ReutersEarly Thursday morning during Penn State media day, coach Bill O’Brien emphasized that it was time to move on from the sanctions handed down to the program from NCAA president Mark Emmert.
“We’re very, very mindful of what happened here. But it’s time, in my opinion, this is just my opinion, it’s time to stop the dour attitude. It’s time to think of ways to help us through this,” O’Brien said.
Looks like O’Brien will get his wish.
ESPN’s Outside the Lines reports that Penn State’s board of trustees will hold a special meeting this Sunday to “formally ratify the consent decree“ agreed to by university president Rodney Erickson and the NCAA last month. The decision reportedly came Tuesday evening during a conference call.
“We have heard from President Erickson and from our legal team. We have had an opportunity to speak our minds. I appreciate everyone’s candor and your sincere and heartfelt comments,” said board chairwoman Karen Peetz to other trustees in an email obtained by the Associated Press. “However, it is now time to put this matter to rest and to move on. As I said in my opening remarks on Tuesday evening, we need a laser focus on the future of the university. We need to be unified and we need to work together.”
Earlier this week, a handful of trustees filed an appeal to Emmert’s sanctions against the program with the intent of possibly pursuing a federal lawsuit to invalidate the sanctions. The NCAA has stated multiple times the sanctions against Penn State are binding because the consent decree was signed. OTL states that most of the trustees aren’t in line with any sort of appeal, though the possibility of a federal lawsuit still exists.
Get out the popcorn . . .
Good luck to Coach O’Brien in his efforts to move forward. It’s obvious the arrogance and entrenched belief that “The University” is above both civil law and human decency is still embedded in Penn State’s culture.
The football program has been hit hard with sanctions. But clearly the prevailing attitude continues that it wasn’t a big deal for so many officials to enable a child rapist to prey unhindered for more than a decade, using the football program as a lure. Although many decent PSU fans are sickened by this behavior, the most vocal seem determined to view themselves as martyrs, offering only blue-ribbon lip service to the real victims of this tragedy.
As a rule, I don’t believe in the Death Penalty because it too often punishes the innocent while the guilty move on to the NFL or other jobs. In this case, the guilt lies with every fan who thinks letting a monster roam at will for 15 years is equal to giving recruits a new car. The NCAA dropped the ball. This program should have been shut down.
This will be the first thing Penn State has done right in a long time. Take the punishment, put this behind you and move forward.
However, the individuals that were actually part of the cover-up need to be swiftly charged with felony endangerment of a child, 40+ accounts each, and pay for their part in these crimes.
Well said, Deb, as usual.
Good on you, Coach O’Brien. Keep talking sense and hopefully everyone surrounding your program will listen.
If you are mad a penn state for what happen over the years you should be, but to punish the new coaching staff and players who had NOTHING to do with what went down is WRONG… And dont tell me the French report and NCAA are doing what’s best, they are covering their own ass just like everyone else..
Help the school recover not bury it alive..
About time they realized that they couldn’t do a damn thing about the sanctions.
Best thing PSU can do is move on and try to weather the train wreck known as their football program for the next 5-8 years.
I’m guessing the meeting with their attorneys to discuss suing the NCAA started out by said lawyers screaming:
“Are you f@#$ing kidding me?!?!?! Do you want them investigating everything and everybody for the next 3 plus years with all the skeletons that exist?!?!?!” “Now STFU and move on”
PSU just don’t get it… They are still football is king, no matter what!
More like the 28 board members And Erickson who were around the whole time this was going on and know ALOT more than they let on. They don’t want it to dig deeper and wider. For those of you who believe their poun of flesh was satisfied with Paterno. Know that Spanier,Curley and Schulz still cash six figure checks.
