I haven't paid close attention to this story in the last couple days but I thought I heard that McQueary actually did do something to stop/interrupt the encounter her came upon besides reporting it up the chain?

 

He did nothing!  He "claims" he went to the police, however, his handwritten testimony and the Grand Jury testimony does not state that.

That's called C.Y.A.  He did nothing and he knows it.

Gotcha.  From headlines I skimmed over it just seemed like he was claiming more than just contacting the police, which there is no evidence he did even that.

On June 22, 2012, Sandusky was found guilty on 45 out of 48 counts of child sexual abuse.  Sandusky faces a minimum sentence of at least 60 years – which at his age (68) would effectively be a life sentence.

 

Today, a scathing report was issued by former FBI director Louis Freeh faulting the former university President, Athletic Director, Vice President and head football coach Joe Paterno for shielding Jerry Sandusky from criminal prosecution in multiple incidents from as far back as 1998.  Below is a link to the report from Reuters:

 

Reuters: Scathing report faults Penn State leaders in child sex abuse - Penn State leaders including the late football coach Joe Paterno covered up Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children for years, showing a callous disregard for the victims to protect a multimillion-dollar football program, former FBI director Louis Freeh said on Thursday.

I bet these folks are rejoicing over its findings. I read about 1/4 of the content inside and had to stop because I was just so disgusted with how Penn State handled this, how they continue to handle it, and how their students reacted.

 

 

I have to agree with Clevelander's comment...

 

I realize that the situation is unimaginable, and it is tough to really say how you would react. There is a way you would like to react (physically intervene, restrain Sandusky, and report him to the police just after giving a swift kick to the groin), but there is really no way you can say "I would..." because unless you have been in that situation you really don't know how you would react.

 

It's similar to being mugged. Or witnessing someone stuck in a house fire. Everyone knows how they would like to react, and how they think they would react, but it is difficult to KNOW how you will react. Emotions, shock, and adrenaline can all be used in unpredictable ways in terrible situations. Again, I'm not justifying McQueary's actions, but it is difficult to say how you would react having never been in the situation.

 

Also, don't be too upset with all students who supported Paterno when these allegations started. Their actions are inexcusable (rioting, etc), but their emotion may be similar to if a family member was suspected of the same thing. (These photos weren't recent were they? They were when the accusations first started, right?) You would jump to their defense immediately because you know them personally and could not imagine them doing anything that bad (assuming you actually like this family member and trust them). Paterno probably had a huge influence on a large part of the student population at Penn State. Many people defending him probably knew him personally.

 

Again, not defending anyone's actions, but it is hard to put this kind of thing in perspective.

I agree - but those photos were four days after the allegations surfaced, and when it was highly probable that Paterno had some involvement in this whole debacle. It's one thing to disagree with the earlier notion that Paterno had some involvement, but to riot, burn cars and attack others physically leaves a black eye towards Penn State as a campus. Here is one of the best takes out of this, I believe:

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-07-12/louis-freeh-report-penn-state-jerry-sandusky/56181956/1

Freeh report blasts culture of Penn State

By Kevin Johnson and Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY Updated 7h 30m ago

 

In the litany of horrible acts committed by former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, one illustrates more than any other how the now-convicted pedophile was able to victimize so many young children — for so long — without fear of retribution.

 

Former FBI director Louis Freeh said Thursday that the most "telling" piece of information in his nearly eight-month investigation into the university's handling of Sandusky's misconduct is a 2000 incident in which a Penn State janitor witnessed the once-revered coach performing oral sex on a young boy in a university locker-room shower.

 

"The janitor who observed it says it's the worst thing he ever saw," Freeh said, outlining the explosive findings of his 267-page review, which found a complete failure of the university leadership to stop Sandusky. "He's a Korean War veteran. … He spoke to the other janitors. They were awed and shocked by it. But, what did they do? They said they can't report this because they'd be fired. They were afraid to take on the football program. They said the university would circle around it. It was like going against the president of United States. If that's the culture on the bottom, God help the culture at the top."

^ agreed. Not much else to say, really.

Should the janitor(s) be punished at all for not doing anything?

^ I say put them all in jail along with Priests and everyone else that knew these kinds of crimes were taking place.

