Big-time college sports is a stew of hypocrisy driven by one and only one thing: Greed.

Joe Nocera of the New York Times, in a series of columns over recent months, has documented some really outrageous enforcement actions by the NCAA.

Sandusky's exploitation of his young victims should come as no surprise; exploitation is the currency of major college football and basketball . . .

THinking back ovver my own life, I wonder if there has been some sort of social compact at work.

The guy who ran the bike shop in my town was known to be "fond of boys". A friend stabbed him in the hand with a screw driver and we never heard anything of it. The police must have known of him.

All of the boys knew to stay away from the school nurse, so far as I know she stayed until retirement.

Randy schoolteachers and "moms" were not unknown, I don't recall ever hearing of an arrest.

I also taught for a very short period. so I know all about teenage "temptresses". They would sit down front, pull up their skirts, then drop a pencil so you would look at the noise. The local judge's daughter was probably the worst. I was 22 and I never thought to "report them", if I did "for what". I would probably have found myself in trouble for noticing/looking.

My comments are meant to be seen in response to Justin's idea that the advancement of human society is tied to the imposition of rules governing social structures. Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky are two examples of highly successful men whose adherence to those social structures such as Christian worship and traditional marriage and family put them in the top levels of public perception. Judges in Pa. placed children into the hands of Sandusky and his foundation. Paterno through his incredible power and influence at Penn State protected a child molester for decades. His image as the ultimate family man and football coach melded two powerful parts of what many believe men should aspire to. Traditional faith and family valves were important components of the image of both of these men.
Posted by Phil at July 12, 2012 9:14 AM

Football and Faith is as American as apple pie. What is not uniquely American is the fact that the powerful prey on the weak or as the author writes " The weak are the meat the strong eat". The fact that Penn State did nothing to protect the children (where's Monique with her ridiculous misspelling of children) only underlines where their priorities truly lie. Money. Big time money.

Very business friendly.

Where is the Catholic Church on this one…..Oh……they rape little altar boys too and hide it!!!!

Phil is gloating at his "discovery"of hypocrisy driven by money-is he gonna discover the New World next?
None of this negates the value of taking care of one's family,or for that matter,Christian faith,if that is your thing(it ain't mine,but whatever).
I find the whole thing sickening beyond words-I hope Sandusky gets shanked on the yard,but he'll probably do his time in PC.
Probably every vestige of Paterno should be eliminated at Penn State-he looks damn near as guilty as Sandusky-this is a PUBLIC college,and the officials found responsible for the coverup should lose their pensions and healthcare-Pennsylvania taxpayers will be on the hook for enough already in damages.

No, joe
Phil is not gloating. The “gloat” comes from you, not him. Phil is pointing out to the high priests of Greed is Good the inherent flaws in giving a free pass to moneyed interests and pointing out a very visible flaw in the philosophy that equates big with evil and excludes business from the word “big”. It’s time to rethink how the problem is viewed. In other words, expand a bit.
OldTimeLefty

Death Penalty is the starting point. The only thing at issue here should be the length of the penalty. Starting at 10 years and going up from there until someone makes a rational argument why it should shorter.

Death Penalty is the starting point. The only thing at issue here should be the length of the penalty. Starting at 10 years and going up from there until someone makes a rational argument why it should shorter.

I am guessing that the NCAA will do nothing, allowing any sanctions to play out in the courts.

As with Joe Pa, the NCAA is more concerned with image than with doing the right thing.

Child rape is the next goal for those currently lobbying for normalization of gay marriage. It's just a matter of time until NAMBLA has a seat at the table in a democrat government.

The death penalty would be appropriate but likely not necessary. How many top athletes would even be interested in going to Penn State now? I suspect all their sports programs are tainted in the eyes of athletes, not just football players.

Hell, It wouldn't suprise me if there is a big drop in the student population as a whole.

Call me unimpressed. I'm not a huge fan of the hysterical witch hunts that take place whenever children are involved. To understand what happens when hysterical people are allowed to run amok, Google "Gerald Amirault" and see how an innocent man got to spend 18 years in jail thanks to a bunch of hysterical people running around "protecting children". Paterno did the best he could with the information he had at the time. His job was to coach football, not run around and play policeman or child welfare advocate.

Death penalty? Surely you jest. Too much money in college football for the NCAA to do that. Poor SMU still hasn't recovered; think of the revenue lost the last 25 years. I think the NCAA has learned its lesson. Keep that gravy-train flowing!
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As for myself, I think I'll tune out college football.

The NCAA won't do jack sh*t. But they should.

