As a life-long Pennsylvanian, please allow me to say this:

[PCIntern]

In 1988, Joe Paterno addressed the Republican Convention. My father, then an employee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as is/was Paterno was incensed. "Sonofabitch can't do that." was what he said. Of course, it is against the rules to be politically active when employed by the government. From that time on, every time I'd see that Penn State lost, I would think, "Good."

They have created a religion of football up there: why else would God have made the sky Blue and White? they're only half-kidding. The grotesque investment of time and energy of the University's students would have been better served in pursuing their own studies, and yes, I get that this stuff is 'important'...but it's not THAT important. Fall Semester at Penn State is geared to one and only one thing: the circus that is Nittany Lions football.

Paterno succeeded in creating an Empire for himself, utilizing his brother George as the shell-company: real estate, broadcast network, products, speaking fees, and all the other forms of income-in-extremis were shunted his way. Years ago, someone asked Paterno why he never considered going Pro. He laughed in the questioner's face. Why would he leave THIS to go somewhere where he'd be accountable?

I am quite gratified that he is leaving with such ignominy. I am astoundingly upset that these were the circumstances for the sakes of the victims and the families and grieve for them all, and this should be a lesson for all those who unfailingly look to sports teams or individuals as 'role models' without any real knowledge of what these people are off-camera. Oh, and one more thing: this scandal actually goes a LOT farther than has been made public, at least so far: there is little doubt that the entire upper echelon of the Commonwealth's government knew about this as well as many members of the Board of Trustees. Take a look at the time line in the indictment, and look up the officials in charge when the acts were reported and look at the past behavior of some of these folks and you'll get the idea.

Shame on them all.

[MADem]

1. One of the more forward looking universities in the Boston area recently said "Fuck football"

and they're a much better university for it. They took the giant SUCK that was football money and applied it towards academic and student uality of life improvements. http://www.northeastern.edu/news/stories/2009/11/football.html

I dislike the idea that the JoePa "football god" would associate his little sport with the GOP, to say nothing of the inappropriateness of his speaking at the convention. It's like GWB trying to "own" baseball. A great big UGH to all of 'em.

I guess we have a ways to go before the safety of small children is as important as a stupid game where bozos run around heavily padded in too-tight pants, chasing after a ball that is longer than it is wide. Sometimes I just don't understand people's priorities!

[LynneSin]

25. In Penn State that 'Giant Suck of football money' is very very lucrative

This has been one of the top elite university football programs in the country for about 40+ years running. That football money has helped pay for alot of research and development programs that have come out of Penn State.

The Giant Suck you'll hear coming out of Penn State will be a lost of that money. But I think the Board of Trustees have done the right thing by firing people now to show they are ready to turn the program around and get that money making machine rolling again.

[MADem]

44. I think they need to de-emphasize college football across the board.

It won't happen, because too many crooks like to bet on it, but I think it should.

[LynneSin]

74. Read the post below - at $70mil+ that will hurt the entire school system

Penn State is a very excellent school and if you live in the state you get reduced tuition.

[MADem]

75. I still think they're going to take a large financial hit. Deservedly, too.

It's a shame the students have to suffer the consequences of mismanagement by mendacious accomplices to felony, but I would expect this debacle to cost them many tens of millions, at a minimum, based on what we know at this point.

If they turn over another rock and there's more "there" there, it could be a financial nightmare.

[LynneSin]

76. That is why Paterno had to be fired today

To hold on to him til the end of the season may have made a few diehard fans happy but would have screamed a loud message that 'we're still trying to gloss over the mess to save the football program'. To give that message out today will cost them even more money. Perhaps firing him today they'll be able to hold on to some of that money so the tuition for the school wont' be greatly impacted.

[AllTooEasy]

59. Penn State Football made $$72.7 million from football last year

That's what they were protecting. http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/10/news/companies/penn_state_football_scandal/index.htm?hpt=hp_t1

This is a school that is run on football.

[MADem]

61. They'll probably spend ten times that embroiled in lawsuits. nt

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MADem]

45. It was a seventy four year program, not without tradition.

I guess the whole "Winning is everything" attitude wasn't as important to them (how refreshing), and they were unwilling to admit people who couldn't handle the academic end of things in favor of athletes who could barely read.

