something about this.

Penn State could have saved themselves a LOT of bad press and a week of rioting if they avoided this idiotic knee jerk reaction.

Thank you, Mikey, for reminding me just why you;re on my Ignore list.

UPDATE: Joe Paterno is dead. According to CBS Sportsline.

Other reports have JoePa alive, but in serious condition.

And I can hear a hundred hack sportswriters racing to type up "The Sandusky Case killed JoePa" columns and comparisons to Paul "Bear" Bryant (who also died within months of coaching his last game).

You don't just tell your boss when you see a violent crime being committed at work, you call the police. It's not like he was stealing office supplies.

Update: He's actually dead, this time.

Freezer wrote:

Update: He's actually dead, this time.

And Fred Phelps and his brood of lunatics wasted no time with the "we're going to protest his funeral" press release.

And you are right, the sportwriters are already trying to lionize him (in the "minimize the last, sorry days" method). Some are trying to be more even-handed, but it still feels oily and fake.

Spotts1701 wrote:

Freezer wrote:

Update: He's actually dead, this time.

And Fred Phelps and his brood of lunatics wasted no time with the "we're going to protest his funeral" press release.

I hope that ends well. College football fans have the same murder streak as Marines, but without the discipline or basic human intelligence.

>mfw you idiots still think Paterno was in any way at fault for what happened and didn't take reasonable steps to handle the situation and firing him was justified.

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Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

>mfw you idiots still think Paterno was in any way at fault for what happened and didn't take reasonable steps to handle the situation and firing him was justified.

Yes, firing him was justified.

I had this conversation with our Deputy Superintendent at work, and he said that if one of our teachers came forward and claimed someone in our employ was possibly abusing kids, his first call would not be to the Superintendent. It would be to the police. In fact, most HR policies for public institutions specifically state that if you suspect a crime has taken or is taking place, you call the cops first and then you call your superiors.

Last I looked, Paterno's checks were signed by Penn State University, not by the Penn State Nittany Lions football team. That means he is an employee of the university just like any other. He doesn't get a pass because he's a football coach, no matter how many games he won.

He made an unforgivable mistake. No matter his legacy, no matter the good works and philanthropy he did in life, this is part of it.

UPDATE: Just thought you'd like to know, Sandusky was acquitted on three of the charges.

Sure, he was convicted of the other 45, but those three? MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE! #shakesfist

Well, considering the fact that he's looking at '442 years in prison,' I think we can all still be a little happy with the outcome.

ETA: Also, is it just me or are the comments from his lawyers kind of making it sound like they think he's guilty too?

From what I understand, he was found guilty of 45 of the 48 charges brought against him. This adds up to 442 years in prison. His family is still supporting him (despite his one son testifying that he was also raped numerous times). I'm just wondering when people are going to start in about how he's too old to send to jail and it isn't fair he should have to suffer for something he couldn't control. Because you know it's going to happen.

Rabid Badger wrote:

From what I understand, he was found guilty of 45 of the 48 charges brought against him. This adds up to 442 years in prison. His family is still supporting him (despite his one son testifying that he was also raped numerous times). I'm just wondering when people are going to start in about how he's too old to send to jail and it isn't fair he should have to suffer for something he couldn't control. Because you know it's going to happen.

I, for one, am fine with killing him, if he'd prefer it.

Rabid Badger wrote:

His family is still supporting him (despite his one son testifying that he was also raped numerous times).

Apparently incest, in and of itself, is a Second Degree felony in Pennsylvania. (I assume "second degree" is the same as "Class B")

oh I saw on one progressive website where his wife described some of his alleged victims as "clingy" and "conniving"

you know, the way a cuckolded wife might talk about her husband's mistress

except these were children

^ Ick, that is fucked up on a few different levels.

PRISON JUSTICE!!!11

Quote :

Other prisoners were barred from communicating directly with Sandusky, but they could see him. And when the lights went out, inmates serenaded the disgraced coach with a famous line from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”

“At night, we were singing ‘Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone,’ ” Josh said, adding that everyone knew who Sandusky was because inmates had access to television and newspapers. The jail can hold 349 inmates.

Yeah peng, I remember reading somewhere that even in prison if you fool with kids, prepare to be sung at by big black men

Yeah, pedophiles don't tend to do too well in prison. It might have something to do with the fact that quite a few prisoners were victims of molestation as children.

Penguin wrote:

PRISON JUSTICE!!!11

Quote :

Other prisoners were barred from communicating directly with Sandusky, but they could see him. And when the lights went out, inmates serenaded the disgraced coach with a famous line from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”

“At night, we were singing ‘Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone,’ ” Josh said, adding that everyone knew who Sandusky was because inmates had access to television and newspapers. The jail can hold 349 inmates.

He's going to spend the remainder of his days looking over his shoulder in one way, or the other.