Eliminate Penn State football for a decade - long enough that no one involved with the current program will still be there.

Do something for the current players - they're innocent and would be victims if they're just dumped. Let them all transfer, with their scholarships paid by Penn State as part-penance, to any other Division IAA football program within the conference (Big 10).

Anyone who knew and didn't report should face a lifetime ban from NCAA sports: any school who hires the banned person would be banned from competition as long as the banned person was employed there.

Sure, let's give PSU sports the death penalty. By all means, cancel the football season for one, two, ten, twenty years and punish the hell out of all the players and coaches who had NOT ONE THING to do with Jerry Sandusky.

To paraphrase a great line from a great movie - "If a fox stole your chickens, would you slaughter your pig because he saw the fox? No. You would hunt the fox."

In the case, the pig didn't even see the fox. All the players from that era are gone, gone, gone. Your impotent rage is simply misplaced and ill-advised. Think of something constructive to do and stop your whining.

Duke basketball should get the death penalty too for having too powerful a coach. In fact, get rid of all the strong football and basketball programs.

Once that is over, look for more people to punish.

The Wikipedia article on Jerry Sandusky describes him as one of The Best assistant coaches to never be a head coach. That was in 1999. Penn State knew then, but they gave him a generous retirement bonus and access to the athletic facilities. At access helped keep his Second Mile program going. Yes, a death penalty of sum of the ages of the victims. Too much, how about one year for every victim?

I think I need to tune out all sports. In baseball we have thousands of healthy high school students getting the Tommy John surgery, because it makes them a more powerful pitcher. How is that different from performance enhancing drugs? In the Olympics there are women who will deliberately get pregnant before the Olympics so they can have an abortion just before the Games, to get an "Abortion doping" advantage.

If Baylor Basketball didn't get the death penalty when one player murdered another, Penn State football should be ok. The NCAA is more concerned about its rules than the US penal code.

My humble suggestions:

1) Death penalty for the mens football program. Review after 5 years for potential reinstatement, with external review required prior to instituting a new football program.

2) Dismiss all members of the Board of Trustees, the university President, and the Provost. The state governor can appoint new Board members, and the new Board will find a new president and provost.

3) Remove Penn State from the Big Ten.

4) Require Penn State to leave Division I of the NCAA; they can join and abide by all the rules of Division III. No potential move back to Division I for at least ten years.

Harsh? Yes. Necessary? Yes. Do 1-4 above and you will never, ever have a university in this country allow a sports program to be run the way Penn State's was run, and you won't ever again have a Sandusky problem in a university sports program (the English Department might be another matter).

They didn't violate any NCAA rules that I can see, so they are limited as to what they can do (I was certified on the rules of the NCAA about 20 years ago). What is more disconcerting is the same people that covered this up also had a hand in deciding about climategate.

Milwaukee at 10:43 PM....
Tommy John surgery does NOT make high school pitchers more powerful. They have to have it because of ligament damage from throwing breaking (curve) balls too early in their physical development.

As we speak, the NCAA is in the process of making football even more important as a money-maker through the addition of playoff games. Not a single person associated with major college football has expressed even a moment's anxiety that these additional games might further pervert the so-called academic mission of the universities. This playoff format will grow ever larger in years to come, because the sport has become larger than the schools that sponsor it. Penn State is just one small example of this glorification of athletics at the expense of other values; there are other offenders who feed off this money-laden system in many other ways. There is no hope of reform until football is de-emphasized and returned to its rightful role as an extracurricular activity for actual students, not as a gigantic dollar machine that exists as an end to itself. The Ivy League showed the way decades ago, and it still represents the right path for any institution that considers itself a school rather than an athletic factory.

Posted by Enzyte Bob
"Google "Gerald Amirault" and see how an innocent man got to spend 18 years in jail thanks to a bunch of hysterical people running around "protecting children". "

There is little doubt that hysteria can run amok and cause terrific damage. For instance, the "Miami Method" which brought Janet Butchereno to prominance.

We have now accepted that child molestors are not curable. Just 40 years ago we accepted that homosexuals were "curable", now it is not even a disease.

I do not have the answer, but I am fairly certain that a rush to judgment is not among the likely answers.

I recall that activities of the coach at my daughter's prep school were kept concealed, and I am sure there are many more examples.

Societies are not held together by laws,they are held together by moral concepts. I don't think harsher laws are the answer.

I will ask the men in the audience to reflect back and remember if they were ever solicited by older women. I suspect many were. On reflection, what punishment did those women deserve?