Whenever talk of this scandal focuses on Paterno I can't help but revert to my long held assumption that he has been a feeble head coach in name only, and propped up by the people around him (assistant coaches including his son, and his wife) for at least the last decade. I've read a couple reaction pieces on the Freeh report and this idea that Paterno not remembering something from a decade ago means he lied is just silly. I hope someone does an in depth story on the realities of Paterno the head coach.  I'm sure he was probably more competent than my assumptions and the sin and corruption of vanity versus a heinous cover up doesn't change reality, but I just don't buy a lot of the Paterno blame the way it's being framed.

Now that Paterno's statue is down, the NCAA penalties come next. CBS sports and now ESPN is reporting that these penalties will be announced Monday morning at 9 a.m. and will be "unprecedented."

 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/eye-on-college-football/19632027/ncaa-to-announce-unprecedented-penalties-against-penn-state-football

 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8188629/penn-state-nittany-lions-not-facing-death-penalty-monday-ncaa-source-says

 

EDIT: some (like Dick Vitale) says it could include PSU having to donate half its football ticket revenues to charity, in addition to a bowl ban and loss of scholarships.

Reports are saying that Penn State will not challenge the penalties, meaning that in all likelihood they were some discussions/negotiations that occurred beforehand between the NCAA and PSU.

More......

 

Penn State will be fined b/w $30 million to $60 million, sources told @CBSSports

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/eye-on-college-football/19632027

Wow, that's crazy.

 

I also heard on the radio that there will almost certainly be a provision allowing current PSU athletes (football only?) to transfer without penalty.

Why can't the government fine them that much?????

 

So it's $60 million. What gives an organization the power to  fine an institution $60 million.

All wins vacated from '98 to present

 

4 year post season suspension

 

Loss of 10 scholarships per year for 4 years

 

5 years of probation

 

and the previously mentioned:

 

All players may immediately transfer and the $60MM fine will be going to a trust for child abuse prevention

Why can't the government fine them that much?????

 

So it's $60 million. What gives an organization the power to  fine an institution $60 million.

 

Because when Penn State agreed to be part of the NCAA, it agreed to abide by its rules and be subject to disciplinary actions if those rules are violated. If an institution like Penn State doesn't agree that it violated the rules or if it does yet considers those disciplinary actions to be too harsh, then it can appeal. Penn State is not appealing the actions NCAA has taken against it. In fact, these penalties are the result of an agreement called a consent decree signed by both the NCAA and Penn State.

 

As a consequence, Joe Paterno no longer has the most wins in college football history. He has slipped to 8th.

The victims are going to get way more than that once all the lawsuits start coming in. This program is history.

The Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education are conducting investigations into Penn State, as well. More to come on that.

The Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education are conducting investigations into Penn State, as well. More to come on that.

 

You referring to this?

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/department-education-could-bigger-threat-penn-state-ncaa-203019718--ncaaf.html

Bottom line is, a precedent has been set and people will think twice now before overlooking child (sex) abuse. This has ramifications beyond the NCAA.

 

Children (and adults who were once children) will be saved a lot of torment because of these harsh penalties.

 

Too bad the Catholic Church will likely never get its comeuppance for far worse, and more systematic, complicity than Paterno and PSU ever committed.

Too bad the Catholic Church will likely never get its comeuppance for far worse, and more systematic, complicity than Paterno and PSU ever committed.

 

No, but many of its souls probably will.

I see it a little differently...I don't think that the NCAA's actions were really about child abuse, it was more about letting other institutions know that a coach and a program can never be allowed to become bigger than the school.

 

The Big Ten also dropped sanctions on PSU today, basically saying that they won't receive any bowl shares (about $13 million) over the next four seasons.  That money will go to a children's defense fund as well.

^ BS. If you want to be cynical but realistic, the NCAA and B1G wanted to clear their own names by making it clear they would not tolerate this behavior. They see the blame creeping up the chain of command and they aren't willing to accept any criticism.

Just read the details of the punishment and it seems harsh.

 

I haven't seem someone at Penn State get screwed this hard since Sandusky was on campus.

 

not quite far enough yet, they need to take this paternos name off the library or whatever campus bldg that is too. yeah the psu prez said they were not going to do that, but they seriously need to reconsider and take his name off it.  its disgusting to leave it.

 

^why is it disgusting to leave it?  Is the man's entire legacy trash over this scandal?  Is his entire career null & void because of this?  Didn't he donate millions of his salary to fund the library and other buildings on campus?    Taking down statues and removing his name from buildings is not going to remove Paterno's legacy from Penn State.  Despite this scandal, JoePa had a positive impact on thousands of young men who played for him and Penn State has largely been a scandal free program.

