‘Devastated’: Penn St. Coach Joe Paterno to Retire Amid Footbal Sex Scandal
- Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:25am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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Photo: AP
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State football coach Joe Paterno will retire at the end of the season, his long and illustrious career brought down because he failed to do all he could about an allegation of child sex abuse against a former assistant.
“This is a tragedy,” Paterno said. “It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”
Paterno has been besieged by criticism since former defensive coordinator and one-time heir apparent Jerry Sandusky was charged over the weekend with molesting eight young boys between 1994 and 2009. Athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz have been charged with failing to notify authorities after an eyewitness reported a 2002 assault.
Paterno decided to retire at age 84, in the middle of his 46th season with the Nittany Lions. He won 409 games, a record for major college football, but now, the grandfatherly coach known as “Joe Pa,“ who had painstakingly burnished a reputation for winning ”the right way,” leaves the only school he’s ever coached in disgrace.
“I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case,” he said. “I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.”
But Paterno might not be able to execute his exit strategy as the school’s board of trustees is still considering its options, which could include forcing Paterno to leave immediately.
Paterno has not been accused of legal wrongdoing. But he has been assailed, in what the state police commissioner called a lapse of “moral responsibility,” for not doing more to stop Sandusky, whose attorney maintains his client’s innocence.
Paterno has been questioned over his apparent failure to follow up on a report of the 2002 incident, in which Sandusky allegedly sodomized a 10-year-old boy in the showers at the team’s football complex. A witness, Mike McQueary, is currently receivers coach for the team but was a graduate assistant at the time.
Paterno told the athletic director, Tim Curley, who has since stepped down and has charged with lying to the state grand jury investigating the case. The Penn State vice president has also been charged, and the university president could follow.
But in the place known as Happy Valley, none held the same status as Paterno. And in the end, he could not withstand the backlash from a scandal that goes well beyond the everyday stories of corruption in college sports.
“If this is true we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families,” Paterno said Sunday, after the news broke, in a prepared statement. “They are in our prayers.”
The coach defended his decision to take the news to his athletic director. Paterno said it was obvious that the graduate student was “distraught,“ but said the graduate student did not tell him about the ”very specific actions” in the grand jury report.
After Paterno reported the incident to Curley, Sandusky was told to stay away from the school, but critics say the coach should have done more – tried to identify and help the victim, for example, or alerted authorities.
“Here we are again,” John Salveson, former president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in an interview earlier this week. “When an institution discovers abuse of a kid, their first reaction was to protect the reputation of the institution and the perpetrator.”
Paterno’s requirement that his players not just achieve success but adhere to a moral code, that they win with honor, transcended his sport. Mike Krzyzewski, the Duke basketball coach, said in June for an ESPN special on Paterno: “Values are never compromised. That’s the bottom line.”
His sudden departure leaves both his fans and detractors to ask who the real “Joe Pa” was.
Was he a gentle once-in-a-lifetime leader with a knack for molding champions?
Or was he simply another gridiron pragmatist, a detached football CEO, his sense of right and wrong diluted by decades of coddling from “yes” men paid to make his problems disappear.
It will be a debate for years, and history will decide whether the enduring image will be that of Paterno surrounded by all those reporters as he hurried to practice this week, or his signature look on the sidelines.
Rolled-up khakis. Jet-black sneakers. Smoky, thick glasses. That famous Brooklyn accent that came off only as whiny as he wanted it to be.
“Deep down, I feel I’ve had an impact. I don‘t feel I’ve wasted my career,” Paterno once said. “If I did, I would have gotten out a long time ago.”
Along the road to the wins record, Paterno turned Penn State into one of the game’s best-known programs, and the standard-bearer for college football success in the East.
National titles in 1982 and 1986 cemented him as one of the game’s greats. In all, Paterno guided five teams to unbeaten, untied seasons, and he reached 300 wins faster than any other coach.
A year after he arrived at sleepy Penn State in 1966, Paterno began a 30-0-1 streak fueled by players such as Jack Ham and Dennis Onkotz.
But the Nittany Lions fell short in the polls, finishing No. 2 in 1968 and 1969 despite 11-0 records, and No. 5 in 1973 despite a 12-0 record.
In 1969, Texas edged out Penn State for the title with help from an unlikely source: President Richard Nixon declared the Longhorns No. 1 after their bowl game.
“I’d like to know,” Paterno later said, “how could the president know so little about Watergate in 1973, and so much about college football in 1969?”
Elite status finally arrived in the 1980s. The Nittany Lions claimed national titles in 1982, with a 27-23 win over Georgia at the Sugar Bowl, and in 1986, intercepting Miami’s Vinny Testaverde five times in a 14-10 win at the Fiesta Bowl.
They have made several title runs since then, including the 2005 run to the Orange Bowl and an 11-1 regular-season campaign in 2008 that ended with a trip to the Rose Bowl and a 37-23 loss to Southern California.
“He will go down as the greatest football coach in the history of the game. Every young coach, in my opinion, can take a lesson from him,” former Florida coach Urban Meyer said after his last game with the Gators, a 37-24 win over Penn State at the 2011 Outback Bowl.
