Here’s the entirety of Joe Paterno’s resignation statement:
“I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief. I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today. That’s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can. This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more. My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this University.”
Lots of unanswered questions there. But it’s more than we’ve heard from any of the others involved in this obscenely sordid mess.
What a pathetic way to go out.
Get The Picture 
Good. What a way to say farewell to college football. Just pathetic.
What would be nice is if we could get an ACTUAL statement from JoePa (if that’s possible). This canned attorney scripted statement does not really resonate with the general public, he needs to actually say it himself considering what is involved here.
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One of JoePa’s sons is a lawyer. My guess is they crafted that together.
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Right, that’s the chubby buffoon who has taken this opportunity to become a quasi-PR shill during the vacuum of presendential leadership.
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Sincere stupid question here and maybe the senator’s legal background can help here: what do we know for sure and is it still a possibility that as facts come out joe pa based on the information received at the time did what we could reasonably expect a moral person to do? i say this as someone who a) doesn’t like to rush to judjment and b) doesn’t feel like i know all the facts.
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After the second observed incident occurred without Paterno going to the authorities, I don’t think he has a moral leg to stand on.
And that’s before you even get to Sandusky bringing other kids around PSU in the years following that.
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Right. It’s my contention (w/o any credible proof or evidence, of course!) that PSU cut Sandusky loose as DC after the ’99 season because plenty was known of his misdeeds. But he (Sandusky) kept sleazing around the football facilities with the full knowledge of at LEAST four people.
Also, if you want to get truly Black-Helicopter conspiracy minded, the Centre County DA went missing in 2005 while investigating allegations of Sandusky’s crimes. His car was located fifty miles away in Lewisburg, PA but nothing save his laptop and dismantled hard drive were later found.
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So the guy is still missing? A DA?
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Let me connect those dots for ya…
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/sandusky-investigator-center-mystery/story?id=14905668#.Trq70HJyGUI
It’s a doozy, ain’t it?
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That’s the one. Chilling theories/speculation.
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Yea it is, although the authorities seem to be pretty convinced this was not connected to Sandusky. Also, I don’t think he was investigating the Sandusky allegations at the time. A few years between those two events.
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His daughter petitioned to have him declared legally deceased in July so the family could divvy up the estate.There is a little blurb about it up on the NYTimes website. Guy’s name was Ray Gricar.
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What we’ve seen here is the result you can sometimes expect when full power and trust is granted to an insulated sect of people. The entire saga smells of gross negligence toward the affairs of a benighted/lionized segment of that school (ie. the Football People). Without Paterno around that myopic and deluded village of State College will be rudderless. As it should be, from all that has been disclosed. And it ain’t done yet, I would wager — not by a long shot.
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Ultimately every human being is flawed; we are all sinners. History is filled with stories of powerful people using their position to do evil things to others. I am thankful for Mark Richt, not because he is perfect, but because he acknowledges that he is a sinner and has been saved by Grace.
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In light of all this, who is for “FIRING MARK RICHT!” now.
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+1000
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Mixed feelings about JoePa in this ordeal. On one hand, there’s no excuse for his lack of responsibility. On the other, the ‘ol man hasn’t really made a lot of sense since the 80’s. Not saying that disrespectfully. Just sorta that ra-ra go Penn state alum coach that has stayed around longer than he mentally or physically should have.
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Did you see all the Rah-Rah outside his house last evening? It was mostly sickening, with Joe even tossing in a few cheers for good measure.
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That was disgusting. Let’s hear it for enabling a monster and covering up his actions! Yeah!
Disgusting.
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Its amazing the blind patriotism people show toward those in authority.
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It reminded me of the scenes outside Gaddafi’s compound during the early days of the Libyan Revolution.
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Wasn’t long ago the questionable majority of America repeating “yes we can!”
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Unlike every other political slogan used in every other campaign ever? FWIW, it’ll be “four more years” pretty soon.
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Sandusky has been around PSU since what? The 50’s? My guess is that JoePa probably knew a long time ago (before being told in 1992) that this stuff was going on
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Events have been massaged and deflected out there forever, with a compliant university police dept. and willing populace that justly resembles the nonsense Dawg fans are more familiar with in Gainesville.
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Are you seriously comparing any other college scandal (with the exception of the Bliss/Baylor mess) to this? Dude. Sandusky (allegedly) raped one ten year old boy in PSU’s locker room and showered with at least one other, sexually abused another on a trip to the Alamo Bowl, all while his co-workers & boss turned a blind eye —and you say it reminds you of Gainesville?