So what justice has been served? None of them will ever do time. To me it’s a criminal matter still don’t believe it was an NCAA matter but thats under the bridge now
About time the Pedophile State BoT does something. Time for Pedophile State to take their medicine like men and women instead of whining about how unfair it is like little boys and girls. Time for all Pedophile State fans, former football players and administration to accept the punishment for the heinous crimes allowed to happen on their campus because of their football program and just move on. Football isn’t everything, the safety of children is paramount and teaching the students proper ethics needs to begin.
you guys are right, Penn State should just move on, issue over, Freeh Report solved everything. The charges/investigations against Curley and Schultz should be dropped, no need for them anymore. The NCAA took action, they have the facts, the issue is over, time to move on. The two (PA State and Federal) investigations into the Second Mile involvement in this should also be dropped. No reason for them anymore, issue over, time to move on. Who really wants to know the whole truth anyway, we have the Freeh Report, as long as the football team i punished everyone here will be happy right? that’s really what it comes down to for about %90 of the “extreme” posters, it’s not about the victims it’s about a dislike for Penn State football. if they really did care about the victims they would be a little more concerned about actual justice for them.
@newlydead statue is gone too. Time to move on. Wins were removed time to move on. Spanier makes 600k a year no biggie move on. Erickson was 2nd in command for 14 years an now the leader. I’m sure he was in the dark. Nothing to see here. It’s all symbolic justice, real justice is a myth.
Why is Penn State getting punished at all? Didn’t everyone have the “right to remain silent”?
Hey omnius prime why exactly do the students need to be taught ethics? We’re they somehow now involved now too.
Believe it or not 99.999% of penn staters were not pedophiles an don’t condone r enable it
newlydead says:
Aug 9, 2012 5:17 PM
you guys are right, Penn State should just move on, issue over, Freeh Report solved everything. The charges/investigations against Curley and Schultz should be dropped, no need for them anymore. The NCAA took action, they have the facts, the issue is over, time to move on. The two (PA State and Federal) investigations into the Second Mile involvement in this should also be dropped. No reason for them anymore, issue over, time to move on. Who really wants to know the whole truth anyway, we have the Freeh Report, as long as the football team i punished everyone here will be happy right? that’s really what it comes down to for about %90 of the “extreme” posters, it’s not about the victims it’s about a dislike for Penn State football. if they really did care about the victims they would be a little more concerned about actual justice for them.
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Somewhere there is a baby in a puddle of water outside of a bathroom window.
Tired? You talk about tired?
Tired are the self righteous, chest beating comments by the cretins on this site, who are fooling no one.
The handful of loudmouths who get their rocks off typing all of their “clever ” disparaging remarks could give a crap less about any victim. They are an angry bunch, who have found an outlet for their misery: one of the top notch NCAA programs.
If we were all sitting at a Starbucks discussing Penn State and the sanctions, would they speak that way? Of course not.
One of us would knock them into next week.
Have your fun, children.
psunick!
You sound pretty angry buddy!
psunick,
I’ve had lunch w PSU alums and I’ve told them exactly what I’ve said here.
(1.) Joe Pa knew.
(2.) Spainer and the Administration officials knew and did nothing,
(3.) That PSU was lucky NOT to get the Death Penalty, and
(4.) A lawsuit only worsens the situation.
Guess what? They agreed with every point.
They’re mad w the BoT, especially the Governor and they are mad because it makes PSU look incompetent at best and guilty in the worse case
scenario.
They want Sandusky sent away a long time and they want all the people who caused this tried in a
court of law AND stripped of their pensions.
No drama, no whining about the NCAA, just a great lunch with good people who deal in reality.
Best part, they paid.
Oh, I totally agree with you, @amos.
A rational discussion is always welcome. You make your points intelligently, and it’s no wonder some alums agreed with you.
I don’t consider you one of the salivating imbeciles who post on this site.
Like I am….per @wareagle.
And with that…..the disgusting arrogance, holier-than-thou false front, and the lies of the Paterno era are erased.
Coming from a Gophers fan, and a rival in the Big 10, I have the utmost respect for Bill O’Brien and his team.
To say that I’m no fan of PSU would be a gross understatement. However, I think Coach O’Brien and his team are the epitome of class and should be commended for the way they have handled this situation.