Paterno’s longevity became all the more remarkable as college football transformed into a big-money business.
The school estimated there have been at least 888 head coaching changes at FBS schools since Paterno took the job. He is the all-time leader in bowl appearances (37) and wins (24). And he sent more than 250 players to the NFL.
On Oct. 29, Penn State beat Illinois 10-7, earning Paterno win No. 409, breaking a tie with Grambling State’s Eddie Robinson for most in Division I.
All he wanted to do, he had said two days earlier, was “hopefully have a little luck and have a little fun doing it. I’ve been lucky enough to be around some great athletes.”
He said the success came because “the good Lord kept me healthy, not because I’m better than anybody else. It‘s because I’ve been around a lot longer than anybody else.”
So long, in fact, that it seemed there was no getting rid of him, even as age and injuries crept up and his famous resistance to modern technology – tweeting, texting and other so-called must-haves of 21st century recruiting – turned him into a dinosaur.
But just as much, it was a string of mediocre seasons in the early 2000s that had fans wondering whether it was finally time for Paterno to step aside.
Others questioned how much actual work Paterno did in his later years. He always went out of his way to heap praise on his veteran assistants, especially if an injury help him from getting in a player’s face in practice or demonstrating a technique.
“I’m not where I want to be, the blazing speed I used to have,” he said in October, poking fun at himself. “It’s been tough. … it’s a pain in the neck, let me put it that way.”
Paterno cut back on road trips to see recruits. He ended his annual summer caravan across Pennsylvania to exchange handshakes and smiles with alumni and donors.
He often said he never read the newspaper – though the critical comments got back to him somehow. Some suspected his wife, Sue, kept him abreast of the news.
“You guys write stories about how I sit around and don’t do anything,” Paterno said after watching his 409th victory from the Beaver Stadium press box. “I just hope we can help the team do the things that they want to do.”
Still, the question persisted: How much longer was he going to coach?
It was, until this week, the biggest question to dog him. That made him no different from the handful of coaching lifers who stay in the game into their 70s and beyond.
“Who knows,” Paterno said with a straight face in October, when he was asked how his latest injuries affected his future. “Maybe I’ll go 10 years.”
The terms of his departure conflict significantly with the reputation he built over nearly a half-century of turning a quaint program into a powerhouse with instant name recognition.
He made it to the big-time without losing a sense of where he was – State College, population 42,000, a picturesque college town smack-dab in the middle of Pennsylvania.
Paterno and his wife, Sue, raised five children in State College. Anybody could ring up his modest ranch home using the number listed in the phone book under “Paterno, Joseph V.” Anybody could walk up to offer good luck as he walked to home games.
Former players would parade through his living room, especially on a busy game weekend, for a chance to say “Hello.”
For the most part, Paterno shunned the spotlight, though he had a knack for making a joke that could instantly light up a room.
“You guys have to talk about something. The fans have to put something on those – what do you guys call those things, Twittle-do, Twittle-dee?” Paterno cracked at one Big Ten media day.
He was referring, of course, to the social media site Twitter – and no, the technology-averse Paterno didn’t have his own account.
Paterno had no qualms mocking himself or the media, with which he could be abrasive at times. Stubborn to a fault, Paterno also had his share of run-ins with his bosses or administrators, as might be expected for someone who has spent decades with the same employer.
His status didn’t make him immune from external criticism. As his reputation grew, so did the spotlight on his on-field decisions and program as a whole.
In 2002, following a stretch of run-ins with officials over controversial calls, an effigy of a football official, yellow flag in hand, was seen hanging on the front door of Paterno’s home. Though he never said how the doll got on the door, Paterno hinted his wife, Sue, might be responsible, and it was all done in fun.
After he started the 21st century with four losing seasons in five years, Paterno faced growing calls for his dismissal – once considered heresy in Happy Valley – during the 2004 season.
The next year, Penn State went 11-1 and won the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions capped the campaign with a thrilling 26-23 win in triple overtime at the Orange Bowl against Florida State and Paterno’s longtime friend coach Bobby Bowden.
Following a messy split, Bowden left the Seminoles after the 2009 season after 34 years, finishing with 389 wins.
Asked in 2010 whether any contemporary coach would stick around as he and Paterno had, Bowden said: “Not likely. It doesn’t seem to be the style nowadays.” He cited high salaries and the demands that come with the big paycheck as reasons, along with the allure of professional coaching.
“And there doesn’t seem to be the desire to stay in it as long as Joe and I have had,” Bowden said.
To be sure, Paterno has had other opportunities – and they didn’t all have to do with coaching. A 1950 graduate of Brown University, Paterno said his father, Angelo, hoped his son would someday become president. Paterno himself had plans to go to law school.
He also played football at Brown. A quarterback and cornerback, Paterno set a defensive record with 14 career interceptions – a distinction he boasts about on occasion to his team.
Law school never materialized. At 23, he was coaxed by Rip Engle, his former football coach at Brown, to work with him when Engle moved to Penn State in 1950.
“I had no intention to coach when I got out of Brown,” Paterno said in 2007 at Beaver Stadium in an interview before being inducted into the Hall of Fame. “Come to this hick town? From Brooklyn?”
