• For users coming over from tmlfans.ca your username will remain the same but you will need to use the password reset feature (check your spam folder) on the login page in order to set your password. If you encounter issues, email Rick couchmanrick@gmail.com

Penn State Scandal

cw said:
Again, more and inaccurate conjecture on your part. The University Police are not "fairly inappropriate".

...

The staff of the University police force is about 240 with many armed officers. They routinely investigate deaths, sexual assaults, all kinds of crimes on campus, etc. As mentioned previously, they have the same powers as a municipal police force. The University Police had jurisdiction for the 2002 incident because it is alleged to have occurred on their University campus.
Click to expand...

Again, more ridiculous distortion of some pretty simple facts because they fit your image of what you want to believe happened. Naming them at 240, like anyone's impressed or thinks it's relevant as to how many file clerks they have, distorts their capabilities here either wilfully or just ignorantly. Their police force has, as I mentioned, has the grand total of 4 detectives for a campus of 80,000.

In an accusation this serious, it was always going to fall to the state police as it has. Grown men who are intimately familiar with the capabilities of the campus police, as Paterno, Schultz and Curley would have been, would have known this. Reporting it to the Campus police is almost the very definition of "Better than Nothing" which seems to be the Penn State football program's motto in dealing with this issue.
 
The Penn State report is out from former FBI director Louis Freeh and it's pretty damning of everyone involved including Paterno.

http://assets.espn.go.com/pdf/2012/0712/psupressrelease.pdf

It's now abundantly clear that Paterno lied to the Grand Jury and was an active participant in hushing up the complaints the University received about Sandusky.

In the words of the report:

"In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the university -- Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley -- repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse,"
Click to expand...

If there's any justice in the world, Penn State's football program will get the Death Penalty.
 
Nik? said:
The Penn State report is out from former FBI director Louis Freeh and it's pretty damning of everyone involved including Paterno.

http://assets.espn.go.com/pdf/2012/0712/psupressrelease.pdf

It's now abundantly clear that Paterno lied to the Grand Jury and was an active participant in hushing up the complaints the University received about Sandusky.

In the words of the report:

"In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the university -- Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley -- repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse,"
Click to expand...

If there's any justice in the world, Penn State's football program will get the Death Penalty.
Click to expand...

You know who should be patting themselves on the back.  All those guys who started making death threats at McQueary
 
The Freeh report is the definitive end of the Paterno legend. His family's response the report was contemptible. I agree  Nik the program should be banned. Or even better downgraded to Div II.
 
WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
They should take down that statue for a start.
Click to expand...

This might be a start:

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- The president of Nike Inc. said Thursday he has decided to change the name of the Joe Paterno Child Development Center, a child care facility at the company's headquarters outside Portland.

Chief executive Mark Parker said he was deeply saddened by the news coming out of the Louis Freeh investigation on the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State. Freeh says Paterno and other top school officials disregarded the welfare of Jerry Sandusky's victims as they failed to report abuse allegations against the longtime assistant coach.

"It is a terrible tragedy that children were unprotected from such abhorrent crimes," Parker said.

Nike founder Phil Knight, who defended Paterno at the coach's memorial service, said "it appears Joe made missteps that led to heartbreaking consequences. I missed that Joe missed it, and I am extremely saddened on this day."

Knight said Paterno strived to put young athletes in a position to succeed in sports and in life.

"My love for Joe and his family remains," Knight said.

In a television interview with ESPN correspondent Tom Rinaldi on Thursday, Paterno's son, Jay, said he understood Nike's decision.


ESPN
 
Fanatic said:
Kimberly Jones‏@KimJonesSports

Am told that Penn State plans to take down the Paterno statue this weekend.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured as much. I mean, I don't care where you come down on this but having the statue up didn't make a ton of sense. Even if you're still pro-Paterno you had to know that the statue would be the target of vandalism for the rest of time.
 
They took the statue down this morning. They should let the victims burn it and then, Sandusky.
 
Nik? said:
NCAA announces sanctions for Penn State

Not the death penalty but it's pretty big all the same. A 60 million dollar fine, the loss of 20 scholarships a year, a four year bowl ban and the vacating of all wins dating back to '98.
Click to expand...