[alp227]

49. Before you start stereotyping athletes

please read about how the NCAA is putting the book down hard on student-athletes' grades/graduation rates

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/27/sports/la-sp-1028-ncaa-apr-rules-20111028
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/cheri/workingPapers/upload/cheri_wp119-2.pdf

I go to a Division I college and know that the NCAA already has issued an order for it to improve grad rates.

[MADem]

62. It's about time, don't you think? Wonder if it'll be "for real" or window dressing? nt

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

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[MADem]

60. Steroidal football is bullshit--just like steroidal baseball.

Those kids don't learn a thing at that school. They live in a rarified atmostphere, but only a few of them go on to any success in the pros.

They're used, like toilet paper, and flushed when they have no more utility.

That's hardly an "education" and I think, if people want to watch "non-pro" ball they should just get honest and start an amateur league. Skip this "college" pretense entirely.

[roguevalley]

69. given the number of numbnuts, criminals, sex and drug abusers

and now this abortion that appear in big time sports, it is a reasonable assumption on a lot of people's parts that sports suck in schools. Go and be a minor league footballer but don't make the school suffer for someone's ego fixation about hanging out with jocks.

[A Simple Game]

73. You would probably suck if you had to play 40 games a year too! n/t

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[alp227]

48. But Harvard still has the sport. Good on Northeastern though.

[wial]

68. The reason why U of Chicago

became far and away the greatest institution of higher learning at the graduate level in the world is specifically because they had the wisdom to get rid of their football program. Scholars fled to Chicago like Jews escaping Germany, until Hyde Park had the highest density of Nobel Prize winners per square mile anywhere on the planet (and also became extremely progressive -- funny how that is).

The simplest thing we could do to make America great again would be to ban football. Besides, it's harmful in other ways, not just to the quality of education. Not only are the coaches ridiculously overpaid and corrupt, the players get horrific brain damage from the high speed collisions of the game, no matter how much padding they wear.

I guess one could argue it gives an outlet for the more brutal energies of society that would be directed elsewhere otherwise, but more likely it causes that brutality to fester and grow.

[MADem]

78. I do agree with you, especially the ironical bit about institutions of higher

learning, and brain damage from this stupid sport. College and brain damage aren't quite the combo that, say, toast and butter, or vanilla ice cream and hot fudge, are!

[HillWilliam]

82. I worked in the UofC registrar's office a long time ago

You're right: if a student paid any attention there, they'd by-dawg get an education. It's been 30 years since I was there, but I doubt the quality has decreased like it has at schools where "sports-sports-sports" rule.

[hlthe2b]

2. I had a room- mate during grad school whose entire family were nuts over Paterno

and Penn State. Uggh, I could go to sleep hearing them over and over and over and going on and on and on with their glorifying reverence...How I never lost it with them, is beyond me. That said, I thought that surely they MUST be so enamored for some very good reason...:shrug:

So, I can't help but think of them this many decades later....Not with a smirking condescension, mind you, but just with some degree of curiosity as to what they must be thinking...

That said, when I think about the situation, I am horrified and exceedingly saddened for those kids and their families. The way in which the "football above all else" attitude sacrificed them is but a far more horrific form of abusive and highly misplaced response as I am seeing with the RW's hateful aggressive and organized attacks on Cain's accusers. I have to wonder where that behavior comes from--that misplaced set of values--and what the two groups have in common.

As for Paterno-- I don't know him. I never really followed him in any but the most superficial manners. That said, if I put my horror aside for a moment for what he did (failed to do), and knowing nothing of him personally, I can feel the sad pathos that comes from such a legend destroying his legacy beyond repair at the very last hour of that career. There is something akin to Greek Tragedy in all of this. Paterno may not deserve any sympathy, but the anonymous man I picture in that kind of tragic scenario is not beyond eliciting just a bit.

But, my final thought and hope is that those children, now much older, might somehow find their justice and healing at last. :cry:

[FSogol]

3. Yup, but now whenever someone mentions Paterno, everyone will remember the guy who looked the other

way while 10 year olds were raped.

