Posted on 06/17/2013 3:00:44 PM PDT by FlJoePa
In a dramatic show of support for their old coach, more than 300 former Penn State football players are now publicly backing the Paterno family's lawsuit against the NCAA. Former Nittany Lion Brian Masella released a letter on Monday demanding due process and the truth.
"We're glad we're able to show these guys – the Penn State alumni, the student and the trustees willing to step forward that we're behind them 100 percent," Masella tells Statecollege.com. "We want to show them they're not standing there alone, all by themselves, on a cliff."
On May 29, the Paterno family, along with 20 other plaintiffs including former Penn State football players, coaches, trustees and faculty members, sued the NCAA. They have asked a judge to abolish the consent decree which would reverse Penn State's sanctions.
Those sanctions include a $60 million fine, a significant loss of scholarships for the football team, a four-year postseason ban for the football team and all wins vacated under Paterno between 1998-2011.
Masella says the letter is not sanctioned by Penn State. At the trustees' meeting in March, several former football players addressed the board, voicing support for Paterno. Later, they decided they had to do something more. The letter is intended to show the plaintiffs that a large contingent of Lettermen is in their corner.
Masella started with the contacts he had in his email, and it grew from there. Players forwarded his email to other players, and it traveled around the country.
"We wanted to do something for them, to bolster what they have done. We think it's totally brave we do this, obviously, with the intent of finding the truth," Masella says. "We support them 100 percent."
Masella believes this is "the right thing to do."
"We thought it would be a great gesture," Masella says. The more than 300 signatures span six decades of Penn State football, and include signatures from some Penn State greats, including Franco Harris, Todd Blackledge, OJ McDuffie, Kerry Collins and Paul Posluszny. It also includes the signatures of former coaches Dick Anderson and Booker Brooks. Both men testified for the defense in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse trial last year.
The letter and the names of those who signed it appears below:
Letter from Former Penn State Football Players:
On May 30, 2013, twenty people – including five Penn State Trustees, four faculty members, two former coaches, and nine former student-athletes, filed a lawsuit challenging the NCAA's sanctions against Penn State.
On the same day, the plaintiffs sent the former Penn State football players a letter explaining their rationale for taking legal action. The letter notes that the plaintiffs intend to fight for Penn State's honor and that they hope the former student-athletes "will be supportive of these efforts."
We, the undersigned, indeed support the plaintiffs' action in launching their suit.
Like them, we reject the NCAA's assertion that a "culture of reverence for the football program" allowed Jerry Sandusky's crimes to occur. We agree with the plaintiffs that the Freeh Report, which formed the foundation for the sanctions – was fundamentally flawed.
We stand with our nine brother Lettermen and the other eleven Penn Staters in demanding "fairness, due process, truth, and a just outcome." Everyone – Sandusky's victims, Penn Staters, and the public at large – deserves to know the complete truth."
1) the 11-09-11 B.O.T. admits they failed miserably in their duties and the CEO's of Merck, US Steel, and BNY Mellon (Frazier, Surma, and Peetz) were more interested in covering their own personal reputations than standing up for the University they supposedly served
2) the truth about the second mile, their mysterious finances, and their connections to the political machinery within the state of PA is revealed
3) The repeated failure of the state and local agencies - which to this day leaves kids at risk - is uncovered and corrected
4) The freeh report is shown for what it is in court - a fictional piece of garbage
5) the ncaa admits their collusion w/ the b.o.t and freeh, their laziness, and their malicious intent when it came to Joe and Penn State.
Simple as that. Sigh...
Too bad JoPa wasn’t led away too with Sandusky to live in prison jammies. I have no sympathy for any sodomites or people who allow it when it’s right under your damned nose. It’s pathetic how they’re making JoPa out to be some kind of saint.
Go joe Pa and Penn State. Pay up!!!! God bless the entire Penn State community for the travesty they went through.
Ped State should be razed until no stone stands upon another and the ground sown with salt.
While they’re at it dig “JoePa” the enabler up, set fire to the corpse and feed what’s left to wild dogs.
PA Ping
You live in a dream world.
Your heroes are plastic action figures.
Jer 17:9
The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?
There should be no sanctions as listed in the article above. I think there are more than that list shows.
I don't blame the alumni supporting the lawsuit. I'm with them in spirit.