In 1963, a fellow Brooklyn native, the late Al Davis, became the general manager-coach of the Oakland Raiders of the AFL and offered Paterno the job of offensive coordinator. He turned Davis down in spite of an offer to triple his salary to about $18,000 and a new car.
Three years later, Paterno took over as Penn State’s head coach after Engle retired. The New England Patriots offered Paterno the head-coaching job in the early 1970, only to be rebuffed.
When Engle and Paterno arrived, Penn State had seen three coaches in three years and had an offense made up mostly of walk-ons. Engle never had a losing season at Penn State, but when Paterno took over in 1966, the Lions still were considered “Eastern football” – in other words, inferior.
As the program turned into something much bigger than that, Paterno’s fans always insisted it was more than simply about football and winning.
But the program hasn’t been a perennial Top 10 contender, like it had been through the 1990s – not that Paterno measured success entirely by the outcome on the field.
“He teaches us about really just growing up and being a man,” former linebacker Paul Posluszny, now with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, once said. “Besides the football, he’s preparing us to be good men in life.”
Paterno was a frequent speaker on ethics in sports, a conscience for a world often infiltrated by scandal or shady characters. He made sure his players went to class.
As of 2011, Penn State has had 49 academic All-Americans – 47 under Paterno – the third-highest total among FBS institutions.
The team’s graduation rates consistently ranked among the best in the Big Ten. In 2010, Penn State‘s 84 percent rate trailed only Northwestern’s 95, according to the NCAA.
In the ESPN special, Krzyzewski said Paterno had been able to “change how you teach … without changing the values of how you teach.”
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Comments (143)
landonh5
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:12pmPoor Joe Pa. This isn’t the wa to go out. But he still will be remembered as one of the greatest coaches ever.
Report Post »patbarker
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:37pmyou‘ll think he’ll be rememberedas great??? maybe not…he’s in love with PSU, that’s for sure. Looking pretty cowardly right about now!! I‘m guessing there’s lots of troubled young men, families b/c of Joe’s …err, greatness??? what a joke!!
Report Post »the hawk
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:40pmYes I cant believe he knew about ! But if he did he sold his soul for football !
Report Post »Still think I;d fire everyone in the football programs front office and all the senior coaches !
tifosa
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:07pmYep, registered Republicans, whodathunkit?
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/09/jerry_sandusky_and_joe_paterno_registered_republicans/
Report Post »Clive
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:21pmof tifosa, i actually like your posts…… but are you claiming that liberals haven’t done horrible things to kids? because you know there is no correlation between party affiliation and sexual abuse…. sick people are abound. they come in all sizes and shapes.
Report Post »arx
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:27pmLook at how long this Blaze story is…two sentences on what this creep of a coach allowed to happen, and 50 pages on his illustrious career.
Report Post »motonutt
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 4:55pmAnother example of the destructive evil of homosexuality…..old Joe’s not quite the god they thought he was…..brought down by a sick twisted queer. Joe should have done the right thing and he didn’t.
Report Post »KOCHLEFFEL
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 5:10pm10 year old boy, sodomized in the shower? I don’t get it. Did that boy ever tell his parents?
Report Post »DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 5:17pm@Pat-thedog-barker
The world is an irrational mob. It can’t think. It just emotes. I think this emotional mob mentality is at play in this Penn State scandal. Something bad happens or someone does something bad and the mob demands heads roll. The frenzy begins in the media with them insinuating wrongdoing. The media ask just the right questions of people to make them look guilty. What did you know and when did you know? Don’t you think you had a moral obligation to have done more? The bloodlust of the mob is then not satisfied until they have had enough heads. It really is quite sickening.
The greatest college coach of all-time who demonstrated integrity time after time is sacked because “he should have done more”?
Sandusky might have victimized young boys, but now Paterno is a victim of the media mob.
Report Post »DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 5:19pm@Patbarker,
You’re the joke, you are irrational and I bet you’re ugly too.
Report Post »DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 5:21pm@ARX,
You’re a disgrace to the Marines with your knee-jerk butt-licking of everyone who has jumped on the kill-Paterno bandwagon.
Report Post »lillymckim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:04pmWhen a man looks the other way as “children” are being molested .. the man is no hero.
Report Post »voxpopuli2012
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:04pmI wonder if the behavior of some of Paterno‘s critics her could stand up to the kind of judgementalism they’re dishing out.
To ARX: Get ready to see a lot more of this kind of behavior now that Emperor Obama has opened military service to sodomites.
Report Post »lillymckim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:21pmThe only devastation and sadness I feel are for those boys who were dependent on adults to defend and protect them.. they all failed… shame is all he and Penn should feel .. shame on all of you who look the other way.
