Sex Abuse Scandal Rocks Penn State

I just want to know what their thinking was in this whole mater from the beginning. You have an incident in 1998 that you could have handled immediately but you got caught in a game of "keep it a secret" and the problem will go away. Years later a graduate assistant coach sees a little boy being rapped at your facilities and you thought to yourself we got to cover this shit up so revelation of our past handling of similar matter wouldn't surface?


Where is the logic in covering up for Sandusky? Was the intent to save the institution from embarrassment and liability? It's hand for my brain to handle the madness....and the really sad part is Sandusky wanted to get caught only no one wanted to catch him.

YOu want to know the kind of people supporting Joe Paterno, well here you go.

Sister of Jerry Sandusky victim talks about the pain of life at Penn State where students are joking about being 'Sanduskied' | PennLive.com (http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/sister_of_sandusky_victim_talk.html)

I think the fact McQueary didn't react when he witnessed what he did is twofold. The easy answer is that the man lacks a sense of moral compass... hence everyone else outside the situation is incredulous by his response (going to his dad first). The other answer may reflect more about the culture at Penn State. McQueary's a former QB, definitely athletic enough to do something about what he saw. A former D1 football player, where most men have grown up their entire lives in an alpha-male environment... Normally one where instinct would have driven McQueary to act immediately.

But because he didn't, I'm wondering if the program is placed on such a pedestal that a simple graduate assistant's first reaction is one part fear of retribution and the other part filial obedience to the deific football culture. We can hypothesize all day, but I'm wondering if McQuery reacts differently had he gone to another school. This isn't to say Penn State breeds cowards or miscreants... I've never been to Happy Valley. But perhaps Nemo can shed some light here: Is football bigger than life at Penn State? I've witnessed Texas high school football, SEC country, etc. While those areas are highly fanatical, is pigskin almost transcendental at your alma mater?

The cover-ups, the demonstrations (in spite of), the general student body and alumni reaction... it's just too strange to ignore. I was reading a Penn State forum last night and some guy was recanting a talk he had with his daughter earlier. I can't sift through all of the posts now, but it went something like this (paraphrasing from memory):

Daughter: Why did Joe hurt that little boy?
Dad: It wasn't Joe. It was another man.
Daughter: Why didn't he stop it?
Dad: He didn't see it. Another man did and then told him about it.
Daughter: Did Joe help?
Dad: Yes, he told his boss.
Daughter: So he did something good?
Dad: Yes.
Daughter: So why is he getting fired? If you do something good, why does something bad happen to you?

Then the dad said he was at a loss for words and couldn't answer his daughter's last question. Then there were several replies commending this frustration. My initial thought was, "Dude, your daughter was on the right track (post first question). You totally swayed her to believe that Joe is a total victim! Why would you raise your daughter to believe this man's lack of action is not only acceptable... but a good thing?"

I sincerely don't believe these are evil people. I'm starting to think the minds of many within this community have been twisted by an abnormally prioritized culture.

Ive been kind of wondering if maybe Mcqueary already knew about Sandusky through rumors or something. I feel like the reaction a normal person would have stumbling upon something like that would be MUCH different. But if you already kind of knew that was going on your reaction may be different.

what 28 year old man see's a 50 somthing guy rape a child and then go to his office so he can call his dad so he can figure out what to do. i doubt he knew anything prior, but you never know. either way there is no way in my opinion that he even came close to doing the right thing.

the thing i want to know is how the f does the ncaa find out about free shoes and free tats, but can't uncover a giant pedophile cover up going on at a major div 1 school. i think when this is all said and done there will be alot more people involved. i think the end result will be a death penalty for penn state. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty_(NCAA)

@SPORTSbyBROOKS

SPORTSbyBROOKS A source close to Penn St football indicated to me this afternoon it is now a virtual certainty McQueary will not coach Saturday.


@SPORTSbyBROOKS

SPORTSbyBROOKS Source also said to expect an announcement to that effect as early as later today or tomorrow at the latest.
22 minutes ago via

what 28 year old man see's a 50 somthing guy rape a child and then go to his office so he can call his dad so he can figure out what to do. i doubt he knew anything prior, but you never know. either way there is no way in my opinion that he even came close to doing the right thing.

the thing i want to know is how the f does the ncaa find out about free shoes and free tats, but can't uncover a giant pedophile cover up going on at a major div 1 school. i think when this is all said and done there will be alot more people involved. i think the end result will be a death penalty for penn state. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty_(NCAA)

First i want to say that i personally put slightly more blame on Mcqueary then Paterno and think in no way Mcqueary should still be with the team.

My thoughts are if Mcqueary heard about and knew about Sandusky beforehand hes conditioned to it to some extent. Maybe at first he hears the rumors. Then he sees young boys traveling to bowl games with Sandusky. Then he sees other odd behavior and finally he sees what hes known all along. While hes probably still shocked, hed probably have a different reaction then you or me. Especially if combined with an environment where everyone seems to know whats going on but not doing anything about it. If everyone around him seems to condone this kind of stuff he may also slowly start to, even to the point where he feels like an accomplice of sorts when walks into the locker room and is fully confronted with Sandusky's evil side. The power of conformity is proven to be extremely powerful and as much as all of us would like to think we wouldnt be susceptible to it in situations as monstrous as this one history says the vast majority of us would be.