Your statement reminds me of former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott's infamous quote: "Hitler was good in the beginning, but he went a little too far."

 

Joe Paterno ignored warnings while his friend brutalized children for 14 years (and there's evidence that Sandusky actually started in the 1970s). Raping children is worse than murder.

Yep, Joe sure did ignore things when he forwarded the situation to his administrative superiors who then created a paper trail of their [lack] of handling it. 

Yep, Joe sure did ignore things when he forwarded the situation to his administrative superiors who then created a paper trail of their [lack] of handling it. 

 

Source?

They emailed each other about how they would wait-see and the one guy said he was worried that might turn out to be problematic, even though he agreed it's what they would do. Basically they agreed to protect sandusky.

 

That doesn't let JoePa off the hook though. It wasn't a professional responsibility to see to it that Sandusky was held responsible by his superiors. This want a matter where protocol would be to handle it internally. Anyone with knowledge of the situation had an obligation to go to higher authority than the school administration to see to it that these kids were protected. In this situation, the school administrators were not the proper authority for JoePa to appeal to, in fact they were not authorities at all in that they had no real power over Sandusky's behavior. It was not school rules being broken but civil laws. JoePa passed the buck and pretended to have clean hands.

They emailed each other about how they would wait-see and the one guy said he was worried that might turn out to be problematic, even though he agreed it's what they would do. Basically they agreed to protect sandusky.

 

@KJP The above is a paraphrasing of the Freeh Report and what I was referencing.

 

The Freeh Report hasn't dissuaded me from my hypothesis that Paterno's title of head coach was a farce where those putting it on forgot they owed everyone involved to be manning the strings and pulling levers behind the curtain.

osu should be hard at work poaching any decent psu player since they are all now free to leave. particularly any ohio players.

I see it a little differently...I don't think that the NCAA's actions were really about child abuse, it was more about letting other institutions know that a coach and a program can never be allowed to become bigger than the school.

 

Yep.  That's how I took it.  The current NCAA leadership was sending a clear message that the "good ole days" and the "old boys networks" are over..... the era people nostagically look back upon as a "better time in history" won't repeat itself.  The Powers That Be at these powerhouse schools will be held accountable.  No one is above the law.  If the hammer can come down on JoePa, it can drop on anybody

^why is it disgusting to leave it?  Is the man's entire legacy trash over this scandal?  Is his entire career null & void because of this?  Didn't he donate millions of his salary to fund the library and other buildings on campus?    Taking down statues and removing his name from buildings is not going to remove Paterno's legacy from Penn State.  Despite this scandal, JoePa had a positive impact on thousands of young men who played for him and Penn State has largely been a scandal free program.

 

Yes. It is. But let's make this fair. How many boys were raped by Jerry Sandusky AFTER 'Joe-pa' (and can we lose the cuddly grampa nickname for this jerk?) had the ability to stop him, but elected to try and protect his program instead (and yes, he was involved in that decision making process, as  documented in the Freeh report). Why don't we ask them how they feel about protecting Paterno's legacy?

 

Well, son, your life has been irreversibly damaged by what occurred to you, but Coach sure did help a lot of other kids. What do you say we let bygones be bygones?

 

Paterno's name should not be on any honorarium associated with the school, because, quite frankly, his legacy and Sandusky's are forever entwined.

I see it a little differently...I don't think that the NCAA's actions were really about child abuse, it was more about letting other institutions know that a coach and a program can never be allowed to become bigger than the school.

 

Yep.  That's how I took it.  The current NCAA leadership was sending a clear message that the "good ole days" and the "old boys networks" are over..... the era people nostagically look back upon as a "better time in history" won't repeat itself.  The Powers That Be at these powerhouse schools will be held accountable.  No one is above the law.  If the hammer can come down on JoePa, it can drop on anybody

 

I just hope it's consistently enforced.  There are a lot of schools in a certain part of the country where a similar type of culture putting football above all else is rampant.

Brent Musberger getting choked up on PTI while talking about Paterno's legacy and the future of the program...  he seems to think it was a rush decision by the NCAA

Brent Musberger getting choked up on PTI while talking about Paterno's legacy and the future of the program...  he seems to think it was a rush decision by the NCAA

 

I saw that, and just lost any and all respect for Musberger, which was palpable. Anyone who can defend kiddie fiddlers needs to be thrown under the bus. When there's a scandal, adjust your paradigm, don't just reassert what you thought of everyone and everything. That's insanity, making the same mistake more than necessary.