If you know anyone who played football for Penn State, please make sure they get this message!!

When the team took the field two weeks later for their game against perennial power Nebraska, Joe Paterno, a staple of the university for over 60 years…had been unceremoniously fired.

The 100,000+ still filled Beaver Stadium, but their support that was usually reserved solely for their heros in navy blue had been lent to another group of young men…the dozens of men that had been sexually abused as children by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Days after Penn State’s win over Illinois, Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with 40 criminal counts related to his systematic sexual abuse of young boys. Many of his then alleged crimes took place inside the confines of the Penn State football facility.

In the aftermath of Sandusky’s surprising arrest, Joe Paterno would lose his job after the world found out that stories of his former assistant’s improprieties had made their way to his desk.  Joe knew something. We will never know how much or how little he was privy to, but without the aid of neither judge nor jury, it was clear that as long as Joe knew something…Joe had to go.

As a football fan, I struggled to accept this. Firing Joe Paterno carried more weight than the average whirl on the constantly turning coaching carousel. Paterno was an icon, a man that had been lionized for decades due to his insistence that at Penn State things were still done the right way. The man we called JoePa was a champion on the gridiron who also championed the existence of amateur idealism. Everything about Paterno’s portrayal of Penn State dripped with authenticity. Penn State players were true student athletes. They were good players and good men. The football stadium that Paterno made famous is even nicknamed “Happy Valley”, as if to reiterate that nothing could possibly go wrong at the sanctuary that is Penn State.

As it turns out, we were all wrong about Penn State. College football’s supposed refuge of high standards, turned out to be the sport’s sickest shop of horrors. What happened at Penn State is still unfathomable, but at some point we must begin to assess the wreckage that has been left behind.

As I continue, one person I refuse to dwell on is this story’s primary villain. I can’t bring myself to waste too many words condemning Jerry Sandusky. He is a monster, a predator, a rapist. He will spend the rest of his life in prison, and if he spends a day of his sentence in general population, his stay will be short. I wish death on no man, but the freedom of being a freelance journalist does allow me the opportunity to wish the fate of anal rape on any man I choose. Jerry Sandusky…I choose you. If there’s any justice in the world, someone will introduce you to the same feelings of terror and hopelessness that you inflicted upon so many children. As far as Sandusky goes, that’s all I got.

Though Jerry Sandusky has become one of the most dastardly figures in recent memory, the scandal that has permeated through the Penn State football program has very little to do with him. The actions of a rogue assistant are not enough to bring down the 7th most successful program in college football history. If Sandusky was the only wrongdoer, Penn State would be weakened by grief, but still structurally strong. Unfortunately, this saga’s cast of characters runs deep, and each implicated person brought us closer to the reality that we have arrived at now. The scandal at Penn State is not a rape case, it is the case of a cover up.

The first household name created by this unraveling tale was Mike McQueary. McQueary was a former player at Penn State, and a graduate assistant coach with the school when he witnessed an event that set this wheel of chaotic mismanagement in motion. McQueary was an eye witness to a Sandusky rape. After witnessing a sexual assault in the Penn State shower area, the young man alerted his superior of the incident. As you would expect, that man was Joe Paterno.

Of all the people involved in this situation, the man who draws the most ire from me is McQueary. I’d shake a rattlesnake before I would shake his hand. His response to the situation is an embodiment of selfishness and indifference. Of all the many men that have been ridiculed for their actions in the wake of this controversy, McQueary is the only credible known eye witness (there is a second eye witness, an elderly former janitor at PSU who unfortunately now suffers from dementia). The idea that McQueary, a former Big Ten football player in his physical apex did not even attempt to physically interrupt an elderly man raping a child is sickening. McQueary had the opportunity to stop a child from being raped. He chose not to. His fear of possibly losing his affiliation with the Penn State football program apparently overrode any thoughts of breaking up the interaction. A man who molests a child is considered a rapist, but a term has yet to be created with the proper amount of vile and disdain for a man who can watch a rape happen when he is capable of stopping it. When that moniker is created, it will be given to Mike McQueary. For now, I’ll settle on calling him a bitch, and that designation is too good for him.

