Sorry, but you’re a damn fool if you honestly believe that nonsense. It would have been one of the biggest scandals in more than 20 years. You don’t employ a pedophile for 30 years and come away looking like a hero. That’s the damn dumbest thing I’ve read in this entire thread.
I will absolutely say that Penn State wouldn’t be on the map without Paterno. Read the history of that program. He took them from nobody to National Champions. I can only think of one or two coaches that have had the impact on their programs that Paterno has had on Penn State.
None of this is to defend his latest action. I’m just saying that Penn State will never wish they hadn’t heard of football.
Actually, before Paterno became head coach Penn State’s football program was sinking fast. They played in a 20,000 seat stadium on the edge of campus and fan interest was lackluster at best. (I can say this with some confidence–my dad first attended PSU in 1964, two years before Paterno became head coach.) Within three years Penn State had two undefeated seasons and was a nationally prominent program. If Paterno hadn’t been head coach, Penn State might be at about the level of the University at Buffalo today.
For those that are saying the GA isn’t sure what he saw, and it’s unsure what he said, we only have his testimony to go by. If he’s unsure, then he doesn’t level a charge of forced anal rape, the single most explosive thing he could say. You don’t mistake something else for that. So if you say there are degrees of child abuse (sigh), then what’s in his benefit for saying that? He can’t backtrack from that. No way he saw “horsing around” and decided later it was rape. He has to know how this makes him look. He may honestly think he did all he could but he knows this makes look awful. And Paterno look awful. What’s the benefit?
His grand jury testimony specifically contradicts Paterno’s. He’s already “turned” against him or whatever. He’s got nothing to gain from going for such a powerful charge.
Good News! A scapegoat has been found! Assistant Coach Mike McQueary, the guy who reported the ass rape has been getting death threats. This means Joe Pa (Joe Po?) is off the hook. It is all the fault of the guy who did not keep his mouth shut.
Now the healing can begin.
If this is true, then it makes me wonder if McQueary had been a victim of Sandusky’s. This could explain why McQueary just ran out and didn’t follow-up with the police. He may have been afraid of having to tell what happened to him.
If so, I can’t imagine, as a formerly abused child myself, how he could live with himself and the evidence that Sandusky was continuing to abuse other children well after the incident McQueary witnessed in 2002.
He made them hundreds of millions of dollars but what if, and I don’t know, that the eventual settlements cost them several hundreds of millions and there is a cap on the insurance coverage. Again, look at some of the Catholic diocese settlements. There have been bankruptcies. PSU won’t go bankrupt but the Pennsylvania taxpayers will pick up the cost.
Much of what he made for the program has already been spent. Now they have to figure out how to deal with potential future costs which could be enourmous. The money spent is no longer there so that doesn’t factor into the equation.
It’s certainly possible, but I doubt any settlements + legal costs - insurance coverage will end up being anywhere close to several hundred million dollars.
And yes, the money has been spent on a big, beautiful college campus.
It’s far too early to say that. Apparently more and more people claiming to be victims of Sandusky are coming forward.
Are the threats from people who hate that he left the kid with his rapist in the act, or are the threats from people who hate that he told on Paterno in the Grand Jury presentment?
Because I can see where both sides might have what they believe to be cause to make the threats. I don’t agree with it, but I see it. There are multiple angles on the McQueary thing. Why would he leave the kid there? Why didn’t he call the police in the first place? From the other side, why didn’t he fall on his sword in order not to drag Paterno into it?
I don’t know exactly why he did what he did. There’s speculation that he was himself molested by Sandusky (his family and Sandusky’s were friendly and he used to play with Sandusky’s kids) and had flashbacks when he saw what was going on. I’m probably more ambivalent about McQueary than any other aspect of the whole mess.
Apart from the logic, history and facts connected to this particular clusterfuck, you mean – assuming Paterno didn’t do anything wrong that nobody knew about until now, it’s easy to believe that he’s a great guy. And nobody’s horrible sexual assaults have ever been successfully trivialized because somebody close by was a powerful person who gave a lot of money to various causes and was a pillar of the community.
But look, it isn’t that I’m missing your point. I don’t care if you call it a cover-up or not. It’s just that - speaking of the facts we have before us - I literally cannot conceive of a scenario where Paterno should not have done more than he did. He knew Sandusky and McQueary extremely well. Paterno and McQueary probably spent a hundred hours a week working together for long stretches of time. I can’t imagine how, on one of those days, McQueary could have said “Oh, hey Coach, I saw Coach Jer in the… mumblemumble… naked boy” and nine years later, nothing had come of that, and conclude that Paterno didn’t do anything wrong. McQueary saw what he saw, and he obviously hasn’t had too much trouble describing it to other people. He reported it to Paterno. Paterno heard the words that came out of a “very upset” McQueary’s mouth. Giving the absolute maximum amount of credit that I possibly can to Paterno, what am I supposed to assume he thought at this point? Sandusky was in the shower with a young boy, and McQueary saw it, and McQueary was freaked out by it, and Paterno knew. Those are all the facts I require.