In the example under consideration, it was men with boys. There is no evidence presented that the boys had homosexual tendancies. Is this "perversion" by itself? The men/man was in a position of authority, that is certainly an aggravating factor. Without doubt it is not helpful to "good order and discipline". In fact, it goes to the heart of any "merit system". When I took history, it was suggested that Capt. Dreyfus's troubles began when he refused a homosexual advance.(I cannot substantiate that)

THere is currently a case of a 14 year old girl being molested by a teacher in Seekonk. She returned for more 3-5 times. I am not sure what this means, perhaps it means nothing. Yet, I have known girls only 3-4 years older who would compete to "get" one of their college professors. The Brown professors may have been taking advantage of the girls,the girls may have been taking advantage of their sex appeal. I have never heard one of the women express regret. Mostly they were proud of themselves for being able to "keep up emotionally". They understood that they were only expected to serve for that semester. Then it was another girls bite at the apple.

The only opinion I intend to express here is a disapproval of witch hunts.

It has to be remembered that the man/boy problem has been common since Greco/Roman times. The insistance on "modest dress" for boys, suggests that they took it more seriously than we do.

One wonders if the "man/boy problem" is simply a question of access.

Wow, so many new commenters on this topic. Anyone mind saying where you found a link to this article? Thanks!

"Thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!" -Friedrich Nietzsche

What makes anyone think this is about sports as against a public so called institution of higher learning being more interested in money than truth. Yes ban them from intercollegiate sports programs; but also demand the same quality of independent investigation of their faculty research. See if the faculty sells out truth to gain grants. The departments that sacrificed truth for dollars should be closed as well.

The problem with the death penalty is that you punish the people who had nothing to do with it. Far better to punish the administrators. I like Jay Bilas' idea of requiring Penn State to disassociate itself with the admins involved. This involves removing Paterno's name and likeness from the university, removing him from the record books and removing him from the hall of fame. The remaining adminstrators would be under a "show cause" ban that would require any college that hires them after they leave jail to show cause why they should be hired. Given a choice, PSU people would rather remove Paterno than remove football.

Your solution, on the other hand, allows the stain of Paterno to remain on campus and the living administrators to get jobs in college when they leave jail.

Let's try punishing the administration, for once. I believe that would provide much more deterrence.

This whole post is sadly misguided. Because no players got free shoes, skipped classes or sold their jerseys, Penn State has not violated any NCAA rules. The NCAA is largely a joke that makes fortunes for adults off the labors of "student athletes". Don't expect them to help punish Penn State.

What is with "the NCAA" should give them the death penalty?

Is this not the Pennsylvania State University? Isn't the current (and past) Governor on the Board of Regents? Shouldn't the state stand up and say "Dudes this is out of control"?

When will elected officials finally stand up and say NOOOOOOO?

this is utter nonsense. the tragedies that occurred in and around the Penn State football program were criminal matters and are being dealt with by the criminal justice system. Those who are guilty will pay. Levying a further penalty on the football program will only punish those who had nothing to do with the matter.

The NCAA policies matters of its internal rules, not criminal matters. Your "solution" would be like shutting down the entire 7-11 convenience store network because a few tellers were also peddling drugs.

Here's the difference - USC football program was an "outlaw" program within the structure of the NCAA, so the program was punished by the NCAA. Penn State was a program that was being used by criminals, so they are being punished by the relevant authorities.

My guess is that those who want Penn State football punished are actually fans of other teams who either want the competition destroyed or are hurt because they feel their team was unjustly punished in the past (e.g., USC fans). And, fwiw, I am no fan of Penn State football. I am a Syracuse alum and we consider PSU a hated rival, even (especially) because of they way have tried to bigfoot us in the past.

Patrick, I linked here from Instapundit and this is what is called an "instalanche"

I agree with your post. At the very least... take down the Joe Pa statue on the Penn State campus. He does not deserve that honor anymore. Next the NCAA should make it a violation of NCAA rules for coaches to rape little boys and cover it up since some commentors seem to think that's okay.

While I enjoy college football, I'm fully cognizant that it has little to do with education and is primarily a money, status thing. However for those who think college sports are a perversion of what universities/colleges should be focusing on, fiscal realities are coming to the rescue. I figure in ten years or less college sports will be a shadow of it’s current self.

I have enjoyed myself watching all of your writers compete to see who could be the most appalled and angered by what happened at Penn State.

This post says nothing about possible criminal proceedings - is this being contemplated? If the Freeh report is correct in implicating officials at all levels of the university as being complicit in child rape, are they not accessories in some fashion? What's being done about that?