I don't believe in punishing the innocent for five consecutive years down the pike.
I don't believe the NCAA is a court of law picking out on their own who is guilty of what.
I remember being in our crowded church on the Sunday morning after the assassination of MLK. The young, dewy-eyed substitute pastor fresh out of seminary leaned forward during his sermon, and pointing here and there and almost in a shout, said over and over, "YOU pulled the trigger, and YOU pulled the trigger, and YOU pulled the trigger......"
An usher, plus our township supervisor and I immediately got up and walked out.
As a conservative, I don't believe in socialistic mass guilt, nor mass innocence, nor not much mass anything....and I don't feel any now-and-future innocents in the Penn State football program as well as their now-and-future innocent fans should be punished for nothing just so the NCAA can proudly flex its muscles and scattershot its considerable firepower at the innocent and guilty at will.
Leni
bump
public schools in America are notorious for being a hotbed of pedophiles
have you marched down to your local public school and demanded they fire any and all homosexuals and pedophiles?
no?
then you’re as guilty as Joe (actually, Joe reported it as soon as he was informed)
Penn State is a cult. More Koolaid, please.
Ah man, c’mon and give it up.
My hero has always been my Dad.
Did you have temporary amnesia when you posted this?
Not sure I understand your post.
Wonder what the NCAA Kool Aid drinkers will say if the NCAA settles out of court with Paterno family and restores his wins?
If The NCAA does not settle....they need to fire their attorneys. Supreme Court precedent already against NCAA
Sorry, but I don't presently know of any pedophiles in our school system. If I did, I would definitely report it to the POLICE immediately, not to a co-worker.
JoPa apparently had years and years to turn Sandusky in and didn't do $hit.
And for the school to try to make a saint out of the guy is disturbing. We can't ruin a winning football program, now, can we? Pathetic. Ruin the lives of little kids, and keep the football game rolling. What a college?
He did the absolute minimum required by law. If you found out some pe rv was ass~raping your son repeatedly, would you accept “i told my supervisor, and then did nothing.”?
You both aren’t very educated on this case, so I’ll be kind.
After receiving vague and sketchy information about an incident involving JS and Victim #2 (which Victim #2 has said since day one never happened), Joe sent Mike McQueary to his superior, as well as the head of the Penn State Police.
That is notifying the police. No? Really?
From the Altoona Mirror a month or so ago during a bomb scare (Altoona is nearly an hour away):
“That person returned around the time the Penn State University Police Department bomb squad arrived, leading to an examination of the note - which said something like “there’s a bomb in here” - and a check of the rest of the trash can contents and surrounding area revealed nothing, Books said.”
Looks like a legit police force to me.
MM has changed his story more times than we all change our underwear. At one point he actually told players and friends (once everyone considered him a coward - if he saw what the AG’s office SAID he saw - and did nothing) that he chased after the boy into the night to try and find out his identity. Of course he didn’t testify to this, because it’s just another lie. He DID testify that he never witnessed a rape in the showers in the Lasch Building though. He’s delusional and obviously has his own problems.
He was manipulated by the AG in an effort to attract more victims. It worked - more came forward. Good for them.
Joe did what he was supposed to do and media headlines about rapes in showers that never happened can’t change that. He’s at peace and you’re both suckers for buying all the BS.
The real problems lie within the shaky financials of the second mile and the utter failures of DPW and CYS. Kids are at risk RIGHT NOW because these failures aren’t being corrected.
Joe Paterno has and had NOTHING to do with the second mile and these agencies that granted JS foster status to dozens of boys and adoptions to 5 others.
JS was a RETIRED coach at Penn State. Most of you don’t even realize this. He was given emeritus status by the B.O.T., not Joe Paterno.
Meanwhile, Bernie Fine was a CURRENT coach at Syracuse and because 1/2 of espn graduated from SU, they sat on evidence until the statute of limitations allowed them to let the cat out of the bag with no repercussions.
Jim Boeheim called the accusers “money grubbers”
Joe Paterno said that “IN HINDSIGHT, I wish I’d have done more.” I bet the people at Logan Airport say the same thing every day of their lives since 9-11. It’s not an admission of guilt.
The media smear against Paterno was there to cover the fact that the molester/rapist was guilty as hell and NAMBLA in all but name.
Thanks FlJoePa.
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