JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

New York Times reports that Penn State is planning Paterno's exit amid the sex abuse scandal involving the former D coordinator....I would hate to see his storied carrer, and legacy, sullied by this scandal....

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?se...ime&id=8422897

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

My opinion: anyone who had any knowledge of this and didn't take proper action (which it appears no one did) needs to go down. There is nothing you can do on or off a football field to make up for that.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

On the flip side, this is REALLY BAD NEWS STUFF. From what I am hearing, I think this does sullie his career and puts a HUGE BLACK STAIN on the University. I'd fire(and charge if possible) anyone within ear shot of this, that just sort of swept it under the table... "We took his keys to the locker room." WTF????????????

The Grand Jury Report - IT IS BRUTAL, Graphic Content.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/feature?...ews&id=8421115

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I agree 100%, I grew up an hour from State College I have family who work at Penn State I've been a season football ticket holder. I love the Penn State mystic, I'm one of those Penn Staters Joe has referenced in the recent days, this is so hard to swallow! But with all that said Joe and everyone from the President on down must go at once! This horrible secret/cover up has gone on long enough. From one Penn Stater to the victims, I am truly sorry for what has happened to you!

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

While I am a die hard Penn State fan...if he knew about it...he's got to go. And that paints everything he did over his wonderful career with a big ole asterisk.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

legally joe did everything he needed to. morally, not even close. none of them did, including the graduate assistant that first saw the act in the shower. i'm ashamed to have graduated from penn state. right in the school song "may no act of ours bring shame". **** that place

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Gotta' agree, James

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I don't give a rats aRse about the football side of it, and IMHO no one else should either. If you do, it shows some kind of empathy for a piece of filth, if he has done these things.
May truth and justice prevail on the situation, and may there be some peace for the alleged victims.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

joe didn't commit acts of pedophilia, let's be clear about that pete. what he is guilty of, and it seems everyone involved is, is not doing enough to stop it

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Correct... Covering up, "ignoring," deflecting knowledge is despicable, Kevin.

Almost as vile as the perpetrators of pedophilia themselves, IMO.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Joe...must....go. Along with any others that had any knowledge.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

no argument here

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

This makes me sick to my stomac..no excuses......NONE

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I am disgusted with this and I agree all that had knowledge should be gone as in jailed!!!

Then I heard a radio broadcaster give this senario---

You get the news that one of your best friends and coworker has done a despicable act. You think there is absolutely no way. You confront him and he vehemently denies it. You go to your supervisors( president in charge of campus police and AD). They say they are going to start an investigation. They come back and say they have done an investigation and he is innocent. At that point shouldn't you be a little satisfied? Why push further? You want to believe your friend? You want to believe an investigation was actually done.

It made me think??????

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

signs are pointing to joepa being done as of today. i'm just gutted.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

+1

can't really add anything to this.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

If they were going to let him go for the reasons above, today makes more sense than waiting for the end of the season. That would just raise more eyebrows.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I am guessing that he wishes he had just stepped down 2-3 years ago and made it extremely honorable and
a sure enough tear-jerker for many of his adoring fans. Almost anyone you ask will admit it's already past
time to be moving on, but no one can bear to really wish for it, no true PSU fans anyway. But now, this
is not like Brett Favre where in 10 years, most people will just remember the accomplishments, not
so much that he went out floundering. But this on Joe, wow, that's gonna stick. Ehh, maybe it's just the same.
hard to say.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

They are letting him and all the others go because they are going to face major lawsuits from these families. High officials in the University knew what had happened with the words of eyewitness accounts and did nothing and even welcomed the scumbag to the campus up until last week!

All of them, including Joe, are partly responsible for every kid that was harmed after 2002 at the hand of that POS. I think like some are saying, if he had to do it over again, he would go the the police. But the decision not to is going to haunt his memory and career for lots of people.

:2

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

The problem is that you got the news from someone else you trusted who watched your friend rape a little boy in the shower. It isn't like he heard it on the street. And the guy that saw it and didn't interrupt it is as big a piece of sh*t as anyone.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Wow, I am disgusted.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Bill Clinton was impeached, not for getting a hummer, but for lying about it. Martha Stewart went to jail not for insider trading, but for lying about it.

If anyone lied or covered up for this criminal, they are just as guilty in my book.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

ABSOLUTELY no allegation Paterno lied about anything....he did what he was LEGALLY required to do, report it to his superiors....my question is what were his MORAL obligations...here is a quote from the head of the PA State Police:

State police commissioner Frank Noonan said Monday that Paterno fulfilled his legal obligations and was in no danger of being charged with any criminal wrongdoing, but that he felt the 84-year-old coach had not lived up to his moral obligations.

"Somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child," Noonan said. "I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone. Not whether you're a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building. I think you have a moral responsibility to call us."

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Read the Grand Jury report and wanted to throw up. Think if your son was one of the kids. Who would you go after...EVERYONE who had ANY shred of prior knowledge and didn't follow through. While Paterno did all he was LEGALLY required to do, following his MORAL convictions would have included taking the GA to the police himself to get the story out to them. In addition, what about the GA's dad? He should have taken his son to the police about what he saw.

