The Rest of College Football

[Mike]

Absolutely, Hoss. That PSU would let Paterno "retire" at the end of the season is beyond ridiculous. IF Paterno knew that Sandusky forcibly raped a 10 year old boy in the shower, and I'm 99% certain he DID, that old bastard should die in prison. Plain and simple. The amount of support and sympathy for that man is mind-boggling. He and McQuery should be wearing orange jumpsuits for a long time. And that goes for anyone else who knew what was going on - at PSU and the charity.

[Rocky Bleier]

Fans are often stupid. Tressel loyalists refused to believe the truth about him, too. It's "Our coach, right or wrong. And he's never wrong." And, yes, Paterno's crime is more repugnant than Tressel's.

[Mike]

They don't even compare. One guy skirted the rules of an organization that governs college athletics to gain a competetive advantage on the football field and the other enabled a child molester. The first one can cost a man his job, the second should cost a man his freedom.

[hack]

A bad transition could be a Rodiguez-like disaster.

That can't be your motivation though. Best-case scenario is that your motivation is to make sure it never happens again. The best way these days in the media climate we live in is the scorched-earth policy. Worst-case scenario is motivation to protect yourself from further lawsuits and allegations or mistakenly keeping someone on about whom revelations could come in the future. Same prescription, though -- blow it all up and start from scratch.

If there's ever a sense as this evolves that wins and losses are a concern to any extent at all, that's a very bad perception for people to have about Penn State.

On a lighter note, if they court a bad transition they could at least end up gaining a lot of yard before the red-zone turnover!

[WM Wolverine]

I'd be ecstatic if Schiano went to PSU.

[Jamie H]

So I'm now hearing that Paterno DID call the police. He supposedly reported the incident to the CAMPUS police, which I believe is a real police force just like the Michgian campus police are.

I'm not saying he couldn't have done more, but people are making it sound like he did nothing. If this is true, reporting it to campus police is significantly more than nothing. It sounds like the campus police significantly dropped the ball.

[Jamie H]

Ok, he reported it to Gary Schultz who was in charge of the Campus Police. I dunno if that is the same as reporting it to the campus police.

Still, if I told the guy in charge of the campus police about a crime, I would expect the police to follow up on it and I would think I had done what I needed to do.

Paterno should have done more to follow up on the situation because of his position of power. But it isn't like he single-handedly swept this under the rug. The fact that the campus police didn't properly follow up on this issue sounds like it is more Schultz's fault than Paterno's.

[hack]

Sounds odd. ``Hey guys -- if you're looking to make a pedo arrest at any point, keep in mind we let Jerry hang around in the showers over here...''

Not saying it's beyond the realm, but you'd think that if Paterno really felt like something had to be done, then something would have been done. Furthermore I don't think Paterno can be absolved given that he continued to let the guy hang around the program.

[Jamie H]

Yes, he shouldn't have been allowed to hang around the program. But after the 2002 incident he wasn't allowed to anymore was he? I thought they told Sandusky he could no longer bring children onto Penn State property?

Again, of course they could and should have done more to prevent further abuse. But if the campus police had actually followed through on this, we wouldn't be here today. I suspect that is why Schultz is in big-time legal trouble and Paterno is not.

I still place a majority of the blame at the feet of the charity, who basically collected up children and handed them to Sandusky to rape even after being told about what was going on.

[Mike]

Yes, he shouldn't have been allowed to hang around the program. But after the 2002 incident he wasn't allowed to anymore was he? I thought they told Sandusky he could no longer bring children onto Penn State property?

After the 2002 shower rape incident Sandusky was told he could no longer bring boys into the PSU facilities. He would have to have sex with them somewhere else. Sandusky, however, was still allowed to come around and was in the football building as recently as LAST WEEK. A PSU player was interviewed on the radio today and refused to comment on whether Sandusky was still hanging around the facility. Because he was. They didn't even ban the guy from the program after multiple eye witness reports that he was molesting children on the premises. It is beyond comprehension how Paterno and co. could let it get so out of control. They should all die in prison.

[Jamie H]

Yeah, you are right, they should have banned him completely from the program. But again, if the campus police (or at least the guy running it) does their job properly, I think this whole thing goes down differently.

[Mike]

I, for one, would've asked: hey, whatever happened to that whole "Jerry raping the kid in the shower thing?" after nothing was done.

[iam416]

A couple of quick things.

I do think it's worthwhile to remember that Paterno did report it, as Jamie mentioned. He also fired Sandusky, more or less, after the 1998 incident -- which was reported to the authorities. I think he should have done more, obviously, but I'm not sure he tried to sweep it under the rug. As an aside, the most disturbing speculation is that Sandusky was given the perks in 1999 as "hush money" -- he had been around the program for years and PSU, like any big-time program, has its dirt. I've yet to see anything that supports that, though.

My big problem is with the University, which did nothing. JoePa fired Sandusky in after the 1998 incident. What did the University do? Let him stick around campus (probably with JoePa's blessing, tbh). After the 2002 incident, what did the University do? -- tell him to fondle children off campus, but keep your office and your access. Well, the Grand Jury report says he fondled children in 2005 and 2006 on campus. It's inexcusable.

The same, frankly, goes for the charity, which should have cut him off in 1998, at the latest.

So, while I think JoePa F'd up in a big way and should lose his job, my much, much larger grievances are with the University and the Charity, who each had a reasonable expectation that Sandusky would abuse children and, yet, idly sat by.

BTW, if you haven't read the Grand Jury report, you should. I mean, if you can get past the Victim 1 and Victim 2 stuff, which is horrific (not to marginalize the others, but trust me).

[Rocky Bleier]

I just downloaded it, and got about as far as you. Wow, sickening.

[Optimus Prime]

If Paterno did report directly to the Police, I have more respect for him. They will often "investigate" without charges.

However, as the tallest Hog at the trough at PSU, he certainly had the authority and immunity to ban Sandusky for life, he didn't...to me it comes down to commonsense. Had it become public knowledge, JoePa would have been a legitimate folk hero for doing do.