Disagree there. Once these guys hear that a coach they’ve known from handing around the weight room buttfucked a little kid in the same showers they use, they’ll freak. I shouldn’t be using the future tense here–I’m sure a lot of these players are damn near catatonic about this already.
Prevents recruiting/stealing players. ETA: also players shopping themselves around.
I see this at the high school level. Christian/Catholic(private) schools recruit from all the high schools in the area by offering free tuition/guaranteed playing time/etc.
On another note, is anyone else surprised that Sandusky hasn’t offed himself yet? I keep expecting to see that in the headlines.
I know that sounds crass, but I’m genuinely amazed that he wants to live through the next few years.
I said on another board that all that needed to be done if for some reason McQueary didn’t want to get in a confrontation is make his presense known. He could have just yelled, “Hey, coach, are you in here? I got a question for you” and play dumb. That would have stopped the immediate problem. Or he could have yelled, “Get the fuck away from that kid!” Or he could have flicked the lights on and off or banged his hand against a locker…something to make it known that Sandusky and the kid weren’t alone and the kid needed to be released. Then if he’s still afraid of his career prospects rather than 911, go talk to Dad and Paterno.
It’s a relic of the old system in which both pro and college teams “owned” players (free agency ended it in the pros, but free agency hasn’t really come to college). If it sounds like a bit of a plantation system . . . well, you wouldn’t be the first to make that observation.
More prosaic practical reasons it may make sense to have the rule: colleges invest a lot of time and money in recruiting and initially training scholarship athletes. This is the quid pro quo to acknowledge that the kid can’t take that investment of time and money and skip off to another school who hasn’t invested anything in him. Or . . . 18 year old kids can be fickle, we don’t want them changing their mind just to change their mind, or because they’re in a snit over not getting enough playing time, or . . . whatever. Other major commitments (the military comes to mind) have significant limitations/penalties for quitting before “your time’s up,” why not NCAA scholarship sports? I think those are sort of the rational, non-plantation arguments that you’d hear from coaches and ADs.
As an FYI, the GA spot is typically the first step on the coaching ladder. They are 2-year positions, and there are 2 on staff at any given time - one for the D and one for the O.
They are very difficult to land, extremely sought-after, and pay almost nothing. They also require the GA to be enrolled in classes at the school. A friend of mine is in the position at a D-I school, and it was a tough gig for him to land.
If I had to speculate, I would guess that McQueery wasn’t sure at the time precisely what he was witnessing, only that it looked wrong. He was probably too far away to observe the nitty gritty details, and if the showers were on (I don’t know) it would have further obscured his vision. Plus, he was probably too shocked and agitated to pay close attention to the details.
As he replayed it in his mind later it became more clear to him that he had actually witnessed anal sex. But this evolving thought process would have impacted what he told to various people, which may have changed over time (including in his grand jury testimony).
Again, this is speculation, of course.
[IIRC, McQueery testified that both Sandusky and the kid saw him. So somewhere out there is an approximately 19 year old guy who has yet to come forward.]
I discreetly referred to the “Rommel endgame” several pages up (and felt bad about doing so, but my thinking is right with yours).
He’s gotten out of similar sticky situations before. Hell, the Centre County DA actually dismissed similar charges back in the 90s (and then vanished from the face of the earth). Maybe he actually thinks he’s untouchable?
Speculation that, again, is contradicted by the sworn testimony. McQueary’s first indication that something was up was that he heard “rhythmic slapping sounds that made him think someone was engaged in sexual activity” (paraphrase), then he saw Sandusky engaged in “anal intercourse with a young boy.” Nothing in the sworn testimony or the findings of a pretty thorough GJ investigation supports your speculation.
No, it’s not.
McQueary testified to the GJ years after the event. By that time he was clear that he had seen anal sex.
I’m talking about what he understood at the time that he actually saw it.
I think the opposite. The players are too young to have lost their social conscience, not to have developed them. However, that is distinct from the pressure to believe in their coach and to somehow think he’s getting a raw deal. So the end result may be the same – they play on like they always have.
Jeez, most every progressive social movement begins with kids that age – which is why so many of them are poorly thought out. 
I’m very surprised by all the support Paterno is getting thus far from the students.
On the news this morning, I saw where Paterno informed everyone about how he prays every night for his 16 grandchildren and now he’s going to add all these victims to his nightly ritual. Too bad he didn’t show such concern sooner, when he might have actually been able to do some good for these more than 20 boys. He should be ashamed.
Maybe so, but he’ll be shunned from the entire state either way. He just has to know his life will be a living hell, either way.
Your assumption that he came to this realization later is sheer speculation. He testified what he testified.
I remember that post now.
And you have not a shred of evidence to support your contention that that was different from what he gave (unqualified, unreserved) sworn testimony about later.
If he goes to Rockview State Prison, as he likely will if he is convicted, his life will certainly be a living hell. Rockview is not exactly known as a country club-type prison.
Easy to say in retrospect, hindsight being 20/20 and all. Hard to do in real time by most, non-heroic-type people, I’m guessing. You, of course, are the hero type.
I gave my reasons in the first paragraph of my post (#387).
In addition, it’s consistent with his not having done anything about it at the time - which many have expressed surprise at - and also consistent with him not having told Paterno the details. (I believe the other two are claiming that he didn’t tell them the details either.)
I said upfront that it’s speculation, but it’s not based on nothing either.