I have words reserved for a certain trio of Penn State officials as well. Former President Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz, and currently suspended athletic director Tim Curley have shown themselves to be a triumvirate of administrative greed, dishonesty, and dishonor. The depth of the actual scandal begins with these men. The one thing that can be said about the likes of Mike McQueary and others implicated was that while they did not do enough…they at least did something. Starting with Spanier, a concerted effort was made to rid Penn State of Sandusky and his exploits under a cloak of secrecy and deceit. In terms of attempting to bring Sandusky to justice, these men did nothing. Not only did their plan fail, the lies that they used to conceal the truth complicated the situation to the extent that Schulz and Curley now face charges of perjury. Unsurprisingly, as the Sandusky arrest went public days after the Nittany Lions’ win over Illinois, Spanier was soon forced to resign from his position as president. Inexplicably, Tim Curley has not been fired. He is merely on administrative leave as he awaits his perjury trial. Schultz retired in the wake of the scandal’s surfacing (smart move). It saddens me because they have not been properly vilified for their lack of progressive action. Mike McQueary pushed this problem to Joe Paterno, Paterno pushed it to Curley, Curley pushed it to Schultz and finally Spanier. Once the university president was made aware of Sandusky’s actions, Penn State could have made the right decision and notified the police, and this scandal would instead be a tragedy. If Spanier used good and proper judgement, we would be focusing on the well-being of Sandusky’s victims, instead of the future of Joe Paterno’s recently removed statue. The salacious nature of this situation’s handling is the overwhelming theme of this story. Penn State was faced with one of the worst incidents in the history of college sports, and every move they made in response to it made the situation worse.

If there is a man of this lot that has been dealt an unfair hand, I look towards Joe Paterno. Many people in recent years asked how Penn State succeeded as a football program with an 85 year old coach that could only have limited interaction with his players. Paterno was never very vocal later in his career, and he coached his final games from a sky box to avoid freak injury. Penn State continued to succeed because Paterno mastered the art of delegation. Through decades of coaching, Paterno established a staff that he trusted unconditionally, and they carried out the mission of Penn State with a precision and exactness that made JoePa seem like a spry 60 year old on the sidelines.

When approached by Mike McQueary with claims of sexual abuse, Paterno did what he did on the field everyday. He delegated the job to someone better equipped to handle the situation. In hindsight, Spanier and his cronies were not the men that Joe Pa thought they were. Paterno’s mistake was a case of naivety, an ironic thing considering the man’s age. Paterno was spoiled by having his will implemented so effortlessly over the years. When it came time for Paterno to make a stand, he stuck his head in the sand, a choice more befitting of an ostrich than a mighty Nittany Lion. While I have no problem placing blame on Paterno, I can’t help to think that if Paterno’s superiors had done their jobs, Joe Paterno would still be the icon that he was after the Nittany Lions beat Illinois last October. I would go as far as to say that he would probably still be alive today. If the plot of this story was “McQueary told Joe Pa, Joe Pa told Spanier, Spanier called the cops,” the perception of Paterno becomes totally different without his actions changing at all.

Instead we must cope with the reality that Spanier chose not to contact the authorities, and Joe Paterno has become a fall guy. Once a symbol of sport’s purity and innocence, Paterno is now seen as a man who harbored a child molester for over a decade, and this is actually true in a partial respect. In times like these, when our country stands in a state of shock, we usually find a villain to rally around. Usually the person is easy to hate, and ideally is someone who can’t defend themselves, but the person is always a recognizable figure. Enter the legacy of Joe Paterno. With scandals like the one at Penn State, imagery is very important to the healing process. We attach the destruction of something tangible with healing and accomplishment. This is why the Berlin Wall had to come down; it is why the removal of Saddam’s statue marked the end of his tyranny in Iraq. The dismantling of Joe Paterno has been America’s outlet. It has been an expression of pain and confusion by the masses. So many people believed in Penn State that it makes it even harder to believe that one of our great bastions of integrity has been tainted with a permanent stain. Even as this investigation dominates national news cycles, the faces of Sandusky, McQueary, Spanier, and their ilk remain anonymous. If Jerry Sandusky joined you for coffee at a Manhattan Starbucks, you would probably leave impressed by his charm. I doubt the average person can associate the name of serial sexual predator Jerry Sandusky with his face. For this reason, we just can’t hate him as much as we’d like. Familiarity breeds hatred like nothing else in life, and Sandusky is just too knew to us. Paterno on the other hand is different. He is one of the most recognized men in sports. Most importantly, Paterno can’t defend himself. As I alluded to earlier, the coach died less than three months after he left Penn State. He has since become the person that it is most convenient to hate in this saga, and at some point this misappropriation of anger needs to end.