All the stories have similarities. That makes the allegations VERY solid, in my book. Throw him in general population, and see what happens when the predator becomes the prey. I'm normally not one to approve of that type of justice, but it's viable in this case, to me. :( I'm betting that it won't even make it to trial. The guy will likely "handle things on his own" before then, I suspect. Isn't that what usually happens in cases like this? They can't face what they did and what is likely to happen to them in prison.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

It's time to go. No question.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Exactly, that's why the VP and AD got arrested - they lied.

I'm no lawyer, and I don't play one on TV but since Joe P didn't see this with his own eyes what steps would have the police taken? Wouldn't it have been necessary to have the grad asst be the complainant? (not excusing by a long shot, just wondering). Like if someone tells me they see a crime and I call the police and say that someone told me they saw a crime are the police going to care what I have to say?

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I was born and raised 45 minutes from the Penn State . Since I was a kid, I've been a Penn State fan. I always looked at JoePa as a person of integrity, on and off the field.

He did not do everything he could do. He is Penn State. He needed to make this his life mission to either clear Sandusky's name, or put him in jail. When he did his part, and reported it to the next level, and they did nothing.... that is where he fell short.
He could have done more for the victims, the witnesses, the school , the fans. Even for Sandusky, if he was being falsely accused.

This is a failure of leadership. This is the end of Penn State.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I don't think this is about the school or the fans at all, Mikey.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I respect your opinion.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

JoePa to retire at end of season...his statement:

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - November 9, 2011 (WPVI) -- Penn State football coach Joe Paterno announced in a statement that he has decided to retire at the end of the season.


The statement reads:

I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.

I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today.

That's why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can.

This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.

My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this University.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

yes.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I disagree.........I REALLY DISAGREE.

Crazy/telling/appropriate? to see Matt Millen break down on SportsCenter today....the gravity of this for Penn State as an institution. This is so far bigger than pointing the finger at one or two douchebags.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Agree 100%. It's institutional failure to protect children from a predator (and I don't mean the school with the term institutional), plain and simple. There are a lot of wrongs that have been done in this case that can't be righted. This case makes me just sick. :(

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Not enough, in my opinion. His retirement should become effective immediately.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

you're wrong pete, dead wrong. it's far less about us then it is about the kids who were raped, not even close, orders of magnitude less. everyone reread that before someone goes off half cocked. but this does impact everyone who went to, graduated or just liked penn state. I'm gutted over this, I'm gutted that the institution that I spent years cheering for and attending would allow this **** to happen. this has changed everything about how I looked at something I considered myself a member of family of. it hurts me personally that this occurred and how it was handled.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Well said.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I've been reading about this very closely since the moment the story broke.
Boiled down to brass tacks, what I've learned so far is that Joe had no knowledge of any specific anything (at least up until a point). The grad student fed JoePa a small piece of info on which he acted immediately. It was then handled improperly by the school officials for years.

This is another typical media lynching, and of course it needs to fall on JoePa's head because he's the face of Penn State.
It's wrong and it's disgusting.

This is a man who has devoted his life to excellence, training men to be great men, donating almost all the money he has ever made back to the college so that even more men could become greater men.
And for all this selflessness all these years, he's the bad guy for not stopping something he had no knowledge or power over? He should have stopped taking care of all the hundreds of people he was devoted to caring for, because he should have magically known everything that went on? He should have had full rein over the entire college's policy because he's a football coach?

It doesn't make even one single ounce of sense that he would have ignored this, beit specifically or otherwise. He's retiring over the sheer guilt he's feeling that it could have happened in a place that he regarded so highly and worked so hard to make exceptional. He wishes he'd have known, wishes he could have done something, wishes he could have saved these boys, and is tortured that it happened. He's made statements directly to that effect. These are statements from the one man in high profile athletics who has never been caught in a lie, never been indicted, never been called on the carpet for cheating, a truly decent man.
And he's the bad guy?

There could not have been a single person in that school from janitor to student to faculty to the president that didn't know about this when that grad student saw that ten year old boy being raped in the shower. Or when the janitor witnessed another incident. Or when the Physical Plant employee witnessed another incident.
Everyone had to believe it was being handled and handled correctly. In hindsight, of course he could have done more. So could every single one of the people who ever set foot on that campus for all those years this was going on.

Read the Grand Jury indictment. The Department of Child Welfare knew what was going on in 1998 and they did nothing.
Dozens of people who knew of this first hand did everything they could and school officials lied and hid and did nothing.
Detectives were dispatched and hidden microphone converstaions took place and they did nothing.

The one man who stands out as a decent human being who has served God and his fellow man for his entire life is being blamed and ruined over this, and it's a sick injustice.
Read his statements. His prayers are with all these families. He'll do everything he can to help them, because that's who he is. To crucify him for not doing more is ridiculous, patently unfair, and blatently obvious to anyone who is willing to take five minutes to read, rather than to listen to the dogsh1t fed them by the media.