Child rape is the most heinous crime there is. If these adminstrators are indeed guilty of knowingly violating the law, they should be prosecuted with all vigor.

Sanctions against the football program are just silly: a bunch of people condone child rape and actively cover it up and the price is that their school does not get to have a football program for while? Is that what passes for justice these days? The message this sends is that if school admistrators commit heinous crimes, someone else won't get to play football there and, oh yeah, the school will lose some revenue that they'll make up by passing the cost along the students and their families. Great message.

If you want to send a message, punish the criminals. What you think the corrupt people who do these sorts of things fear more: losing the right for their school to play NCAA football or sharing a cell for a decade of two with some 300-lb guy who'll look on them as Sandusky looked on his victims?

Linked in from Instapundit. In my cynical take on this scandal, there was no lack of institutional control by PSU. Indeed, taking into account the actions and acts of omissions by the football coach, president, vice president and athletics director of PSU, these officials had absolute control of the situation at all times and deliberately chose to prevent any discovery or legally required reporting of the Sandusky crimes. Further, there were no attempts by any of these officials to do what was morally right and necessary in regard to the rapes and molestations from the first known problems in 1998. This may be beyond the ability of the NCAA to address in any sensible manner. Perhaps direct intervention by the Governor and State Legislature to mandate a clean-up of the PSU football program and the university administration would be a better avenue to pursue. If the Pennsylvania Governor, Legislature and PSU Board of Trustees decide to impose real consequences, up to the death penalty, then I believe that would be more effective as to PSU itself. However, the deterrent effect probably won't be as strong as an NCAA imposed death penalty to other Division I schools. No easy solutions and waiting for the scheduled trial results will simply extend the uncertainty of when any penalties will be imposed. One final note outside of any program penalties: There should be public recognition by PSU that Coach Paterno's legacy and reputation are forever trashed by his own hand.

And now can one forget this University was the epicenter of the "hide the decline" ""scientists"" that lied to the American people.

Instead of instituting a Death Penalty for the Football program, require them to pick players from the existing student body. No recruiting of "students" whose sole purpose is to play football. Furthermore require them to pick students from the Honors College majoring in a challenging STEM field, or something else with equivalent rigor.

No fake students who are only there to play football. No sociology majors, or students majoring in some other equally vapid and useless field.

Force them to field a team comprised of actual students who are at the university to get a real education.

There are other PSU officials facing charges - Freeh report mentions 2 others facing perjury charges for lying to Grand Jury.

I hadn't realized this disgraced university also produced some global warming hucksters.
Also, to the dude who mentioned the catholic church: the church preaches against the sin of homosexuality for a reason, however while they may not have invited such deviants into the priesthood once the infiltration was discovered they should've rooted it out, not covered it up like paterno & co.

I'd sort of like to see the death penalty for Jerry Sandusky and his enablers on the Penn State board and in its administration, but you can't have everything.

"Phil is pointing out to the high priests of Greed is Good the inherent flaws in giving a free pass to moneyed interests and pointing out a very visible flaw in the philosophy that equates big with evil and excludes business from the word “big”. It’s time to rethink how the problem is viewed."

Except, were Sandusky and Paterno CEOs? Oh, global investment bankers? No? Wait, you mean to tell me they were basically college professors? Isn't a world where they are lionized over the "high priests of Greed is Good" what those on the left have been telling us we should have for generations?

I am a Pennsylvanian who is sickened by the inaction of Penn State officials regarding Sandusky's behavior. I believe that they personally, and Penn State corporately will suffer for their actions financially and legally. Two Penn State officials already face charges for lying to a grand jury regarding this matter. On the other hand, I believe that the connection to the Penn State football program is merely tangential. The football program itself has always been known as a clean program. Players have always been required to maintain good grades and behave appropriately. All the evil done by Sandusky was outside the program. I understand the need to punish Penn State severely for not reporting these heinous crimes, but that punishment must be just. You can't punish the children for the crime of the parents.

I am a Pennsylvanian who is sickened by the inaction of Penn State officials regarding Sandusky's behavior. I believe that they personally, and Penn State corporately will suffer for their actions financially and legally. Two Penn State officials already face charges for lying to a grand jury regarding this matter. On the other hand, I believe that the connection to the Penn State football program is merely tangential. The football program itself has always been known as a clean program. Players have always been required to maintain good grades and behave appropriately. All the evil done by Sandusky was outside the program. I understand the need to punish Penn State severely for not reporting these heinous crimes, but that punishment must be just. You can't punish the children for the crime of the parents.