I wish them the best of luck as they move forward.
Hopefully one of the victims’ lawyers can sue the Governor of PA and the BoT.
omniusprime, you are wrong. Anytime I see an idiot like you call PSU Pedophile State, I wonder what your real agenda is. Do you really think that the 100′s of thousand PSU alumni knew this was happening? Do you really think that a jury of Sandusky’s peers (most with PSU ties) would of convicted him on nearly every charge if this was accepted behavior? Do you think that the entire PSU community isn’t sickened and saddened by his crimes? Is this a time to put labels on a school I’m sure you you know nothing about? The State College community and the PSU students, staff, alumni and fans get it. What happened was horrible, we feel the victims pain, and the positive results that will happen from this will hopefully change not just PSU, but many other areas. If one child is never subjected to sexual abuse because of this scandal then I’d say all PSU’s sanctions are well worth it.
What people dont know is that reports came out Tuesday that several board members were considering suing the NCAA…
Then on Wed, SportsbyBrooks reported that the NCAA was going to look into reports that Second Mile was paying current and past Penn State players…
Wonder if that had anything do with them finally passing the resolution?
Let me guess your Brooks? Dope
I’m sure not suing NCAA would stop anyone from running a legit story. Can’t believe I just wasted 2 minutes of my life responding to that.
Now on the other hand a story about second mile pimping out kids to rich donors. That I might buy. Something happened there that will probably never know.
Guns don’t kill people – people kill people.
All of PSU didn’t rape children, Sandusky raped children.
All of PSU didn’t cover up Sandusky’s crimes, Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz covered-up Sandusky’s crimes.
If we agree with NCAA methodology of punishing criminal behavior (not violations of athletic competition rules), should we also apply this same methodology to society?
Holy crap am I sick of this story.
Do you go to, or are you a fan of Penn State? Were you molested by Jerry Sandusky? If the answer is “no,” then this story doesn’t really effect you in any meaningful way. And since that constitutes the vast majority of Americans, it can only be concluded that the amount of media attention given this business outweighs its actual significance by a ratio of about 90 billion to one.
I don’t care if PSU gets the death penalty but there should be an actual investigation and hearing of the evidence before punishment. The Freeh report is pretty flimsy and didn’t allow the people blamed to give their side. The Freeh report concludes that Paterno and Curley covered up for Sandusky but doesn’t present any evidence to support that conclusion. The Freeh report was commissioned by the PSU Board of Trustees and had cooperation from current employees and access to university records. It didn’t have any testimony from Paterno, Curley, or Schultz. Let’s see what happens at the trials. Paterno seems to be getting blamed based on the
Freeh report but the grand jury that indicted Sandusky, Curley, and Schultz said Paterno didn’t do anything wrong. Not sure why the grand jury’s report is disregarded when they had more investigative tools than Freeh.
If PS had more Unics this would have been less of a problem.
hushbrother says:
Aug 10, 2012 2:53 AM
Holy crap am I sick of this story.
Do you go to, or are you a fan of Penn State? Were you molested by Jerry Sandusky? If the answer is “no,” then this story doesn’t really effect you in any meaningful way. And since that constitutes the vast majority of Americans, it can only be concluded that the amount of media attention given this business outweighs its actual significance by a ratio of about 90 billion to one.
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Who are you to say who is or is not affected in a meaningful way. If you knew anyone whose life (which includes the life of his or her family) was affected by the molestation of children will know, you would know the horrible effects it had. It doesn’t matter if it was a boy raped by a priest or a girl molested by her stepfather. And I know people affected by both. But go ahead, keep living in your fish bowl!
Reasons not to just move on:
http://mobile.philly.com/news/?wss=/philly/news/politics/&id=165688776&viewAll=y#more
Other than throwing out the whole Freeh Report, what exactly is you want, danny?
Once Erickson signed it, especially after consulting with a Board of Trustee member and university counsel (as previously reported), this matter was closed. He had the authority, and followed protocol before signing off. This should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone within the Penn State community.