Joe Paterno is not a child molester. He is a football coach that put his fate in the hands of the wrong men when he could have done what he had to do himself. I feel sorry for Joe Paterno. He has a role in this situation, but at this point he is being played out of position.

In response to the “Freeh Report” on the Penn State football program, the school’s board of trustees recently removed a statue of Joe Paterno from outside of Beaver Stadium. It didn’t seem right to keep the statue there amidst such controversy, especially when vigilant threats were being made to destroy it. However it seemed like a fitting end. The statue was the tangible end of an era. Joe Pa’s mystique was ripped away as his 900 pound likeness was carted into the sunset. Days before the statue met it’s fate, a card laid at the feet of Paterno’s likeness. It simply said, “He was a man, not a god.” In a society that is fueled by hero worship and popularity, Paterno proved to be neither godly enough nor manly enough to save Penn State. The realization makes him seem so ordinary that it makes you wonder why he even had a statue in the first place. Penn State has proven that here is a copious amount of stupidity in immortalizing a morta, but I believe they have learned their lesson…at the costly expense of tragedy and scandal.

There were no smiles or slaps on the back among the more than 30 Nittany Lions who huddled outside the school’s football facility Wednesday morning. After the statement was read, they turned around and walked back into the building.

“We want to let the nation know that we’re proud of who we are,” senior fullback Michael Zordich said, flanked by his fellow players. “We’re the true Penn Staters, and we’re going to stick together through this. We’re going to see this thing through, and we’re going to do everything we can for the university. We know it’s not going to be easy, but we know what we’re made of.”

NCAA sanctions will keep the Nittany Lions out of a bowl game for the rest of these players’ careers, and college sports’ governing body is allowing any of them to transfer to another school and get on the field right away. But on Wednesday, at least 13 players listed as first-stringers on the preseason depth chart affirmed their commitment to staying in Happy Valley, including senior quarterback Matt McGloin.

Neither Zordich nor senior linebacker Michael Mauti — both sons of former Penn State players — mentioned former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky by name during the impromptu news conference, where they didn’t take any questions after reading a statement.

“We take this as an opportunity to create our own legacy,” Mauti said. “This program was not built by one man and it’s sure as hell not going to get torn down by one man. This program was built on every alumni, every single player that came before us, built on their backs.”

The Nittany Lions can’t play in a bowl game until the 2016 season after an unprecedented child sex abuse scandal that shattered the program’s image as a place where “success with honour” was the rule. The scholarship reductions they’ll receive could make it difficult for new coach Bill O’Brien to field a competitive squad during the next few seasons.

That’s why support will be needed from fans and alumni more than ever, the players said.

“We’re going to do everything in our power to get this place back on track,” Zordich said. “I’m personally calling out every member of Nittany Nation — all the students, faculty, fans and family members, alumni, everything that there is. Please, please come support us through this, because we need you just as much as you need us. And together we’re going to get through this thing to the end.”

Mauti is expected to be a leader on the defensive side, while McGloin won the starting quarterback job during spring practice.

On Twitter, McGloin called the NCAA penalties “extremely harsh.”

“I am a Nittany Lion and will remain one,” he tweeted. “I believe in the core values I have learned in this program. It is not Nittany Lion Football. It is Nittany Lion family.”

But some players will weigh whether to transfer, with other schools wooing them. The biggest name is running back Silas Redd, who rushed for 1,241 yards as a sophomore last season. Redd has yet to reveal his plans.

Illinois spokesman Kent Brown confirmed that a group of assistant coaches travelled to State College on Wednesday to talk to some Nittany Lions players. Brown said Illini athletic director Mike Thomas informed Penn State of the trip and that it came after Nittany Lions players contacted the Illini.

Cornerback Stephon Morris, who attended Wednesday’s news conference, tweeted: “We have chosen to stay at PSU & other opposing coaches are outside our apartment. Was that the intentions of the NCAA.” He added the hashtags “LeaveUsAlone” and “WeAre.”

O’Brien told ESPN on Wednesday that while opposing coaches needed only to email or fax the compliance department to receive clearance to speak to players, he believed there was a protocol they should follow. O’Brien cited Central Florida’s George O’Leary, Syracuse’s Doug Marrone and Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz as having reached out to him first.