[Remember Me]

42. And a well-deserved legacy it is. nt

[juajen]

71. Perhaps he participated. Well, I don't know him. Does he have kids?

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

4. Too bad about those heads rolling

but I'm sure they've all got jobs lined up at the Vatican.

[sweetapogee]

5. as a Pennsylvanian myself

I had no idea that State College was such a hot bed of puke conservatism.

[TBF]

6. As a Wisconsin native I'm a huge sports fan - when the Packers or Badgers are

playing I'm watching if at all possible.

But there are sports, and there are serious issues like molesting children. He should not only be fired, but be thankful that there aren't legal issues (maybe there are - those parents are certainly going to sue the college and they may in fact sue him personally for the cover up). Football is a really fun sport to watch, but we shouldn't lose our damned minds and make them into gods.

Excellent OP, thanks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Hey, they're still fighting the Civil War here where I live

They call the sports rivalry between Missouri and Kansas the "Border War" which goes back to the Civil War when slavery was banned in Kansas but tolerated in Missouri. It was one of the bloodiest pockets in the country before the war and there were many big battles fought here.

But hey, that was 150 years ago.

Sports can make people CRAZY.

[hlthe2b]

9. A paradox for me with respect to Kansas and Missouri...

As one whose early childhood spent time lving in each and had family members on both "sides of the divide" I am extremely well versed in the history--both Civil War and current with regard to (the largely sports-related) "Border Wars"... The irony for me is that while both states have become increasingly regressive, in terms of RW influences, Kansas seems to have gone so much further over the edge with its abortion and related policies/tactics. Granted both have had their share of loony extremist RW politicos, but it just feels like that sense of populist sanity that made Kansas stand up to slavery and retain a moral high ground seems to have been largely lost. That saddens me. I am glad that there are those like you proud2BlibKansan, but just hope you and your friends are actively converting many more. A :toast: to your efforts...

[coalition_unwilling]

14. Slavery was fully legal in Missouri, not simply 'tolerated,' prior to 1865, as a result of

the so-called 1820 'Missouri Compromise,' which prohibited slavery north of 36'30 EXCEPT IN MISSOURI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Compromise

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Yes that's correct - BUT

MO never joined the Confederacy.

[coalition_unwilling]

17. IIRC, there were two competing legislatures, one Unionist and

one Confederate. The Conferedate rump legislature passed articles of secession, but they never took hold in the entire state b/c the Confederates only effectively ever controlled the southern portion of Missouri.

One of my favorite episodes of the Civil War occurred in Missouri in the opening days of the war when Union General John C. Fremont declared escaped slaves 'contraand of war' who need not be returned to their owners. Oops! This was too much, too fast for Lincoln who fired Fremont for his impetuosity. However, Fremont's actions were oddly prophetic and pre-figured the Emancipation Proclamation by some 18 months. Unsurpisingly, Lincoln issued a full pardon of Fremont (who had been court-martialled for his insubordination in freeing the slaves ahead of schedule).

[efhmc]

23. According to my own family history, there were many split

families with men fighting on both sides. My mother as a child would get into trouble at one set of grandparents' house for whistling Dixie and that was probably 50 or more years after the war. Of course, her southern grandmother just gave her a lecture about whistling not being ladylike. "A whistling girl and a cackling hen will often come to no good end."

[Scuba]

8. Can you help me with "against the rules to be politically active when employed by the government"?

Is it actually illegal for a gov't employee to stump for others? Pols do it all the time.

[hlthe2b]

10. Hatch Act prevents Federal employees from lobbying & the like...

Some states have adopted their own form of the Hatch Act. Specifics, as to what Pennsylvania has in place, I leave to others....:shrug:

[KamaAina]

41. Also, Penn State is listed in the World Almanac as "state related"

as opposed to most other state schools which are simply listed as "state". Not sure what the distinction is.

[WinkyDink]

11. Heh. My mother, who loves me, her PSU kid, also says "Good!" For the very same reason! And I, too,

think more is going to be revealed.