Report Post »kfouche
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:51pmno that was how he would have been remembered, now he will die a broke lawsuit ridden pariah (deservedly so) who cared more about good PR and his teams’ reputation than a kid being raped in a locker room, and read the timeline of events it was rape, it was a preadolescent kid, and the graduate assistant told him it was rape, he knew it so whatever He needs to get off his knees cause the time for prayer ways what almost 10 years ago (oh and how many kids did Paterno enable that monster to rape in 10 years)and get out his wallet- I hope he and the rest of those human garbage people are sued for everything they have, we need to get our priorities back and soon i can’t believe that this many people could have known this and NO ONE went to the police- its a game you morons its a game a kid is worth more than a game. what did Jesus say should happen to people who corrupted and harmed children? oh I forgot Jesus is nothing now and we have no morality we are barbaric pigs now right????
Report Post »tmplarnite
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:10pmThis is HOOEY…he was HEAD coach…he knew…he knows…he is tryjng to whistle as he passes the grave yard….his death as an icon is here!!!
Report Post »DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:51pmThe world is an irrational mob. It can’t think. It just emotes. I think this emotional mob mentality is at play in this Penn State scandal. Something bad happens or someone does something bad and the mob demands heads roll. The frenzy begins in the media with them insinuating wrongdoing. The media ask just the right questions of people to make them look guilty. What did you know and when did you know? Don’t you think you had a moral obligation to have done more? The bloodlust of the mob is then not satisfied until they have had enough heads. It really is quite sickening.
The greatest college coach of all-time who demonstrated integrity time after time is sacked because “he should have done more”?
Sandusky might have victimized young boys, but now Paterno is a victim of the media mob.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:17pm@DogTags Without question he is the greatest college coach of all time and demonstrated that prowess year after year and seems to care about the players as individuals more than any other coach in modern history. The Penn State graduation rate and lack of recruiting scandals speak for themselves and are without equal among the top flight teams. Having said that, he is after all a human being and suffers from flaws and shortcomings as do we all. The notion that he fulfilled his obligation upon hearing of the second incidence with his assistant coach by reporting it to officials is absurd. Are we to believe that Coach Paterno was not the final say regarding the football operation at Penn State and did not personally select and hire his assistant coaches. He is not a stupid man and new the gravity and legal implications of the allegations. I don’t think Coach Paterno ever had to justify suspending or firing any of his coaches over the years. In this case his response is the equivalent of looking the other way. As I would doubt that he did not participate in some level of discussions regarding the findings of any investigation and the decision. If Coach Paterno is half the guy he has presented himself to be, I can’t imagine he would have wanted an individual who had been accused of such behavior around him for more than 2 minutes.
Report Post »voxpopuli2012
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:32pmTMPLARNITE: If you have proof that Paterno knew what Sandusky was doing, produce it!. I think DOGTAGS is correct…Paterno is being victimized by an emotional mob.
No where has anyone proven that Paterno had first hand knowledge of Sandusky’s crimes. No police department in the country can act on hearsay information. What about the graduate student who actually saw the crime in progress. Why aren’t his morals being questioned because he failed to come to the aid of the child or report the matter to the police?
And what about all that “tolerance” that is practiced on college campuses? Could that have had some impact on Paterno’s response? I don’t believe for one moment that Paterno was trying to hide anything. I think he did all that he believed he could do by bringing the matter to the attention of his superiors.
Why aren’t we having a conversation about the pervasive homosexuality on college campuses and in collegiate athletics?
Report Post »Clive
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:16pm^ either you are an idiot, or you have no spine. if someone told me a ten year old boy was being raped, i would have called the cops, 99% of people would… Joe Pa didn’t… and because of that, sandusky went on to rape many more children.
You cannot defend this man. He shouldn’t be able to finish the season, he should be fired on the spot.
Report Post »arx
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:18pmExactly right Clive. These people defending him act as if being a successful coach somehow overshadows the man’s failure to act when he KNEW a pedophile worked for him. The fact that McQueary (fitting name by the way) personally reported the rape of a child to him is not in dispute. What more do you numbnuts need? Video of the coach watching? HE KNEW, and that is enough. He should not only be fired immediately, but hang his head in shame for the rest of his miserable life. There are some things in life that you have to get right, and he failed miserably. Screw his accomplishments in football…they mean nothing compared with his failure ot confront and stop such unrestrained evil.
Report Post »momroots
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:21pmHe is NOT the greatest college coach of all time. The greatest pervert of all time – maybe. Defense of this guy makes me SICK. Who are you people?????
Report Post »GiveUsJustice
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:29pmClive
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:16pm
^ either you are an idiot, or you have no spine. if someone told me a ten year old boy was being raped, i would have called the cops, 99% of people would… Joe Pa didn’t… and because of that, sandusky went on to rape many more children.
You cannot defend this man. He shouldn’t be able to finish the season, he should be fired on the spot.
—————
Wait Wait… you are telling me that if someone comes to you and says a guy was doing something inappropriate to a young kid, you would just call the cops? You were saying something about being an idiot?? He is a huge name, not a random moron posting on the blaze calling people idiots.
Paterno: Hey, some kid come and told me that an inappropriate act was made here instead of going to you. I want to say on his behalf that it happened. I mean, I guess it did, I don’t know
Cops: Ok, time to put you in the news and I hope you are right, or your career is over pretty much.
————
Now, in all honesty, he should have told the kid telling him, to go to the cops, not to him. As he has no proof.