This is purely my speculation, but his actions in light of seeing what he saw were so odd he was clearly conflicted and im just trying to guess why.

NBC says Paterno has hired a criminal defense lawyer

To the dads here. You're watching SportsCenter your kids are in the room. Maybe they like to watch with you. Maybe you're both big sports fans. How are you handling this? Do you shield them from the news? Try to explain it?

Nemo, I am willing to concede that you know more about people that go to Penn State than I do. You, obviously having gone there know way more people than the 2 I know that went there, and that are the basis for my opinion that Penn State is known more as a football/party type school than one of the most highly regarded schools in the nation.

My point is not to insult the people that went to Penn State, but yes, obviously I am against students that riot in support of a coach who knowingly did nothing about his rapist friend. But don't make me out to just be running around spewing blind hatred when that's not the case at all.

I mean really, my entire point of this horrible scandal is that everybody involved who stood by and did nothing, and thus enabled, needs to be punished. That doesn't include the football team, or the student body. If you'd read my earlier post in the thread you would know I don't even support NCAA sanctions against the football team, because the football team shouldn't be punished for the actions of a rapist former coach. Am I pissed off about this? Yeah. Just like everybody else. We can sit here and make excuses for Joe Paterno all we want, but at the end of the day he enabled Jerry Sandusky, just like a lot of higher ups at the school. And he deserves to be punished for it. Bottom line, end of story. And if the rumors are true that Penn State donors allegedly participated in his little pimping ring, every single one of them needs to be arrested and punished too.

I think the fact McQueary didn't react when he witnessed what he did is twofold. The easy answer is that the man lacks a sense of moral compass... hence everyone else outside the situation is incredulous by his response (going to his dad first). The other answer may reflect more about the culture at Penn State. McQueary's a former QB, definitely athletic enough to do something about what he saw. A former D1 football player, where most men have grown up their entire lives in an alpha-male environment... Normally one where instinct would have driven McQueary to act immediately.

But because he didn't, I'm wondering if the program is placed on such a pedestal that a simple graduate assistant's first reaction is one part fear of retribution and the other part filial obedience to the deific football culture. We can hypothesize all day, but I'm wondering if McQuery reacts differently had he gone to another school. This isn't to say Penn State breeds cowards or miscreants... I've never been to Happy Valley. But perhaps Nemo can shed some light here: Is football bigger than life at Penn State? I've witnessed Texas high school football, SEC country, etc. While those areas are highly fanatical, is pigskin almost transcendental at your alma mater?

The cover-ups, the demonstrations (in spite of), the general student body and alumni reaction... it's just too strange to ignore. I was reading a Penn State forum last night and some guy was recanting a talk he had with his daughter earlier. I can't sift through all of the posts now, but it went something like this (paraphrasing from memory):

Daughter: Why did Joe hurt that little boy?
Dad: It wasn't Joe. It was another man.
Daughter: Why didn't he stop it?
Dad: He didn't see it. Another man did and then told him about it.
Daughter: Did Joe help?
Dad: Yes, he told his boss.
Daughter: So he did something good?
Dad: Yes.
Daughter: So why is he getting fired? If you do something good, why does something bad happen to you?

Then the dad said he was at a loss for words and couldn't answer his daughter's last question. Then there were several replies commending this frustration. My initial thought was, "Dude, your daughter was on the right track (post first question). You totally swayed her to believe that Joe is a total victim! Why would you raise your daughter to believe this man's lack of action is not only acceptable... but a good thing?"

I sincerely don't believe these are evil people. I'm starting to think the minds of many within this community have been twisted by an abnormally prioritized culture.

This...and I don't think it is isolated to PSU. The football life/culture is one where it consumes you...everything in your life becomes integrated with football. It is the way it works at a place like PSU...it is why coaches are so revered. My guess is that by going to Paterno he was going to GOD. And GOD was the one who could handle this the right way in the football world...where he lived and breathed. Remember in that place Paterno was above the police. He was above EVERYONE.

Look, none of us see something like that and run to our BOSS. The notion is silly. But none of us work in an industry that is nearly as insular and over-whelming and so life-consuming.

None of this is to say he was right...it's to say that I'm not surprised by his actions and I wouldn't be surprised if given the choice over he wouldn't do the same thing. In the skewed world of college football the moral decision was to go to GOD.

Smoot. Do me a favor and give Mark May a hug for me.

May- Everyone At Penn State Must Go - ESPN Video - ESPN (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7217029)

Love this rant from him. :rant:

I loved his rants to. He said all the things that needed to be said but in the back of my head I kept hearing "Pittsburgh Alum" "Pittsburgh Alum"

Slight conflict of interest :D

Same goes for Kirk Herbstreet, everything he's said about the situation has been dead on but with him to I keep on hearing the voice in the back of my head saying "Ohio State Alum" "Ohio State Alum."

Wait, whats that voice? Oh no we can't do that, theres no way we'd ever get away with it. Hey guys I have to go.