Franco Harris defends Paterno, McQueary, blasts trustees

CBS Sports ^ | 11/11/11 | CBS Sports

[Winged Hussar]

Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back and Penn State alum Franco Harris blasted the school's Board of Trustees for its decision to fire Joe Paterno and defended Mike McQueary, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

"I feel that the board made a bad decision in letting Joe Paterno go," Harris told the Tribune-Review's Kevin Gorman. "I'm very disappointed in their decision. I thought they showed no courage, not to back someone who really needed it at the time. They were saying the football program under Joe was at fault.

"They really wouldn't give a reason. They're linking the football program to the scandal and, possibly, the cover-up. That's very disturbing to me.

[SaraJohnson]

The difference between what happened at Duke and Penn State: The lie and smear of a black female against the white sexually normal Lax players was named fact by the femenazis, homos and lesbians who hate men. The season was canceled because liberals demanded it as part of their witch hunt.

At Penn State the liberals are not on a witch hunt because the victims were boys and they hate boys. They like boys to be sexually abused as evidenced by their child sex grooming programs targeted at harming and twisting the sexuality of boys, teens and young men. They don’t mind that the rape of boys on campus is covered up and condoned.

I feel great respect for the people who love Penn State and yet hold the leadership of that University responsible for not stopping the boy rapist’s ongoing operation and access for boys. That is love all around - love for human life and love for an institution that has been mostly good (I hope!).

[SaraJohnson]

Careful Sara. I got called nasty things yesterday for making a similar argument.

---

Don’t worry. I’m hated on FR half the time. I get called nasty things all the time. However, I must admit, there is usually no innocence to my victimhood. :)

[truthfreedom]

Right. I’ve noticed that this Penn State story has been a big story, but it really should be a much bigger story.

I agree with your analysis. It pisses me off.

Duke case - wow, those leftists are uncompromising sticklers for sexual propriety.

Penn State case - no they aren’t

They just are 100% pro fag. Burn it down.

[truthfreedom]

AAAhhhhhh.

The story at least, is a pro Fag Administration who let Sandusky hang out at the Penn State facilities after this all happened.

We should also be discussing the problem with fags.

[SaraJohnson]

From his own testimony, Joe beleived McQueary.

Sometimes you have to take risk to do the right thing. I have sacrificed wealth in my life to do the right thing. I don’t think Sandusky would want to shine the light on his anal rape of boys in court. Perverts like the dark.

[Joe 6-pack]

"From his own testimony, Joe beleived McQueary."

As I've stated on other threads, if McQueery had gone to Paterno on a weekend morning and reported seeing somebody vandalize Paterno's statue or Paterno's office building the previous night, it's inconceivable that Paterno would NOT have picked up the phone and directly called the campus police.

[Colofornian]

People keep saying Paterno should have called the police; he didn’t witness the act; he’s not the one who should have reported the incident to the police. He reported what was hearsay at the time to his superiors.

I like what Scoutmaster pointed out on another thread about double hearsay, which I'll weave into my response here: So you call direct eyewitness testimony hearsay [mind you this is testimony that can get people arrested and convicted]...and you have concerns that had Paterno passed onto the police what he heard from McQueary, that would be "hearsay."

But you applaud Paterno going to his superiors...which, had they notified the authorities, would have constituted double hearsay?

Sounds to me like it's not really hearsay that's the key sticking point here; otherwise you wouldn't be favoring another generation removed from the original eyewitness (double hearsay).

[LeonardFMason]

“Burn PSU to the ground”

Only an asshole would say something so stupid.

[Joe 6-pack]

One week into this thing and the "hearsay" thing is already a tired, old canard. Had McQueery rendered an affidavit or sworn statement as to what he told Paterno, and (years) later, the grand jury, it would have been every bit as admissable as a drop of Sandusky's semen collected from the buttocks of his victim.

Graphic I know, but some folks around here (not you Colo) need things vividly illustrated.

[Hman528]

speaking of many people knowing, how could people not know, there was an investigation wasn’t there? what about all the coaches, all the board members of the second mile charity Im sure they all new, which one of them was Matt Millen, former lions GM and current ESPN analyst, who was trying to express his saddness over the whole thing the other day on espn, yet Im sure he knew about Sandusky, I guess I wonder why people would want to get involved with this guy with the knowledge they had of what he was being investigated for seems like a whole bunch of people have some serious moral deficits!

[Hman528]

what about Matt Millen current ESPN analyst and former Lions GM, he was talking the other day about how upset he is, but isn’t he also on the board of the second mile charity?

[SaraJohnson]

As I’ve stated on other threads, if McQueery had gone to Paterno on a weekend morning and reported seeing somebody vandalize Paterno’s statue or Paterno’s office building the previous night, it’s inconceivable that Paterno would NOT have picked up the phone and directly called the campus police.

---

Great point. I guess that’s different!

If Paterno’s bosses controlled the campus police and the President of the University is a known pervert and he spun the police into not acting, then what should have Paterno done?

[TBP]

I wonder why McQueary is still on the payroll. Whistleblower laws?