Without proof it is just another idiot calling out someone for something 14 years ago. Cain anyone?
Report Post »taxpro4u03
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 5:31pmThis is RAMPANT — Catholicism ‘lQQks’ the other way, Politicians, etc… Personally — we as a society should demand THOROUGH background checks on ALL of ‘em… and subject them ALL to the same levels of sanction for KNOWINLGY ‘aiding and abetting.‘ It won’t happen because of the HUSH MONEY, and THREATS if disclosed. Wasn‘t there an NCIS or CSI episode here a while back about an elitist ’head coach’ who was exposed? Wrong on so many levels.
Report Post »Clive
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 9:29pmwell GiveUsJustice, it seems like 95% of the country, and the board of trustees agrees with me. But I’m glad you are on the side with dumb@ss college students… it fits you.
He looked the other way. It wasn’t “some kid” telling him “i saw sandusky anally raping a ten year old”. It was his graduate assistant, who somehow also became a coach. So for the last 9 years, he has coached next to the guy that told him “i saw sandusky raping a ten year old”.
Yes, you call the police. I like how you play it off like its just “inappropriate contact”, yeah, its no big deal right? And you think that if Joe’s allegation against sandusky turned out to be false, that his career would be over? Seriously. If he would have called the police, many kids would have been spared.
Report Post »Clive
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 9:36pmalso, the fact that you would compare this to Cains situation sort of says alot about your reasoning. Even IF the things they said about cain was true, he basically groped some full grown women, who told him no, and that was that. And you are comparing that to raping a ten year old boy. Thats an action that is right next to murder, thats something that ruins a person permanently. “Hey it happened 10 years ago”… so would you let your son go camping with him now? Maybe you would. You should delete your blaze account bud, you are looking like a ****** here.
Report Post »rdk
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:09pmMaybe they should shut down Penn State.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:53pmHow could that graduate student walk in on the rape of a child and not beat that SOB to bloody stump ? And rescue that kid ? He ‘s the one that should be prosecuted ….
Report Post »db321
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:16pmJust wait the Law Suits are coming – this schooll will be set back finacialy and once the NCAA get finished with thier investigation – I smell Death Penatly for the athletics department.
Report Post »duckwalker
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 6:22pm@db321, there are so many rapes and attacks on colledge campuses that go unpunished and un reported as the college/university tries to cover them up.. Joe and the rest of the athletic department should have been mandatory reporters, This should have been reported to the police, starting with the grad student that witnessed it. I hope that grad student is punished as well. He saw a child being raped and did nothing. Or did he? I see he now is a coach on the team and I can’t help but wonder if he used whata he saw to get a coach position. How he lives with himself is beyond me. God help jim if he used this incident to get his coaching job.
Report Post »I.Gaspar
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:04pmFor all that can be said in praise of Paterno, if he, in fact, knew of the pedophile’s actions, then off with his head as well.
Report Post »The gravity of the offense is so severe, no mercy should be offered to anyone involved.
85 or not, Paterno should roast along with Sandusky and the rest of the enablers.
DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:52pm@igaspar
The world is an irrational mob. It can’t think. It just emotes. I think this emotional mob mentality is at play in this Penn State scandal. Something bad happens or someone does something bad and the mob demands heads roll. The frenzy begins in the media with them insinuating wrongdoing. The media ask just the right questions of people to make them look guilty. What did you know and when did you know? Don’t you think you had a moral obligation to have done more? The bloodlust of the mob is then not satisfied until they have had enough heads. It really is quite sickening.
The greatest college coach of all-time who demonstrated integrity time after time is sacked because “he should have done more”?
Sandusky might have victimized young boys, but now Paterno is a victim of the media mob.
Report Post »I.Gaspar
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:46pm@DOGTAGS:
Report Post »I did indicate “IF” in fact he is guilty…but you don’t run a program like Penn State and NOT know what is going on.
I went to Ohio State in the 70′s when Hayes was head coach, and there was all kinds of stuff going on that never saw the light of day…and Hayes knew everything.
This is totally different from the pining on against Herman Cain and the notion of media hysteria.
Apples and oranges.
FranklinK
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:44amSpam Granier oversaw the transformation of PSU from a wholesome institution into a cesspool of political correctness.
Report Post »MommyNeedsMoreCoffee
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:52amWhat is this new sport you speak of? Footbal? I know not of this footbal…
Report Post »Twilight Struggler
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:41amGay cover-up?
Report Post »Constructionist
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:36amA sad day for Football. I’m originally from Ohio and just watched the OSU football program blow up. Say what you will about Joe, but he was essentially the only coach in college football who cared more about his players’ education than the winning football record at the end of the year. The graduation rate for football players at PSU crushed all other big league schools. It’s a shame to see such a long and illustrious career go down amid such a sordid scandal caused by a subordinate.
Report Post »MommyNeedsMoreCoffee
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:54amUm, I don’t know if you noticed, but you spelled footbal wrong…
Or, if I was a Blaze reporter…
I dun now ef yu notised, but you speld footbal rong.
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:13pmSad day for football? The only sad thing about this football-wise is that this pedophile enabler will retire with the most wins in Division I football history.
