Sounds like Joe P...

Sounds like Joe Paterno's statue might be coming down in the near future. I'm of two minds on this subject, myself.

 

It is a done deal, the statue was removed by forklift leaving the backdrop of players standing alone.

 

Clint, I can understand your feelings. For one 5-6 and 120 # in my school days, college football was good to me. I tutored Bear Bryant's players in undergraduate school for surprizingly good money back then. Later teaching at Auburn University I designed Pat Dye's house. I always admired Joe Paterno for his incrediablty high graduation rate of his players, 90% +, and the academic goals he had for them. I once heard him say , on TV, pass first then play.

Still I firmly believe child abuse is an absolutely zero tolerance thing. Any adult should do every thing humanly possible to protect children. He might not have given it much thought but he should have.. It is a shame for a great career to end this way but maybe it will alert others.

Gaines

 

I don't understand how anyone could possibly turn a blind eye to a child being abused. But the really, really stupid thing is, had Paterno done the right thing, had all of the people who knew about the abuse and let it go done something - they'd be hailed as even bigger heroes today.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

I couldn't agree with Gaines and Clem more. I have no problem with them taking down the statue of Joe Pa. I know folks who are truly conflicted about it. They talk about what a good coach he was and how he did so much for so many players through the years, teaching them to be students, athletes, men, citizens. However, in one act of pure selfishness, he chose to protect his program, his school, his legacy over the innocence of the young boys who were being abused. The way I see it, he failed as a coach, a leader and a role model. He not only let down those innocent kids - and that was bad enough - but he let down his family, the school, the alumni, and the community as a whole. One cannot preach character and integrity his whole career and then, when it counts the most, cast it aside for vain glory. There should be no monuments for such men.

 

Hate to be so harsh, but good riddance. Next the library. The evidence shows that Joe knew what Sandusk. was doing and did very little, nothing really, about it. The Penn state reputation was on the line, so they say, but in my opinion it wasn't. It was just one man commiting a crime, and may be it could have been just one time, if Joe and others called the GOD DAMN POLICE right away. Who the hell did Joe and the other crimials thought they were to keep this quiet. If Joe was alive I sure hope he would also face the justice system. But what about the reputation now. The University's reputation is ruined, football program will get the "death penalty" and Joe's, rightfully so, reputation and family name will be tainted for a long time. Shame, shame and shame.

 

I know nothing of this...but again i say to people, dont forget who the REAL perpetrator is/was...Plenty of mothers cop crap over not reporting these things...and crap gets heaped on them...and people seem to forget who the real villian is or was...Do we villify the German people for not speaking up or acting...we do from time to time...but we all KNOW whos to blame.

 

No one would argue that Jerry Sandusky is a villain, but it does not change the fact that these people had knowledge that this man was abusing children - abusing them right there in their own locker rooms - and they did nothing. And that inaction allowed it to continue and allowed Sandusky to abuse more children. They could have stopped it, and they should have. Their actions are shameful, at the very least.

Who does that? I am not even brave, and I wouldn't.

And the analogy of mothers getting blame for not reporting abuse to their own children doesn't cut it with me. There is an argument there, a lot of those women are controlled, abused, or are in such a place they feel they have to weigh the option of protecting their child or losing their breadwinner. The powers that be at Penn State had none of those fears hanging over their heads. They were protecting themselves and their football program, and in the process they allowed children to be traumatized and abused. It is sickening.

 

The real villain is facing over 400 years since he was found guilty of 45 child sexual abuse charges. Joe P. was the leader of one of the greatest football programs in the US. There was statues and libraries named after him. He was Penn State. He was looked up to, admired, mentored hundreds of young men, man of dignity, etc........ Again, he was Penn State. All he had to do was say, I don;t want Sandusky here anymore, Sandusky would have been gone in about 2 seconds. Obviously, he should have called the cops. But deep inside his soul he was a weak man and a sicko. Again, he was the leader of Penn State, and child rape was ok with him. Most people I know, including myself, would not allow for a child rapist to live on the same street. Yes, the real perpetrator is in jail, but one of the people who new all along what was happening was Joe. And he turned a blind eye. No one in the States is blaming the other hundreds of staff or students (like the German people comparison) of Penn State, just the leaders who knew that one of their staff was raping children on their campus and did NOTHING about it.