The significance of the last is that it erases Paterno as winningest all time Div I coach.

I would have liked to see them downgrade the program to I-A or even II for a few years while they "overhaul" the win-at-all-costs athletic culture.  Then, and only then, could they apply to get back to Div I.
 
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
I would have liked to see them downgrade the program to I-A or even II for a few years while they "overhaul" the win-at-all-costs athletic culture.  Then, and only then, could they apply to get back to Div I.
Click to expand...

I don't agree. I think that if you put the Penn State team into a lower division what you'd probably see is Penn State go undefeated the next few years. Even with a couple of legit recruits they'd be significantly better than the Division II champs.

I think the effect of watching a severely depleted Penn State team get absolutely demolished by Michigan and Ohio State the next couple of years will do a lot more to combat that culture than watching them walk all over tiny schools would. Not to mention it'd be a little unfair to the schools they're scheduled to play against to have to try and fill their schedule at this point.
 
Vacating their wins from '98-'11 seems rather petty and I'm not sure what it accomplishes or the reasoning. If Penn State had cheated on the field of play then I'd agree but the games were fairly won.(to the best of my knowledge)

Seems stupid. It's just they don't want JoePa in the record books? Okaaay.

NCAA is a juvenile organization where they rarely get things right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CynZ6_sPZhc
 
dm_for_pm said:
Vacating their wins from '98-'11 seems rather petty and I'm not sure what it accomplishes or the reasoning. If Penn State had cheated on the field of play then I'd agree but the games were fairly won.(to the best of my knowledge)

Seems stupid. It's just they don't want JoePa in the record books? Okaaay.

NCAA is a juvenile organization where they rarely get things right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CynZ6_sPZhc
Click to expand...

The way I look at this is that this was done by someone affiliated with the football program as a coach, on campus, and with knowledge of the school and its higher ups (including Paterno). However, it was done with that person working under the umbrella of another organization not the football program itself. Punish Sandusky as much as you want, and those who knew about it and did nothing. Leave the team out of it. Inaction by those associated with the program shouldn't mean that the program has to pay a price, especially one this harsh. As was mentioned earlier, vacating the wins just seems petty. JoePa will still be remembered as the winningest coach regardless of what the record books say.
 
Penn State Trustees appeal punishments, vow lawsuit

I have to say, I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand is the significant blow to Penn State football program, which I'm fine with, but if Penn State successfully challenges the right of the NCAA to hand down such a severe punishment then it could mean the death knell for the institutionalized corruption that is the NCAA. If only they could both lose.
 
seahawk said:
Leave the team out of it. Inaction by those associated with the program shouldn't mean that the program has to pay a price, especially one this harsh. As was mentioned earlier, vacating the wins just seems petty. JoePa will still be remembered as the winningest coach regardless of what the record books say.
Click to expand...

Apologies for the gap between post and response but I just don't think this is true. As our memories fade and Joe Paterno is as relevant to the present as Knute Rockne is today, nobody will call Joe Paterno the winningest College football coach because the record books won't say that he is. For someone like me there's going to be a whole heck of a lot I think about Joe Paterno before I start thinking about how many football games he won. The vacating of wins is something for the future. If Adolph Rupp had to vacate a couple dozen basketball wins would anyone right now know it? Or would they just look at the list of career wins and see the number next to his name? Future generations won't see Joe Paterno as anything but a number of wins and now his name won't be on any of the top ten lists.

As to the larger point I think the program does have to pay the price because it's the size of the program that led to such misplaced priorities at the school. If the program were to continue on unabated and the entirety of the punishment went to the people who simply decided the program was more important than doing the right thing, what lesson gets learned? What changes at Penn State? If football is still the economic engine that guides the decision making process then what possible reason is there in the future for Penn State to deal with an issue and not look to protect the football program above all other considerations?

The message of Penn State really needs to be written as loudly as possible so that it doesn't just change the culture of Penn State but that it gives pause to every other school in the United States that shares those misplaced priorities. The lesson needs to be clear and unambiguous; A football team is not more important than making the right decisions and if a school acts like it is then the NCAA will have penalties for the program that drive that point home.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top