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Don’t get me wrong on this. Certainly the magnitude is not comparable. I was attempting to indicate what I consider the complicity of the larger community that allowed these abominations to fester. That’s all.
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The disgusting cheering by supporters outside his house is the reason he should no longer be allowed to coach. I refuse to beileve that the Board of Trustees want to see a bunch of cheering buffoons on Saturday for the nation to see.
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if you read the grand jury report, you have to wonder if Joe Pa knew more about this than he lets on. this guy was sick while on the coaching staff,
This story is terrible
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Sounds like he is trying to beat the administration to the punch by retiring before he could be let go. “Don’t bother with dealing with me, you have more important things to do.” Let’s see if they agree with him
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Yeah, he can offer his resignation, but that doesn’t mean the Board of Trustees has to accept it.
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Agree with both of you. I think he’s trying to keep from getting fired. Joe Pa is scum of the earth as far as I’m concerned because it has been proven he was aware of the facts and did nothing about it. His wins record will forever serve as a reminder of Joe Paterno, the man who knowingly and continually let his long time friend and coworker rape children under his watch. Pathetic.
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I’d bet dollars-to-donuts that they do. I think most of the Board are still in thrall to him. But can you imagine the circus this could create for the final month of the season? And the probability of PSU representing the ‘LEADERS’ in the cinference title game?
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I expect some of the “family’s” motivation is to head off the trustees ending his tenure before the end of the season. Penn State is facing multitudinous civil suits, forcing Joe out early would be one way of getting in front of some of this…at least in the bureaucratic minds at work here.
I wonder if they realize this could very well bankrupt the athletic department?
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Remember Paterno on the sports panels following the Jan Kemp case?
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I did not know that (huh, the model of rectitude!)
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They need to tell him to step off and get out. “Thanks for the advice on what we should spend our time on, Joe Pa, now, if you don’t mind, those players you care so much about would like to salvage their season.”
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He didn’t think it was so important in 2002 or even a week ago.
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A week ago, when Sandusky was prowling the halls of football building.
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Amazing how remorseful getting caught can make a man.
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The Board of Trustees should let him go now and not let him step foot in the stadium again. Don’t see how the man sleeps at night.
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He doesn’t deserve the satisfaction of finishing the season.
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That is true. Why should he get to set the terms of his departure?
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I like how he tells the Board of Trustees that he should be allowed to coach the rest of the season.
Get his sorry a$$ out of there immediately. This is horrible.
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Paterno truly thinks he is that important and indispensible. The Board/State College, at large, have stroked his ego enough to make it so.
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Joe’s right about one thing: the Board of Trustees doesn’t need to waste any more time discussing his status with Penn State. They should fire his ass for cause, and he should absolutely not be allowed to “coach” another game at Penn State. If they want to let him doff his cap at halftime Saturday, that’s their call, but he doesn’t deserve it. We don’t know everything about it right now, but we do know that all he did when he had this conduct reported to him was tell a boss and then proceed to allow the pedophile to maintain shop in his building for the next nine years. Even in his lawyer’d statement, he admits he should have done more. Paterno should be fired. Now.
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“one of the great sorrows….” I am sure I don’t want to know what the others are.
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Woner what the recruiting and student enrollment numbers will do in lieu of this?
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Who takes this spent-reactor-rod of a job. Good Lord!
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Only a person like Coach Richt could even begin to re-establish something. But despite the cries from the Dawgvent, he is not available. Incidents like this makes me even more appreciative of the character of the man and what he is trying to do at UGA.
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True Dat!
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That’s a good (if ancillary) point. This scandal will damage the program for years. Every game Penn State plays on TV, this will be discussed. Every recruit will have this horror show told and retold by rival schools. Every potential HC hire will have one of the worst messes in football history to clean up. All because of an institutional lack of will to act and a deliberate ignorance of evil.
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I hadn’t considered the civil suit angle of this case. There are several administrators whose net worth is about to hit zero, and if the athletic department is not immune to civil lawsuits then Penn State football may be over as we know it.
If the Athletic Department manages to survive this without going broke, the loss of Paterno is probably a good thing for the football program. He should have retired long ago, and it’s not like he’s coaching now or is a factor in recruiting. Kudos to Penn state for staying above 75% of the Big 10 while having a statue as it’s head coach, but they haven’t been scary in a long time.
