If you’re looking for the roots of why Penn State’s athletic administration behaved the way it’s alleged to have done in the Sandusky matter, this lengthy Wall Street Journal article will help shed some light.
For example,
… Dr. Triponey also wrote that Mr. Paterno believed that the school’s code of conduct should not apply to any incidents that take place off campus—that those should be handled by police—and they shouldn’t be allowed to affect anyone’s status as a student.
“Coach Paterno would rather we NOT inform the public when a football player is found responsible for committing a serious violation of the law and/or our student code,” she wrote, “despite any moral or legal obligation to do so.”
Dr. Triponey ended her note by asking Mr. Curley and Mr. Spanier if these were accurate impressions of Mr. Paterno’s views—and whether they shared them.
Mr. Curley’s response, also reviewed by the Journal, was sent three days later and was copied to Mr. Spanier. “I think your summary is accurate,” it said.
Cover up as enshrined school policy. No wonder Triponey resigned her position.
… and no wonder Penn State has had such a squeaky-clean reputation all these years.
LikeLike
+1. No kidding. Wonder what that self-righteous blow-hard Jim Delaney thinks of all this. Although it’s taken some incredible/disturbing circumstances to do so, I’m glad someone has finally turned an investigative eye towards these sweater-vest/coke-bottle glasses wearing “saints.”
LikeLike
Yeah, and they’re also exempt from the state’s open records laws. I know that I’ve brought that up before, but as a Grady grad, it really chafes my ass. Is it any wonder that Penn State has enjoyed this shining “city on a hill” reputation, and that Paterno’s program has been this “model” of the “right” way to do things?
I don’t know what the NCAA can even do about it. But if the NCAA somehow just decides to park them for a few years, I can’t say I wouldn’t feel like it was justified.
LikeLike
“exempt from the state’s open records laws”
At Penn State maybe
but certainly not at Alabama
LikeLike
Two universal truths (as I see it anyway)….
– You don’t really know people, until you live with them — you think you know them, but you really don’t
– People are people — no matter the position, no matter the status, no matter the talents — all have weaknesses. The only distinctions are the particular weakness(es) and the degree to which we are able to manage them.
Utlimately, frauds get exposed — in life or in death.
Lastly, another universal truth: Tech BLOWS and deep down they know it !!!
LikeLike
Yes (although my skeptical mind is doubtful that all frauds eventually get exposed).
LikeLike
They do. Believe it.
LikeLike
In heaven maybe but not necessarily on earth.
LikeLike
Senator-This off the subject but I know your readers might know-When is Richard Samuel coming back? We were told 4 weeks-Is there a chance he could return for SECCG? I hope we do something to honor Larry-patch on the uniform at the least.
Thanks and happy Thanksgiving to all GTP followers
LikeLike
The last thing I heard was from Richt, who indeed is hopeful that he’ll have Samuel back for the SECCG.
I would be shocked beyond belief if Munson wasn’t honored in some way by the team on Saturday.
LikeLike
A sticker on the helmet just doesn’t seem like enough, does it?
LikeLike
Yeah. Honestly, though, I’m not sure what does.
Although I’m certain Larry would say a win would be fine. 🙂
LikeLike
+1
LikeLike
Well, to have been so silent all these years, Paterno, Sandusky and their lawyers certainly can’t shut they hell up about it all now.
LikeLike
Just finished the Penn State article and DAMN! Sounds like a textbook case of the NCAA’s “lack of institutional control” at the very top level of the university.
After the NCAA’s “see no, hear no, smell no evil” at Awbarn, it looks like they’ve found their sacrificial program on which to crack down.
LikeLike
Agree totally. If you read the entire article is sounds like Paterno was the Godfather, never to be questioned. The whole university was in on the decision to cover up abuses. Two hours of cleaning the stadium? Really? I know UGA has had their problems with athletes and conduct, but makes me proud to know our guys get held more accountable than Penn St ever was.
LikeLike
It is like that perfect couple or perfect family that everyone looked to as the model, only to discover that the Mom is addicted to prescription meds and Dad has been hanging out in truck stop bathrooms.
LikeLike
Sadly, the last of which might actually be true.
LikeLike
Exactly. When our guys step out of line, there’s a price to pay. And, it’s paid in the public eye more often than not. I’m not going to say that there aren’t cops in Athens who look the other way and give football players breaks. I know there are. But they’re the exception. I would rather have our program be a glass house than be a closed book like PSU, because now that we can see just how secretive they are, don’t you have to wonder about everyone now?
