# It's time to officially Pit Joe Paterno and the Penn State football program. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 7, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167 "2011-11-07T14:23:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 50
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/981 "2011-11-13T06:04:28Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > Please list the people you feel were aware of multiple incidents of abuse, and any evidence that supports your claim. He _did_ list them, dumbass: > [@RedFury](#): > > For instance, the connection between the '98 investigation of Victim 6 and Victim BK – an investigation which included University Police Detective, Ronald Shreffler, State College Police Department Detective, Ralph Ralston, Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare investigator, Jerry Lauro, and County District Attorney, Ray Gricar. Then you have the testimony of Shreffler that he was told to _close that investigation by the Director of Campus Police, Thomas Harmon_, which, IMO, is a very telling aspect of this entire saga. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/982 "2011-11-13T06:44:12Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > When SMU got the death penalty, a lot of innocent kids got caught up in that scandal. Never took a PED, or got a payment from a booster, or whatever. And yet, they lose the football program that gave them a scholarship to play at SMU. I think those players were hurt a LOT more than PSU players would be if they shut down the season today, but it’s irrelevant. PSU played today, will finish out the season, and the beginning of the off-season can’t come soon enough. > > Will PSU accept an invite to a bowl game? Should they? Unless the money goes into a victims fund (which the University would never do if they thought it would show an admission of guilt), I think PSU should take themselves out of the Bowl Pool and get themselves off the front page. At least for a while. > > And going forward, what is PSU going to do? They HAVE to gut the entire coaching staff. Tom Bradley, the interim coach, has been there 33 years. Are we to believe he never heard the rumors? Or worse, actually knew? Even if he’s not accused now, PSU will not want to take the chance of something coming out down the road. So, guilty or not, Bradley will lose the opportunity he always wanted, which was to coach at Penn State. So will the rest of the coaching staff. > > PSU will hire from outside the university. That’s the only way to make sure Sandusky stories don’t take another coaching staff down. > > Killing the program probably won’t happen because of the money involved with PSU football. But my guess is if they did give it the death penalty, even if for only say 5 years, I’m guessing the next time some coach sees another guy sodomizing a 10 year old in a shower, he’ll call the cops, not his dad. And if he decided to call the coach first, he would say, “Coach, I need to know what you are going to do about this, because if you aren’t calling the authorities in, I will have to.” > > I admit I would feel bad if they got the death penalty… for the players, students, and alumni that love PSU and their football team. But I already feel badly for the victims, who will now pop into my mind each time PSU football plays another game. PSU can recover from this, even if they get the death penalty. I’m pretty sure that Sandusky’s victims will carry these scars for the rest of their lives. > > Sometimes doing the right thing is painful. I still think PSU’s football program should get the death penalty. If not now, then immediately after the season. It’s only a matter of time before PSU get the death penalty. The way things are shaping up, they’ll be lucky if it’s \*just \*the football program that gets axed and not the entire university. This is going to go on for a very, very long time and Penn State’s reputation is toast. ---
**Author:** ![Carmady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/983 "2011-11-13T06:50:15Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > The way things are shaping up, they’ll be lucky if it’s \*just \*the football program that gets axed and not the entire university. Just the university? I suspect there will be some serious consideration given to kicking Pennsylvania out of the union. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/984 "2011-11-13T07:26:00Z")
> [@Carmady](#): > > Just the university? > > I suspect there will be some serious consideration given to kicking Pennsylvania out of the union. No, we’ll just cordon it off. (I kid, PA, I kid!) As this scandal unfolds, I keep thinking of the episode of [This American Life](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/396/1-party-school) that declared State College the #1 party school in the US. That’s the episode that made me not only turn the show off in disgust, but unsubscribe from the podcast. (Usually I turn off TAL out of boredom or annoyance at Ira Glass’s smugness.) It was the part where the State College resident said that “when you find a condom in your yard, you need to get a stick and find the tampon as well.” No, I will not listen to that show again to find out when it was said. If you’re that interested, have at it. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/985 "2011-11-13T07:36:24Z")