I’d argue that the NCAA needs to forfeit every win since he became aware of and began enabling this pedophile.
Report Post »DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:54pm@leftlimpwrist
The world is an irrational mob. It can’t think. It just emotes. I think this emotional mob mentality is at play in this Penn State scandal. Something bad happens or someone does something bad and the mob demands heads roll. The frenzy begins in the media with them insinuating wrongdoing. The media ask just the right questions of people to make them look guilty. What did you know and when did you know? Don’t you think you had a moral obligation to have done more? The bloodlust of the mob is then not satisfied until they have had enough heads. It really is quite sickening.
The greatest college coach of all-time who demonstrated integrity time after time is sacked because “he should have done more”?
Sandusky might have victimized young boys, but now Paterno is a victim of the media mob.
Report Post »poster
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:19amI hope those kids get themselves a good ol’ fashioned right-wing lawyer and sue the hell out of what used to be a good school. Go for all those billions in endowments, kids.
But here‘s what’s REALLY important, folks… Penn State now consistently ranks in the Top 5 Paw-tay Schools in the country! Das-wut-um-sayin!!! No-wut-um-sayin? Ya feelin me?? uh-huh….Das-wut-um-sayin.
Report Post »poster
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:13amHow about the Commie-Socialist Graham Spanier?? How about HIS resignation? Isn’t he ultimately responsible for what goes on at his Commune — er, I mean school? Maybe Graham likes kids, too.
Report Post »AchtungBecca
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:33am$panier is done. It’s just a matter of the BoT finding an interim replacement. Gov. Corbet will be attending the BoT meetings the next few days. Reports are that former PA Gov. Ridge’s name has been at the top of the list to replace $panier. I don’t know of many PSU alums (I spent 2 years there before transfering, my brother graduated from there) who have anything but contempt for $panier.
Report Post »avery45
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:10amWhy is everyone after Paterno’s head. Could he have done more, perhaps. For all the people to blame JoePa is down the list. First why isn’t the police getting more blame. They knew about Sandusky in 1998 when the mother of one of the victims said he confessed to her. And the police were in the next room. Then the GA that saw what happened. Why did you let it continue. I believe if most people saw this they would at least call the police.
Report Post »TheBMT
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:37amIts called throwing JoePa under the bus.
Report Post »DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:55pmAVERY
The world is an irrational mob. It can’t think. It just emotes. I think this emotional mob mentality is at play in this Penn State scandal. Something bad happens or someone does something bad and the mob demands heads roll. The frenzy begins in the media with them insinuating wrongdoing. The media ask just the right questions of people to make them look guilty. What did you know and when did you know? Don’t you think you had a moral obligation to have done more? The bloodlust of the mob is then not satisfied until they have had enough heads. It really is quite sickening.
The greatest college coach of all-time who demonstrated integrity time after time is sacked because “he should have done more”?
Sandusky might have victimized young boys, but now Paterno is a victim of the media mob.
Report Post »teebubba
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:18pmAh…..that explains why Sandusky retired from coaching in 1998. If Joe Pa knew the real reason he retired then he is to blame for all of this.
Report Post »floridacockleburr
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:55amThey delayed it long enough for Joe to get the win record. Now that you’ve got the record at the expense of God knows how many young boys, get the hell out Joe!
Report Post »theaveng
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:14pmJoe Paterno has been an alumni since age 18. He has done a LOT of good for the school and for decades worth of students. He should not be hated for OTHER person’s actions.
Report Post »floridacockleburr
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:24pmNo, he shouldn’t be hated. He should be fired for his inaction.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:55amIs it just me or am I seeing an increase in America with a push to take-down an entire structure over bad deeds by individuals?
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:58amI’m sure they will eventually connect those same dots to the environment, CO2, and eventually hereditary disorders, and genetic flaws.
Report Post »Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:01amI‘m not so sure that the entire structure didn’t fail those young boys.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:01amHey, “It takes a village” to raise children. Lets just hope your DNA is desirable to the village master huh.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:06amRothbardian_in_the_Cleve,
Report Post »Oh the structure did not fail, but that several individuals in the structure failed them. A structure is only as good as the people operating it. That‘s why structure doesn’t mean anything. That’s why even the best government structure on earth such as the original idea of the U.S branches of government, will come to fail. It’s only as good as the people. No, they are building a structure now whereby it is easier to be a tyrant, and gives the tyrant more control, because the tyrants view themselves as just judges of people.
Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:17amDo this: for a moment think about all the news of the day individually, all the different stories, and then zoom-out and look at them all together. What do you see? Many categories of likes and dislikes of a multitude of people- individual likes and dislikes. They are massively dividing people, and finishing the divisiveness they started long ago. And then they will introduce a common solution people will be attracted to.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:23amThen maybe you see what they are doing? They are building a weapon against God, they are attempting to change the tide of what has happened in the Bible over and over again. Trying to make sure they come out on top.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:29amWho are people going to serve, their earthly masters or God? Because serving earthly masters, they will divide people. When people serve God, the individual people divide themselves, even though God gives them a common “Light” to see all people are under God, and that’s also reflected in the thing of Mary Magdalene being cured of 7 demons.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:36amThat’s why people have probably heard in the news some people reported as saying “The U.S is like Egypt.” Americans have something that the wicked people in the world want.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:40amYou Americans are the spoil. Look into the Bible when Jacob gathers his children together to tell them the things that will befall them in the latter days. Look at what is said of Benjamin for example. In the evening he divides the spoil.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:47amAnd I tell you this as certainly as I know God. All the earthquakes that have seemingly increased, and the odd behavior of the sun, and the close fly-by of an asteroid, are all signs to let everyone know, that God will be the final victor if the people do not conquer for God.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:04pmThe fate of the earth rests on whether or not Americans wake-up.
Report Post »sooner12
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:49amWhy didn’t the graduate assistant when he saw this sinfull act taking place stop it immediately, rather than just going to report it to Paterno. That poor innocent child, like all children, needed protection. The people who actually observed these unholy acts did nothing. So there are many persons who need to answer for this, if not now but surely to God.
Report Post »cntrlfrk
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:01am‘
First thing I thought too.
I can’t imagine anyone turning a blind eye to the assault of a child.
Somebody would have been seriously injured without a second thought if I were to ever see anything like that.
.
Report Post »LIBS-ARE-DINGLEHEADS
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:47amHEY! All you indignant, self-righteous jerks calling for Paternos resignation.
Get a life!
Guess what idiots? This crap like Sandusky pulled is going to continue, no matter WHAT “laws” you put in place. GET OVER YOURSELVES.
The amount of yammering and God-crap I read on here is enough to make a billy goat puke.
Paterno……………………..did not harm a child, did he?
Oh…yes….those of you Monday Morning QB’s who think he should have gone farther………..
Play God all you want. The REAL God is watching your sorry asses. Fools!
Report Post »cepas
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:26pmGet your head out of the sand. Paterno et al were only interested in preserving the “brand” that is PSU football. The safety of the children were secondary. Everyone in authority there needs to be held accountable. This is no different than the catholic church’s cover up. They put the reputation of the church over the torture of children. What does this say about a society that doesn‘t protect God’s most innocent among us. Paterno may not be criminally cupable but he has failed morally. He needs to go and go right away. If not, once again he is guilty of putting his own self interests ahead of doing the right thing.
The bottom line dingberry is you’re the fool. Stop drinking the cool-aide and step away. Imagine yourself at 10-12 years old getting sodomized by a big burly man in a shower and come talk to me about how “guilty” Paterno is.
Report Post »LondoMollari
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:46amWhat? A SEX SCANDAL in the public EDUCATION SYSTEM??? With all those enlightened, unionized government workers and secularists????
No way………
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:43am.
Report Post »Why wait? Joe should be put out today. He knew and did nothing……….
DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:57pmStop spanking your tiny monkey and try thinking for once.
The world is an irrational mob. It can’t think. It just emotes. I think this emotional mob mentality is at play in this Penn State scandal. Something bad happens or someone does something bad and the mob demands heads roll. The frenzy begins in the media with them insinuating wrongdoing. The media ask just the right questions of people to make them look guilty. What did you know and when did you know? Don’t you think you had a moral obligation to have done more? The bloodlust of the mob is then not satisfied until they have had enough heads. It really is quite sickening.
The greatest college coach of all-time who demonstrated integrity time after time is sacked because “he should have done more”?
Sandusky might have victimized young boys, but now Paterno is a victim of the media mob.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:42amIf you ever worked in Management, you know workers say Slanderous things about each other… so, you ignore it, until there is an Offical Report! What… no one Offically Reported this nor called the Police? So, in the end, they fire the General… because the troops screwed up?
Report Post »This reeks of the Political!
Buck Shane
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:13pmGood points.
Report Post »In the early 70s New England Patriots offered Joe loads of money the take over their program. He stayed a PSU for a lot less money. Joe is a great man. He did report the report. There are people who do investagations, and if this proved to be true, Joe would have acted. I can’t see where he is wrong. Two people with opposite stories; no way to know who is right. Report it. That’s what he did.
RaiderNationKissArmy
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:40amI agree that they all should be canned immediately. But the one I’m the most angry with is McQueary. How in the name of all that is decent do you catch a grown man with a child and not snap that monster’s neck? To me, by walking away he’s just as guilty as Sandusky.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:54amSame reaction that I had. Why didn’t McCreary kick the holy crap out of Sandusky when he witnessed it. Any decent person couldn’t just walk away from that.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:43amRaider
I agree with you and Anonymous. He should have at least called the police if
Report Post »he didn’t attack the man himself. THEN go tell Joe and let him call also. This
seems to be the way it goes. It only takes one. But no one in this case helped
those children. I find it hard to believe that someone else over the years has not
seen something. The Police knew about it in 1998. Why did they let them down
then?
arx
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:46pmAgreed Raider. I simply can’t believe that a grown man could witness something like that and fail to act immediately…as in the need for a morgue or life support for Sandusky. He instead runs away, tells his daddy, and they both go to Paterno the next day. What’s even more shocking is that McQueary continued to work alongside Sandusky for years, and he and his dad say nothing more. The fact that McQeary is now a coach on the team speaks volumes about him and the whole department. McQueary is a disgusting coward who is only a step or two above Sandusky. I hope that somebody puts a bullet in Sandusky, and that McQueary and his worthless father are never able to show their faces in public again.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:39amThe whole story is just sad. 30 years of coaching and this will be his legacy.