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If you are of the legal persuasion, you might be able to digest this analysis by a plaintiff’s attorney on the civil angle, and the potential bars to bringing a suit.
http://www.litigationandtrial.com/2011/11/articles/attorney/civil-rights-1/penn-state-sexual-abuse-lawsuit/
The attorney’s concern appears to be less of sovereign immunity, and more the statute of limitations. While all the known victims appear to still be able to bring suit, it’s possible that as further facts develop there will be people who cannot bring suit.
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There were so many failures in this scandal. Starting in 1998 when the investigation into Sandusky was dropped. The University Police and Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare both interviewed Sandusky. He admitted to hugging the child in the shower. Here is a guy that helps young boys. He cares for them like a Father. It doesn’t appear he sexually assaulted the child or at least there was not enough evidence. Why did the University Police chief kill the investigation? Did Joe know about this investigation? Did Sandusky retire after pressure from the administration or Joe?
In 2000, a janitor witnessed him sexually assaulting a child. A janitor who realizes Sandusky is way more important than he is in the system. This is where you can really see a big problem. The administration of PSU has helped to create this monster. Employees are afraid to speak out against the football program. This has been bred into the culture at PSU.
Then we get to 2002 when Mike McQueary (CURRENT FUCKING ASSISTANT COACH) witnessed Sandusky assaulting a child. He told Joe who told his boss. It was all swept under the carpet and McQueary was told Sandusky’s keys to the locker room were taken from him. This is my WTF moment. If I told someone that I saw a child getting molested and they told me it was fine, we took his keys away. I would go straight to the fucking police station. Same goes for Joe. Here is your starting QB from a few years ago. Your current graduate assistant, telling you he saw a boy molested by Sandusky and nothing was done. How can you look the other way? How can you sleep at night?
Everyone should be fired to-fucking-day. From the coaches, to the administrators, to the University Police, to the child services.
I hope that other Universities learn from this tragedy.
There is a great timeline of events over at NPR.
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However for some perspective read this article from ESPN.com.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7205085/growing-penn-state
While it does not and should not absolve McQueary of a moral responsibility to report this to the police, it certainly does provide insight into his course of action for these events. Sandusky was not just some former assistant coach to him, McQueary grew up with Sandusky’s kids. Jerry Sandusky was an authority figure from his entire life. Yes – McQueary was an adult but when faced with confronting an unspeakable act by the father of his friends, by someone who had been authority figure in his community for all of his life – McQueary did what I think a lot of us would do. He sought advice from two other influential authority figures in his life and the community, McQueary’s Dad and Joe Paterno. Those guys failed him. They gave him bad advice.
McQueary was old enough to know though that they were giving him bad advice. He should have reported it – just as Joe Paterno should have said to him – “Thanks Mike – I am going to tell the AD and then we are going to call the cops.”
This story is an American tragedy and it is not unlike other American tragedy’s where our heroes make horrific and frightening decisions. Decisions that from the outside seem to be no-brainers. Every town in America has secrets – sordid stories that the institutions in those towns either condone, sponsor or simply sweep under the rug. Secrets that when the see the light of day, people on the outside say “My God, how could this have happened? Why did they let this go on? What were they thinking?”
My guess is that there have always been whispers and rumors about Sandusky – but they were things that polite people don’t talk about. It would do too much damage to the most important thing in State College – PSU. Besides Sandusky is a “great” guy, he has adopted 6 kids when he could not have any of his own, he started this charity for troubled youth, he is Coach at PSU for Joe Pa. Joe Pa has done so much for Penn State and Nittany Lion football. Penn State is State College and there would not be a Happy Valley without Penn State. So people don’t challenge the rumors because it would be too damaging to the institution. It would ruin the way of life.
Except when it is all over and when people say “My God what have we done?”, they look around and say “in hindsight, I should have done more.”
The facts and circumstances here are unique to Penn State but the storyline is pretty familliar.
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I agree with your “whispers and rumors” paragraph. I’d gamble that lots of people wondered what was up with Jerry and his entourage of young boys. It is reasonable to suspect that Sandusky retired in 1999 at age 55 (coaching prime) due to this. So who knew what in 1999 and why was Sandusky able to maintain access to the campus? There were people who saw Sandusky bringing kids to the games and athletic facilities regularly after 99 and they had to know things weren’t kosher.