PSU is not going to get the death penalty. That has nothing to do with whether they deserve it. It has to do with the fact that the NCAA reserves that for offenders that have been caught while they are on probation. As egregious as the actions of the PSU Athletic Dept were, they don’t fall into the death penalty category. I suggested the following in a Game Room thread: My recommendation would be that PSU finish out the regular season but proclaim to the B1G and the NCAA that they will not, under any circumstance, participate in the B1G championship game or go to a bowl game. A decision like that becomes much easier after their loss today. Then, they should clean house. All of the current coaches should be replaced. The innocent and competent ones will find new jobs. All players should be released from their scholarships and allowed to play at another program without a waiting period or any loss of eligibility. Probably, surprisingly few would avail themselves of that. Then, PSU should rebuild the program. Every B1G school in recent years (other than maybe Ohio State) knows what it is like to have multiple losing seasons. Yet, they have found a way to resurrect their football programs. It’s not fatal. That seems to me to be the right and just thing to do. We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/986 "2011-11-13T13:32:35Z")
That would be punishing the (innocent) current players more than anyone else. Yes, of course, anyone who knew about it has to go, since they didn’t act as leaders and educators and adults should. Firehose the whole staff, yes, and anyone in the administration and the campus or regular police who participated in the coverup - but let the kids have their season first. They’ve taken an unfair hit already. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/987 "2011-11-13T20:51:02Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > Why don’t you come out say whatever is you are trying to imply you fucking coward? I did so thirteen (13) pages up, you fucking illiterate cretin. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14444321&postcount=312](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14444321&postcount=312) Given that there is **absolutely no legal OR ethical distinction** between the gravity of, and appropriate response to, witnessing “fondling or sexual contact of a child” vs. “anal intercourse with a child,” and given that you and your fellow degenerate have offered no **rational** distinction between these two heinous crimes, I’ll go ahead and ask you what I asked him: Why on God’s Earth do you so obsessively put forward the “argument” (it’s not an argument, it’s a **complete fucking red herring** ) that it matters ONE IOTA for any legal or moral purposes whether “There’s no proof that JP heard ‘anal intercourse?’” or (the other idiot’s moronic conclusion) “the record proves [NO IT DOESN’T DUMBFUCK] that JP **definitely didn’t hear ‘anal intercourse?’** ” Since there’s no RATIONAL basis for distinguishing between the two heinous criminal scenarios/speculation as to what precise angels-on-a-pin magic words JP was or was not told about the sexual battery, Occam checked in and said, hmm, when you eliminate everything else, it’s not unreasonable to speculate that there is some IRRATIONAL attempt at self-justification going down. So – have you engaged in some form of “sexual contact with a child, or fondling” that fell short of “real anal intercourse,” or would you like to preserve this distinction as a defensive option to justify something you’ve been thinking of doing? If not, STOP FUCKING ACTING AS IF IT MAKES A DIME’S WORTH OF DIFFERENCE TO DRAW THIS DISTINCTION. Idiot? Deviant? I’m thinking both. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/988 "2011-11-13T21:13:47Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > So – have you engaged in some form of “sexual contact with a child, or fondling” that fell short of “real anal intercourse,” or would you like to preserve this distinction as a defensive option to justify something you’ve been thinking of doing? I’m starting to wonder if the McQueary/Paterno defenders and child rape supporters in this thread have witnessed similar crimes in their lives, and did nothing (for whatever reason), and have used the rationales posted in this thread to excuse to themselves their lack of intervention or follow-through. Unless they are perpetrators of similar crimes, or witnesses to similar crimes that did nothing (ala McQueary and Paterno), this ongoing nitpicking about the facts laid out in the indictment is pretty senseless. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/989 "2011-11-13T21:18:12Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > I’m starting to wonder if the McQueary/Paterno defenders and child rape supporters in this thread have witnessed similar crimes in their lives, and did nothing (for whatever reason), and have used the rationales posted in this thread to excuse to themselves their lack of intervention or follow-through. Okay, good point, that is the one other (somewhat-less reprehensible) possible alternate motivation, please consider it added to my question. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/990 "2011-11-13T21:20:09Z")