It’s been less than two weeks since an investigation by former FBI director Louis Freeh concluded former coach Joe Paterno and other high-ranking university officials covered up abuse allegations involving Sandusky, who awaits sentencing on charges he abused 10 boys, some of them in team facilities.

In that time, Paterno’s bronze likeness has been removed from outside Beaver Stadium and the NCAA imposed harsh sanctions that include a $60 million fine and a four-year bowl ban. The NCAA also erased 14 years of Paterno’s victories, stripping him of his standing as the winningest coach in the history of big-time college football.

“No sanction, no politician is ever going to take away what we’ve got here,” Mauti said. “None of that’s ever going to tear us apart. Right now all we can do is put our heads down, and we’re just going to work. That’s all we can do. We’re going to fight for Penn State, fight for each other, because this is what Penn State’s about — fighting through adversity.”

Soon after the players spoke, Penn State announced that no players would be made available for Big Ten media days, which are Thursday and Friday in Chicago.

Along with Mauti, Zordich, McGloin and Morris, players listed as first-teamers who attended Wednesday included wide receiver Allen Robinson; offensive linemen Donovan Smith, Matt Stankiewitch, John Urschel and Adam Gress; tight end Kyle Carter; defensive linemen DaQuan Jones and Pete Massaro; and cornerback Adrian Amos.

That group includes six seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and two redshirt freshmen.

Penn State spokesman Jeff Nelson said other players had committed to return but were unable to attend Wednesday because of classes or internships.

Related articles

• Penn State’s Zordich: “We’re proud of who we are” (vindy.com)
• McGloin: ‘I am a Nittany Lion and will remain one’ (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• QB McGloin tweets he will remain at Penn State (espn.go.com)

The verdict is in; the decision has been made.

The so-called timeless legend Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions which until recently were the cornerstone of college football pride has been officially tossed into the garbage strewn NCAA landfill where it will likely decompose for time eternal.

Penn State Football will never survive this.

$60 Million dollars in fines won’t bring Penn State University to its knees; neither will its inability to play in Bowl games for the next 4 years, nor even the 5 year suspension which will follow the Bowl ban.

By forfeiting all victories from 1998 when the allegations were first reported thru 2011, Joe Paterno’s all- time win record is forever erased from the record books.

The proud statue of the Coach which graced the entrance of Beaver stadium was taken down and carted off to an unknown location, perhaps saving it from a fate similar to the destruction of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Iraq.

The current players may move their scholarships to other universities or may stay at Penn St; additional victims of a predator allowed to roam free.

None of the penalties meted out by the corrupt, hypocritical warlords of the NCAA will change the legacy of Penn State Football; that’s because there is no more legacy, there’s only shame, guilt and a sense of total defeat.

Grown men in powerful positions took it upon themselves to cover up an atrocity.

These otherwise respected and popular leaders allowed their judgment and moral principles to fall victim to greed, fear, and self-preservation.

War atrocities are committed for the same loss of testicular fortitude and conviction.

These men literally sold their souls, and their actions will forever be a stain on an otherwise top quality university.

Penn State and sexual molestation will forever be linked as the result of the acts of a few individual’s, who chose to protect a monster and cover up a heinous crime.

Joe Paterno and the Penn State Nittany Lions Football are officially dead…Justice is served!

Penn State fined $60M, wins vacated from 1998-2011 – NCAA Football – SI.com.

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties Monday, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno’s victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, the loss of 20 scholarships per year over four years and five years’ probation. The NCAA also said that any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school.

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the staggering sanctions at a news conference in Indianapolis. Though the NCAA stopped short of imposing the “death penalty” — shutting down the Nittany Lions’ program completely — the punishment is still crippling for a team that is trying to start over with a new coach and a new outlook.

Sandusky, a former Penn State defensive co-ordinator, was found guilty in June of sexually abusing young boys, sometimes on campus. An investigation commissioned by the school and released July 12 found that Paterno, who died in January, and several other top officials at Penn State stayed quiet for years about accusations against Sandusky.

Emmert fast-tracked penalties rather than go through the usual circuitous series of investigations and hearings. The NCAA said the $60 million is equivalent to the annual gross revenue of the football program. The money must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at Penn State.

“Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people,” Emmert said.

Emmert had earlier said he had “never seen anything as egregious” as the horrific crimes of Sandusky and the coverup by Paterno and others at the university, including former Penn State President Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley.

