Penn State's Joe Paterno gets what he deserves

SF Chronicle ^ | Nov. 10, 2011 | Scott Ostler

[Colofornian]

Folks, this is Joe Paterno's legacy.

E-mails jump into my inbox defending Paterno...

I won't remember what Paterno did, but what he didn't do. What he didn't do is what got him fired...

Firing Joe Paterno doesn't fix everything, but it's a great start.

[Colofornian]

IOW Penn State was willing to expose itself on other campuses for the sake of the continued "glory" of THE Penn State fooball program and its local personality god, JoePa.

Hmm...I guess this was a "case" of legal liability "exhibitionists" catering to the illegal pedophiles.

Maybe to accommodate ALL of them we just need to call it Perv State vs. Ped State...'cause it sounds like they've got quite a bit of "sexual orientation" diversity goin' on there.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

How do we know what the witness told Paterno? According to the grand jury, On Sunday, Paterno told Penn State athletic director Tim Curley that McQueary had seen Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy."

The author's article is very vague about what the witness told Paterno.

[ClearBlueSky]

A ‘no name’ in his position wouldn’t have had the gravitas to keep things under wraps!
How can one be the ‘big man’ and literally ‘run’ a university and yet not be responsible for what happens there? So he gets the CREDIT when things are wonderful-thus the ‘icon’ status, but bears no blame when things turn to crap on his watch?

Situational ethics- the enabler is the victim. Sorta sums up a lot of what’s wrong these days.
What about the boys RAPED in HIS university, HIS domain, by HIS buddy, using the reputation for trust of HIS athletic program?
So where , exactly DOES the ‘buck’ stop if not with Paterno?

[KansasGirl]

McQueary should be ashamed to show his face after walking away when he witnessed Sandusky raping a child, but he plans to coach at the game on Saturday, and Penn State fans will be cheering for him to win. Sick. McQueary is a coward. He should have rescued that child. Him walking away like he did must have left the impression in the child’s mind that he approved, as he testified that both Sandusky and the child saw him.

[skeeter]

I'm afraid you're confused about Paterno's role at Penn State. He's a football coach.

Note I did not say he should not pay a price, not for 'protecting' Sandusky as you allege, but for failing to follow up on his 2002 report to his superior and the campus police. He has a big name and should have known better.

But some of the bile directed at him is bordering on ridiculous - its a good old fashioned media pile on & its a shame.

[dfwgator]

I'm afraid you're confused about Paterno's role at Penn State. He's a football coach.

He was the CEO of Penn State Football, Inc.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

The tone of this SF reporter all huffy against only Paterno when no one there, or here, knows for sure that Paterno knew squat about every jot and tittle of campus gossip on Sandusky.

That's what I thought at first, because the author did not make it clear what the witness told Paterno.

See post #62 (Link)

[alarm rider]

I am pretty sure that all ANYONE needed to know is that a 60 year old man was in the shower with a 10 year old boy.

This is not a complicated deal here, wrong is wrong, now and then.

[PieterCasparzen]

How do we know what the witness told Paterno? According to the grand jury, On Sunday, Paterno told Penn State athletic director Tim Curley that McQueary had seen Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy."

The author's article is very vague about what the witness told Paterno.

Right, that's when I'd rub my eyes, say "what ? I don't understand. Some kind of sex ?"

Then I'd be tired and just say whatever and let's go out for a beer on the way home, this has been a long day. Oh, and by the way, don't ever bother me with that thing you were talking about, we're not communicating, let's just forget it and get back to football. I wonder what the wife made for dinner tonight. Hey can you get the lights ?

[skeeter]

Sandusky left the coaching staff in 1999. What was his association with the football program in 2002, when Paterno was told about McQueary’s encounter?

[NewinTexsas]

I guarantee half the people out there hearing these reports share your opinion that Paterno was 'protecting' the rapist. Even though there is no such evidence.

We know that Paterno knew that he was a child molester in 1998.

We know that Paterno knew he was a child rapist in 2002. Did Paterno stop Sandusky. NOPE. He protected him while Sandusky raped for years. If Paterno had stood up like a man countless littles boys would not have been raped. Instead, he let it happen again and again ...

[skeeter]

You’d better get that new evidence to the police, because they don’t think so.

[PieterCasparzen]

I'm afraid you're confused about Paterno's role at Penn State. He's a football coach.

He was the CEO of Penn State Football, Inc.

I wonder if Sandusky, instead of raping, each time had stolen a laptop from the PSU football offices instead, would the school have let him stay on, keep coaching and not called police ?

You know, each time they talk to him, tell him he's gotta return it and he says he can't he sold it. They tell him he's gotta stop. Then he does it again, etc.

I wonder if the coaching staff would have thought it was no big deal and forgotten about it ?

Just thinkin' out loud.

[NewinTexsas]

You’d better get that new evidence to the police, because they don’t think so.

It is not new evidence. See the 1998 police report and the just released Grand Jury report.

[Paladin2]

Well said.

[skeeter]

Provide me a link.

Or you can just tell me how Paterno 'protected' him if everyone else knew Sandusky was a molester in 1998, and had left the coaching staff in 1999.

[Colofornian]

How do we know what the witness told Paterno? According to the grand jury, On Sunday, Paterno told Penn State athletic director Tim Curley that McQueary had seen Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy." The author's article is very vague about what the witness told Paterno. [ding_dong_daddy_from dumas, #62]

The tone of this SF reporter all huffy against only Paterno when no one there, or here, knows for sure that Paterno knew squat about every jot and tittle of campus gossip on Sandusky. I can back off defending Paterno when I hear the evidence that he actually knew more than he turned in, or covered up for the creep, but there is absolutely none yet. [RitaOK, #38]

#1

Notice the pedophile cover-ups -- like RitaOK -- uses words like "campus gossip" to describe more than one conversation Paterno had with a credible eyewitness, Michael McQueary, how head of Penn State recruiting.

An eyewitness report can...
...(a) get you arrested;
...(b) get you convicted;

Yet...RitaOK reduces that direct eyewitness report to "campus gossip"...that's the way "spin" works with pedophile cover-up apologists.

****

#2 The author's article is very vague about what the witness told Paterno [DDD from Dumas]

He was actually citing p. 7 of the Grand Jury presentment as to how Paterno testified as to what McQueary told him.

McQueary told the Grand Jury in no uncertain terms that it was child-rape, even estimating the boy's age to be 10.

As to what Paterno "heard" -- or at least relayed to the Grand Jury -- was that it was either "fondling" or "doing something of a sexual nature."

I'm not sure why people think less-than-pornographic specificity is somehow "case promoting" for Paterno. Come on, now: Even if JoePa wants to defend pedophile Sandusky and downgrade the shower activity from "only" child-rape to generic child sexual abuse, how does sexual abuse minus rape-penetration make it any less sexual abuse, anyway? Fondling is still a felony!

You posters amaze me! [You seem to tout, "Well you see my son was 'only' 'fondled' and 'only' had 'things of a sexual nature' done to him" as if that somehow testifies to Paterno's stalwartness character-wise as to why he didn't pursue protection for this victim over the long run]

Truly pathetic.

****

[MHGinTN]

Seems demonically ironic that Paterno’s nickname is ‘JoePa’.

[Paladin2]

"So where , exactly DOES the ‘buck’ stop if not with Paterno? "

With the "Wife Swapping Studies" PennState President of ~ 16 years?

[Oztrich Boy]

In my view McQuade should also be gone because he walked away from the shower and left the boy there to continue to be sodomized by Sandusky.

Er, the GA is McQueary

McQueary

McQuade

FYI