Congratualtions on the instalanche! You deserve better commenters.

Penn St does all most $800M/yr in research...almost all on federal grants. Assuming a typical overhead rate, the university takes in 400m/yr on top of this. Their operating budget is over $4b. The athletic program is worth just over $100m/yr. I point these out to give the financial status of football some context.

Athletics matters to alumni and espn, but the big money at research universities is elsewhere. It's just vprs aren't featured on espn and big patent licenses don't make it in to the news.

Meh. Coaches. Administrators. What else should we expect?

I disagree with the person who compared this to a witch hunt. There has been a conviction and an investigation showing what was known by the University. Enough was known and at least suspected that action should have been taken.

If Sandusky was the greatest assistant coach ever, it stands to reason another University would of/should of snapped him up when he "retired". Except no one wanted to touch him. Was it because word went out about his tendancies? Didn't I read at one time that Penn State was a popular destination for wealthy phedophiles to converge on because they had a contact there?

The program should be killed for a period of time. Sports needs to be cleaned up including the lesbians that have taken over woman's sports and who pressure young woman. I would never let my daughter play sports on the college level just as I would watch my young son very closely if he chose to play any sport.

I once heard, third or fourth hand, of similar activity by a coach no way beyond punishment (still alive, but incapicitated). Instapundit, it's very close to home. I cannot remember the source, so could not even provide a reference, let alone evidence.

I love college sports. The enthusiasm and energy of college athletes surpasses Professional sports.

But the biggest college sports, notably football, have been for decades corrupted by the same influences we see corrupting the Olympics.

Money, Visibility, Power and Greed.

I do not know the answer to this dilema because it is the dilemma of the Ages ... power and money corrupting matters in their favor. It is endemic in free Western societies and even worse in undeveloped non-Western cultures.

But I surely do want to use my Louisville slugger on the skulls of asshats who engage in this sort of behavior polluting our young people.

Why did Penn look the other way.

Probably because football was a cash cow

Why the exoneration of Mann with climate gate -
probably because he was serious cash cow to Penn

You know, there's another reason they might have not reported it...

> They were all aware of former coach Jerry Sandusky's child molestation actions.

This is a lie. Most were aware of ONE ALLEGATION of child molestation.

Yes, they should have reported the one incident that was alleged to have taken place. Citizens are not judges or juries.

On the other hand, some fault lies with us. Why? Because imagine if Sandusky had been innocent. He still would have lost everything, and the only comfort would be that he wasn't in jail. Cold comfort when you're eating out of a dumpster because you can't be employed anymore.

So the accusation IS the punishment, especially in a high-profile case like this. And until it isn't, then unless the person tasked with reporting the allegation must be aware that the very act of reporting destroys the accused.

Until the day we care more about the verdict than about the accusation, we will see people covering up an accusation when they personally don't think it happened.

@Kelly - If you follow these cases involving children, you start to notice a pattern of hysteria. That's how the police coaxed laughably false testimony testimony out of preschool children (such as being raped with sharp knives), and a jury getting sucked in to the hysteria. An innocent man spent 18 years in jail because of it. Likewise, Casey Anthony has to hide for her safety thanks to the threats she has been receiving from all the "do-gooders" out there "protecting children".

I think the same thing is going on when people are calling for Penn State to get the death penalty. If Paterno was the head of Children's Services, you can blame him for screwing up. But he was a football coach not the head of an elementary school or children's services. In other words, a lay person not trained in these matters who did the best he could under the circumstances.

To me this is a kind of like a personnel matter where you catch an employee stealing. Do employers always run to the police? No, they usually try to handle things internally. That's even before you get to whether or not you believe all the gossip and hearsay.

Okay, they screwed up. So? Who could have imagined someone who was so respected being a serial child molester? You're simply expecting too much out of people to always make perfect decisions, especially in areas they aren't trained in.

(Full disclosure: I'm an Ohio State fan, so no skin off my nose if they get the death penalty.) I just don't think it's fair to look at things in hindsight and shaking trees looking for people to point fingers at.

First Conahan and Ciavarella. And now this.

Something is desperately wrong in Pennsylvania.

@Enzyte, Bob....

Hey Bob, notice you tend to blame kids for the assualts they undergo. Only one with a perverted mind would question the 14 yr old girl returning.. Do ya think the guy who molested her might have possibly said a few nice, or scary, things to get her back..

You downplay violence on kids.., that is sick..

