sandusky worked for PennState for 30 years and retired in 1999.
the event happened in 2002
people in Joe’s generation, which was before my parents, barely thought of things like this. they were blissfully ignorant in general. after all, what kind of freaks would do things like that?
oh yea... this generation would and considers it a common event
If JoePa didn't know earlier (and according to the Sports Illustrated Special Edition, even a barber close to the Penn State campus said that administrators from Penn State used to talk about Sandusky's problems with little boys as part of the barber shop conversation), he knew in 1998, or May 1998 at the latest. And yet he allowed Sanduksy to bring a boy with him to coaching meetings, team pre-game banquets at the coaches' table, home game sleepovers at Toftrees, bowl games (Outback and Alamo). Joe Paterno knew about the 2000 oral sodomy incident in the football showers; that kind of stuff didn't go on in Paterno's showers without him knowing about it. And if Mike McQueary told JoePa what he saw, as the Grand Jury presentment said, the Paterno knew about the anal rape, and not just about fondling.
We find out more and more each day that Paterno covered up anything that would bring disrepute to Penn State football - playing the player accused of rape, downplaying DUIs, refusing to discuss with the media the just-cut player who murdered another student, coercing local defense attorneys to plead out cases involving players so that they wouldn't bring media attention - and suggesting that Penn State players not be held to the same disciplinary standards as other students.
We now know that Joe Paterno was a self-righteous sham when it came to football.
Go back and read my first few posts from November 7 and 8.
Joe Paterno was my hero. As a kid in Seattle (a kid with no geographic or familial ties to Penn State or Pennsylvania) in the early 1970s, I put black electrical tape on my white backyard football helmet so I could be one of Paterno's Nittany Lions. I'm old enough that I have few heros. There are loads of FR members who will attest to my posts about how crushed i was by Paterno's role in this, and that was before we found out just how hidden he kept the transgressions of football players, and how he let Sandusky keep coaching and bringing a boy to official football sleepovers for two years after the May 1998 investigation started.
I believed in the Paterno myth. That's all it was. A myth.
Paterno knew this and elected not to report this to the police or child welfare. He elected not to have Sandusky removed from the Penn State coaching staff in 1998 or 1999. He let Sandusky have keys to the athletic facilities, including the football showers. He allowed Sandusky to bring a boy to pregame home overnights, so that Sandusky could sexually abuse the boy in the room.
Why? Because Paterno was a coward, for one. But primarily because Paterno didn't want to do anything that might cause disrepute to the Penn State football program. Can't have Sandusky fired for showering with boys back in 1998. That might get in the paper. Can't let the 2000 oral sodomy matter become public. Can't ban Sandusky or have his emeritus status removed for cause. If people ask questions, then it would cast a bad light on Penn State football.
Joe Paterno was a facilitator. He was an enabler. He didn't care what happened to little boys as long as the good name of Penn State football wasn't harmed.
And with his inaction and cowardice, he helped Sandusky molest and rape more boys. He gave Sandusky time to destroy evidence of the 2002 anal rape.
And in the long run, he did damage not just to a football program, but to an entire university that will take decades to fix.
But again: boys were molested because Paterno was a self-righteous coward who refused to stand up to Sandusky and instead took action, or failed to act, so as to preserve the "good" name of Penn State football.
Yes, my posts are getting more vicious. But I'm finding out more.
Well said.