I think that there is an ENORMOUS difference between hearing a firm accusation of anal sex with a 10 year old boy and an ambiguous waffling statement about how Sandusky maybe, possibly was doing something inappropriate. Unless I knew exactly what Paterno heard, I don’t think I am in a position to judge the sufficiency of his response. I would believe that no human being in this world would hear a statement of rape of a child and simply finish his morning coffee and call his supervisor the next day. Since McQueary himself waited a full day, ran out of the locker room like a little girl, and had to call daddy for advice, would lead me to believe that he wasn’t 100% sure what he saw. As such, Paterno would be right for NOT going off half-cocked and destroying the career of a man he knew for 30 years. As we all know, the accusation could be enough to destroy his career even without supporting evidence. So, until I see otherwise, I firmly believe that Paterno took this report with some skepticism, but still fulfilled his legal duty to report it. I think that for a man who devoted 60 years to the university, he deserved an administrative hearing where he had the opportunity to explain his actions before he was terminated. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/991 "2011-11-13T21:25:15Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Given that there is **absolutely no legal OR ethical distinction** between the gravity of, and appropriate response to, witnessing “fondling or sexual contact of a child” vs. “anal intercourse with a child,” Actually, there is a legal and ethical distinction between fondling and anal intercourse. > [@Huerta88](#): > > Why on God’s Earth do you so obsessively put forward the “argument” The point is that the reactions one would likely have to either situation differ and thus it is important to accurately state what Paterno was told. > [@Huerta88](#): > > So – have you engaged in some form of “sexual contact with a child, or fondling” that fell short of “real anal intercourse,” or would you like to preserve this distinction as a defensive option to justify something you’ve been thinking of doing? Seriously? I love that you still probably think you are fighting the good fight, and that you are the one being a decent person when you decide that the response to an argument you disagree with is to accuse someone of something like that. Really? Stay classy. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/992 "2011-11-13T21:30:45Z")
Another weaselly “he fulfilled his legal obligations” argument. Which misses the point of most of the posts in a 20-page thread. Paterno, McQueary, Schultz, and Curley had a MORAL obligation to do more than they did. They failed as human beings. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/993 "2011-11-13T21:41:02Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > Another weaselly “he fulfilled his legal obligations” argument. Which misses the point of most of the posts in a 20-page thread. > > Paterno, McQueary, Schultz, and Curley had a MORAL obligation to do more than they did. They failed as human beings. My point isn’t simply that he did his legal obligation. My point is that since we don’t know what was reported to Paterno, we don’t know his moral obligation. Think of someone that you’ve known for 30 years. One day a co-worker comes to your house and says: 1. I saw X anally raping a child. That’s serious. You would still have a serious quandry over destroying your friend’s life, but I think we all agree that it would need to be done because of such a terrible accusation. 1. I saw X in the shower and it seemed like he might have been, could have been too close or maybe, possibly doing something sexual with the child. Then you are going to be a hell of a lot more cautious. You aren’t going to destroy your friend over something so ambiguous. But instead of sweeping it under the rug, you do report it to the responsible party and then wash your hands of it because you don’t really believe it anyways. When you hear nothing further you assume that your first thought was correct and that nothing really happened. Scenario #2 sounds reasonable to me. Maybe it didn’t happen that way, but I think that Paterno deserved the chance to explain himself. