Posted on 09/23/2014 7:20:57 PM PDT by FlJoePa
Penn State students and fans Saturday showed support for late coach Joe Paterno with a “Joe-Out” – wearing clothing or displaying images of the Hall of Famer at the Nittany Lions' football game.
As a Penn State alumnus, I am proud of my university and I remain proud of the work that JoePa did on and – more importantly – off the football field, with respect to inspiring students and improving academics at the institution.
Yet there remains in the public sphere this erroneous belief that JoePa was a conspirator in the alleged cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Sandusky, a former Penn State coach, was charged in fall 2011 and convicted in 2012 of molesting boys over the previous 15-plus years.
Three years later, I await someone to show proof that JoePa was culpable. Even the infamous Freeh Report that looked at the scandal has not given any evidence that JoePa was a conspirator.
In talking to non-Penn Staters about the scandal, I have discovered that many of them have a tremendous misunderstanding of JoePa’s role in the matter. That does not sit well with me, considering JoePa did as much as – if not more than – to advance academics at Penn State University. Yes, that’s academics, not athletics. (For more, read this column written in 2007.)
None of this, of course, exonerates Sandusky or the three former Penn State administrators charged in an alleged cover-up. Sandusky is a monster. The others await their day in court.
Rather, this is an attempt to clear up misunderstandings about Joe Paterno and his role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Here are 12 things that most people do not know about JoePa and the scandal:
1 – Jerry Sandusky was not a coach at the time of the shower assault in 2001 in the Penn State football building. Sandusky was retired. JoePa was no longer his boss.
2 – Sandusky, as a professor emeritus, had access to any building that he desired at Penn State. In other words, he didn’t need permission from JoePa or anyone else to go into the football building.
3 – Sandusky targeted his victims through his charity, The Second Mile, and not through Penn State or its football program. The Second Mile, much more than Penn State, deserves blame for this tragedy.
4 – JoePa did not cover up the shower assault, and this is what investigators and the authorities have said and continue to say.
5 – JoePa, in fact, told his boss about the incident, which is the law.
6 – JoePa actually went one step further and also told the man who is in charge of Penn State’s police force about it.
7 – Penn State’s police force is an authentic police force, with about 50 armed police officers, arrest powers and with official jurisdiction over the Penn State campus. It has the same powers and responsibilities as any municipal police force in the state. In other words, Penn State police officers are not like security guards at a mall; they are the real thing and have made thousands of investigations and arrests over the years.
8 – JoePa didn’t just tell his boss and the man in charge of the police about the incident. JoePa also asked them to look into it.
9 – The Freeh Report was commissioned by Penn State’s trustees, who were looking – and still looking – to justify what they did. The Freeh Report has been proven to be faulty and is an interpretation based on supposition and circumstantial evidence – not a finding of fact or a verdict rendered by a jury. For more, click here.
10 – There is not one shred of evidence in the Freeh Report or anywhere – that we know – that shows JoePa covered up anything with respect to Sandusky.
11 – To this day, JoePa is the only person to have apologized for what happened, saying that in hindsight, he wished he would have done more. The key word is hindsight, as JoePa did not know at the time that Sandusky was a predator.
12 – Does anyone honestly believe that if he had known Sandusky was a serial molester that JoePa would have been silent? Furthermore, how could JoePa have known? Trained professionals in child abuse and law enforcement officials did not know.
Having said all of this, it is important again to note that Penn State, the institution, is not absolved of any wrongdoing. Innocent children were irreparably harmed, and a jury will determine whether the former administrators charged with a cover-up will be convicted of those charges.
But one thing is certain, and few non-Penn Staters in the public know it: By all evidence that we have seen, JoePa did not cover up any crime.
2 Sentences here in this point. And they conflict with and contradict each other. Paterno wished he would have done more. Which indicates he could have done more. But the fact is he did not do more. Paterno was culpable. He looked the other way. For years and years.
Word on the street is that Sandusky is just the tip of the iceberg, and a big reason his crimes were hushed up for so long is that other, powerful people were using the Second Mile group to also rape young boys.
There could be as many as 100 other pedo-rapists that no longer get to rape boys, but aren't being prosecuted because they are high up: elected positions, District Attorneys, etc.
....”regarding the slaughter of innocent infants in the womb? Are they as outraged by THAT”.....
When a nation’s people “stops” believing in the sanctity of life and worse ‘redefines’ what it is...’everything else’ will fall between the cracks of that unbelief and appear as something else than what it is.
Perversion will be a “sickness” at most..and tolerated or accepted at worst, therefore the road is full of misguided and stupid people who no longer can tell the difference between what is good and what is evil. ...not stand for either.
“Or is it possible that the JS scandal merely provides a soapbox for them to vent their hatred toward Penn State?”
FlJoePa is on the soapbox. Others here are not PSU haters, merely setting the record straight after FlJoePa posts his propaganda.
“Maybe the fact that you’re a worthless liar”
Now that is one intelligent post. It is amazing how low the stupid JoePa supporters go when they are faced with the facts.
As for the rest... yawn. This is the typical Paterno haters cherrypicking. The 1998 investigation by both police and the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare CLEARED Sandusky, and that was the only facet of the investigation of which his exit contract negotiators would have been aware.
Again, a very feeble effort on your part, indeed.
Your opinion isn’t proof of anything except your ignorance of the facts.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Paterno was not Woody Hayes or Bear Bryant. He did not have — and did not want — any such power on the PSU campus.
There’s no need to rehabilitate Paterno, because there’s has never been any evidence of any kind presented against him. ONLY ignoramuses think there has been.
He’s had no such report of annoying of the kind. Why do you feel the need to lie like this?
Nonsense. His exit contract was based entirely on his years in service. No one knew about any previous “molestation.” Both the police and the PA Department of Public Welfare CLEARED him of that case.
You’ve got a reading comprehension problem, and it’s pretty serious considering that you reposted the statement. He said IN HINDSIGHT he wished he’d done more. That doesn’t mean he looked the other way for years. It means he did not know what was going on for years, and finally knew, like everyone else, by looking back.
LOL! Thanks for the laughs. Keep 'em coming.
Of course you’re a PSU hater. You’ve made five or six statements that you’ve been asked to provide documentary evidence of, and all we’ve heard from you are crickets.
A tactic straight from the Leftist Marx Brothers playbook...
Disagree with me = hate
Don’t like someone or criticize someone I like = hater
You haven’t posted any facts. You’ve posted your opinions, and when asked where the evidence is you’ve produced NOTHING. Until you produce some, everyone is free to assume you’re a worthless liar.
Thank You FlJoePa
No serious person has the least regard for your unsubstantiated hatred.
Talk about tactics from the leftist playbook: post no facts, and when called out on it pretend to be ill used.
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