The Rest of College Football

[WM Wolverine]

I'd like to see those teams play an offense like Stanford or Oklahoma State to see how good they really are. I haven't seen much that Alabama is certainly better than those teams.

[Optimus Prime]

Joe Pa reported him to his superiors. He fulfilled his legal duties and the prosecutors have already said he was very helpful and all that. HOWEVER, the question arises over whether he fulfilled his moral duties to make sure the investigation reached a satisfactory conclusion.

You mean like the head coach of Ohio State suspending his ineligible players for the Sugar Bowl, because he simply knows right from wrong and it was certainly his prerogative to do so, internally within the team?

Tressel and OSU were embroiled in investigation after investigation during his tenure, Tressel knew "TatooGate" would be the next scandal to rock the program. ...after all he was "working" undercover for the FBI while the 18 month sting was underway or so he would have us believe.

I suppose "moral duties" never entered his mind except when he wrote that little piece of Pulp Fiction about, God, Promises, morality... hypocrisy. Now you are gunning for JoePa?

[Rocky Bleier]

I don't believe that Paterno wasn't told specifics. He wouldn't just report "an incident" without knowing what the hell it was about:

"As my grand jury testimony stated, I was informed in 2002 by an assistant coach that he had witnessed an incident in the shower of our locker room facility. It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report."

[Dr. Strangelove]

VP Gary Schultz resigns; AD Tim Curley placed on "administrative leave"

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7201952/penn-state-nittany-lions-tim-curley-gary-schultz-step-amid-scandal

[Optimus Prime]

While Gee & Smith still manage to allude authorities.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The question of who knew what and when and how this was reported to authorities boils down to a couple of issues:

Paterno knew Sandusky "horsed around" in the team shower with a young man. He's claiming that's what was reported to him and that's what he reported to Curley. After that report. Sandusky was told no more guests in the team shower. Seems the prosecutor in this case is satisfied that Paterno fulfilled his responsibilities. Unless something comes out that indicates Paterno knew that Sandusky was involved in sex acts that are against the law in Pennsylvania, he's off the hook.

It looks to me like Curley and the other guy knew that the Sandusky HAD committed sex acts that were against the law while an employee at PSU, failed to report it to law enforcement authorities and then lied about to the Grand Jury. He's done.

I'm still a bit disappointed that the PSU administration let one guy retire and honored Curley's request to be placed on Administrative Leave.

I think the football program is going to avoid a hit as long as nothing more comes out regarding Paterno's knowledge of Sandusky's behavior. From what I have read so far about testimony that has become public, it looks like JoePa did everything he was supposed to do.

[Hannibal]

There's so much horrible PR from this, I don't see how the athletic department and especially the football program couldn't suffer from it. Paterno may have fulfilled his legal obligations, but it doesn't seem like he had the right instincts. He and the rest of the crowd at Penn State have some answering to do. That includes other staffers who were there at the time.

[Optimus Prime]

Hardly, JoePa is done as coach, this is a coverup. They had a moral and fiduciary obligation to notify the STATE POLICE, not the "CampusCops", instead it appears they took steps to "punish" Sandusky themselves.


A graduate assistant testified that in 2002 he heard noises coming from the shower late on a Friday night. He quickly left the football building in distress after seeing Sandusky subjecting the boy to anal sex.

The G.A. went to Paterno’s house the next day and told him the story. The next day, Paterno informed Curley. The athletic director and Schultz met with the G.A. a week later.

Schultz oversaw the university’s police department. He and Curley knew child protective services had investigated Sandusky in 1998. They still decided the new information was “not that serious.”

They never reported it to Penn State or State College police. They didn’t even ask the kid’s name.

They did, however, take away Sandusky’s keys to the locker room. He’d been granted emeritus status after retiring in 1999 and had an office in the football building.

They also informed The Second Mile program, which Sandusky founded in 1977 to help disadvantaged youths. The program’s director told Sandusky not to take any more kids onto campus.

School president Graham Spanier approved all this with “no further inquiry on his part.”

Head, meet sand.

Which brings us back to Paterno. He fulfilled his duties as a state employee. As for his duties as a human being, let’s try to construct a defense.



Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-foo...#ixzz1d1wRT8cr

[Rocky Bleier]

Paterno knew Sandusky "horsed around" in the team shower with a young man. He's claiming that's what was reported to him and that's what he reported to Curley.

Bullcrap. I'm sure that it wasn't presented to him as "horsing around," and I'm sure if it were he would have asked what that meant. It's so freaking transparent. No decent reporter will let that slide past him/her.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Rocky and OP ..... I don't disagree with your views. But it appears the prosecutor in the case against Curley does.

If they had something on Paterno, we'd be seeing pictures of him being led out of his house in hand-cuffs.

I do think he knew what Jerry was up to but he was very careful in following procedures and not indicting Sandusky on the basis of someone telling him he was blowing a kid in the shower. He did not witness the acts. It appears he reported to his superiors that he had received second hand information that Sandusky was behaving inappropriately. At this point he was turning the matter over to his boss who then would investigate it fairly and without malice ..... very good move on his part.

I think he knew but there is no proof that he did or the prosecutor's office would be on him like stink on shit.

[Hannibal]

I'll bet that there were probably lots of rumors and accustations that we haven't heard about. Does anyone think this guy never molested kids until he was in his fifties? He was around kids for decades. I'll bet that more victims will be coming forward.

[Mackenzie]

Don't know that one's moral or perhaps even legal obligations even in the case of "suspected" sexual abuse ends with reporting said incident to your employer. That may depend on who your employer is. For instance, many school employees are required not to just report cases of suspected child abuse to their employer but to also independently report those cases to the Department of Social Services.

[Jamie H]

I guess the question is, what is your moral duty if all you have are second-hand allegations?

Clearly you report the incident to your superior. It seems Paterno did that. Sandusky's charity was also notified.

We don't know exactly what else Paterno did. Did he confront Sandusky with the charges and Sundusky denied them?

Theoretically, unless Paterno actually witnessed the crime taking place, the only way the police would have become involved is if one of the boys who was violated contacted the police. At that point, Paterno would be compelled to tell the police about the GA who witnessed the act and the GA would testify against Sandusky.

Without charges being filed against Sandusky, I'm not clear on what else Paterno should have done outside of making sure Sandusky was not involved with the program in any way moving forward.

I'm not trying to say this whole thing isn't serious, but let's just say you witness a rape. Even if you go to the police and tell them about it, and even if you know the perpetrator, unless the victim files charges I don't think the police will do anything. So even if people think Paterno should have gone to the police with 2nd hand info, I'm not sure it would have helped unless he knew which boy was violated and they could get the boy or the boys family to press charges.

Note, I'm also just talking about Paterno, not the people who have been charged with perjury.

[Jamie H]

As for an LSU-Alabama rematch, no way. After all the whining the SEC did in 2006 about how rematches are bad for college football, there is no way we should have a rematch this year. Alabama had their chance, AT HOME, and they lost. Period, done, end of sentence. Too bad Alabama.

Assuming LSU goes undefeated, the title game should be LSU vs the best challenger that they haven't played yet. They already went into Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama. They shouldn't have to play them again.

[Mackenzie]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/16013195/penn-state-official-schultzs-attorney-shaping-defense

A longish read but with a little bit more related to "legal" obligations.