The New York Times is reporting that Penn State is in the planning stages of terminating Joe Paterno’s coaching career “perhaps within days or weeks”.
Oh, and how’s this for a profile in courage?
Paterno was to have held a news conference Tuesday but the university canceled it less than an hour before it was scheduled to start.
They need to raze the administration to the ground.
Get The Picture 
It’s absolutely stupefying how badly they’ve handled this from the very first inkling something might have been amiss. Almost as if they observed the Catholic Church’s response to the pedophile priest scandal, and instead of being rightly disgusted, said, “Yup, there’s our game plan.”
Clay Travis actually had a really astute idea in the midst of all this — PSU is a public institution, so it’s time for the governor to step in and start chopping heads. If he can’t do it alone, then convene a special session of the state leg and make them decide. But a flagship institution that commands as much attention, and as much public expenditure, as Penn State can’t be allowed to continue twisting in the wind under such clearly deficient leadership.
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I could be wrong but the Governor is actually publicly supporting Paterno’s handling of this matter.
I think PSU is handling this matter as if they are fearful that the victims will come back and sue. My guess is that PSU’s Athletic Department is going to be paying settlements in the millions.
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It’s the Catholic Church/priests problem all over again in a slightly different context.
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If Penn State is fearful of lawsuits, they might as well strap in and assume crash position now. There’s absolutely nothing they can do at this point to keep those kids’ parents from bringing down the legal equivalent of the wrath of God down on the university. One of the lawyers who represented families against the Archdiocese of Boston has already been retained, if the reports I’ve read are accurate; both the university and Paterno (to name just one individual) are going to be paying out millions in settlements once this is all over with.
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How does the Penn State Athletic Association avoid bankruptcy if they are sued and held responsible because of Sandusky’s use of the program and their knowledge?
Judgments will almost certainly total into 9 figures. What kind of budget will a bankruptcy judge or trustee allow the association to use to support athletics? Who will actually give the Penn State AA money if they know it is because of this? The consequences could be dire for the entire athletic department.
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Penn State University is a state institution so there may be governmental immunity issues present. Also, I question whether the State of Pennsylvania has to defend any of the individuals or pay any judgments against them. That is something that may have to be litigated as well.
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If their athletic association is like ours, it is not a governmental entity and would almost certainly have immunity. Suits against Penn State University may have caps or may be proscribed due to immunity. Suits against the Penn State AA, as stated above, could be a serious threat to Penn State athletics.
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“almost certainly have no immunity.” I need someone to proof things before I send them.
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Yep. Punitive damages were made for situations like this.
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The Board of Regents, or Trustees I think in this case, is really the entity charged with this kind of oversight–which is usually better than letting one person act like a king that either knights or beheads the accused.
Sounds as though they are going to get it right and JoePa is going to have a very abrupt and sad last chapter.
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They said Paterno was going to be late to the presser anyway. He said he was on his way there and found himself a little behind.
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Poor form.
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How sickening that this was left unpoliced for so many years..Paterno is no saint either,,He had knowledge of some of this behavior since 2002.Why did he not notify the authorities himself?? Was it for fear of losing a defensive coordinator?? If thats the case..That is REALLY shallow and would lead me and many others to lose all respect for the man,and the entire athletic dept of Penn Sate.
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Seriously, I can’t think of anyone I know hearing about an incident like the shower attack and NOT alerting authorities. Most of the people I know would have called the police after they pounded Sandusky to a pulp. What kind of culture looks the other way when something like this occurs? I can see no out for Paterno- provided the accounts are true.
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You’re forgetting that Sandusky had a ton of power at the time. That power was the force that held everyone’s lips together.
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The most shocking thing about this whole situation is how a grown man could witness another grown man raping a kid and simply walk away. That is just beyond my imagination. What an absolute coward.
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seriously. that seems to be how pretty much everyone i’ve talked to feels.
maybe it’s a southern thing. maybe we’re just more protective by nature.
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Sadly I’m sure he thought his coaching career would be over before it started if he had taken real action. As it turns out he parlayed it into a job. Not the first time in human history. The right call isn’t always the easy one, but it’s always the right one. Some sick Frs out there.
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Definitely not for fear of losing a DC. Sandusky retired in ’99, 3 yrs. before Paterno’s purported knowledge of wrongdoing.