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This is what pisses me off so much about the situation and proves Joe Pa is the scum of the earth. Do you think he just mentioned to the AD passing in the hallway one day, “Oh by the way our grad assistant saw Sandusky fondling a kid in the showers last weekend” and that was it? I know there are a bunch of lawyers on this blog and I respect innocent until proven guilty, but COME ON! There HAD to have been discussion involving Joe Pa regarding repercussions and plans of action. He knew exactly what was going on and buried his head in the sand all in the name of his pursuit of the all time wins record. It is truly sickening.
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Good post. I think people are almost always able to rationalize their behavior.
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A few points:
Don’t let the focus on Joe Pa go on to ignore the evil that is Sandusky. Hope there is a special place in hell for him.
The witness were cowards. But at least they protected the program from embarrassment. Good job guys.
As a former prosecutor, I saw witnesses refuse to talk ALL THE TIME. It is hard to do the right thing but we as a society need you to help the system protect the public. Your neighbors. Some men died for this country. We just need you to tell the truth. Your refusal will just allow future crimes and future victims.
/sorry about the soap box. personal frustration.
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There is a special place for Sandusky right now in the comfort of his own fucking bed because some brainless judge let him out on bail. That passionate mob at Sue and Joe’s place should have been down the street at the Sandusky’s with torches and fucking pitchforks. How is it possible that McQueary, Paterno, and Spanier still have authority over young people?
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I think Sandusky’s story ends with him putting a shotgun in his mouth.
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I don’t envision someone who goes after little boys with relish to have that kind of courage.
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Killing yourself isn’t all that courageous.
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I think when he goes to prison his fellow inmates will take care of him. Over and over again.
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Well, if Galen Hall losses his job can we hire him?
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Maybe Florida will take him back at this stage —- his last go-round ended well (for UGa)!
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Sadly, the hiding of all this may have actually served its purpose. If this the molestation came to light immediately after it happened, I think that Paterno gets fired or at least forced to resign…falls under the category of the coach losing control of his staff, plus the damage it would have done to the program back then in terms of recruiting. The coverup may be the reason that Joe Pa is the winningest coach in history.
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What gets me is Sandusky had full reign to go anywhere on campus and do whatever he wanted up until LAST WEEK! And Sandusky knew that the administration knew of a couple of his acts and that may have emboldened him more! Its disgusting that Paterno will be on the sidelines on Saturday for his feel good going away party. The nerve that he thinks he should leave on his terms.
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When the administration (AD, Vice President of Finance, and others) heard about this and decided only to prohibit Sandusky from bringing kids on campus – which they couldn’t really enforce – in essence they were saying, “if you want to molest kids, that’s your business, just don’t do it here anymore…but of course you can still come around yourself.” They should all go down, every dirty one of them, including Paterno.
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One of many things I can’t wrap my brain around is the fact that the man who saw and reported the crime in the shower is STILL on the staff today. Which means for years he saw Sandusky continue to bring children to the the school as well as on team trips. Sandusky and his victims usually stayed in the same hotel as the team when traveling. He also assaulted these defenseless children at his home. The one where his wife lives. How could she ignore this behavior? Reading the Grand Jury report it’s clear LOTS of people had to know and had to look the other way. The campus police ‘investigated’ and decided not to tell the local cops but they did feel obligated to tell the charity Sandusky heads up. WTF? The Second Mile decided that if the popo didn’t find anything to prosecute then everything must be fine. Really? Sandusky even admitted to some of his behavior at one point (with the police LISTENING) and NOTHING happened. It’s sickeningly similar to the abuse scandal that engulfed the Catholic church for years. Everyone involved seems to have been primarily concerned about protecting the institution and its reputation. Innocent victims whose lives have been irreparably destroyed? Oh well. It was DAYS before Paterno even mentioned the children. Not even hardened criminals tolerate these sort of folks inside the walls of a prison. We shouldn’t either. It will truly be vomit inducing if Paterno is allowed inside the stadium this weekend. If they acquiesce, the University will surely regret that decision. Everything Paterno worked a lifetime to establish has been washed down the sewer in one fell swoop. His legacy is tolerance of child abuse. What a shame.
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“His legacy is tolerance of child
abuserape.”There I fixed it. I think “abuse” lets him off lighty. Joe Pa is a scum bag.
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I think that is an accurate fix. I stand corrected.
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One thing to be a sinner and to ask for forgiveness and have it given and received w/o cost through Grace and Love in the Spiritual world.
Altogether a different matter in Caesar’s world – render unto Caesar means Considerable Consequences in the Temporal world.
Sometimes a Pardon can be earned – in this case – nope – the hammer drops.
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