Since I’m not that important, perhaps you and kattykathy can find somethng more worthwhile to do with your lives than making me your blog mission.

ROFL … after all the years you’ve been dogging me on PFT because your fragile ego can’t handle sharing the blogs with a female Steelers fan, it must have been like a dose of Geritol to pop over here and stumble across the ramblings of my stalker. But your momentary giddiness won’t make your bizarre posts on the other side anymore cogent.

And the Notre Dame fans here have seen me post that, in the end, Te’o turned out to be the victim of a terrible hoax. Unlike you guys, I’m not hating on anyone–just commenting on information as it’s released and trying to keep an open mind.

And that’s all.

Nicely Written PC2!!

Tom Corbett, the Pennsylvania Governor, used Freeh to scapegoat Paterno, et al. so that he (Corbett) would not be blamed. He controlled the Penn State Board of Trustees that arranged for the Report and accepted its incredibly biased conclusions (read the Report and you will see that the evidence cited does not support the conclusions). The only real evidence against Paterno was the testimony of McQueary. McQueary was a very unreliable witness (he changed his story many times) and his testimony was directly contradicted by the testimony of Dr. Jonathan Dranov. Dr. Dranov is a very reliable witness, graduated Phi Beta Kappa, attended a prestigious Ivy League medical school, is a Board Certified Internist and Nephrologist, has more than 30 years of experience in questioning patients to get accurate histories and is familiar with the mandatory reporting requirement for child abuse. He interviewed McQueary on the night that McQueary says he saw Sandusky and the child showering together. Dr. Dranov testified that he asked McQueary three times if he had seen anthing of a sexual nature and three times McQueary said no. It can safely be assumed that Dr. Dranov did not report this himself because from his extensive knowledge and experience he didn’t think it crossed the threshold for reporting. So this is what Paterno, a layman, and the others heard. They also had access to a report by the police in 1998 when Sandusky gave a child “a bear hug” and was investigated by a police detective, the PA Department of Public Welfare in Harrisburg, the Centre County DA’s Office, and a CCYS counselor who interviewed the child and wrote a report. The conclusion of the police report was “no sexual assault occurred” and no charges were filed. Since this is all that Paterno and the others knew, what are they guilty of?

Sandusky was reported as an alleged child molester in 1998. There was an investigation with the DA ultimately deciding not to indict, probably because the state child welfare official who interviewed the alleged victim concluded that no abuse had taken place. I’m not sure why Paterno should be expected to have mind reading powers regarding Sandusky.

One of the strange aspects of the case is that no victims have come forward from earlier decades. Usually pedophiles don’t start in middle age but there haven’t been any reported victims before the 90s. Since Sandusky was on staff since the late 60s, Paterno may have been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The undisputed evidence is that Paterno took McQuery to see Schultz, the head of the university police dept. Of the PSU administrators, Schultz is the most culpable since it was his department’s role to investigate, not the athletic department’s.

A rant? Hardly. Mebbe it tired them too much to read it.

During the investigation, we contacted Mr. Paterno’s attorney in an attempt to interview Mr. Paterno. Although Mr. Paterno was willing to speak with a news reporter and his biographer at that time, he elected not to speak with us. We also asked Mr. Paterno’s attorney to provide us with any evidence that he and his client felt should be considered. The documents provided were included in our report.

Mr. Paterno was on notice for at least 13 years that Sandusky, one of his longest serving assistants, and whose office was steps away, was a probable serial pedophile. Mr. Paterno was aware of the criminal 1998 investigation into Sandusky’s suspected child sexual abuse. Indeed, the evidence shows that Mr. Paterno closely followed that case. Later, in 2001, another one of his assistants, Mr. McQueary, directly reported to Mr. Paterno that Sandusky was sexually abusing a young boy in Mr. Paterno’s Penn State football locker room. The evidence shows that Mr. Paterno purposefully ignored this evidence.

Yes, we’re in agreement.

The vast majority of Joe Paterno’s life was positive and benefitted many whith whom he came in contact.

Still, just as other good people sometimes make mistakes that cause terrible harm to others (drunk drivers come to mind), Joe’s mistake was significant, cannot be ignored, but should not negate the other aspects of his life’s work (as the NCAA did).

Well, you did get one thing right in that rant of yours:

“Cultists believe what cultists believe and no amount of common sense is going to deter them from their beliefs.”

I don’t think you proved the exact point you had intended, afterall, we often have trouble recognizing in ourselves that which we attribute to others.

“Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.”

Paterno was aware of the 1998 allegations against Sandusky, no one disputes this. The fact that Sandusky was not charged by the local authorities is irrelevant. Why did Paterno continue to allow Sandusky access to the Penn St campus and more specifically, the football facilities after this? Even if he understood that Sandusky had not been charged, why allow someone who’s had such a serious and vile accusation leveled against him to continue to hang around your student athletes? Paterno ran that team like a field marshal; he could have easily told Sandusky personally that his presence there around the team was no longer welcome.

