Posted on 11/11/2011 1:25:04 AM PST by Colofornian
The Penn State legend tried to do an end-run around the trustees, but they still fired him for doing nothing to stop the alleged sexual abuse of young boys. Now it’s time to ditch the rotten college football system, says Buzz Bissinger.
Like everyone else, I cannot get the scandal of Pennsylvania State University out of my mind.
The story is unfolding at the speed of sound, not just the worst sports scandal in modern history but also one of the worst scandals in modern history:
A former Penn State assistant coach for 29 years and alleged sexual predator, Jerry Sandusky, apparently continued unchecked because of the failure of university officials and head football coach deity Joe Paterno to do anything that might have made a difference instead of what they collectively did achieve:
Buck-passing and unconscionable cowardice.
Paterno announced in a statement Wednesday that he would retire as head coach at the end of the football season after 46 years. He tried to sound like a humble martyr, but he was selfish and self-serving as usual. With the hubris and arrogance that has been the hallmark of his career over the past decade, the over-the-hill 84-year-old attempted to do an end-run around the Penn State board of trustees, who have been meeting to decide his fate. Paterno was hoping he could forever claim he decided to leave the football program of his own accord. The trustees called his bluff Wednesday night, firing Paterno and university president Graham Spanier.
Paterno is just a part of this whole sordid, shameful disgrace. He is easy to focus on because of his mythic stature, all false idol, as it turns out. But I find myself not caring about him anymore, particularly now that he has been let go.
What I am trying to fathom is how it ever became possible that so many men of power and intellect did nothing when it became obvious, because it was abundantly obvious on the basis of the findings of fact handed down earlier this week by a Pennsylvania investigative grand jury, that a former assistant coach familiar to all of them was apparently plucking out little boys as young as 10 to f--k up the ass or be on the receiving end of blowjobs.
(Note: we need to stop the daintiness and describe the alleged offenses for what they truly are in the vernacular to somehow try to capture the monstrousness. Not anal intercourse or oral sex, which sounds clinical, but butt-f--king and blowjobs and cock-grabbing and pants-groping and other assorted acts that the 67-year-old Sandusky allegedly inflicted on eight minor victims over a 15-year span, according to the 23-page grand-jury report, and resulted in 40 counts of serial sex abuse of minors.)
I think the answer to the question of inaction is simple. It wasn’t a matter of university officials and football staffers in Happy Valley not wanting to deal with it (which they didn’t), or not following up (which they didn’t), or having better things to do like attending Friday-night football pep rallies. There is no great conspiracy theory at work.
What happened, or more accurately did not happen, goes to the core of evil that major college sports programs in this country have become, equivalent to Mafia families in which the code of omertà rules and coaches and staff always close ranks around their own, even if it means letting someone who was first accused of inappropriate sexual conduct in 1998 continue to roam.
The horror of it all, both in terms of what Sandusky allegedly did and what Penn State officials did not, can be summed up by a single sound.
It is a “rhythmic, slapping” sound, according to page 6 of the grand-jury report. It is heard by a 28-year-old football graduate assistant named Mike McQueary in the locker room of the Lasch Football Building on the Penn State Campus at 9:30 on the Friday night of March 1, 2002.
McQueary is placing some new sneakers into his locker. At first he finds it odd that the lights and showers are on. Then he hears the sound coming from the showers. He looks inside and according to his grand-jury testimony, sees the cause of the sound: a naked child of roughly 10 years old with his hands up against the wall with a naked Sandusky butt-f--king him from behind. Sadistic, yes. Sick, yes. Beyond disturbing, yes. Deviant, yes. Immediate grounds for calling the police? Of course, yes. The upshot?
Nothing. Nada. Not a goddamn thing but the passing of the buck up the food chain of bureaucratic bullshit where too many people know that something awful has happened and try to bury it.
McQueary, who witnessed the incident, witnessed it, doesn’t call the police, although he is 28. He runs to his daddy. His daddy advises him to tell Paterno. He tells Paterno. The great JoePa, who regardless of his noncredible insistence in grand-jury testimony that he was never told the specific nature of the sexual act, does at the very least acknowledge that McQueary did relate to him that Sandusky was “fondling” a young boy.
Unless fondling of young boys by assistant football coaches at Penn State is commonplace and encouraged, that alone should be enough to make Paterno go to the police. Or being the father figure he supposedly is, tell McQueary that he has to go to the police and will accompany him, given that Paterno is the most popular and powerful man in Pennsylvania, with instant credibility.
