They Killed Him

Townhall.com ^ | January 30, 2012 | Bruce Bialosky

[Kaslin]

January 22nd was a sad day in America. A pitiful and depressing episode that confirms how a lawyer-controlled and weak-kneed society, ended with the tragic death of Joe Paterno. As sure as day turns into night, the actions taken last November by the Board of Trustees of Penn State University were responsible for the premature death of this great man.

I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, next door to Paterno’s domain: Pennsylvania. My father graduated from Ohio State, and I was – and still am – a born-and-bred Buckeye fan. I clearly remember the emergence of Joe Pa at Penn State, which had not yet joined the Big Ten – that wouldn’t happen for another 25 years.

In that time we had the great Woody Hayes, but now we were butting heads with this scrawny- looking guy with goofy glasses who was somehow stealing a number of our recruits. Because he wasn’t in the Big Ten – and, of course, because Michigan was the center of everything evil in the world – I developed a mild liking for the guy. If the Buckeyes weren’t winning the national championship, then Penn State and Joe Pa seemed to be an acceptable alternative. It was certainly better than some others (like USC). Sure enough, it didn’t take him too long to produce undefeated seasons – reeling off three very quickly in 1968, 1969 and 1973 – but he had to wait until 1982 to win his first national championship.

Paterno went on to become a national icon. There have been many great college coaches with stellar, decades-long careers, but Joe Pa was beginning to set records. From the time he turned 70 – and then 80! – we all participated in the annual rite of speculation about whether he would or should retire.

Whenever I was asked about it, my answer was always the same: the Bear Bryant Syndrome. Joe knew very well that Bryant had passed away a little over a month after his retirement, and in fact had told sportscaster Brent Musburger that Bryant’s untimely death was one of the reasons he continued coaching. His team, school, and community – along with his wife of nearly 50 years – had become his life.

The Jerry Sandusky scandal shocked everyone; it always smacks your senses when someone is accused of such despicable acts. I read the transcript of the grand jury testimony with utter horror, and yet the fact that it engulfed the entire Penn State University made this sordid story even more appalling and disgraceful. Still, something seemed to be missing.

Mike McCreary, a young staffer for the football team, had walked into the locker room in the Penn State athletic complex while Sandusky, now a former employee, was sodomizing a young boy in the showers. McCreary claimed that he reported it to Paterno, who promptly informed his superiors, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice-President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz. When Curley and Schultz testified that they had heard a different story than what McCreary related to the grand jury, the two men were indicted despite no further verification by the grand jury and then summarily fired by the Board of Trustees. Then McCreary changed his story, telling the press something different than he told the grand jury. The Trustees still fired Paterno.

The most iconic person in Penn State history, an employee for over 60 years, was fired via telephone call. He was not given the chance to explain his side of the story. A group of weaklings who were more concerned with protecting their jobs and fending off lawsuits just started canning people. Even someone who has been with the University for one year deserves to have their side heard. Someone with 60 years of exemplary service merits a little extra consideration.

The villain in this story, Jerry Sandusky, was now lost in the shuffle and the focus of the sports world was on Paterno and the Trustees. Every sanctimonious sportscaster started whimpering about how they would have done more and how everyone involved should have done more. They, of course, were only thinking of the children.

When Joe Pa finally broke his silence, it was accompanied by yet a third version of McCreary’s story. Apparently, he never really told Paterno what actually happened in the shower. He justifiably couldn’t bring himself to tell a 76-year-old legend the ugly details. The fact that an aging Paterno wasn’t really able to comprehend the whole matter will not convince some of his lack of blame. Some people will insist that he should have been able to understand such despicable behavior, and they will never accept that some among us come from an era where such repulsive activities were utterly inconceivable. So Coach Paterno reported what he had heard from McCreary, and that was all he knew.

Some say Joe died of a broken heart. I say he died from a knife in the back. Does it shock me that the man is now dead? No – there is, after all, the Bear Bryant Syndrome.

There will always be those who maintain that Paterno should have done more. There are those who claim that if they were in the same situation, they would have done more. But the only thing anyone should really say is if they are ever in the shoes of the Trustees, that they would give everyone the decency and fairness of an honest hearing, that they wouldn’t jump to conclusions, and that they would never, ever try to cover their own butts by ruining the lives of others.

[PA BOOKENDS]

OK. You go on living in you’re fantasy world where you’re omniscient, omnipotent and ominpresent. And, God, please have mercy on us mortals.

[Chewbarkah]

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke

Bruce Bialosky would have us invert the moral of this aphorism. He gives Joe Paterno a pass as a “good man.” How sad for him that these yappy child rape victims wanted justice. How does that help the “program”?

Next Bialosky condemns the Board of Trustees for doing SOMETHING. Firing an icon like the good Joe Paterno sent a signal that toleration of hideous crime was unacceptable (at least after the truth leaks out).