I live near Hershey, PA – very much in the heart of Penn State territory and can remember being shocked that Sandusky retired when he did. It was always widely held that Sandusky was the HC-in-waiting and that the announcement was merely a formality following Paterno’s impending retirement. When he retired in ’99 the reason was ostensibly to spend more time with his Second Mile Foundation and many also speculated that he was growing tired of waiting for Paterno to retire.
In retrospect you have to wonder if there was knowledge of his criminal behavior before 2002 and he was quietly asked to retire. If so, that makes things even worse than they seem now.
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There are now reports that PSU was aware of allegations as far back as 1998. Plus the list of victims is now approaching 20.
This is getting worse by the hour for PSU & the admin has done little to quell the storm, support the victims and tell the truth. It appears that legal advice towards remaining silent is winning out over crisis management pr advice.
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In my opinion, this is what can occur when protecting the athletic program’s “brand” becomes more important than individual lives at stake. The same sort of “corporate think” that allows otherwise good and decent men to avert their eyes rather than do the difficult though right thing.
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Let’s not over react. It’s not like one of PSU’s players sold a jersey.
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Or emerged from an alley. Perhaps the PSU folks thought that this was like dealing with the NCAA. Just report it and it will go away.
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So….how does this affect the Fulmer Cup standings?
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“There’s no individual in the entire 120- or 130-year history of the university that has had a greater impact on the institution than Joe Paterno,” Larry Foster, a former trustee and a president of the alumni association, told The New York Times in 2004. “He’s just reached into so many areas.”
Geez, those people need to get public relations clearance before releasing statements. Even R. Lee Ermy would know the last thing We Are Penn State needs now is a reach around quote.
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The more this is sturred, the more it stinks.
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The degree of specificity, which is being reported, that was observed in the showers leaves ZERO room for judgement/interpretation. The bastards should have called 911, immediately after kicking the shit out of Sandusky. Unbelievable. The DA should be dropping a daisy cutter on all who are involved.
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+ 1 million megatons.
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So, I have yet to read any legal reasoning as to why Joe Pa has not had charges brought against him for failure to report child abuse as was done with the AD? The Grad Assistant Witness saw one instance, notified Joe Pa, who then notified the AD. How is it that the first person notified by the witness is in the clear but the person who heard one step further the communication chain is not?
Also, this whole thing is a perfect example of a disturbing viewpoint that I believe is held by many at the top level at Universities across the country. That viewpoint is :”This campus, these buildings, the employees, the students, and the money of the university is my own little fiefdom. City officials and state officials have no power, I alone rule this independent sovereign state.”
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My understanding is that the statute of limitations for the failure to report charge is 4 years, so that has expired by this time. The AD was charged with providing false testimony to the grand jury, if I have read the stories correctly.
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That makes sense.
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Not to me. I get that the law is the law, but don’t think there should be a statute of limitations on anything associated with this type of crime. There’s certainly no statute of limitations on how long the kids have/will be affected. And do we really believe there’s only been “a few?” I don’t.
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Think I saw somewhere that according to Pennsylvania state law, Paterno was supposed to report it to his boss and his boss was supposed to contact the authorities. That rule makes no sense, but I feel like that’s what I read.
Also, maybe Paterno foolishly thought that the guy he reported it to would do the right thing. I don’t know why a guy like JoePa would decide he shouldn’t take the initiative himself though. He’s supposed to be a leader.
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Sorry. I did not make myself clear. The statute of limitations having passed makes sense to me as a lawyer as the legal reason why Paterno was not charged and the others were. FWIW I agree with you that there probably should not be a statute of limitations for this sort of thing. Murder, for example, is a crime that has no statute of limitations.
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As a public school teacher, I have to attend “mandated reporter” training each year. We are told that if we suspect or learn of allegations of abuse, we are to report it directly to school administration. We are also encouraged to follow this chain of command and not contact the authorities on our own. Public university employees like Paterno may be told the same thing; this may account for why, legally, he is in the clear.
That being said, morally, I don’t understand how he could just report such allegations without checking up on them later. It just baffles me.