At the very least, child porn. IMO.

[roguevalley]

70. a rumor is going around the sandusky 'pimped' boys out to big donors

this place is so sordid that all the good it has will be gone and the stupid rioting halfwits don't help.

[bullwinkle428]

12. The evidence seems more than apparent that MANY people in

positions of power knew what was going on with this creep Sandusky for a long time. Disgusted with every last one of them.

K&R.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. He also donated money to Obama and Sestak's campaigns

[Kingofalldems]

26. Joe Paterno and Sandusky were both republicans

No amount of diversion will change that.

[frylock]

56. something to be proud of to be sure

[Divernan]

15. Paterno knew Sandusky was a pedophile back in 1998.

The Grand Jury report documents (pp.18-19) that 13 YEARS AGO, IN 1998, Sandusky admitted to university police and the victim's mother that he'd sexually accosted an 11 year old boy in a Penn State shower. That 1998 investigat­ion also uncovered a second child victim reporting a similar abuse by Sandusky in the shower room.

Paterno & Penn State should have fired him then AND pushed the Centre County DA to prosecute. Instead these cowardly, self-servi­ng, vain, proud and greedy men left him free to accost god knows how many other boys both on and off various Penn State campuses for the next 13 years. Why? Well Penn State makes $70 million a year from its football program.

P.16, Grand Jury report: 1 yr. after the 1998 assault, Paterno told Sandusky he was no longer slated to succeed Paterno as head coach, and forced him to "retire". Obviously, Paterno was aware of the 1998 campus police investigat­ion at that time. Sandusky was allowed continued access to the main campus and to keep running his youth football camps on branch campuses.

Before any more Penn State students demonstrat­e in support of Paterno, let them line up at the showers and get accosted by Paterno's BFF, Sandusky. Latest I saw on line was Penn State alumni blaming the PARENTS of the victims for letting their children be raped. There is something seriously wrong with moral values of some in Happy Valley.

[Remember Me]

43. OMG. Now I'm physically ill.

Yes, everything I knew up til how was horrific, unconscionable, should be punishable by mega-years in prison if not death.

But THIS reveals that the whole thing was a very calculated sacrifice of children with full knowledge of a whole LOT of people who should've been protecting them. How sick and depraved this is -- couldn't be any worse if it were an organized child prostitution ring, IMO. Or maybe that's in there somewhere too. That or child porn.

Those poor children, so many now adults. I hope all of them come forward and sue Penn State into oblivion. And dance on its grave.

[RainDog]

58. Sandusky couldn't get hired elsewhere, either

so you have to wonder how many athletic dept ppl knew he was toxic but didn't do anything more than protect their programs.

Economics makes people do strange things. Money is the ultimate issue in the U.S.

[swilton]

18. College Football is shameful

Not that I would defend the program at the University of Oklahoma or other big football schools but Paterno is/was a hypocrite. I remember when he loftily stated he didn't want to leave college football to the Barry Switzers and Jimmy Johnsons of this world...They were certainly no angels but at least they were open about the college football charade.

[zentrum]

19. Sounds more and more like the sealed

..hierachy of the Catholic Church every minute.


There's moral corruption but inestigators ought to look for economic curruption as well....it wreaks of ties to "organized" gambling.

[efhmc]

24. Actually heard that comparison on the news several times.

[KurtNYC]

54. I was reminded of the recent audio recording of the pregame abuse

and the coach, Shaun Abel, who delivered it saying that recording his threats and abuse had violated "the sanctity of the locker room."

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/oct/26/former-coach-regrets-tirade/

[nytemare]

57. Exactly....except Paterno at least got fired eventually

Ratzinger got promoted to Pope after covering up all kinds of abuse, and he's still there. I like to imagine what the Catholic Church would do if Ratzinger got fired for covering up all these years. It would probably be an even more disgusting reaction than at Penn State now.

Both of these situations tick me off. The victims had / have no voice in either case. In the case of the Catholic Church, families were threatened with excommunication if they said anything.

It's all very sickening, and this is from a huge football fan.

