Joe Paterno and the Sanctions Against Penn State

[Coito ergo sum]

O.k. -- I must confess I haven't followed the allegations against Joe Paterno all that much. Apparently, he is accused posthumously of having covered up Sandusky's sex abuse of children at Penn State University.

So, the University is being socked a $60 million fine and all of their wins from 1998 to 2012 are rescinded, and they can not participate in "bowl games" (which is US collegiate football championship games). http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... ating-1998

They pulled down the Joe Paterno statue today, too. I was wondering,though, did Paterno himself do anything wrong? Maybe I'm missing some facts, but as I understand it, he learned of the allegation from one of his coaches, and reported it to University officials. Paterno didn't witness anything, as far as we know, himself. So, what else was he required to do?

The university officials, as I understand it, behaved inexcusably, by lying about it and covering it up. But, did Paterno?

[Ian]

I've tried to ignore the details on this too, but from what I gather these penalties are definitely a case of overstepping the bounds of justice. Most of the university administration that was around during Sandusky's time there are long gone, and I'll give the current staff the benefit of the doubt in that they probably acted standoffishly towards what must have felt like a federal witch-hunt, as opposed to actively trying to cover anything up. Besides, not one of the athletes playing for them now has anything at all to do with this, much less any of the students; I mention these two groups because they're the ones who're going to take it in the teeth as far as forfeiting bowl games and helping to pay for tens of millions in sanctions thrown at the university. I wouldn't be surprised that there are some people out there who are guilty of obstructing justice, and they need to be dealt with, but to blast the entire university for what happened years ago seems to be very excessive and hardly deserving of the word "justice".

[maiforpeace]

They pulled down the Joe Paterno statue today, too. I was wondering,though, did Paterno himself do anything wrong? Maybe I'm missing some facts, but as I understand it, he learned of the allegation from one of his coaches, and reported it to University officials. Paterno didn't witness anything, as far as we know, himself. So, what else was he required to do?

The university officials, as I understand it, behaved inexcusably, by lying about it and covering it up. But, did Paterno?

Apparently so.

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

Posthumous findings
Former FBI director Louis Freeh, whose firm was hired by the Penn State Board of Trustees to conduct an independent investigation into the scandal, concluded, after interviewing over 400 people and reviewing over 3.5 million documents, that Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz had deliberately conspired to conceal Sandusky's actions in order to protect publicity surrounding Penn State's vaunted football program. [3][4][5] Freeh's investigation found that by their actions, the four men "failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade." The report concluded that Paterno, along with Schultz, Spanier and Curley "concealed Sandusky's activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities."[68] Emails uncovered by Freeh’s investigation revealed that Paterno had lied to the grand jury on at least two occasions: first, when testifying that he was unaware of any possible child abuse by Sandusky prior to the 2001 Lasch shower rape, and second, in claiming that he had only once spoken to Tim Curley about the 2001 incident. Emails uncovered by Freeh's team showed Paterno had, in fact, closely followed an earlier 1998 investigation about possible child molestation by Sandusky. In 2001, while Paterno claimed his only discussion regarding McQueary's report to him about Sandusky in the Lasch showers was with Curley immediately following the incident, subsequent emails revealed he had engaged in additional conversations with Curley pressuring him (and Schultz and Spanier) not to report the rape to police. [68][69][70] [70]
In addition, the report said that even after Sandusky's retirement in 1999 Paterno, Schultz, Spanier and Curley "empowered Sandusky to attract potential victims to the campus and football events by allowing him to have continued, unrestricted and unsupervised access to the University's facilities and affiliation with the University's prominent football program."[68]
On July 12, 2012, Mark Parker, president of Nike, Inc., said that Nike will remove Paterno's name from the Joe Paterno Child Development Center, a child care facility at the company's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.[71][72]
In a July 14, 2012 article titled "'Paterno Won Sweeter Deal Even as Scandal Played Out'" The New York Times reported that Paterno sought renegotiation of his contract in January 2011, the same month he became aware of the investigation, although his contract did not expire until the end of 2012. The contract renegotiations continued during the same time that Paterno testified before a grand jury about Sandusky. By August 2011, a deal was reached for a $3 million payout if Paterno agreed the 2011 season would be his last. The Times reported that "the board of trustees — bombarded with hate mail and threatened with a defamation lawsuit by Mr. Paterno's family — gave the family virtually everything it wanted, with a package worth roughly $5.5 million." The article stated that the Paterno family has "angrily disputed the conclusions of an independent investigation that asserted Mr. Paterno and other top university officials protected a serial predator in order to "avoid the consequences of bad publicity" for the university, its football program and its coach's reputation." A lawyer for the family also claimed that the retirement package was proposed by Penn State.[73]
On July 17, 2012, Brown University announced their decision to remove Paterno's name from their annual award honoring outstanding male freshman athletes, also stating that his current status in the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame is now under review.[74] After the Freeh report was released, the NCAA vacated all of Paterno's wins from 1998 through 2011 as part of its punishment of Penn State for its response to the child sex abuse scandal.[9]

