Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past 8 months or so,
you’ve heard about the dealings that have happened at Penn State for the past
12 years, which have roots in 1998 or earlier, Jerry Sandusky and his sexual
dealings with minors on the campus. Without being politically incorrect to the
victims of such horrendous crimes, I’ll spare you all the rhetoric about “right
is right,” and “no matter how much older, bigger, or power a man has over me, I
would NEVER LET him do such a thing to me.” This, like most other things I
write about, struck a chord with me when the NCAA handed down sanctions against
the university which include vacating 112 victories, a $60million fine,
four-year postseason ban, and the loss of 10 initial/20 annual scholarships
over that same period. The first thing that ran through my head after hearing
this was a resounding “WTF?!” The NCAA had just gone too far with this one,
trying to be judge, jury, and executioner, much like our good ole friend Roger
Goodell, and yall know how I feel about that jerk. Of course one can argue that
Penn State didn’t necessarily “break” any NCAA laws, but to look at the
punishment administered from a morality standpoint is totally beyond the
jurisdiction of the NCAA. Before I get into the heart of this post, let me put
out one of my traditional disclaimers as I do when it comes down to
controversial issues; I AM NOT a Penn State fan, Joe Paterno supporter,
insensitive to child sex-abuse victims, or one who fails to believe that those
who sexually abuse children deserve anything less than a point-blank range
firing squad, but I do believe in impartiality, due process, and hate those who
cover up their own misdeeds through the use of a scapegoat.
This past November, when the Jerry
Sandusky case broke out in Happy Valley, initially the mob, much like Roman
predecessors, were calling for Joe Paterno’s head. I never really had an issue
with Joe Pa, I respected him as a coach (and actually still do to this day), I
thought he was past his prime though and only really still coaching in order to
pass Eddie Robinson in the record book. (Personally, I didn’t really have an
issue with this, as I think all things associated with or from that country
school in Northern Louisiana have no place in any sort of record book, but
that’s just me **hums “O’ Southern Dear Southern”**) But immediately, after the
story broke, Penn State fired ole Joe, and within the next two months, he was
dead. My initial thoughts concerning Paterno and the circumstances of his
firing were “How in the hell are they going to blame Paterno for not going
forward based purely on HEARSAY?” You see when this story broke in November,
the only evidence that was immediately available was that in 2001, a Penn State
graduate assistant by the name of Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky and a young
male in the shower of the football building, and that the conduct he witnessed
was sexual in nature and could be quantified as rape. (Please keep in mind
through the duration of this post that hindsight is indeed 20/20, a fact I will
remind you of on several occasions before I am done.) In November we learned
that McQueary went forward and told his account to Paterno who in turn told his
supervisors but nothing ultimately came of this. What I failed to understand is
why America became upset that nothing happened after McQueary came forward to
Paterno, and them calling for him to do more at that particular incident. Maybe
I’m the weird one because I know that hearsay is a statement, other than one
made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing,offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted, and that hearsay under no means, when said declarant is available, is enough to secure a conviction. So while Paterno moved forward to tell Spanier,
Schultz, and Curley, his chain of command, none of them went forward any
further than conversation amongst the four of them, but again, how could they
when the only evidence they had at their disposal was a second-hand account
from Paterno, or more importantly, why didn’t McQueary do more?
That was my initial question when
the story first broke and those are still the questions that run through my
mind and of which NO SOURCE (media outlet, Penn State, or the Freeh Report)
have been able to answer for me.
So after the story breaks, Sandusky is arrested, ultimately tried and
convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse and still awaits sentencing. Now like I
said before hindsight is 20//20 and we have no idea of knowing what exactly
Paterno, Spanier, Schultz, and Curley knew, so to just jump on the bandwagon
accusing everyone is just wrong in my eyes. The same as I tried unsuccessfully
to convince a friend of when he went on a twitter rand about going to State
College and “tearing down the statue myself and pissing on the son of a bitch.”
So that’s the problem I have with the Freeh Report or any other independent
investigation not conducted by law enforcement, they can convey whatever
conclusion that you are trying to reach much in the same respect as a
lie-detector test and we all know how admissible those are in court. Besides
taking Freeh’s word as law is much along the same lines as saying, “he’s
truthful, he’s a police officer/politician/district attorney,” when we all know
that everyone is capable of telling a lie. In addition Freeh was the Director
of the FBI when there was espionage going on within the bureau so I wont
exactly say he is the best one to vouch about keeping chain of command or
problems out of his organization. But let’s get to the Freeh Report, or as ESPN
calls it “the most damning piece of evidence against Paterno’s legacy.” I read
the whole report (yes all 267 pages of it), and I didn’t exactly see how
damning it was against Paterno. What I did see in the body of the report is
that Paterno did involve himself in conversations with Spanier, Schultz, and
Curley regarding the allegations against Sandusky but none of which had a paper
trail. I also saw that these same men wanted to approach all the allegations in
the most sensitive way to their dear friend in the instance that these
allegations were indeed unsubstantiated, (yes, the victims did indeed deserve
that kind of sensitivity, but at that point in time it was all allegations) and
also one must take into account the fact that the criminal investigation in
1998 returned no criminal charges. So again, why is all this falling on
Paterno, shouldn’t the police department also be charged with the conspiracy?
What is not evident in the Freeh
Report is that a secret society was being ran at Penn State where after
candidates for coaching vacancies were given employment, they were approached
in private and somebody said something along the lines of: “Welcome to the staff,
Jerry used to work here, and he has free run over here. He likes to play with
little boys, but that’s just our little secret.” Penn State may have been
guilty of running a culture where the football coach was allowed to have the
authority over that of the athletic director, but I cant necessarily say that
with certainty. What I did see is that other employees witnessed Jerry’s
heinous acts but did not come forward because they were afraid of the
repercussions, but yet and still these same people are still employed by Penn
State. So again, why all the blame on Paterno? Oh yeah, I know now, because dead men tell no tales, so why
not shift all the blame on the man that can’t defend himself. Of course, all
this is a statement of opinion, and I may amend how I feel once the civil cases
and other criminal trials run their course. But at this point, I think that the
vacating of victories was unnecessary and think that Joe Paterno’s statue still
belongs in front of Beaver Stadium. If not for Joe Paterno would Penn State
still have the rich football tradition that it does? Yall acting like he’s the
one who raped those kids….