Yet he didn’t. He continued to allow a man he knew had been accused of molesting a child ON CAMPUS access to his players, access to his facilities and access to his sidelines and coaching booth.

After 2001 he knew from what McQueary had explained to him that once again, his friend and ex-coach had been seen by an eye witness engaging in some sort of sexual act in the Penn State showers with an underage unidentified boy. Paterno testified that he understood that what McQueary saw was of a “sexual” nature and not mere horseplay or innocent roughhousing. He must have believed what McQueary told him because after thinking it over for more than a day, he went with this information to the AD and VP of the University. He continued to allow McQueary to work with the team and eventually, hired him as an assistant coach. He must have found him convincing or he would never have trusted him enough to actually hire him.

Even if Paterno believed that he done the right thing by leaving it in Schultz and Curley’s hands, why did he never question them as to what they did with this information? There is no evidence in either report that Joe followed up and demanded action from either of them or threatened to go above their heads to Spanier or the outside authorities. Even if you believe that Paterno felt he it wasn’t his job to prosecute Sandusky himself, why the total apathy towards these obviously extremely serious accusations? Why the complete indifference to the victims, the young man Paterno now knew had been molested by Sandusky in his own facility?

Paterno, and his apologists point toward his statement made when the accusations against Sandusky became public that he “In hindsight, I wish I had done more.” as if that alone exonerates or excuses his seeming complete disinterest in seeing some sort of action taken against Sandusky after 2 credible and serious charges had been leveled against him of being a child molester. One that was operating right under his very nose in the very facilities that he had utter and complete control over!!!

Did Paterno forbid him from hanging around the team? No.

Did Paterno ban him from using the teams’ facilities? No.

Did Paterno take away his office that sat just a few feet from his own? No.

Did Paterno ban his coaches from attending events with Sandusky or helping him with his charity? Again….no.

All these actions were well within Paterno’s scope of power at Penn St. Any head football coach at any university in America would have had such power. And we all know Paterno carried an almost Svengali like sway over that entire campus let alone the football facilities and everything that came into contact with it.

These inactions go waaaaaay beyond a simple and simplistic statement of “I wish I had done more.” To say that’s inadequate is like saying the Pacific Ocean is a large body of water.

Paterno knew, as he clearly believed McQueary, that Sandusky was having sex with underage boys in the Penn State facilities yet took no action to prohibit it. None, Nada, Zilch. How many times in the ensuing dozen years did Joe see Jerry around the campus, around his team, around his facilities, in his locker room, in his showers, with or without little boys or had knowledge that he still access to young boys off campus and he did nothing!

NOTHING!

And we’re supposed to believe that it was all just out of his grasp, that he didn’t truly understand the magnitude of the accusations. That in hindsight, he’d wished he done more, and leave it at that.

PUHLEEZE!!!

Paterno himself made it clear before his death that he understood exactly what McQueary told him, that he clearly understood that Sandusky was molesting underage boys’ right in the Penn State showers. Yet he never lifted a finger to stop it. Never demanded as was his right as the head football coach and single most powerful and influential figure on that campus, that if Sandusky wasn’t going to be turned into outside authorities that at the very least he wanted him banned from the Penn State campus and to stay far away from his team and players.

Paterno knew what was going on, the emails that came to light and are quoted in both reports make it clear he kept a rapt interest in the case and wanted to know what Schultz, Curley and Spanier were doing about it. And yet we’re supposed to believe that he was helpless to do anything but go along with whatever course of action these men determined was best.

BULLSH*T!!!!

It’s clear to anyone who isn’t in the cult of Paterno that he agreed with these men’s actions or more accurately, inactions if he didn’t instigate the cover-up himself. There’s simply no other logical conclusion you can draw from his actions or again, his inactions.

Cultists believe what cultists believe and no amount of common sense is going to deter them from their beliefs. But please don’t try and convince the rest of us that the earth is the center of the solar system, the world is flat and the moon is made out of green cheese.

It’s patently obvious which report has more credibility here….

And themselves.

I’m not blind Tommy. We all make mistakes and Paterno was obviously no different. And you’re right, he admitted that he wished he had done more. In retrospect, I can’t imagine anyone in his shoes saying anything different.

Nothing is so crystal clear as hindsight. Should he have done more? Probably. But how much more? I guess that depends on whose opinion you’ve decided to believe. Freeh or Thornburgh. Both are very well respected men. But one of them says he knows what Paterno knew (and did) and the other says it’s impossible to know based strictly on the evidence (without adding speculation and conjecture).

Many of yesterdays facts now seem a lot more opinion based after reading Thornburgh’s report. I really don’t know how much Paterno knew about Sandusky. I don’t know if he tried to cover it up. I don’t know how much more he could have or should have done. But then again, No One Does.

But I do know that he has touched countless lives in a positive way and the body of his work at the University and within the community mean far more to me than speculation.

Flawed, yes. We all are. But a very good man.

—————–

Why would the fans be remorseful? The fans did nothing wrong. Penn State’s football culture is no different from yours or any other team’s. The notion that somehow the fans, students or anyone outside the accused was responsible is absolutely disgusting.