[Coito ergo sum]

I was aware they had emails from Curley and some other guy, but from what I understood, there were no damning emails about Paterno. I am still not sure from that summary that Paterno himself was involved in a cover up.

[mozg]

I was aware they had emails from Curley and some other guy, but from what I understood, there were no damning emails about Paterno. I am still not sure from that summary that Paterno himself was involved in a cover up.

One of the emails specifically states that the initial plan was to contact the authorities but that after speaking with Paterno, they decided against it.

CNN quoted the email as saying:

“After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps. I am having trouble with going to everyone but the person involved. I would be more comfortable meeting with the person and tell them about the information we received and tell them we are aware of the first situation,”

That's pretty damning as far as emails about Paterno go.

[Coito ergo sum]

I was aware they had emails from Curley and some other guy, but from what I understood, there were no damning emails about Paterno. I am still not sure from that summary that Paterno himself was involved in a cover up.

One of the emails specifically states that the initial plan was to contact the authorities but that after speaking with Paterno, they decided against it.

CNN quoted the email as saying:

“After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps. I am having trouble with going to everyone but the person involved. I would be more comfortable meeting with the person and tell them about the information we received and tell them we are aware of the first situation,”

That's pretty damning as far as emails about Paterno go.

Oh, I don't know. it doesn't say what Joe said. It just says that this guy talked to Joe, and now feels more comfortable going to the person involved. Who knows what Joe said to him? Did he say "don't go to the police," or did they review different options, and maybe there was some concern over what would happen if the allegation turned out to be false?

I mean -- I'm no big fan of Paterno. I didn't go to Penn State and don't idolize the guy. And, i haven't followed the evidence and events in this disgusting case.

I think they probably have some sort of damning evidence. They measures they are taking are pretty drastic. But, it just seems so unbelievable to me that someone would affirmatively cover something like this up...

[mistermack]

I don't get the logic of this.
If I know abuse has happened, and the people in charge want to cover it up, I can perfectly easily prevent that cover up. Just by telling them that if they cover it up, I'll make sure it gets out.

If he did nothing, he's equally guilty of covering it up.

[mozg]

I don't get the logic of this.
If I know abuse has happened, and the people in charge want to cover it up, I can perfectly easily prevent that cover up. Just by telling them that if they cover it up, I'll make sure it gets out.

If he did nothing, he's equally guilty of covering it up.

Especially if you were Joe Paterno in State College.

To say that he had a lot of power at Penn State would be a severe understatement.

[Twoflower]

Wasn't he basically the king of the university?

[mozg]

Wasn't he basically the king of the university?

So much so that the Board of Trustees didn't make decisions that Paterno disagreed with.

At one point, they suggested that he might want to retire. He told them 'No' and they never brought it up again.

[Ian]

Wasn't he basically the king of the university?

That was the reputation, but that isn't to say that he was the university.

This sanction by the NCAA is a gross miscarriage of justice. It's like giving a whole family jail time because unbeknownst to them the father turned out to be a crook. Tens of thousands of students still go there and will go there in the next few years, and they're going to take a lot of heat for this, with their wallets and with their school's reputation. To say nothing of every one of the football program's current athletes whose careers are basically screwed because their next four years of play will barely be noticed by professional scouts, as the stars will transfer and none of them will be going to a bowl game until 2016 at the earliest anyway. I totally agree with smashing Paterno's legacy, and even a fine against the university if officials were involved with a cover-up, but bashing the university and everyone who goes there for the next four years doesn't do anyone a bit of good. The time to deal with the past and move on should start now, not after another four years.