The investigation headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh said that Penn State officials kept what they knew from police and other authorities for years, enabling the abuse to go on.

There had been calls across the nation for Penn State to receive the “death penalty,” and Emmert had not ruled out that possibility as late as last week — though Penn State did not fit the criteria for it. That punishment is for teams that commit a major violation while already being sanctioned.

Workers lifted the 7-foot-tall statue off its base and used a forklift to move it into Beaver Stadium as the 100 to 150 students watching chanted, “We are Penn State.”

“It’s like a whole part of me is coming down. It’s just an incredibly emotional process.”

The university announced earlier Sunday that it was taking down the monument in the wake of an investigative report that found the late coach and three other top Penn State administrators concealed sex abuse claims against retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Meanwhile, the NCAA said that that it would levy “corrective and punitive measures” against Penn State in the wake of the child sex-abuse scandal involving former football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. The organization announced Sunday that it would spell out the sanctions on Monday but disclosed no details.

NCAA President Mark Emmert hasn’t ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Penn State football program in the wake of the scandal, adding that he had “never seen anything as egregious.”

The statue, weighing more than 900 pounds, was built in 2001 in honour of Paterno’s record-setting 324th Division I coaching victory and his “contributions to the university.”

A spokeswoman for the Paterno family didn’t immediately return phone and email messages. Sue Paterno and two of the Paternos’ children visited the statue Friday as students and fans lined up to get their pictures taken with the landmark.

Construction vehicles and police arrived shortly after dawn Sunday, barricading the street and sidewalks near the statue, erecting a chain-link fence then concealing the statue with a blue tarp.

Penn State President Rod Erickson said he decided to have the statue removed and put into storage because it “has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing.”

“I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse,” Erickson said in a statement released at 7 a.m. Sunday.

He said Paterno’s name will remain on the campus library because it “symbolizes the substantial and lasting contributions to the academic life and educational excellence that the Paterno family has made to Penn State University.”

The statue’s sculptor, Angelo Di Maria, said it was upsetting to hear that the statue had been taken down.

“It’s like a whole part of me is coming down. It’s just an incredibly emotional process,” Di Maria said.

“When things quiet down, if they do quiet down, I hope they don’t remove it permanently or destroy it,” he said. “His legacy should not be completely obliterated and thrown out. … He was a good man. It wasn’t that he was an evil person. He made a mistake.”

The bronze sculpture has been a rallying point for students and alumni outraged over Paterno’s firing four days after Sandusky’s Nov. 5 arrest — and grief-stricken over the Hall of Fame coach’s Jan. 22 death at age 85.

But it turned into a target for critics after a report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh alleged a coverup by Paterno, ousted President Graham Spanier and two Penn State officials, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice-President Gary Schultz. Their failure to report Sandusky to child-welfare authorities in 2001 allowed him to continue molesting boys, the report found.

Paterno’s family, along with attorneys for Spanier, Curley and Schultz, vehemently deny any suggestion they protected a pedophile. Curley and Schultz await trial on charges of failing to report child abuse and lying to a grand jury but maintain their innocence. Spanier hasn’t been charged. Sandusky was convicted last month of 45 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys.

Some newspaper columnists and former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden have said the statue should be taken down, while a small plane pulled a banner over State College reading, “Take the statue down or we will.”

But Paterno still has plenty of fans, and Penn State’s decision to remove the monument won’t sit well with them. One student had even vowed to “chain myself to that statue” if there was an attempt to remove it, but there was no attempt to stop the work Sunday.

University officials had called the issue a sensitive one in light of Paterno’s enormous contributions to the school over a 61-year coaching career. The Paterno family is well-known in the community for philanthropic efforts, including the millions of dollars they’ve donated to the university to help build a library and fund endowments and scholarships.

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Associated Press writer Ron Todt in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Today has the feel of a mid-September day. Cool breeze, overcast and misty, and it reminds me of what my mother used to call a good land day, when we would be at the lake in Maine. Good day for shopping, she would say.

Speaking of Maine, I will be gone the first half of August. Within the week, writing assistant, Rebecca, and I will be making a decision on whether or not to either re-post past entries, or to have her post a few new ones with her choice of topic. Rebecca is up on current events and no doubt will come up with interesting things to say.