"To me this is a kind of like a personnel matter where you catch an employee stealing. Do employers always run to the police? No, they usually try to handle things internally. That's even before you get to whether or not you believe all the gossip and hearsay."

Wow! Comparing employee theft to child molestation. I guess there's just no telling what will roll in with an instalanche. It's like the tsunami garbage floating in from Japan.

Complete idiocy. No one currently at Penn State has anything to do with what happened and what happened only had a very tenous connection to football.

So why penalize them?

The problem IMOP, is that these kids had lousy parents (one absent, the other inattentive). If you rely on a "village" to raise your children, this is what happens.

@Mark and @Max - Nobody is advocating child molestation, although your reactions illustrate what I am talking about when it comes to hysteria. Paterno was paid to be a football coach, not a to play hall monitor or security guard. That's the bottom line.

There are a lot of things to consider here. You do realize that probably about 1/4 of all rape accusations before they get to the courtroom level are phony, don't you? How believable is the rumor and gossip mill at any work place? Do you really want to wreck the life of a respected person based on second, third and fourth hand information? Most importantly, how many of you "protectors of children" would yourselves run to police?

But that's all beside the point. NCAA rules cover the relationship between the universities and their sports departments. They do not mandate that football coaches put on a gun and holster, play policeman and chase child molesters around campus. You don't put disband the football team because their coach didn't think it was his job to run around campus and play policeman.

My humble suggestion: get the colleges and universities out of the sports business.

Every land-grant college in this country was founded on the assumption that it would train physicians, teachers, engineers, and officers for the state militia. What does football have to do with any of this?

Tear down all the high school and college stadiums and replace them with parking garages. Fire all the coaches.

Problem solved, and priorities reset to what they always should have been in the first place.

@Me - My humble suggestion: get the colleges and universities out of the sports business.

I don't know about that.

First, how connected are you to your high school? I'm not. By virtue of Ohio State Football being such a phenomenon, it does keep me connected to the school. From the standpoint of raising money and furthering educational opportunities, it is one factor of many driving the educational process.

Second, many people go to college to study theater, music or communications, all performance arts. How is going to school and "majoring" in football that much different from majoring in theater? And how is the football player who makes millions after he leaves college any different from the actors or comedians (such as Ohio State graduates Richard Lewis and Patricia Heaton)?

Bottom line: Lay off the football team. It connects people to the university, it's fun and it's an art people come to the school to train and learn.

Any perspective or opinion that the institution of Penn State university is not responsible for the Sandusky crimes is simply not responsive to the facts and thereby at the least morally bankrupt
If the NCAA would not apply the Death Penalty in a case of Penn State's obvious institutional criminality, then the NCAA would have to admit that it is morally bankrupt as well.

Ryan made a very good point. If you are accused of child molestation, your career is over. It doesn’t matter if you are later found innocent; no high profile institution is going to have anything to do with you.

I'm no expert on NCAA rules, but isn't "lack of institutional control" related to NCAA rule violations? That is to say that the institution violated so many NCAA Rules that there essentially no institutional control. What NCAA rules did Penn State violate here?

I'm no fan of Penn State, and this was a horrible situation. I think several administrators and others should receive whatever the civil and criminal courts can justly heap upon them for their outrageous cover-up, but I don't know where the NCAA Rules come into this.

"Ryan made a very good point. If you are accused of child molestation, your career is over. It doesn’t matter if you are later found innocent; no high profile institution is going to have anything to do with you."

Where is that relevant to this conversation? He has been convicted.

@Max - Where is that relevant to this conversation? He has been convicted.

It is completely relevant. First of all, you are asking the NCAA to punish a football team for something it has no control over. Second, let's say you were at Ohio State and the accusations were made against Archie Griffin. You don't think they'd act very cautiously about acting on second, third and fourth hand information and potentially ruining the life of a respected individual? Do you remember what Raymond Donovan said, "Where do I go to get my reputation back?"

Bottom line is that these are all good good people. They don't deal with this stuff every day and NOBODY could have fathomed the extent of what happened. They did the best they could under the circumstances.

Patrick,
You display your own ignorance on a matter you feel free enough to pop-off about. There are in fact PSU officials who face further charges: both Curley & Schultz, for perjury.

I find it damn near irresponsible for Freeh & Co. to blame Paterno in this, when he is one of the only people who did the right thing: have the eyewitness talk directly to his boss, Curley, and the VP in charge of the university police, Schultz.

The fact that Curley & Spanier failed to do the right thing should not deflect the fact that Paterno did right & kicked it upstairs to those guys.