[Blue Owl]

20. The real victim here is football

:sarcasm:

[efhmc]

22. Okay, made me look.

[Beowulf]

21. In 1992

Paterno invited George H.W. Bush to campaign at Penn State. He arranged for the speech to be given on the steps of Old Main, the administration building. The GOP fenced off the area allowing only ticket holders into the closest areas. He told the marching band, the cheerleaders, and the Nittany Lion mascot to be there. I was livid that he was allowed to use such prominent images of the University to be used for a campaign speech.

The state GOP tried for years to get him to run for state office.

I think it's helpful to think of Paterno as the head of cult.

[Dash Riprock]

27. As another life-long Pennsylvania resident

this whole thing is sickening, but it may get a whole lot worse, if you can believe it. Mark Madden, a sport commentator, who wrote about this last April said a rumor is out there that says that Jerry Sandusky and the Second Mile Foundation pimped young boys out to rich doner's, the 1 percenters. He also says that back when this all started Penn State told Sandusky if he "retired" they would cover up the dirt. Also, why is Mike McQueary, the person who the the 11 year old being raped by Sandusky, still employed at Penn State? Here's the link:http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2011/11/mark-madden-drops-bomb-of-rumor-about-jerry-sandusky-scandal.

[PCIntern]

28. "Holy shit" if true...

this is gonna envelop the whole 'aristocracy' unless...

[Auntie Bush]

33. I hope it takes down a lot of Rethug asses. nt

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Divernan]

29. Sandusky's forced retirement indicative Paterno knew in 1998

that Sandusky was a pedophile. Even then, Sandusky was able to negotiate terms of his retirement, allowing him to keep his Penn State office, access to "the shower" and the newer sauna, and to run his youth football camps at Penn State's branch campuses. That is to say, gave him continued access to young boys/victims.

Penn State's student protestors are giving Happy Valley the look of a moral vacuum.

It doesn't take long to read the Grand Jury report at the New York Times website, and all the facts are laid out there to show that there was a massive cover up in 1998 and the timeline to Sandusky being told by Paterno that he would no longer succeed Paterno as head coach (as had been promised) and would have to retire. Sandusky confessed his sexual abuse to the campus cops, and in a separate, recorded confession to the victim's mother. Prosecution would have been a slam dunk for the Centre County DA, who chose instead to drop the charges. The DA is an elected position, and Centre County/University Park depends nearly entirely on Penn State as the mammoth employer in the county.


Let's hear it!

WE ARE . . . . . . PEDOPHILE ENABLERS!

Really, some of the Penn State alumni are on the web floating the defense of Paterno that it was the victims' parents' fault the kids were exposed to Sandusky.

And that walking sack of shit, Sandusky, is still claiming innocence. I mean, the jerk CONFESSED back in 1998!

What's next: "The Nittany Lion made me do it"?

Why was the Penn State Board of Trustees so quick to attempt such drastic damage control?
Rumors in the political back channels are that top state political officials and some Penn State trustees had some involvement in the cover ups. God knows the rabid Penn State alumni wield a tremendous amount of political clout in the Keystone State.

[Dash Riprock]

34. Here's another part of this story.

The DA who didn't prosecute that case (don't remember his name), shortly afterwards, disappeared and has never been found. Recently he was declared dead by the courts, but no body has ever been found. This was broadcast on WPXI TV by Rick Earl. Couldn't find the story on their web site.

[MADem]

46. His name was Ray Gricar.

His brother, Roy, committed suicide about ten years before he went missing.

His home computer contained searches on how to trash a hard drive.

So....is he dead, or did he run off in fear for his life? Who knows?




http://www.nesn.com/2011/11/ray-gricar-original-district-attorney-in-jerry-sandusky-trail-went-missing-in-2005-declared-dead.html

When an investigation first started in 2005 over allegations that Jerry Sandusky was engaging in sexual acts with young boys, district attorney Ray Gricar was working on getting to the bottom of things, disregarding Sandusky's position at Penn State and in the community. Unfortunately in April of that same year, Gricar went missing.

A few months later, his daughter, Lara, petitioned to declare her father dead so that the family could have closure, according to The New York Times. But the Sandusky case was left wide open, with much of the evidence and momentum dying with Gricar.