Those on the Board of Trustees threatening litigation or some other form of blocking acceptance of these sanctions were doing nothing more than flexing muscles they don’t have. All their actions did was make them look foolish in the end.
I’m not a PSU fan, but I do wish them well as they move forward trying to recover as a program, and my hope is that they never take their focus off of the victims and continue to try to help them heal. That’s their obligation.
Deb:
“Good luck to Coach O’Brien in his efforts to move forward. It’s obvious the arrogance and entrenched belief that “The University” is above both civil law and human decency is still embedded in Penn State’s culture.”
=======================
Another person talking out of her butt, assailing Penn State’s “culture.” whatever you need to do to feel better about your chosen team, I guess….
@Deb, who writes, in part “It’s obvious the arrogance and entrenched belief that “The University” is above both civil law and human decency is still embedded in Penn State’s culture. ”
Although I normally agree with Deb, particularly regarding her Steelers posts on PFT, I’m disappointed that she failes to apply the same fact-based analysis to PSU.
None of the PSU support posts I’ve read mentioned anything about the university being above ‘civil’ law; indeed, our point is exactly the opposite – that civil law would indeed punish those responsible and avoid the shotgun punishment style of the NCAA.
Also disappointing are the generalized comments about arrogance and the PSU ‘culture’ – whatever that is, and something about vocal supporters of PSU seeing themselves as martyrs.
To me, straying too far from fact-based discussions and descending into personal slurs and innuendo renders only meaningless debate.
@mancave001 …
Since I’m an Alabama fan, a) nothing could make me feel better about my program, and b) I’ve had to deal with seeing my program take harsh NCAA sanctions. In fact, I can identify very well with Penn State’s issue of one individual signing off on the sanctions. Alabama assigned an inexperienced attorney to represent the school’s interests. The dolt stipulated to questionable evidence and basically killed our defense before we started.
So, no, I am not talking out of my butt. I’m responding to the behavior of your trustee members who are keeping this pot stirred by threatening legal action to get PSU out of a punishment that was inevitable and could have been much worse.
Yes, I agree with other commenters that the NCAA should have gone through the proper investigative procedures before handing down its verdict. And I’ve already posted elsewhere that I feel the NCAA was wrong to vacate your wins. But with the evidence presented to the Grand Jury, the evidence presented at Sandusky’s trial, and the evidence expected to be presented at future trials of Penn State officials, you’re blessed to still have a football program. And your trustees need to SHUT UP and let Coach O’Brien move forward with these kids. I don’t think anyone needs to be wearing ribbons in the stands, either. If the school wants to set up a private fund for sex abuse victims, that’s fine. But the school needs to stop publicly identifying with this nightmare.
I have complete sympathy for fans whose school and football team has been shredded and think all this Pedophile State stuff is idiotic. It’s not the fault of the students, players, teachers, or alumni. But you have to GRASP that this was an institutional failure of GARGANTUAN proportions. The people who let this happen–and the people who keep making excuses for them–just keep demonstrating that the University still thinks letting a child rapist run loose for more than a decade to protect the university’s reputation wasn’t a big deal.
IT WAS.
@geo113
1. Investigation of second mile
2. Investigation of Corbett- his $3 mil to second mile, his slow undermanned investigation into Sandusky
3 Erickson and any BOT prior to 2011 resign immediately
4. Spanier Curley an Schulz to STOP collecting checks.
I could go on. It is just ridiculous to me that now that Paternos wins and statue was removed we should all move on. As if that was somehow justice. ALL the players are basically unscathed. Yeah Spanier isn’t president but he still makes 600k a year, same for Curley. Corbett who was AG and BOT never mentioned Sandusky to anyone for almost 3 years maybe longer. IF I was a victim I don’t think I would take as what has transpired as change or justice.