But Paterno does nothing beyond fulfilling his minimal obligation. He passes the information he says he has on to athletic director Tim Curley and that’s it, the obviousness that Sandusky is doing something terrible apparently far less important than such crucial pursuits as watching game films of the last Ohio State game. And on up the food chain it goes—to senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, all the way up to Spanier, the university president. But with each iteration the incident only seems to become more diluted and more muddled or, as the grand-jury report unequivocally indicates, some of those aware of what happened are lying their balls off to try to minimize what they really knew. Which would also explain the action that the university ultimately took against Sandusky:
He had his keys to the locker room taken away, which he had still maintained after he stopped coaching in 1999.
Which may also explain that in the wake of such draconian punishment, Sandusky subsequently gave blowjobs to a minor roughly 13 years old more than 20 times in 2007 and 2008, according to the grand-jury findings of fact.
Joe will mercifully be gone, along with President Spanier. Curley has gone and Schultz stepped down. So should McQueary, who is actually the most gutless in not telling police what he witnessed. The entire Penn State coaching staff, too much under the influence of Paterno, should go.
And so, frankly, should major college football and basketball as it exists now, rotten beyond repair, as has been pointed out a thousand times. Totally disconnected from the academic experience, they are insulated kingdoms with their own rules and reigns of terror because of the money they make, trading in illegal recruiting and illegal gifts and illegal favors, and now, thanks to Penn State, alleged sexual abuse of children by a former coach who must have assumed he would always be protected. Just like a Mafia soldier.
Except that the even the Mafia has higher moral standards.
How about a "rhythmic slapping sound" of flesh on flesh coming from the showers?
How about a "rhythmic, slapping sound" of flesh on flesh coming from the showers?
The law (mandated reporters) in PA doesn’t say you have to report to your boss. It says you have to report to DHS. The whole pack of Penn State administrators and coaches are guilty of a crime, legal and moral.
Sandusky is married to an "enabler" of his "activities", from everything I've read.
Michael Mann appears to be "single", as I can find no reference to a "wife" in his bio or anywhere else. It appears as if he has a 4 year-old daughter based on this article I found:
This puff piece in 2010 only mentions a picture of his 4-year-old daughter on his desk. (No picture of a "wife")
Climate expert in the eye of an integrity storm (Michael Mann) ".....Behind his desk were a picture of his 4-year-old daughter..."
Wikipedia doesn't mention any "wife":
Michael E. Mann (born December 28, 1965
) Per Zaba search, I found this:
This could be him as this town is about 2 miles from the State College campus:
MICHAEL E & LORRAINE C SANT MANN Born DEC 1965
240 S CHURCH ST
BOALSBURG, PA 16827 (434) 244-9955
If this is him, Lorraine may be the mother of his daughter mentioned in the article above.
SPOKEO shows him as "single":
Michael E Mann
Male | Mid 40's
Phone: (814) 466-****
Address: ****** S Church St
Location: Boalsburg, PA 16827
bttt
Best article on this subject.
Thank you for posting this. It needs to be said.
Thought you might want to read this one. No sugar coating here.
Sandusky was arrested a week ago today. He was released without having to post any bail.
I agree with you posting this. Yes it is graphic...but with some of those involved using words like “horseplay” I think the actual description of what was witnessed needs to be out there. The University not taking immediate action after hearing this described just floors me. All involved should have made sure this was really dealt with, and didn’t. I am not any part of a football fan, but cannot imagine what all these adults were thinking while children were being molested- and they knew it.
Great post, thanks for sharing.
Sense of proportion? Do you have any idea the impact that being raped has on a child?
Are you arguing that murder is a lesser crime than rape?
I’m asserting that attempting to find some “sense of proportion” between hundreds of people being killed and a man who starts a charitable organization to provide himself with boys to rape is beyond bizarre. It’s like saying that what Jeffrey Dahmer (sp?) did wasn’t all that bad because the Holocaust killed millions of Jews.
The bizarre Holocaust / cannibalism comparison is yours, not mine, and you are welcome to it.
I do suggest that murder is worse than rape. That isn’t an unusual position - consider the relative legal penalties for the two crimes.
And I consider the hundreds of killings by US-government-armed cartels more important than the events at Penn State.
Careful readers will note that my remarks do not constitute a defense of rapists or those who enable them.
When it comes to raping a child, I couldn't disagree more.
“What does Penn State have in the way of training to recognize signs of sexual abuse, responsibilities....”
A man has responsabilities exclusive of training and operating procedure.
I agree. Thanks. bttt
BUMP to the top
Look at all the stories about adult female teachers with minor males...do you EVER see them referred to as ‘pedophiles’ or ‘pederasts’? Guess we need categories for all this crap...
“What does Penn State have in the way of training to recognize signs of sexual abuse, responsibilities....”
Recognizing what is going on when you see a middle-aged man buggering a 10-year-old boy doesn’t require special training.
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