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Thoughts on what to do about Joe Paterno

  • googolplex said...

    OK, I'll mount a defense of Paterno. I suppose someone will transmogrify this into a defense of child sexual abuse, but please don't go there. Quite obviously, that's not what I'm saying.

    It's possible that Joe and Sandusky are, or were, very close friends.

    That being the case, Joe is in a tough position to take action that will virtually guarantee jail for his close friend. I'm not saying he was RIGHT not to call the police--but note that Joe DID take at least some action against his friend, by reporting what he'd heard to the proper people. He took MINIMAL action, but he did what was minimally proper.

    Considering that they might have been very close friends, I can kind of understand Joe walking a tightrope like that.

    It's especially understandable (not necessarily the best or optimal course of action, but understandable) if Joe had a conversation with Sandusky along the lines of, "Look, I'm not going to sell you out here, but you have to promise me you'll stop doing this and never, ever do it again. PROMISE." And if Sandusky promised, Joe may have felt that he'd walked the tightrope as best he could without ruining the life of a close friend.

    Again, I'm not saying this is the best course of action. I'm just saying that when someone is a close friend of yours, like family, you might look for a course of action that allows you to feel you've taken some kind of proper action (tell who you're minimally required to tell, then speak to the friend and get an assurance that it won't happen again), while not having to feel like you've turned against your friend/family.

    I guess what I'm saying is that, from Joe's position, this might not have been as easy a decision as some have made it out to be by pointing out the obvious, that the children must be protected. For Paterno, this might have been quite agonizing. Of course the children must be protected, but Joe might have convinced himself he was doing what he could to protect them without necessarily ruining his friend's life.

    Call me a horrible person, but if I found out that a close friend of mine was doing something like this, it would not be an easy thing for me to do to just sell him down the river. What's "morally right" would not be so obvious to me. Friendship can be a very strong thing, and what's morally right is not always so crystal-clear, especially when you truly love the perpetrator.

    OK, that's all.

    If anyone I know friend or family sexually abused a child I would knock him the @$$;;"@ out and thier ass to jail

    delawarenole

  • read this

    Questions on Sandusky Wrapped in 2005 Gricar Mystery - NYTimes.com

    The district attorney who looked into the sex-abuse case against Jerry Sandusky in 1998 went missing in 2005 and has been declared dead.

    www.nytimes.com

    cuznchips28

  • Not sure how that relates to your "Get all the facts" angle, Chips? (Which I agree with)

    The fact that this DA is missing, and lets be real, likely sleeping with the fishes somewhere, just adds one more element of creepy to a story that doesn't need it at all.

    Mcreary is at best a real dumbass. However, in spite of his stupidity, I'll give him one pass because he might not have been prepared for what he saw. Think about it, you walk into the lockerroom and witness a former coach who you respected doing something sick to a 10 year old? I bet that wasn't on Mikes "to do" list that day, huh?

    That said, while we hope we know what we would have done at the time, I am more interested in what happened or didn't happen after the fact.

    If you are McCreary or Paterno or the AD, or the VP, or the Prez, HOW do you bury your head in the sand? Especially when there is a pattern of behavior? (1998) Also, this kind of stuff doesn't happen in a vaccum. In a small town like State College? Rumors fly. I was a lowly FSU junior in 1999 and word spread like fire, (pre major internet and certainly pre FB and Twitter) that Coles and Warrick had been involved in some kinda crap at the Tally Mall Dillards. We freaked since it was Miami week.

    Point is, you want me to believe that the known incidents were the only time Sandusky was every rumored to be playing "happy time" around there? I believe some of the conjectures posted earlier that PSU admin and JoePa made the decision to cover , cover, cover............but they still allowed Sandusky access to PSU facilities, etc. He still came around. Had icky "campouts" at satallite campuses as late as 2007.

    And no one said a word? In the end, it could be as simple as PSU and it's leaders told one lie, so they had to tell another, and another, and another. Just like your mom warned you about.

    However, based on what we know at this point, someone HAD to break that cycle. If JoPa was the man we thought, he should have done that. Because he IS JoePa.

    That's why at a minimum this sad, sick tale should be stapled at the bottom of anything related to JoePa or PSU for the next 100 years.

    Don Molino

  • cuznchips28 said...

    read this

    He investigated a Sandusky allegation in 1998. Decided not to prosecute him. Then disappeared 7 years later. As this article states and logic backs up, the chances are slim to none that his disappearance has anything to do with Sandusky.

    What is funny cuz, is that the article you linked is quite possibly the most speculative article written about this scandal.

    Former Sandusky Prosecutor Center of Penn Mystery

    The prosecutor who decided to not pursue sex abuse charges against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago, despite an alleged confession, is at the center of a missing persons mystery that has enraptured middle Pennsylvania for years.

    abcnews.go.com

    JeffSpicNolie

  • It likely has nothing to do with Sandusky.......but it's still weird.

    Don Molino

  • Don, I think you hit the nail on the head as to why a majority of people, myself included, are laying a good amount of blame on Paterno. The keywords are "pattern of behavior". He gets busted the first time in '98 and then finds out he won't be the heir to Paterno and retires in '99 while he is at the top of his game. I think those details alone shed some light on what Paterno knew about Sandusky's pedophilia. Some people I'm sure will say let the facts come out, but all of that information came from the grand jury's report.

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    RynoC

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