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/994 "2011-11-13T21:52:50Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I think that there is an ENORMOUS difference between hearing a firm accusation of anal sex with a 10 year old boy and an \*\*ambiguous waffling statement \*\*about how Sandusky maybe, possibly was doing something inappropriate. Unless I knew exactly what Paterno heard, I don’t think I am in a position to judge the sufficiency of his response. Where are you getting this shit? Is it not lost on you that the fact that you have to **totally make shit up** to support defending Paterno is a pretty good clue that the defense does not exist? There is **no** testimony that anyone would or could honestly characterize with the words “ambiguous,” “maybe,” “possibly,” “inappropriate.” The grand jury presentment (while not quoting all of Paterno’s testimony) makes clear that he had **at the very least** a clear understanding that McQueary had for sure seen “fondling or sexual contact with a child.” He didn’t indicate disbelief, did not suggest McQuearey was pondering some vague impression he’d had in the woods at night out of his peripheral vision. It is **only** the Paterno enablers (on this board and in the PSU administration) who have invented some uncertainty as to what sort of “horseplay” might have explained away what McQueary testified he saw (saw, not thought he maybe saw) and the totally-consistent (albeit differently phrased) testimony by Paterno about what McQueary told him (not what he might have told him) about what he saw (not thought he saw or might have seen). And the distinction is ABSOLUTELY without a difference because legally (from an obligated-to-report standpoint) and morally (from a holy crap that’s sick and criminal and I need to stop it) there is NOT the slightest distinction between “fondling or sexual contact with a child” or “anal intercourse.” Are there CHARGING or SENTENCING distinctions? Possibly. Who gives a rat’s ass, given that none of us is a prosecutor responsible with the fine delineations of boy-fucking? Paterno knew enough (on any account in the GJ testimony) to know that he had a boy-diddler in his locker room. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/995 "2011-11-13T21:57:10Z")
Read the indictment. Read the posts in this thread. We DO know what Paterno was told, we DO know what McQueary reported to Schultz and Curley. McQueary and Paterno had NINE YEARS to ensure that a decent investigation was done, by the appropriate authories (who do NOT include the Athletic Director and the Director of Finance). Paterno hired McQueary as an assistant coach after McQueary made the report about what he’s seen Sandusky doing. So, what you’re saying is that Paterno didn’t believe a report of child sexual assault made to him by his own graduate assistant (who was his former quarterback) about Sandusky, who’d admitted in 1998 to inappropriate sexual behavior with a child, but Paterno fulfilled his legal obligation and washed his hands of it, and then hired the guy who made the report that he assumes was found to be unfounded? Paterno hires somebody who made a horrific unfounded accusation against Sandusky, and what was his thought process “Oh, McQueary told me that he saw Sandusky engaging in sexual behavior with a child, nobody ever did anything so obviously that story was untrue, but I still want to hire this guy who made a false accusation of child molestation”? Seriously, no. Just…re-read the thread, please, including all of the indictmentl. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/996 "2011-11-13T22:01:57Z")
The fact that Paterno described it as “horseplay” leads me to believe that he didn’t understand it to equate to anal sex with a 10 year old. Why should he at least not have been given an administrative hearing to explain himself since, as you admit, he fulfilled his legal obligation? ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/997 "2011-11-13T22:02:02Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > 1. I saw X in the shower and it seemed like he might have been, could have been too close or maybe, possibly doing something sexual with the child. > > Then you are going to be a hell of a lot more cautious. You aren’t going to destroy your friend over something so ambiguous. But instead of sweeping it under the rug, you do report it to the responsible party and then wash your hands of it because you don’t really believe it anyways. When you hear nothing further you assume that your first thought was correct and that nothing really happened. > > Scenario #2 sounds reasonable to me. Maybe it didn’t happen that way, but I think that Paterno deserved the chance to explain himself. So you didn’t read the indictment. The indictment directly, and categorically, and absolutely, rules out “Scenario 2.” Why are you wasting our time here if you can’t bother to acquaint yourself with the most basic facts of the case and posts in this thread? To take up your logic (well, I don’t have another word) on the substance, though not sure why I’m bothering – passing along “I was told X was engaged in