Gricar's disappearance has been a mystery ever since that April day in 2005. His car was found in a parking lot 50 miles from his home, with his laptop, wallet and keys missing. Investigators later revealed an Internet search on Gricar's home computer that read: "how to wreck a hard drive." Foul play is still suspected because the former district attorney's body still has not been found.

[msanthrope]

55. I think Ray Gricar is drinking MaiTais somewhere with a suitcase full of Sandusky/PSU donor money.

[MADem]

63. You might be correct. It's a very odd situation, isn't it? nt

[Patiod]

64. sounds like those rumors about pre-schools

like McMartin, where the kids reported satanic rituals. Eye-popping, but untrue.

This whole thing is bad enough without dragging VinceFoster-esque nonsense rumors into the discussion.

[GeorgeGist]

30. Just an average Joe ...

in the top 1%.

[Dont call me Shirley]

31. Pennsy has a long history of ignoring it's rampant problem with sexual abuse.

[Stinky The Clown]

32. I agree with your every sentiment.

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[geardaddy]

38. Paterno's a repuke.

He's personal friends with Poppy Bush and was personal friends with Humpty Ford.

[Hubert Flottz]

39. K&R

I have friends and family in Pennsylvania, so I know there are some great people there. This is the best post I've seen on this mess so far.

[Liberal_in_LA]

40. k&r

[nevergiveup]

50. K&R

[tblue37]

51. I did my freshman and sophomore years at Penn State, and my ex-husband,

whom I met there when he was a grad student, is back there teaching now. Furthermore, I graduated from high school in PA, and my extended family is PA based. Therefore, even though I teach at a midwstern university now, major goings on at Penn State typically capture my interest.

All through this mess, I have been thinking that it is really no different than the way the Church hierarchy looked away while priests molested children, because the well-being of chidldren was never considered anywaher near as important as the reputation, wealth, and power of the Church itself.

For all too many people in this country, devotion to college sports--and sports in general--is not all that different from religious devotion. College sports programs are empires, and the guys that run them are wealthy and powerful. The well-being of mere children will always be overshadowed by the covenience of wealthy and powerful adults.

[Arugula Latte]

65. I was thinking the same thing.

This is like the Catholic Church on a smaller scale. I guess that makes Paterno the Pope.

The whole thing is absolutely disgusting and abhorrent and sickening. :grr:

[tblue37]

81. Wow--I just realized I left in some embarrassing typos--and the editing

window is closed.

children NOT chidldren
anywhere NOT anywaher

[msanthrope]

53. Best post on this issue. Hands down. This Philadelphian wants the Occupy riot cops

deployed to Happy Valley. They need them more....

[ChadwickHenryWard]

66. I have always thought Paterno was badly out of touch.

He lives a life of insular privilege up on his pedestal. We saw this a couple of years ago when the newspaper forced him to disclose that portion of his salary which is paid by the state. He displayed a pretty pathetic martyr complex on that occasion, even though most coaches at fully private universities disclose their salaries. The public worship of him in central PA is truly sick. I think his tremendous privilege contributed to his handling of the situation.

The Board of Trustees has done the right thing in showing that he is not above accountability.

[KT2000]

67. John Stewart

put it very well on his show tonight.

[Hutzpa]

72. Bottomline

they've created an assembly line of moronic jocks.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

77. Would you turn in God?

Well, that very question was put to test in Happy Valley, PA, the past 13 years and the evidence is now coming in: not likely.

This story is new to most of us, but it's not new to Happy Valley. It's been out there for years.

According to prosecutors, Penn State had multiple opportunities to stop Sandusky's alleged abuse. In 1998 two boys reportedly came forward to say Sandusky had fondled them in the team's showers. Campus police had eavesdropped on a conversation between Sandusky and one boy's mother. That mother recently described the exchange to local reporter Sara Ganim with the Patriot News.

"He admitted to taking the shower, he admitted to some extent something bad happened," the woman, who was not identified, said. "He asked her for forgiveness. He said 'I probably won't get it from you,' and then he said 'I wish I were dead.'"