UPDATE (Come To Bury, Not To Praise Dept): You know the story the Paterno defenders have put forth - that Paterno did what was required of him by law and Penn St. rules?

Yeah... no.

CNN.com wrote:

[Then Athletic Directory Tim] Curley refers to a meeting scheduled that day with Spanier and indicates they apparently discussed the Sandusky incident two days earlier.

Curley indicates he no longer wants to contact child welfare authorities just yet. He refers to a conversation the day before with Paterno. It's not known what Paterno may have said to Curley.

Curley allegedly writes: "After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps."

The athletic director apparently preferred to keep the situation an internal affair and talk things over with Sandusky instead of notifying the state's child welfare agency.

Translation: One chat with Coach Paterno and Curley's tune changes from "We should go to the cops" to "Let's slow walk this."

Fuck. Humanity.

UPDATE: The quicksand keeps getting deeper for Penn St.

The official report from the Freeh Group (a risk management and investigative firm fronted by former FBI head, Louis Freeh) has been released, and it pretty much damns everyone involved, from Joe Paterno on down.

Unless you talk to baseball writer Bill James, who somehow thinks the Freeh Report exonerates JoPa:

Quote :

The Freeh reports states quite explicitly and at least six times (a) that the 1998 incident did NOT involve any criminal conduct—on the part of Sandusky or anyone else—and (b) that Paterno had forced the resignation of Sandusky before the 1998 incident occurred.

The 1998 incident was perceived AT THE TIME to involve no criminal conduct. The May 3, 1998 incident was very, very, very thoroughly investigated by at least four different agencies (University police, state police, and two different child welfare agencies), all four of which issued written reports stating that no criminal event had occurred. In retrospect, since the actions were part of a pattern of criminal conduct, it may be said that they were criminal conduct in and of themselves, but no one saw that at the time.

In any case, what EXACTLY is it that Paterno should have done? Fire him again? It is preposterous to argue, in my view, that PATERNO should have taken action after all of the people who were legally charged to take action had thoroughly examined the case and decided that no action was appropriate.

ETA: Sally Jenkins, Washington Post sports writer and reporter of record for Joe Paterno's final interview, had this to say about the revelations:

Quote :

Joe Paterno was a liar, there’s no doubt about that now. He was also a cover-up artist. If the Freeh report is correct in its summary of the Penn State child molestation scandal, the public Paterno of the last few years was a work of fiction. In his place is a hubristic, indictable hypocrite.

...

If Paterno knew about ’98, then he wasn’t some aging granddad who was deceived, but a canny and unfeeling power broker who put protecting his reputation ahead of protecting children.

If he knew about ’98, then he understood the import of graduate assistant Mike McQueary’s distraught account in 2001 that he witnessed Sandusky assaulting a boy in the Penn State showers.

If he knew about ’98, then he also perjured himself before a grand jury.

That's not a nail in the coffin, that's a stake through the heart!

Freezer wrote:

UPDATE: The quicksand keeps getting deeper for Penn St.

Quicksand? I'd say "minefield" is more like it...and the biggest mine just went off in the collective face of Penn State's student body, faculty, and alumni. I can't see the university ever recovering from this-- in fact I'll be absolutely stunned if it's still open this time next year. For all practical purposes, Penn State is dead.

Chris91 wrote:

Freezer wrote:

UPDATE: The quicksand keeps getting deeper for Penn St.

Quicksand? I'd say "minefield" is more like it...and the biggest mine just went off in the collective face of Penn State's student body, faculty, and alumni. I can't see the university ever recovering from this-- in fact I'll be absolutely stunned if it's still open this time next year. For all practical purposes, Penn State is dead.

Calm down, champ. If Virginia Tech getting 30 of their students killed and using it to beg for money doesn't kill them, Penn State will be just fine.

The Athletic Department will suffer, but for the life of me, I can't remember two separate instances of them having a single GOOD team. The football team was a genuine contender a couple of years back, but other than that everything has been unremarkable and I can't understand all the hype.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Chris91 wrote:

Freezer wrote:

UPDATE: The quicksand keeps getting deeper for Penn St.

Quicksand? I'd say "minefield" is more like it...and the biggest mine just went off in the collective face of Penn State's student body, faculty, and alumni. I can't see the university ever recovering from this-- in fact I'll be absolutely stunned if it's still open this time next year. For all practical purposes, Penn State is dead.

Calm down, champ. If Virginia Tech getting 30 of their students killed and using it to beg for money doesn't kill them, Penn State will be just fine.

OK, maybe I was overreacting a tad when I posted the "Penn State is dead" comment...I've been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic books lately and that kind of thing tends to skew one's perspective on life. That said, I don't think Penn State will enjoy in the future the kind of prestige it had as an institution before the scandal erupted. If JoePa wasn't already dead, half of Pennsylvania would have wanted to kill him after the Freeh report came out yesterday.