 

It boggles my mind that this man sold his soul to the devil. What he did was enable this creep to continue his ways in the name of a successful Penn State football program. All he had to do was turn this perv in DECADES ago and his legacy would of been as a man of honor.

 

Its probably hard for a non-American to understand, but here in parts of the US, College Football is very near to being a religion. For states like Texas, Alabama, Florida, PA and some midwestern states they live or die on how their big college football program's fair. This had lead to turning successfull head coach's into demi-gods locally. All too frequently this has also lead to scandal's and cover-up's. Don't rock the boat, don't embaress the program and for the love all that is holy don't do anything that jepordise's the ranking's.

For some College football is 'purer' than proffesional, but the college game has far more scandal's than the pro game in part because its claim to purity.

To our devout college football fan's, I'm not a hater, just calling it like I see it.

 

I'm out of salutes Lou, so you will have to get a like. I too have a bit of a problem with penalties being brought down on the shoulders of the current players and coaches. This seems a bit too much like "sins of the fathers" being passed on to the children. Child abuse should never be covered up, ignored, or condoned in any fashion. That does seem to "trickle down" in the minds of some however, since they cannot extract all the vengeance toward the actual guilty parties they desire, they turn to the institution itself.

I don't see how punitive measures against Penn will help the victims of the past or punish the guilty who are no longer there. It will only punish those not involved, simply because they now attend the university. Perhaps as a "message" to other programs it might be justified, as in "keep a close watch" on the goings on in your bailiwick. Other than that one "reason", I see no benefit to any NCAA retaliation. They surely must do "something", but punishing the innocent doesn't seem the answer.

 

The punishments were just announced, and they are severe to say the least. I still think this will be seen as a "warning" to other programs to watch their treatment of outrageous behavior in their own schools. It is too late to help the victims, or punish the wrong-doers. Some of these kids in the football program at Penn today were in kindergarten when this started.

There is a clause that allows them to transfer to other schools without loosing playing time, I wonder how many will be able to take advantage of that.

Forgot to include the link to the AP story, sorry 'bout that.

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FBC_PENN_STATE_ABUSE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-07-23-09-31-28

 

I agree Clint, they were severe indeed. I also agree this is a warning to other schools. Our local news station was comparing it to SMU's 'Death Penalty', and they pointed out that after all these years SMU has still not fully recovered to their pre-penalty level of play. (To be fair, they cheated flagrently to achieve that level, hence the Death Penalty)

 

I watched the NCAA President this morning, explaining his reasoning and he made some sense. It is indeed a plan to send to other schools that the "football first" attitude, at all costs will not be tolerated any longer. Already advertisers are pulling out of Penn State sponsorship. The thought of "lost revenue" will get the other school's attention if nothing else does.

 

I was simply posting what I interpreted his CBS interview seemed to say, and his later AP interview contained this:

"One of the grave dangers stemming from our love of sports is that the sports themselves can become too big to fail, indeed, too big to even challenge," Emmert said. "The result can be an erosion of academic values that are replaced by the value of hero worship and winning at all costs. All involved in intercollegiate athletics must be watchful that programs and individuals do not overwhelm the values of higher education."

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NCAA president hopes Penn State penalties send message | Breaking News | providencejournal.com | The Providence Journal

While the "football/sports" factories will still exist without doubt, but just perhaps these sanctions will get the attention of the university presidents and athletic departments. I did notice that State Farm has pulled its sponsorship of all Penn State football, but not of any other sport played by Penn.. They also announced that if Penn is playing an away game, that game will still have State Farm ads, if the other team is also sponsored by State Farm.

I think the loss of about 100 wins in the record are going to be remembered long after other sections of the penalties are "water under the bridge". The 60 million in fines sounds huge, but when compared to the overall budget, and how it will be paid in installments, it isn't that crippling. I did like the fact that Penn couldn't pull funding from other sports to pay the football fine. It has to come out of the football funding completely.

 

Not hard at all. We Canadians have hockey, the Kiwi's have rugby and some sissy nations like soccer. They are religions to some, but nothing transcends the protection of our innocents, including religion. There simply is no excuse.

KTK

 

Here is a link to the news conference which addressed the NCAA actions by Emmert.

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