That's not good enough.
This issue will hang over the team through January. I assume end of season means after their bowl game.
PSU is 8-1 and has the toughest strech of games comming up. They could be 8-4 or headed to the Big 10 champ game.
Moreover, what Paterno did wrong is bigger than any game.
He must go now.
Otherwise he gets off easy.
Paterno, despite the latest press release from PSU, will retire, at the latest, after the next game, if not before. He has lost the ability to effectively lead the team and represent PSU.
Paterno stated by agreeing to retire at the end of the year the PSU board of trustees no longer needed to be concerned with him.
That statement is all you need to know about JoePa. A real man would walk away today; not at the end of the "football" year, not after the weekend "game," not tomorrow. Today.
In their next road game, he should be forced to stand on the sidelines, and not hide out in the booth.
If he quit now, would he get paid for the rest of the games this year?
has to do better wrote:
Paterno stated by agreeing to retire at the end of the year the PSU board of trustees no longer needed to be concerned with him.
That statement is all you need to know about JoePa. A real man would walk away today; not at the end of the "football" year, not after the weekend "game," not tomorrow. Today.
No, a real man would honor his commitment to the dozens of players he coaches. You, sir, are a coward.
[and now we wait for the ill-informed and half-cocked retort about how a real man wouldn't let Sandusky get away with molestation . . . I'll wait, go ahead and pretend you have any clue about what actually went on, and continue to pin the blame on the least blame-able person in this whole mess]
In cases like this, where there is a boss, the boss is responsible for following through. That didn't happen. Not reporting this to proper authorities, meaning outside of the PSU circle, was Paterno's grave error.
I think the time line and grand jury report show two things:
Joe did do as much as he could back in 1998.
Joe isn't as all powerful at PSU at this point as people think.
I think Joe was very directly responsible for Sandusky retiring back in '99 based on what happened in '98, but that is as far as his remaining power got. I think he was pressured from above to leave it alone after that. I think the AD/President etc. threatened him with his being removed if he led to it coming out at that point because it would hurt the university and it's cash cow football program. I think in 2002 when it came up again (when Sandusky had zero attachment to the football program) Joe again went to the AD (as basically an un-involved 3rd party) and tried to get something done and was told the administration would do something about it but that it really wasn't any of his (Joe's) business and if he wanted to keep coaching he should leave it alone.
This explanation is about the only way to explain his SUPERIORS lying about this under oath. By then they knew it was coming out, so they were beyond being able to protect PSU's reputation. If Joe was keeping them from doing something about it, then this was their chance to get themselves out of it by pointing the finger elsewhere. Instead, they lied ... TO PROTECT THEMSELVES BECAUSE THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR IT NOT COMING OUT and nothing being done.
As far as what was the right thing to do - and the right thing to do is not necessarily just meeting the requirements of the organizational chart of the university - was go the police. It's very clear: a crime was alleged - a heinous crime by most moral standards - and therefore the authorities must investigate. Now, you decide. Read this verbatim from the grand jury report. If people are going to deify Joe Paterno, what you will read here will give you pause. He could have picked up the phone, at any time, and made sure the police investigated.
Here is the relevant excerpt:
" On March 1, 2002, a Penn State graduate assistant (“graduate assistant:) who was then 28 years old, entered the locker room at the Lasch Football Building on the University Park Campus on a Friday night near the beginning of Spring Break.
The graduate assistant, who was familiar with Sandusky, was going to put some newly purchased sneakers in his locker and get some recruiting tapes to watch. It was about 9:30 p.m. As the graduate assistant entered the locker room doors, he was surprised to find the lights and showers on. He then heard slapping sounds.He believed the sounds to be those of sexual activity. As the graduate assistant put the sneakers in his locker, he looked into the shower. He saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be 10 years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant was shocked but noticed that both Victim 2 and Sandusky saw him. The graduate assistant left immediately, distraught.
The graduate assistant went to his office and called his father, reporting to him what he had seen. His father told the graduate assistant to leave the building and come to his home. The graduate assistant and his father decided that the graduate assistant had to report what he had seen to Coach Joe Paterno (“Paterno”), head football coach of Penn State. The next morning, a Saturday, the graduate assistant telephoned Paterno and went to Paterno’s home, where he reported what he had seen.
Joseph V. Paterno testified to receiving the graduate assistant’s report at his home on a Saturday morning. Paterno testified that the graduate assistant was very upset. Paterno called Tim Curley (“Curley”), Penn State Athletic Director and Paterno’s immediate superior, to his home the very next day, a Sunday, and reported to him that the graduate assistant had seen Jerry Sandusky in the Lasch Building showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy.
Approximately one and a half weeks later, the graduate assistant was called to a meeting with Penn State Athletic Director Curley and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz (“Schultz”). The graduate assistant reported to Curley and Schultz that he had witnessed what he believed to be Sandusky having anal sex with a boy in the Lasch Building showers. Curley and Schultz assured the graduate assistant that they would look into it and determine what further action they would take. Paterno was not present for this meeting.
The graduate assistant heard back from Curley a couple of weeks later. He was told that Sandusky’s keys to the locker room were taken away and that the incident had been reported to The Second Mile. The graduate assistant was never questioned by University Police and no other entity conducted an investigation until he testified in Grand Jury in December, 2010. The Grand Jury finds the graduate assistant’s testimony to be extremely credible."
Since Joe maintained that he did not know about the 1998 incident, that would be perjury if he testified to the Grand Jury. There is apparently commentary with the then-GA saying he did provide Paterno with a more graphic version of events than Paterno has acknowledged. If today's information is contrary to what the Board had and used in the decision to resign at the end of the season there is the possibility of an immediate (at time of verification) firing.
Someone in PA wrote:
I think the time line and grand jury report show two things:
Joe did do as much as he could back in 1998.
Joe isn't as all powerful at PSU at this point as people think.
I think Joe was very directly responsible for Sandusky retiring back in '99 based on what happened in '98, but that is as far as his remaining power got. I think he was pressured from above to leave it alone after that. I think the AD/President etc. threatened him with his being removed if he led to it coming out at that point because it would hurt the university and it's cash cow football program. I think in 2002 when it came up again (when Sandusky had zero attachment to the football program) Joe again went to the AD (as basically an un-involved 3rd party) and tried to get something done and was told the administration would do something about it but that it really wasn't any of his (Joe's) business and if he wanted to keep coaching he should leave it alone.
This explanation is about the only way to explain his SUPERIORS lying about this under oath. By then they knew it was coming out, so they were beyond being able to protect PSU's reputation. If Joe was keeping them from doing something about it, then this was their chance to get themselves out of it by pointing the finger elsewhere. Instead, they lied ... TO PROTECT THEMSELVES BECAUSE THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR IT NOT COMING OUT and nothing being done.
asfdkj wrote:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7211281/penn-state-nittany-lions-joe-paterno-retire-end-season-sources-say
I saw that, too. The dude has to retire. His reputation is in the toilet now. Sorry way for a legend in coaching to have his career end.