Do you mean to tell me that in the nine years they had a professional relationship after that, I should believe that it just never came up again, and I should think that’s OK? Paterno never said oh, hey Mikey, what ever became of that thing with the fucking the kid in the shower - total goof, right? Or that McQueary, a Penn State recruiter, never had any reason to mention Sandusky or talk to Sandusky or talk about what happened ever again, so that Paterno could just forget there was ever such a guy to wonder about? Paterno himself never talked to or about Sandusky again? I’m being totally serious here - I can’t fill in that nine year gap with any narrative that makes it seem like either one of these two is remotely an OK person. If Paterno didn’t know exactly what kind of thing McQueary saw (as if Sandusky + child + shower needs further exposition) he should have found out. If he didn’t believe McQueary, he should have made sure. If he thought the higher-ups were taking care of it, he should have made sure they did. Don’t believe, don’t know, don’t appreciate; these are all shitty reasons to do nothing, especially when even the tiniest inquiry would have cured it. If a man you know well comes to you and tells you that another man you know well has raped a child directly in front of the first man, you get about 12 hours before your time limit on “I don’t have all the facts” expires.
Having never heard anything about it again (which I really doubt was the case but if you want me to try to imagine I will), he should have followed up himself. He didn’t. Nothing happened to stop it. The most flattering thing Paterno could have been doing is ignoring it completely, which, you’re right, isn’t a cover-up, but it ain’t great either. He had everything he needed to do something about it, even if I make every unreasonable allowance you’re asking me to make. And he didn’t.
Yeah, he’s such an upright guy. Sandusky was warned about his behavior around young boys in the late '90s. So Paragon Paterno sees him parading young boys around PSU again and doesn’t even think twice.
And there is a grand jury indictment that states he was told about sexual abuse when Sandusky had the kid in the shower. The only question is if he was told it was rape or not. It doesn’t matter if he was told it was rape or not, he was told there was inappropriate sexual behavior going on in the shower. Illegal behavior, that Sandusky has already been warned about. In the football locker room shower. He did not follow through. He dropped the ball.
He then proceeded to name the guy who reported the behavior as an assistant coach. That doesn’t smell just a bit fishy to you?
Your paragon of virtue skated on criminal charges because he did the bare minimum of reporting. He passed the buck. No way is he morally off the hook. He may have donated a lot of money to “worthwile causes” but when the chips were down and a child was being abused he did nothing to stop it.
Not really. The catholic church paid out far less than a million per victim, I think. I’ve only glanced at those numbers, though.
Really? You do realize that most pedophiles are working somewhere, often for decades. Why would you think every person who knows or employs a pedophile would be under some cloud of suspicion particularly if that person turned him in as soon as he found out? The particularly funny part about your certainty on this matter is that even given that the whole situation has become a colossal clusterfuck, there are still people who idolize the guy. If he had come forward as soon as he was aware of the issue, people would respect that. I still contend it would have worked out better than any cover-up could have reasonably could have.
Yeah, even in the absolute most flattering scenario for Paterno, he still looks horrendous and everyone close to the situation should be fired.
What makes it mind boggling is that this “most flattering scenario” appears to be far from the truth. It appears that there had been previous issues with Sandusky that Paterno almost surely already knew about. It appears that Paterno was told not only that Sandusky was with a kid in the showers, but that he raped him. Like I said… mind boggling.
That assumes there were no previous cover-ups.
The coverup worked damn well for a fucking decade.
Yes, some people would have supported Paterno regardless, but the damage to PSU would have still been gigantic had this come out in 2002. That was a few years after Sandusky’s first indictment, remember. But, yeah, who would have been angry about that?:rolleyes:
Yeah, there’s no way that’s what was going on. Paterno knew. He knew before McQueary came to him. Sandusky almost certainly retired because of the investigation into his criminal proclivities, which I wonder how that was kept a secret from Paterno. I would be willing to bet that’s why the specifics of what McQueary told Paterno are so uncertain. What McQueary probably really said to him was “he’s still doing it.”
How the hell can the main culprit be the scapegoat? the cover up began when McQueary decided to find out what his bosses wanted to do about the situation rather than calling the cops.
Again, spent money isn’t available. If you are faced with rising costs and lower revenues than you have a real problem. I saw something, can’t cite it, that the football program’s revenues will probably drop by $10 million next year. The financial hit could get huge not to mention the cost of their insurance premiums. Insurance companies don’t pay claims, they just give you a loan that you are expected to pay off in the future through increased premiums.
By all appearances, the case against the PSU athletic dept. is far more of a slam dunk than the accusations against Catholic dioceses. That bumps the settlement costs tremendously.
There is going to be a huge hit to PSU’s financials. Bet on it.