some questionable horseplay” [MORON ALERT – NO ONE HAS EVER ACTUALLY SAID THIS] vs. “I was told X had anally raped a kid” is not necessarily or even likely more apt to “destroy” X, whether reported to the campus authorities or the cops. Because what either will (should) do is – investigate. In either case, the questions will start out the same. “Mr. Sandusky, we received some unconfirmed reports that we have to investigate. Were you in a locker room with a child at PSU at any point this weekend? Oh, you were? What were you doing?” Etc. It will either be a good investigation or a shoddy one, but the mere allegation will not “destroy” anyone if there’s no substance or if McQueary was simply hallucinating on crack (hell, there were various and sundry lesser accusations that actually took place and Sandusky was riding high till last Saturday). ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/998 "2011-11-13T22:02:41Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Scenario #2 sounds reasonable to me. Maybe it didn’t happen that way, but I think that Paterno deserved the chance to explain himself. Hasn’t he had plenty of opportunity to do just that? Given the grand jury investigation he knew for a long while this was going to come out. He had plenty of time to talk to a lawyer and or write things up explaining his side of the story and his reasons for doing what he did, what he said, what he heard, what he thought and what he knew…blah blah blah. When the shit finally hit the public fan all he should have had to do was hit send on his AOL account or ring up his PR person and tell em to start faxing statements. Its not like he was blindsided by this whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/999 "2011-11-13T22:05:09Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > The fact that Paterno described it as “horseplay” leads me to believe that he didn’t understand it to equate to anal sex with a 10 year old. > > Why should he at least not have been given an administrative hearing to explain himself since, as you admit, he fulfilled his legal obligation? Retard. Paterno **did not describe what he was told of as horseplay.** You are a retard to keep posting that he did. I mean that you are mentally retarded. You know when Paterno had an chance to “explain himself?” When he was **under oath subject to penalty of perjury before the Grand Jury.** If there were any ambiguities he needed to pass along as to whether he had been told of clearly criminal sexual conduct, or whether he believed it, that would have been a pretty goddamn good time to “explain” it. He didn’t, so I’ll assume nothing was ambiguous. And: read the goddamn indictment before posting another idiotic thing here, I implore you. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167/1000 "2011-11-13T22:05:19Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > Read the indictment. Read the posts in this thread. We DO know what Paterno was told, we DO know what McQueary reported to Schultz and Curley. > > McQueary and Paterno had NINE YEARS to ensure that a decent investigation was done, by the appropriate authories (who do NOT include the Athletic Director and the Director of Finance). > > Paterno hired McQueary as an assistant coach after McQueary made the report about what he’s seen Sandusky doing. > > So, what you’re saying is that Paterno didn’t believe a report of child sexual assault made to him by his own graduate assistant (who was his former quarterback) about Sandusky, who’d admitted in 1998 to inappropriate sexual behavior with a child, but Paterno fulfilled his legal obligation and washed his hands of it, and then hired the guy who made the report that he assumes was found to be unfounded? Paterno hires somebody who made a horrific unfounded accusation against Sandusky, and what was his thought process “Oh, McQueary told me that he saw Sandusky engaging in sexual behavior with a child, nobody ever did anything so obviously that story was untrue, but I still want to hire this guy who made a false accusation of child molestation”? > > Seriously, no. Just…re-read the thread, please, including all of the indictmentl. I’m not saying that Paterno though McQueary was lying. The middle ground is that he saw something that he thought was sexual in nature that could have an innocent explanation. Again, I don’t know what Paterno heard and neither does anyone else in this thread. The man should have been given the chance to explain. If it turned out that McQueary went to Joe’s house that day and said firmly that he saw Sandusky anally raping a child, no doubt about it, then Paterno should be fired. If it was a mealy-mouthed statement about “horseplay” then he probably shouldn’t. But since the administration wanted to clean house, Joe won’t get that opportunity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167.md?page=49) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-to-officially-pit-joe-paterno-and-the-penn-state-football-program/602167.md?page=51)