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Starting in 2002 when something was verifiably reported to him, Paterno was at fault for letting it continue, and the suffering of these children is on his head. He did next to nothing. He told his boss and stuck his head in the ground. No wonder the man’s glasses are so thick, he’s freaking blind. Sandusky worked out at the Penn State gym on Friday, folks. FRIDAY. Four days ago, a child rapist let himself into the Penn State football facility (a facility into which he is banned from bringing children, for some reason, but he’s still a great guy!) and worked out. Joe Paterno knew what happened. He knew that nothing was done about it. And he left it alone. I don’t give a damn how many football games the man has won for Penn State University. I don’t give a damn how much of his own money he gave to build a library (not all that noteworthy when you consider he’s been paid to coach football 46 years, including at least 20 years of inflated, unreasonable coaching salaries). I don’t give a damn about his national championships, bowl wins, All-Americans, Big 10 titles, or recruiting class rankings. This is no longer a man who deserves to write the script for his own exit. This is a man who deserves to dismissed in the way that causes him maximum humiliation and supreme embarrassment, because no humiliation or embarrassment that can be caused him will even approach that of the innocent boys that were raped in HIS building. I don’t want to hear about how he did what the law requires. I don’t want to hear apologists say that he couldn’t have known what was going on. He knew. He had to know. And either way, he has to go. NOW. And the wide receivers coach? The guy that actually witnessed the act and could have run into that shower and beat the pedophile into a bloody pulp but instead ran away and called his dad? That guy has to be fired, too. And any severance pay he has coming should be direct deposited into a victim’s protection program. I pray for the healing of the victims in this case.
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A completely and irrelevant point in the grand scheme of things, but one that bothers me nonetheless, this scandal is being used as another battering ram by the people who want to tear down big-time college athletics. And that’s garbage. This isn’t a college athletics problem. It’s a Penn State athletics problem.
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Are all of the facts out there? Give it time. Aweful allegations though. Really sad.
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agree 110 % . And I hope the victims sue the bastards for all they got
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I agree with everyone, but Paterno has been senile since the 80’s.
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Senility is not an excuse. Not for this.
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Senility is not an excuse but perhaps an explanation. I don’t think/believe Paterno was senile when this happened. And yes it is unreasonable that it continued.
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And sick people are sick people, so Sandusky has somewhat of an excuse because he’s diseased. Not a valid excuse, but you can’t rationalize the irrational. As for those that covered things up, they can’t fall back on the excuse of I am a sick, diseased mind. So imo, they are much, much worse in this situation.
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Definitely not making an excuse for Paterno. In his position he should be accountable for his actions or lack thereof. But again, the guy has not appeared to be playing with a full deck of cards since the 80’s imo. They should’ve made a coaching change a long time ago. Which again goes back to the admin
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That is bit over the top.
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“Paterno was to have held a news conference Tuesday but the university canceled it less than an hour before it was scheduled to start.”
Well there you go. It has been rumored he really wasn’t the head coach… a figure head if you will. Garnering this won/loss record beyond his abilities and deeds. Now this. How can this storied institution be so reckless? My father is 80. Retired from SAC. He is very self assured and wants to be in charge. When legal issues…etc. have come up at this point in his life he has suggested … to me “I really don’t have a firm grip on this …. lets put all our heads together and get some reasonable closure on it” .. Seems to be part of his generation’s mindset…. when did Joe Pa lose that?
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The 1980’s. See Keese, above.
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Actually a very, very awful situation and I apologize for my silly and flippant post above. This kind of behavior, cover-up and moral blindness must be confronted and punished, no matte who is involved.
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No harm …. no foul!
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Who is the idiot judge who let this unimaginably evil worm out on bail?
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Or decided that $100k was an appropriate bail for a millionaire child rapist.
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The FIRE RICHT NOW!!ELEVENTY!!! needs to witness this terrible mess. Anyone think Richt or anyone on his staff would let this happen? Or McGarity? Grantham would probably have ripped Sandusky’s throat out.
This is a permanent stain on the PSU program. This is not paying players, or free hoodies, or inflating grades. Children were violated and abused, for fucks’ sake, and this monster was allowed to roam around when he should have been torn apart by dogs.
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True, but not unique to us. I think 95% (maybe more) of grown men would not have let this stand. That is what is so incomprehensible abotu all of this. Of all the people who knew about this and knew of this, none of them really did a damn thing.
I know it’s a stretch legally, but I would love to see them all indicted on a conspiracy charge and have to face the same music that Sandusky will.
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This is actually a great example of the dangers of creating a “Cult of the Coach” or “Coach for Life” atmosphere around a program. Such an atmosphere muddies rational thinking rather than helping it. Hopefully I’ll never again hear a media person say “Well, he’s earned the right to retire on his own terms.” (Barnhart has loved saying this over the years about certain coaches, including Paterno before this mess.)