@deb will it bother when Spanier Curley or Schulz are never sent to prison? Because that’s what will happen because it was solved by the NCAA and the criminal case which is what it is will take a backseat. so let’s move on an forget that pres Erickson worked with Spaner everyday for 14 years but was in the desk somehow? What does that make him, if Paterno knew all, Erickson knew more than that
*in the dark. Stupid iPhone
@tommy57 …
By their actions–or inaction–many PSU officials indicated they considered the university’s interests above civil law and human decency. And those who keep arguing against punishing the university for that are, in a roundabout way, condoning that behavior.
I’m no fan of the NCAA’s draconian rules. But in this case, they had no choice: They had to come down hard to send a message to every member school that this kind of institutional behavior won’t be tolerated.
It blows my mind that Alabama took its punishment, USC took its punishment, Ohio State took its punishment. And what happened at those schools was peanuts, usually involving boosters who weren’t even connected with the program. But here you had people from the university president to the head coach conspiring to allow a child predator to roam at will for more than a decade, with easy access to the most vulnerable kids in society, using university facilities and PSU games as a lure … and the school wants to sue?!? What kind of amoral people are running that school??
The state legislature needs to clean out that Board of Trustees and everyone in that administration.
@danny …
I’ve said many times that everyone in the administration and on the BOT while all this was happening should be fired. And to me, when you fire people for cause, you don’t give them golden parachutes. So by all means, cut off their money.
Only following the sports end of this–have the legal cases against these guys been dropped? They should be in jail.
Not so fast. RadarOnline is reporting what has been speculated for months now. The FBI is investigating to see if Second Mile was a victim farm that shared boys with other perverted freaks, including one “rich and powerful man” tied directly to PSU. Emert left the door open for further sanctions (death penalty). So there might be a reason the BOT is rushing to put a bow on this and move on.
No not yet but They wont serve jail time. They know too much. If they go to jail they will rat everyone out. Did you ever wonder why people and some new board members would fight it. Is it possible they know something is amiss and still trying to be swept under the rug.
How about the entire board be replaced with no one who has ties to psu
chiadam says:
The FBI is investigating to see if Second Mile was a victim farm that shared boys with other perverted freaks, including one “rich and powerful man” tied directly to PSU.
————————————————-
I’ve wondered about that since the story first broke–not in relation to anyone connected to Penn State, but involving others at Second Mile. I’ve known child victims in other similar situations who were farmed out by their initial attacker to additional predators. I’ve always questioned whether Sandusky was the only person at Second Mile involved in this situation.
Why was SAndusky told he was no longer allowed to bring children onto the campus if nobody knew anything? I hope those victims CRUSH Penn State in civil court. Penn $tate is all about money so they need hit where it hurts.
Better yet, why was he told to not bring kids to the campus but still allowed to bring kids to the campus? The program needs the death penalty. Now. Right now. I have no idea why the NCAA backed off when they were so close to pulling the trigger.
If there is additional involvement of pedophiles via 2nd Mile and PSU, I can see sanctions going way beyond the football team
If these allegations are true, PSU is rotten to the core and sanctions may be broad.
We have criminal, civil, and NCAA liabilities looming. Bet they wish it was just some errant booster!
If it does happen its no longer about PSU football it’s crime plain and simple NCAA sanctions are meaningless in the grand scheme. If that does turn out to be true I guarantee it’s rich and politically connected not PSU boosters.as haters Would love to believe
In case anyone cares, here’s what did (didn’t) happen this past Sunday.
The BOT didn’t vote on anything. Counsel advised them that Erickson had the power to accept the NCAA sanctions, so no vote was needed. The group of trustees who were going to appeal the sanctions to the NCAA agreed to drop their appeal. The trustees almost unanimously agreed to accept Erickson’s acceptance of the sanctions, though almost as unanimously agreed to bitch about how harsh the sanctions were. In the end, most all seemed to agree that Erickson was between a rock and a hard place – take the sanctions, or the “death penalty” like it’s never been seen before, and gave Erickson props on how he handled things.
I’m not so sure that they really “get it” in Happy Valley. You may not like it at all, but your lives have now changed – “Everything you know is wrong.”
Pedophile State is going to find out its not going to be easy to just “move on”….