And go back & read the Freeh report again. Even Freeh & Co. were not sure what, if anything, Paterno knew about the 1998 incident. So how does that make Paterno "all aware of former coach Jerry Sandusky's child molestation actions"? It doesn't. We know after the fact what a monster Sandusky was. That was not a "known" at the time, and McQuery & Paterno were the only ones who did the right thing - not the janitor, not Ray Gricar (the DA during the 1998 incident), not Schultz, and certainly not Curley & Spanier.

@George - McQuery & Paterno were the only ones who did the right thing - not the janitor ...

Let's face it, if you take the position that whistleblowers always get screwed, which is a valid one, the janitors did the right thing. Had McQueary simply kept quiet, nobody would have known what happened, he'd probably still have his job. My point is not to say that McQueary should have kept quiet, but again to illustrate how people become hysterical in these situations and how the hysteria always ends up claiming an innocent victim. The lesson I take out of this situation is to mind your own business and keep your mouth shut.

" The lesson I take out of this situation is to mind your own business and keep your mouth shut."

Spoken like a guy who doesn't have children. I'm guessing you'd be irate if your children were raped and someone knowingly didn't report it.

Tear down the statue just like they did in Iraq. Wipe the record books clean. Take down the photos and cancel any Joe Pa scholarships. This guy deserves to burn in Hell for allow this to continue.

@PSU Nittany Lion - Spoken like a guy who doesn't have children. I'm guessing you'd be irate if your children were raped and someone knowingly didn't report it.

The point I'm trying to make is that I'm sick of all the sanctimonious hysterical people that always come up out of the woodwork in these situations. McQueary tried the right thing, yet he became the victim of a high-tech lynching, just like Paterno. They didn't do enough? What do you want them to do, go down to the Woolworth's, get a Sheriff's badge and start patrolling campus?

They did what they should have done, which is more than what most people would have done. Especially on the grounds of your employer, where it's not up to you to decide what to do.

I challenge you to show me when a whistleblower is rewarded for his efforts. They certainly weren't in this instance.

When you either witness or are told that someone on your staff or in your employ was behaving inappropriately with an underage child (in campus facilities no less) the only thing for any decent adult to do is call the police and let them sort it out. You don't clutch your pearls worrying about "the program" and you don't kick the can to the very people most invested in maintaining the good image of the institution. You call the police. They are bums, the lot of them.

Hey enzyte,

Do you have any clue what the Cleary Act is and who is mandated to report? Browse through it and learn something. You can claim hysteria all you want but once word got to a mandated reporter the molestation spree should have been over.

@Max D - Do you have a clue?

1. Paterno and McQueary fulfilled their reporting obligations, but that's not good enough for the hysterical lynch mob.

2. The NCAA rule book that governs intercollegiate sports. It says nothing about requiring coaches to become children's services workers.

@Max D - Do you have a clue?

1. Paterno and McQueary fulfilled their reporting obligations, but that's not good enough for the hysterical lynch mob.

2. The NCAA rule book that governs intercollegiate sports. It says nothing about requiring coaches to become children's services workers.

@Bucket Chick - Easy cast stones and claim you would be heroic in hindsight, but if you read most literature on the subject you will find that the majority are perfectly content to kick it up the ladder. That's what I'd do, and I wouldn't lose any sleep over it either.

Sorry, but when you work for the man people who are too eager doing their job typically get thrown under the bus. That's what happened to McQueary. In hindsight, had he kept his mouth shut none of this would have happened. The janitors were smarter than anybody else if you ask me.

Whistleblowers always get screwed. Ask Mike McQueary.

"His job was to coach football, not run around and play policeman or child welfare advocate."

So knowing about a subordinate's penchant for raping little boys and turning a blind eye to it is A-OK, as long as Penn State wins football games, is that what we're hearing here?

Just out of morbid curiosity, are there any limits at all about what the alumni boosters here are happy to see swept under the rug? Since being a willing party to rape and child molestation is just fine, would covering up embezzlement be acceptable also? Hazing? Assault? Is murder okay too, or is that beyond the pale? What if the football team has a losing season? Do right and wrong change then, or is this stuff still acceptable if it's justified by claiming it's to protect the program? I'm trying to understand where the limits are, you understand.

If someone had hurt your kids, and people who could have done something about it chose to overlook it, would "not my job" and "we're winning football games" have been satisfactory answers?

Jesus wept.

So knowing about a subordinate's penchant for raping little boys and turning a blind eye to it is A-OK, as long as Penn State wins football games, is that what we're hearing here?

First of all, Jerry Sandusky was not his subordinate at the time.