LikeLike
No higher honor and tribute could be paid to Larry Munson than for the Dawgs to close out 2011 with two more wins. No doubt Munson would think and say we have no chance in hell of doing that…all on the road, no RBs, thin O line depth, overmatched at many points, and etc.
I like forward to see how the coaches and players and the University honors this most beloved man and Dawg. As Dawgs we were truly blessed by Larry Munson.
LikeLike
… and kick 2012 off with another win.
LikeLike
Holy Shite what an article. Imagin if this had been an SEC school? And this has only been on the front page a couple weeks. I think we’re gonna hear alot more about this.
On a similar note, a close friend of mine just moved from Tuscaloosa. He swears that the players there get away with everything short of a felony and its the good ole boy cop network that doesn’t report anything…..as in ‘we’ll just give the large young drunk kid wearing a Bama track suit a ride home’ as oppose to a DUI.
I just find it hard to believe that you have 100 plus kids away from home for the 1st time and there is never any getting into some kind of trouble?
LikeLike
This IS the way most SEC schools handle it. It is not news.
LikeLike
I found this to be an interesting side note to the story
“That same fall, Dr. Triponey’s office suspended Dan Connor, a Penn State linebacker, who had been accused of making harassing calls to a retired assistant coach.”
I wonder what that was about? Gee, what retired assistant coach was lurking around the program, and why would a current player be moved to call and harrass them?
LikeLike
Exactly. He wanted Sandusky cleared away from the football building but knew that Paterno wasn’t man enough to do it for the good of the school and the team. I still am conspiratorial enough to detect that Sandusky is holding something over Paterno’s head. Now, what that could possibly be will make this gross saga ever more intriguing for at least another year.
LikeLike
That’s going to be an interesting deposition.
LikeLike
Well I’m sure PSU’s conference will get this cleaned right up, right? Delaney? Delaney?
LikeLike
It gets more damning with each week. Paterno’s reputation was already in tatters before this. An ethical fraud, a monster of deceit whose greatest desire was to hang on long enough to shatter Bear Bryant’s and Eddie Robinson’s records. And so he did. AND has left his program a smoking ruin. Just appalling.
LikeLike
Think of him as “The Not-so-Teflon Don”
LikeLike
Ahh – Yep, we are all afflicted with Human Nature.
Certainly, the trajectory of the excrement has intersected the stationary position of the oscillator at PSU.
LikeLike
PSU / OSU just make “Leaders & Legends” all the better….to mock.
LikeLike
That sound you heard, lawyers for all the abuse victims going ca-ching! Not to revel in sadness and misery, but that kind of institutional looking the other way screams large civil settlement.
LikeLike
In addition, hope all that fund raising he did for ya Penn St trumps these massive settlements y’all are about to pay out.
LikeLike
Reminds me of Jan Kemp’s allegations against Vince Dooley. I suppose all you saints and reformers were lauding Jan Kemp at the time.
And do you know recall what UGA did in response to Jan Kemp? We created an athletic dorm, segregated the athletes from the rest of campus, and delegated all tutoring and counseling to a new academic department operating within the Athletic Department. Not exactly the reform envisioned, eh?
I like this quote: In 2004, after several incidents involving football players, Mr. Paterno told the Allentown Morning Call newspaper that the players weren’t misbehaving any more than usual, but that such news was now more public. “I can go back to a couple guys in the ’70s who drove me nuts,” he said. “The cops would call me, and I used to put them in bed in my house and run their rear ends off the next day. Nobody knew about it. That’s the way we handled it.”
The man is 84. He is decade younger than Bear Bryant. So he wants to handle discipline like they did in the old days? You think Bear or Dooley would have disagreed?
And another stunning revelation from Dr. Triponey: The PSU football players commit offenses at a rate higher than the rest of the student population? Hardly shocking, that’s how it is with every football team. And PSU football players get special treatment? Hardly news and probably the same almost at every college. Do you think the average UGA student can afford Ed Tolley when he gets arrested on a misdemeanor?
For all you legal eagles, would any of these remote facts alleged by this former disgruntled administrator at PSU be admitted into evidence as having any relevance in a civil suit regarding the sexual allegations?
LikeLike
What if the victims had been girls? I think this NY Times piece might be on to something.
LikeLike