Report Post »tifosa
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:18pmThe fact that THAT is the part of the story you find sad says alot about you.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:34pmWhat part of “The whole story is just sad.” didn’t you understand, idiot?
Report Post »arx
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 4:16pmYou specifically bemoaned “30 years of coaching and a lost legacy” as if that is the important thing here. What do you expect people to think?
Report Post »shmess88
Posted on November 10, 2011 at 10:42pmMost of you have poor comprehensive skills. He reported the guy and he was removed if you read the story properly. The complaint is he should have found the kid and fixed the kids destroyed life. The problem with this is he is not able to fix or prevent the actions of another person. At the age of 76 he most likely was affraid of the nature of what it was. In other words; he is not a psychology person in the field of family dynamics, he assumed he did what he could. ARX, he is not the creep; Sandusky is. Just a thought
Report Post »momsense
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:38amWhy don’t you stop your innuendo that this is happening becasue of the scandal—Paterno has been saying for several years that he’d like to retire. Is your sensationalistic journalism( in theory journalism) worth the price of vilifying a great man’s carreer?
Report Post »AchtungBecca
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:37amUm, no, Paterno has NOT been saying he’d like to retire. Just the opposite–he turns 85 in December and has not even hinted at retiring, has not considered it. It’s been a running joke that PSU would just “Weekend at Bernie’” with Joe eventually.
For years PSU fans have been wanting Joe to retire, but he’s been holding on like an arrogant, control-hungry old man who refuses to give anyone what they want. The fact that he’s retiring now? It’s ALL because of this atrocity.
Report Post »momroots
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:29pmMomSense – Hard for me to believe you are a mom. It‘s evident you don’t have any sense.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:37amHe would have more time for prayer if he retired now. Why wait until the end of the season?
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:36amProbably will a full pension and separation package. Isn’t that so nice.
Report Post »teebubba
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:00pmJoe Pa’s donated $ millions back to Penn State in the last decade. It cannot be for economic well being.
Report Post »cntrlfrk
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:35am‘
Sad to see a legend go out like this.
…But maybe it will throw his game off a little this Saturday and the Huskers can chalk up another win :o)
.
Report Post »cntrlfrk
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:44amGuess I should re-phrase this.
Sad to see a former legend stoop to this.
.
Report Post »sonnetswan
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:33amFootball has 2 ‘L’s.
Report Post »Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:39amPuh-shah. They can‘t be expected to spell check when they are finding propaganda photo’s and misrepresenting stories in headlines.
Seriously though, the Blaze is really starting to slip. The journalistic integrity is flirting with supermarket tabloids more and more.
Report Post »Jaxco
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:58amyup 2 l’s
Report Post »TheBigMike
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:09amI concur. The grammar, punctuation and spelling are amateurish. It makes the articles difficult to read and comprehend, and raises questions on trustworthiness. I don’t see how Glenn Beck abides this. I thought he was all about high standards.
Report Post »saranda
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:32amBigMike – when has GB ever given you opportunity to believe he had high standards?
Report Post »sirdevloin
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 10:32amA distinct lack of moral judgement. He covered for a man raping a child. He should be escorted off campus immediately. Preferably with his limbs tied to four horses heading in different directions.
Report Post »Twilight Struggler
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:20amHmmm…If he did uncover the guy, would Paterno be called a ****-phobe by the media?
Report Post »teebubba
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:54pmI don’t know that there is evidence that he “covered up.” The prosecutors in the case did not indict him. Perhaps every time he saw the “superiors” who he did report it to he should have demanded they do their duty. As far as everyone’s willingness to throw the whole Penn State football program under the bus what is lost in all the hoopla is the fact that Sandusky the perp had retired from coaching the Nittany Lions 3 years before the alleged incident…and the victim wasn’t a University student but the act was observed in a university practice facility. The most damning thing for the university is the fact that Sandusky continued to use the university’s facilities as late as last week. One cannot help but think every time Joe Pa saw there on campus he must of wondered what had happened to the original complaint.
Report Post »DogTags
Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:01pmYou are a real dunce Turd Evl Oin
The world is an irrational mob. It can’t think. It just emotes. I think this emotional mob mentality is at play in this Penn State scandal. Something bad happens or someone does something bad and the mob demands heads roll. The frenzy begins in the media with them insinuating wrongdoing. The media ask just the right questions of people to make them look guilty. What did you know and when did you know? Don’t you think you had a moral obligation to have done more? The bloodlust of the mob is then not satisfied until they have had enough heads. It really is quite sickening.
The greatest college coach of all-time who demonstrated integrity time after time is sacked because “he should have done more”?
Sandusky might have victimized young boys, but now Paterno is a victim of the media mob.
Report Post »