Second, let's say you worked on the fourth floor of a cubicle farm. What would happen if you were in the same situation? You would report it to the boss in a manner consistent with company procedures, right? Do you think you would go buy a policeman's uniform and start patrolling? Start doing DNA testing on your own? OF COURSE NOT. Why you people expected Paterno to do that is beyond me.

"But he could have done more," the hysterical "protectors of children" whine. Platitudes.

@OTL-your reply had me confused-I don't think it was relevant to what I was saying-the people of Pennsylvania are also victimized here.Stay out of the sun you old fart.:))

Enzyte Bob - I find it ridiculous that you find what most people would view as the responsible, common sense response to child abuse as "heroic." We're not talking about witnessing an altercation between two adults. Not to mention any of those people could have called the police or child services anonymously.

@Bucket Chick - I just don't get what more you wanted Paterno to do. He received the report from his subordinate, McQueary. He next reported it up the chain of command. If you believe the Freeh report, then they had private conversations about letting Sandusky slide if he got treatment.

Supposedly Paterno was involved in those conversations, but whether he was or wasn't is irrelevant. I don't know what world you live in, but in the real world people don't always run to the police, especially when someone's life is going to be ruined in the process. How many times does this happen every single day when someone has stolen, been caught drunk, been caught with drugs, been caught masturbating? Cops show mercy on people all the time. They simply had no way of knowing the extent of the problem. Nobody did.

In a similar postion, with the same information at hand, I would probably do the same. You don't always solve problems running to the police. Regardless, Paterno kicked it up the ladder. Not his problem anymore.

I still stand by my statement that the janitors were the smartest ones of the bunch. You always keep your mouth shut when your livelihood depends on a corporate bureaucracy or on hysterical parents second guessing your actions. McQueary's big mistake was trying to be a dogooder. He should have kept his mouth shut like the janitors did.

Let's see. Bucket Chick said,

"any of those people could have called the police or child services anonymously."

Enzyte Bob's response:

"I just don't get what more you wanted Paterno to do."

Bob, Bob, Bob. Are you trolling, or are you really this obtuse? Perhaps it's deliberate, as you seem to find that trait highly admirable when a football coach likewise demonstrates an unwillingness to see and understand what's right in front of him. I guess it's asking questions like this that make us a "hysterical lynch mob," eh?

@me - Like I said, hindsight is 20/20. I truly am ticked off at how both Paterno and McQueary have been thrown under the bus. It's not like Paterno knew this guy was running around raping 50 kids. Paterno didn't see what happened, he was only acting on second hand information and it's not his job to deal with this stuff in the first place. What do you expect the guy to do?

How many times have we seen whistleblowers get screwed in the end? McQueary should be rewarded, instead he got thrown under the bus because people arbitrarily decided that "he didn't do enough". You simply can't argue that given that outcome for McQueary that the janitors didn't take the correct position here. They're still employed.

Given that we now now know Paterno was emailing back and forth with Penn State's bigwigs about "letting it slide" if Sandusky "agreed to get therapy" long before this story broke, it's pretty clear what Paterno knew and when he knew it.

And since you are refusing to connect the dots, I'll do it for you. Instead of conspiring with the administration to cover up the crimes, Paterno should have gone to the police, and then to the press, if the police refused to act, as soon as he knew what was happening--and if he feared being "thrown under the bus," he could certainly have made some anonymous phone calls, first to the cops and then to the press, without endangering his career. His failure to do so makes him an accessory to 50+ counts of child rape, morally at the very least.

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. Maybe it was the way I was raised. Some of us still think we have some obligations to one another as human beings. Some of us still think that one of those obligations is to act when necessary to protect innocents from a predator, regardless of whether it's in our job description or whether it could affect our careers. Some of us would not be able to live with ourselves if we'd made the choices Paterno apparently made to preserve the program. Some of us think that we just might be called upon to give an account of our actions one day, in this world or the next, and "it wasn't in my job description" just might not be an acceptable excuse. I certainly wouldn't accept it if it had been my kids.

@Me - You still haven't explained to me why it's mandatory that Paterno get involved. He kicked it up the ladder, it was their responsibility.

Now if he was involved in conversations concerning whether or not they would show mercy on Sandusky, so what? That's what humans do all the time. I once got caught vandalizing a couple of abandoned busses in back of a bowling alley when I was a kid. They let me go. Cops and prosecutors do it all the time.

Okay, they were wrong? A misjudgment. They were human beings who did the best they could under the circumstances. What do you people want to do, hang them?