[Fry]

I was at a party about 12 years ago talking politics to the mother of a friend of mine. She is four or five years older than Paterno and I would call her a contemporary of Paterno. (Same generation, Catholic, grew up in New York etc.) In discussing Bill Clinton she made clear her disgust not just with his politics but with the nature of the acts Clinton and Lewinsky had engaged in. I'll never forget her saying "Who has ever heard of such a thing?" She is well educated, had four children and has lived and traveled extensively in the world. She is no dummy. It was an alien concept to her.

Also, I'm not convinced that McQueary was explicit with Paterno, in fact McQueary has testified that he didn't use some of the terms that are are freely thrown around here.
Not taking a side. Not justifying any ones actions. Just saying it is possible for people from a different time to have a different concept of these matters.

[C. Edmund Wright]

See post 74 — a bit of misinterpretation of my opinion.

[DManA]

In my fantasy world raping a child is not tolerated. And people who abet it are not worshiped. But I don’t expect everyone to share my fantasy.

[Larry Lucido]

So if “they” KILLED Joe.....

then by extension of that stupid, loose metaphor, Joe “buggered” others.

Right? Let’s all play fast and loose with metaphors! Wheeeeee!

[CanuckYank]

Suggest you re-read post #6 .............

[Larry Lucido]

But..but...you can’t call 9-1-1 based on hearsay. /s

(You are absolutely correct. But people who have absolutely no concept of the application of the rules of evidence right here on FR have actually said that! They actually believe that if person A tells person B that a crime is has been committed, person B has no right to contact law enforcement.)

[DManA]

Paterno continued to invite this monster into his building knowing what he was and knowing what he did there. This is not a man to be admired.

[CanuckYank]

This whole disgusting incident is just a small, inconvenient pimple on the butt of the Football Society of America. (If you doubt the existence of such, I just saw a headline on FR that 15% of respondents would miss the birth of their baby to attend the superbowl.)

Where are the trials of the perps and enablers???? Maybe we have to wait for the season to wrap (post-superbowl).....

Shut down a major school’s football cash machine (er .... “program”) for a year or more?

HORRORS AT THE VERY THOUGHT ....Follow the money, folks .................

[DManA]

You legalistic defense in unimpressive. Paterno was the law in his shower rooms. He didn’t need a court order to tell Sandusky that he wasn’t welcome there.

[varmintman]

Shut down a major school’s football cash machine (er .... “program”) for a year or more?

PSU isn't going to be able to get serious talent out of the high schools for some time. Think about it: You're a high school football player good enough to be recruited by more than one college... are you going to want to have to worry about how many fights you're going to get into when come home for breaks with your "PSU" jacket or sweatshirt on and everybody starts asking you about "PERV STATE UNIVERSITY"???

[wbill]

Poppycock.

Exactly.

Sandusky is the villian in the this story. However, I think that the graduate assistant is equally villianous, as are all the rest of the people who allowed this abuse to happen.

IMHO, when you catch someone molesting a kid in the shower, you don't run away to think it over and tell your daddy. You pick the pervert up, give him 5 in the chops and let the chips fall where they may.

From what little I've followed this story, it sounds to me like there was a distinct pattern of serial abuse going on, that was studiously ignored from the top down.

BTW, whatever happened to that reporter who made accusation of Sandusky "procuring" boys for high dollar donors? That particular story went quiet, real quick.

[Larry Lucido]

This Joe guy played football?

Wow, next you’ll tell me that John Kerry went to Vietnam!

[Hegewisch Dupa]

I don’t know if it’s that simple. They still will probably be able to draw from local talent; around PA there’s a definite Jonestown attitude that will follow PSU’s lead anywhere, and it’s the damned outsiders that just don’t get it.

[Larry Lucido]

Good, because I wasn’t trying to “impress” anyone, as you imply. I agree with your statement (he could have taken effective action unilaterally) and I was asserting that he could ALSO call the police to have an investigation commenced. So-called “hearsay” doesn’t prevent that.

Yes, alas, unimpressive but true.

[PA BOOKENDS]

Of course one has “the right” to call 911 (or the local TV station or post a comment or fly a banner from a plane) and, depending on circumstances, the police might even pursue it, but hearsay evidence is not admissible in court.

And if it turns out that your hearsay is false, at least two of those options could land you on the wrong side of the judge’s bench.

And I repeat: Joe Paterno reported what he was told to the police. (Maybe I need to fly a banner!)

[allmendream]

Good. Scum like him needed “killing”.......

if by killing you mean shame and ostracizing.

That scumbag knew what “Second Mile” at risk youth were “at risk” for - for over a decade - and did nothing while Sandusky paraded around a bunch of young boys through the halls of Pedo State.

[ZX12R]

And I repeat: Joe Paterno reported what he was told to the police.

That is simply not the truth. He did not report it to the police. He reported it to the V.P. of the university, who is not a policeman or any kind of law enforcement official. And the V.P. also didn't report it to the police. No one did. Now the V.P. and others are facing prison time for not reporting it, and for lying to the grand jury.

[SuzyQue]

“The premise is right, that a man of that era simply has no understanding of today’s culture of homosexuality and so on. That, however, is an indictment and not a defense of Paterno.”

OK, I’ll take your word for it, even if I don’t understand how my comment isn’t correct based on what you actually wrote.