[GeronL]

Apparently this was all an open secret locally, and nobody did anything about it. Very disgusting. The left has corrupted the culture to where this is excusable?

[combat_boots]

Well, occam’s razor: yes.

[Free Vulcan]

It was after the ‘98 incident they granted him privileges due as part as his retirement package. After the ‘02 incident they did take his locker room keys away and told him not to bring kids on campus anymore, but made no effort to report it as required by law.

The privileges don’t disturb me as much as the pattern of squelched or no investigations. People say they wanted to protect Sandusky because he was a popular coach, but I think they were trying to keep things from getting out in public because of the questions that would be raised.

[Joe 6-pack]

"If Paterno’s bosses controlled the campus police and the President of the University is a known pervert and he spun the police into not acting, then what should have Paterno done?"

County Sheriff's Department? State Police? Typically one or the other will investigate municipal police misconduct to include dereliction.

Let's suppose Paterno's car was vandalized on campus and the cops refused (for whatever reason) to investigate it. Paterno's insurance company demanded a police report before they would pay on it. Do you think a guy with Paterno's horsepower would have had any trouble getting a police report?

Keep in mind that Paterno was not only one of the very most powerful and influential people in the state, he has a son who's a lawyer so it's not like he couldn't have had all the free legal guidance he wanted / needed to have this thing properly vetted.

[jjotto]

Posted: Sunday, April 3, 2011 11:55 pm | Updated: 4:34 pm, Mon Apr 4, 2011.

http://www.timesonline.com/columnists/sports/mark_madden/madden-sandusky-a-state-secret/article_863d3c82-5e6f-11e0-9ae5-001a4bcf6878.html

Madden: Sandusky a State secret

Posted: Sunday, April 3, 2011 11:55 pm | Updated: 4:34 pm, Mon Apr 4, 2011.

Mark Madden

[Colofornian]

The Board admits openly that it did not even research the facts before acting. It said yesterday (per today’s newspaper) that it was going to investigate and discover all the facts. In other words, they scapegoated Paterno to gratify a media lynch mob.

It had enough facts...in fact, if you look just past the "Intro" of the Grand Jury Presentment, you'll see the heading, "Finding of Fact."

And you'll see enough on p. 7 from Paterno to "hang himself" job wise.

If you were a owner of a given company, and your key manager had an incredible positive record, but helter skelter suddenly broke loose under his watch and you discover he concedes to a fire-able offense, guess what? You fire him!

You don't have to immediately come up with a comprehensive checklist to try to retrieve your company from helter skelter. You clean house; and then put it in order.

Now let's very briefly look at what Paterno himself did as a "volunteer goat"...

#1 Dereliction of duty.

When a person in a position of trust and authority fails to ensure that a college to report campus criminal offenses, they have failed to comply with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (the Clery Act).

This act doesn't mandate that this info be passed on to "superiors"; rather, it it mandates that the college reports it.

Paterno can speak; write; talk. He knows how to communicate. If you're an officer in battle and the one you report to within your platoon turns yellow and stops fighting, it doesn't mean you retreat into a fox hole until your leaders decide to act like leaders. No, you're an officer, too. You need to pick up the slack, mister.

This wussy 'tudinalness' that people project past-tense onto Paterno wouldn't even survive a hot summer day of his own football training readiness reps he's imposed on his players. Man up and quit yellow xcusing.

#2 He violated lack of responsibility ethics mandated by the NCAA under its bylaws...

2.4, for example...the NCAA prez has said he is going to wait for the Penn State criminal investigations to finish before they come in to impose ethical violations per their bylaws.

But just because the NCAA is going to wait, it was already as plain as day to the Board of Trustees that Paterno had ethical breeches under 2.4 of the NCAA bylaws: The Principles of Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct. For intercollegiate athletics to promote the character development of participants, to enhance the integrity of higher education and to promote civility in society, student-athletes, coaches, and all others associated with these athletics programs and events should adhere to such fundamental values as respect, fairness, civility, honesty and responsibility. These values should be manifest not only in athletics participation but also in the broad spectrum of activities affecting the athletics program.

Paterno failed on both the responsibility and honesty ethics. Secrets remain sequestered away at the expense of boys.

#3 Moral lapses

There seems to be near unanimity here, so I won't belabor this too much.

Think of any felony committed in the showers of Penn State that Paterno finds out about almost instantly...and then tell me why it's not a good reason to rescue the victim.

Domestic abuse? What? The beater won't beat again?
Murder & body disposal? What? Is reporting this to your superiors "enough"?
The rape of a 10 yo girl in progress? (One of the few things missing here is feminists jumping all over Penn State's case...had they done this, look out!)

[Colofornian]

Had McQueery rendered an affidavit or sworn statement as to what he told Paterno, and (years) later, the grand jury, it would have been every bit as admissable as a drop of Sandusky's semen collected from the buttocks of his victim. Graphic I know, but some folks around here (not you Colo) need things vividly illustrated.

That's also why I posted this graphic account of the whole thing: Good Riddance, Joe Paterno [Warning: Graphic Penn State 'rant']

I encourage all to read it if you haven't. Buzz Bissinger gets graphic with this account.