The mother said that she was proud of her son, who had the courage stand up to one of the giants of college football, according to Ganim. The boy's allegation led to the three-year grand jury investigation that resulted in sexual assault charges.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/penn-state-scandal-sandusky-allegedly-admitted-inappropriate-behavior/story?id=14912372#.TrymMvQr27s

State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan, who was previously the chief of investigations at the attorney general's office, characterized the actions of Sandusky as described in the indictment as "grooming, where these predators identify a child, become mentors. They're usually children that they're having a little difficulty, they're at-risk children. Through the program he was able to identify these children, give them gifts, establish a trust, initiate physical contact which eventually leads to sexual contact, and that is very common in these type of investigations.

"What is unusual though in this particular investigation is that in 1998 there was a police investigation in which he made admissions about inappropriate contact in the shower room, Jerry Sandusky did, and nothing happened, and nothing stopped."

Noonan said subsequent reports of activity were ignored, and in the case of the 2002 incident police were not notified. "And that's very unusual. I don't think I've ever been associated with a case where that type of eyewitness identification of sex acts taking place where the police weren't called."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57319878/sandusky-case-univ--did-nothing-to-stop-abuse/

I don't know about you, but if I were the child's parent, I wouldn't have let this 1998 crime go unpunished. Then again, I don't worship Joe Paterno. But in Happy Valley, where Paterno is God, maybe you're left feeling helpless and take solace in knowing that your child is now safe even though you probably see the predator on TV weekly.

And if you're the police? You'd do your job and bring this sick bastard to justice, right? But then again, you don't live in Happy Valley, where you worship Paterno, so maybe you don't want to tarnish God's legacy, or, perhaps a greater sin, be remembered as Judas. Rather than pursue this case, you make it disappear.

Now it get really warped, because Sandusky abruptly retired at age 55 in 1999 without ever perusing any head coaching opportunities in his 32 years on Paterno's staff. Nothing here? Perhaps not. But, in light of the 2002 incident, perhaps there is something here. Specifically, in 2002, the 28 y/o former Penn State QB and then "graduate" assistant coach, Mike McQueary, witnesses, and describes in great detail, Sandusky sodomizing a 10 y/o boy.

It's like the fucking mafia or Catholic Church. Perhaps it went something like this:
Paterno: "Son, tell me what you saw."
McQueary: "Father, I saw Coach Sandusky raping a boy in the locker room shower yesterday, and I don't know what to do."
Paterno: "OK. Good boy. Go on now, get some sleep, you look tired. I'll take care of this."

And it gets creepier, yet. McQueary and Sandusky participate in several charity events in the weeks and months immediately after the rape. Perhaps it's not much of a stretch to hypothesize that, for remaining silent all of these years, McQueary, now 37, is being groomed as Paterno's successor. Meanwhile, what did Joe do to Sandusky? He took his keys to the locker room away. That was all. After all, you don't whack a loyal Captain when your legacy is on the line.

As for McQueary, of all the players involved, he alone has somehow survived and was expected to coach this weekend; it was just announced that, for security reasons only, he has been advised not attend Saturday's game. He has not yet been fired or resigned.

And one more thing about Sandusky. The sick fuck wrote an autobiography entitled, "Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story."

[PCIntern]

84. "Great title"...they can't help themselves, can they?

Over the years you cold always tell who the molesters were: they almost always gave themselves away.

[SunSeeker]

79. Thanks for the background.

You actually get it. Like some of your fellow Pennsylvanians in this picture:

[Bombero1956]

80. Paterno shit the bed with me a long time ago

I know I saw it on TV but I'm not sure what year it was. I think it was when George Bush ran against Michael Dukakis in 1988. It was during the roll call of the states at the Republican National Convention. When it came time for Pennsylvania to cast their delegates Paterno couldn't help himself and said something to the effect that Dukakis wasn't fit to shine George Bush's shoes. Go fuck yourself Joe.

[olegramps]

83. Just another example of Republican Family Values.

[USA_1]

85. Paterno: Republican

As always, he was a guy who imagined he could do no wrong. That's how and why this mess started. Sad thing to be sure.