It was not "his" locker room. He could not keep people out if they had a right to be there. Why can't you figure that out?
Joe kept quiet in 1998 knowing Joe was romping in his shower room with little boys.
Why do you think he knew about that? Because, because, because he was Joe Paterno with divine powers? LOL
Sandusky was investigated by police in 1998, and cleared. Again, what was Paterno supposed to do about that?
Maybe more will come out and I will stop defending Paterno. But based on what is out there he is getting smeared by people making a lot of assumptions.
Give me a break. Are you saying that Joe couldn't stop Sandusky from using his showers to molest little boys? Give me a break!
Tribune,
You obviously don’t understand remotely the power that Joe Pa has (had) at PSU. Joe is not simply a College Coach, he is the program, he is the school, period. NOTHING and I mean NOTHING happens related to PSU football or its facilities that Joe Pa cannot or does not know about or have say over. If Joe Pa had said, Sandusky can’t use my facilities, believe me, he wasn’t going to be using the facilities, period.
This is a guy whos power was so absolute, that when his supposed boss showed up at his house a few years ago to tell it was time to retire, he simply dismissed him and told him to not fall down the steps as he left.
No one, and I do mean NO ONE at PSU or in State College weilds more power than Joe Pa. To think it is any other way, shows complete ignorance of just exactly how things are up at State College, PA. Sure others have bigger titles, and technically there are others above him on paper in terms of the heirarchy, but that’s only on paper.
Prior to this incident, had the president of the university, or dean and Joe Pa had a feud, the President or the Dean would be the one leaving. That’s not hyperbole or exaggeration, that’s just honestly how it is.
Ask ANYONE who’s been around or involved with that university for decades and they will tell you the same thing. At PSU, Joe Pa is the King, period.
GIVE ME A BREAK. He was on tape admitting to molesting a young boy in Joe's shower room and the police wanted charges filed. The county DA would not prosecute. We don't know why and no one has seen or heard from him lately. His wife had to get him legally declared dead so she could go on with her life.
Well, apparently, Paterno let him leave the program with dignity and emeritus status.
Sandusky wasn't cleared in 1998. The DA decided he didn't have enough evidence to prosecute Sandusky for molestation. That's not "cleared." (And I may be wrong, but I think the University Police file wasn't available to the DA; the DA's case was based primarily on an audiotape that a mother made of a call from Sandusky).
But even if he wasn't prosecuted for molesting them, Sandusky was still showering, nude, with preteen boys, in the Penn State football locker room showers. The first question is, would you have seen anything wrong with that, if you were Paterno?
Then, in 2000, a janitor caught Sandusky orally sodomizing a boy in the Penn State football locker room showers but was too afraid to report it to police. Why was he afraid? Afraid of Sandusky? Afraid to bring shame on Penn State? Afraid because Sandusky had been Joe Paterno's good friend for 30+ years?
And I have a hard time believing that Joe Paterno wouldn't have been told that his friend of decades, his former defensive coordinator - the guy whose defense won the national title for Penn State against Miami in the Orange Bowl - the guy who 'retired early and unexpectedly' after the University Police investigations into his showering with preteen boys - was back in the showers with a small boy.
One of the best things I loved about Joe Paterno is that it was his program. He was the benevolent grandfather who knew what was going on and ran a tight ship. Players walked the straight and narrow are were disciplined . . . because Paterno's network let him know if they missed curfew, even if they were in a small town twenty miles away.
I understand I'm making some assumptions. I either have to assume that Paterno was like every other football coach of any reasonably successful program, called the shots, and was tapped into the intelligence of his program . . . or I have to assume that Paterno was incredibly incompetent and naive, that he was left in the dark when everyone else knew, that people intentionally didn't tell him things, that he didn't know the open secrets that everyone else knew, that people were either so scared of Paterno or disrepected him so much that they let the Penn State showers be used by Sandusky for years to molest boys; and that Joe Paterno was clueless and grossly negligent since 1998 or before.
Which assumption should I choose?