N.C. Double Assholes

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….