[Warren Dew]

I was aware they had emails from Curley and some other guy, but from what I understood, there were no damning emails about Paterno. I am still not sure from that summary that Paterno himself was involved in a cover up.

One of the emails specifically states that the initial plan was to contact the authorities but that after speaking with Paterno, they decided against it.

CNN quoted the email as saying:

“After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps. I am having trouble with going to everyone but the person involved. I would be more comfortable meeting with the person and tell them about the information we received and tell them we are aware of the first situation,”

That's pretty damning as far as emails about Paterno go.

As mistermack points out, there was nothing stopping the writer of the email from going to the police anyway.

What if Paterno just said, "maybe you should get both sides of the story"? I find the email to be pretty weak evidence, if it can be called evidence at all.

That said, maybe this will be an opportunity for Penn state to realize that NCAA athletics is basically a distraction from the university's mission of educating students, anyway.

[mozg]

As mistermack points out, there was nothing stopping the writer of the email from going to the police anyway.

Victim #1 was treated to death threats for going to the police anyway. The original DA investigating the rapes went missing.

What if Paterno just said, "maybe you should get both sides of the story"? I find the email to be pretty weak evidence, if it can be called evidence at all.

Paterno had a history of covering up crimes committed by members of the PSU football organization, including the players. He preferred to handle things himself, regardless of what the players did, including incidents of burglary and assault, and the State College police played along with it.

http://www.crossingbroad.com/2011/11/jo ... ich-d.html

That said, maybe this will be an opportunity for Penn state to realize that NCAA athletics is basically a distraction from the university's mission of educating students, anyway.

Something that I think more than just Penn State needs to do.

[tantamount]

Wasn't he basically the king of the university?

That was the reputation, but that isn't to say that he was the university.

This sanction by the NCAA is a gross miscarriage of justice. It's like giving a whole family jail time because unbeknownst to them the father turned out to be a crook. Tens of thousands of students still go there and will go there in the next few years, and they're going to take a lot of heat for this, with their wallets and with their school's reputation. To say nothing of every one of the football program's current athletes whose careers are basically screwed because their next four years of play will barely be noticed by professional scouts, as the stars will transfer and none of them will be going to a bowl game until 2016 at the earliest anyway. I totally agree with smashing Paterno's legacy, and even a fine against the university if officials were involved with a cover-up, but bashing the university and everyone who goes there for the next four years doesn't do anyone a bit of good. The time to deal with the past and move on should start now, not after another four years.

The whole NCAA system is an overreach. Young men in the prime of their lives, the vast majority of whom will never make professional football money, nevertheless earn billions for their colleges and NCAA executives. (Yet, they aren't allowed to partake of those billions because-- trust me-- it would corrupt the system.) They also suffer micro-concussions that may give them early dementia, which we're only now learning about. If you have a football scholarship and are injured, your scholarship is often revoked. If NCAA weren't grabbing all the money, perhaps some of that money could actually be going to paying college players for their services.

Sorry, devolved into an anti-NCAA screed there. Back on topic: So here the NCAA can actually use their muscle to do something right. Sure, it's a stiff penalty, but is going back to "business as usual" really the message you want to send? Yes, the penalty is severe, but so were the crimes. And, it's unfortunate that current student athletes are going to suffer, but there's no way to surgically sanction Penn State's football executives without there being blowback on football program. And the stats removal shows they're serious. This will also serve as a hefty deterrent to any future coverup at an American university. Penn State would be foolish to contest it. They should just take their medicine, and do their time.

In the meantime, they should tell the students to stop giving sulking interviews about how these damned abuse victims "ruined everything." OK, they lost some money and some Paterno W/L stats. Their stats will start accruing again and they'll be in a bowl game in 4 years. And noone's stopping them from tailgating, which is what it's all about anyway.