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Excellent point. Many coaches, perhaps most, appoint buddies to staff positions. I think it’s important to scrutinize who’s interests are being served, instead of blind trust.
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Paterno should have done something about this. He had enough actionable information to do the right thing and report it to the police or push for more investigations. That’s what leaders do.
You can’t tell me that the kind of guy that ignores a request to step down by his superiors lacks the stones to advance a cause he believes in. He wanted the luxury to look the other way and that is what is reprehensible.
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Penn State officials have wanted to be rid of Joe Paterno for years. This is giving those in authority the opportunity to do just that. Personally, I never thought much of the guy. I have thought he was strange and a horse’s ass for years. If you told me that there was a program out there where there was a pedophile on the staff and that the HC sorta “knew” but was just closing his eyes and looking the other way and asked me to guess which one, Penn State would have been in my top 3 guesses.
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Wow. Seriously? I never had any inkling that anything was out of place at all at Penn State, other than the assistant coaches holding more sway over the program than at most other schools. Joe Pa always seemed like a prickly ass with the media, but that’s just being an old man. And a lot of other guys are the same way. This entire affair is shocking to me. And heads need to roll.
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My other 2 guesses would have been Ohio State under Tressell and Auburn when Pat Dye was the coach, simply because of the cover-up mentality present and the overall lack of institutional control manifested by those coaches and their administrations.
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Tressell and Paterno, men of integrity, LEADERS & LEGENGS. Remember when the Tressell thing was brewing and Paterno said PSU had been “lucky” over the years regarding the NCAA. Looks like their luck ran out, in a much different form….
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LEGENDS that is. Damn.
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Unreal story. No one will survive this.
Worst “sports” story since Rae Carruth.
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This scandal has cast a pall over all of sports. This blog reflects what is stated publically by sports pundits. It will play out for the good of all sports when people reflect on it’s moral depth and it leads to cleansing the sporting world of such turpitude. It is elevating to see the indignation reacted here that is light years ahead of a major Church’s reaction and entertainment figures involved with such baseness
Do not for one moment think this has not happened elsewhere in the sports world. It’s offensiveness to posters on here reflects what will spur on punishment of past, unspoken incidents. Tolerance is beneath the dignity of us all.
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As if this story wasn’t disturbing enough, Sandusky’s autobiography is called “Touched.” What species of demon could type that title knowing what he had done?
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Wow, just…wow. You seriously cannot make this shit up.
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Freudian slip?
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Maybe the administration didn’t want to offend the local NAMBLA chapter. You know, political correctness and all.
Personally, I like the daisy cutter idea on all those involved.
This from the conference of Legends and Leaders. Good one Delaney.
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More like a conference of Liars and Damned Liars.
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Pingback: I cried after that game « Year of the Dawg
“The most shocking thing about this whole situation is how a grown man could witness another grown man raping a kid and simply walk away. That is just beyond my imagination. What an absolute coward.”
The only thing I can think of is that this was some 23 year old kid, who most likely revered Sandusky, found it so shocking that he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
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This shocks the conscience. I was prepared to make a comment (my first ever on this site) about how we shouldn’t jump to conclusions and JoePa may have been trying to go through proper administrative channels and not initiate some witch hunt based on rumors. But a GA witnessed the rape of a 10 year old? Are you kidding me? I’m guessing the GA was so blown away by what he saw he didn’t know what to do.
Where’s that sharia law when we need it?
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Whoever has ultimate authority over the university (governor, board of regents?) needs to step in and immediately remove the president, Paterno, McQueary, and on down to anyone who knew, including the janitors who saw or were told about the 2000 incident. How come no one has mentioned them? Read the 23 page GJ findings. It is breathtaking how many adults could have stopped Sandusky and did nothing because of selfish worries about their own jobs. Pulp Fiction taught me that when somebody is raping even your worst enemy, let alone an innocent kid, you go in there with a samurai sword and administer swift justice. It is simply unfathomable that no one, not McQueary, not Paterno, not Curley, not Schultz, and not Spanier, ever even found out the name of the 2002 victim, much less asked him or his family about what happened. Three of those cowards still have their jobs. World gone mad.
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Words to live by: If you see a grown man naked with a 10 year old boy in a shower, you whip his ever loving @$$ and ask questions later. Just saying.
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