If there's a "right" side in this sickening, painful mess, it's to pray for these young men and their families who now have to relive this horror all over again. To abandon and assail a man like JoePa and try to somehow make it his fault is disgusting.
I'd far rather people blame me. I'm more deserving. I've done tons of awful things in my life and I probably deserve to be blamed for something I'm not guilty of.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Well said, Scott. Unless there's something that I'm not hearing about or am mis-interpreting, I feel the same way about him.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I should also mention that I'm not a Penn State alum, no more than a run-of the-mill Penn State fan, and really don't have anything invested in JoePa except that I've followed for years all his philanthrophic activities. They've been in print for all the 43 years I lived an hour or so away from State College.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I am almost as saddened by the way Joe Paterno is being hanged as I am of what happened to these children, Andy.
Not one person took time in this thread to attack that sick son of a b1tch Sandusky that raped these boys, but everyone has taken time to indict a good man.
It's a ****ing travesty, and it's shameful.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I rarely disagree with you, Scott, but in this case I do.

Paterno did the legal thing. But he failed to do the moral thing.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I don't care where this happened. I don't care about the team. I will not feel somehow let down because a certain institution will be impacted. The rah-rah bullsh!t mentality is a waste of time. This is simply about the good old boy protectionism and perversion of individuals. If this happened at 3M you wouldn't have people wringing their hands about the "integrity of the company" and the "stellar performance of it's divisions" by the average Joe. While having passion for your particular sports teams is certainly something many people enjoy, I think that perhaps if this situation gets you all bent out of shape regarding the institution (other than feeling that those people that didn't do the right and moral thing made the school a lesser place, and wanting that culture to occur at a higher standard) perhaps your priorities aren't what I would perceive to be in the same hierarchy as my own.
Yes, if this business that is Penn State has people working for it who cultivate a view of themselves as being apart or above the law, it needs to change. Sports are a business for the Universities, with some other added benefits. Huge egos, in a small subculture of our society that is rewarded and stroked by millions and millions of people. Many of them "play by their own rules" which, in most cases, is fairly harmless. In some instances like this one it has evolved into a disgusting hydra of a shameful and heartbreaking situation.
I feel for the victims of this. Those guilty of the perversion/shielding/deflecting/lying/not acting in the proper manner or not following through should get the justice they deserve.
Does that mean I will get out the crying towel for the institution and how it's reputation is stained, damaged, etc?

No. Simple priorities. It is about the victims, and the guilty. I will not be anguished over a flawed institution (business). I would hope they take every step necessary to repair the culture that allowed this to happen. That I can see is germane to this discussion.

edit:
Regarding Joe Pa, in my world, if presented with something like this, so very, very wrong, I do not think I could simply "report it" and then not make sure it was handled. The buck stopped, for the most part with him. Half measures and deflections and putting your head in the sand after you "did what was required" of you reminds me of a certain ongoing problem in another, very old monstrous institution. With the same type of problem.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

That's what I'm missing. What was the moral thing to do? Beat his @$$ (which is what I might have done if I were him)? He told his superiors what was going on, then he was told by his superiors that they had taken care of the issue/cleared his name.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Same here.

Also, after reading the grand jury report, a Texas court would most definitely have a different take on whether he did the "legal thing". Many states, including Texas, require every person who has cause to believe (notice it says "cause to believe", a pretty low standard) that a child is being abused or neglected to report it. Additionally, here, "professionals" including doctors, teachers, and anyone who works with children, are even required to report within 48 hours or face criminal sanctions.

Just because something is legal somewhere (assuming it even is--I don't know Pennsylvania criminal law) doesn't make it right.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

remember that thing i said about going off half cocked? you either didn't read what I wrote or chose to ignore it

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

I did. It is not about the fans or the alumni. You and I will have to agree to disagree.

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

yes everything can only be black and white. so by your line of thinking, this isn't about joe or the university, it's only about the sick **** who was raping little boys

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

IMO, I will formulate opinion on people, not only on their ability to follow the laws on the land, but of the moral laws of humankind.

If someone on my staff came up to me and said that they just observed another member of my staff, who happened to be a long time friend, anally rapping a kid, I would not feel my "duty" ended when I did the minimum of all actions, which is to leave that information in someone elses hands, let someone else deal with it.

ESPECIALLY when I see that went nowhere. It should be noted that this was not the first time I had heard "rumblings" about this dirtbag.

This is not just about one person either, it is about every person at Penn State and even outside of Penn State University, who knew about this and did nothing more than the bare minimum at best, less than that at worst.

In the end, unless you are going with the theory that McQueary made up the story...then McQueary failed. Then Paterno failed. Then Curley failed. Then Schultz failed. There are more names I am sure....

You watch Matt Millen here, you tell me that he doesn't know this exact statement in his heart... McQueary failed. Then Paterno failed. Then Curley failed. Then Schultz failed. Penn State University, which is part of me, the place which had a big part of making me who I am today, a place I love, people that I love, failed these children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MKAt...layer_embedded

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

Let's keep this civil and about the issues.
I won't ask a second time.
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: JoePa.....Sad if true....
 

In my mind, the moral thing to do would have been to report the information to law enforcement. I'm pretty sure the parents of the rape victims would agree on this point.