To finish off today’s shorter blog post, I am keeping my ear open for any news on the Penn State scandal/Freeh report/NCAA penalty decision. I, being a Penn State football fan all my life, am extremely interested in what the final decision will be. I have a sneaking suspicion that the NCAA will come down on us rather hard; as they should. This university and this town will be reeling from these events for years to come. Until Wednesday, take care and happy reading.

Very briefly before I get too worked up and scream, here are a few points in my mind. Point #1. Yes this was a complete tragedy, however, the football players ready to hit the gridiron in about a month were in elementary school or junior high when the unfortunate events took place. These college athletes had nothing to do with it. Why punish them?

Point #2. State College, Pennsylvania lives for the Central Festival of the Arts every July and eight home football games a year. Besides what little Christmas shopping rush we have, folks, you’re looking at the majority of our economy. State College, in my opinion, would be economically crippled without one, definitely two, seasons of football.

To wrap up this short blog post today. Yes, justice must be done to those guilty. I just don’t think that we would be punishing the right people by putting Penn State football for 2012 or beyond on death row. Until very soon, take care and happy reading.

A student-athlete advocacy group has asked the NCAA to lift all transfer restrictions for Penn State football players, allowing them to switch schools without penalty. The request comes in the wake of the school-funded Freeh Commission concluding that administrators and coaches helped conceal the Jerry Sandusky sexual molestation scandal.

The request would allow any Penn State player to become immediately eligible to play at any other program and still receive a full scholarship. It would also allow other schools to communicate with players about potential transfers. NCAA rules stipulate a player on scholarship who transfers must sit out one year before becoming eligible.

Citing “an apparent cover-up by Penn State officials” of Sandusky’s crimes over a decade, Ramogi Huma, the president of the California-based National College Players Association, called for the NCAA to remember current student-athletes are innocent bystanders in this case.

Former UCLA linebacker Ramogi Huma is the president of the National College Players Association. (AP)

“While Penn State coaches and administrators have been implicated in heinous activities, Penn State football players have done nothing wrong,” Huma wrote in a letter to NCAA president Mark Emmert dated Tuesday.

Emmert said Monday on PBS that he’s “never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of just overall conduct and behavior inside a university” and that in terms of potential punishment for the university he didn’t want to take “anything off the table.”

That includes a possible “Death Penalty,” which would prohibit Penn State from fielding a team for a period of time. The school said Tuesday that it was in the process of responding to the NCAA about possible violations stemming from the Freeh report findings.

Huma suggested that one potential action would be lifting the NCAA’s restrictive transfer policy. NCAA rules also prohibit a school from communicating with a potential transfer unless Penn State grants a release. A player’s inability to test the waters stymies possible movement.

[Dan Wetzel: NCAA president hints at possible Penn State 'death penalty']

It’s common for the NCAA to relax the prohibitions when schools are facing bans on post-season competition, among other situations.

“The actions of Penn State officials have already tarnished the experience of Penn State football players,” Huma said. “Penn State officials should not be given the power to hold players’ financial aid and athletic opportunities hostage.”

In an interview Tuesday evening, Huma said he did not know if any Penn State players were interested in transferring, he just wanted them to have the option to do so without penalty.

“This has been something we have been advocating for a long time,” Huma said of his organization’s opposition to transfer rules. “Our position is a school should never be allowed to hold a player hostage, let alone a school whose action may warrant the death penalty.

“In light of President Emmert’s comments, we want the transfer restrictions to be a consideration when he is handing down a punishment, if there is a punishment.”

Huma said that while it may be difficult for a player to transfer on the eve of the season, each current member of the program should retain the right to leave without restriction at a later date.

 [Related: Joe Paterno's family wants its own review of the Freeh report]

“The president of Penn State is thinking about taking down the statue of Joe Paterno [the coach who the majority of these players signed to play for],” Huma said. “No one can blame a Penn State football player for wanting to list a different school on his resume the rest of his life.”

Huma played linebacker at UCLA from 1995-99. He founded the NCPA in 1997 to argue for student-athlete rights after a teammate was suspended for receiving groceries he otherwise couldn’t afford.

The NCPA has worked in recent years for improved health care for players, the use of new television revenue to make up for cost of living shortfalls and other issues to improve the experience for players.

Related articles

• Penn State to address statue, NCAA probe in days (cbsnews.com)
• Analysis: Because of Jerry Sandusky case, NCAA is likely to ban Penn State football (pennlive.com)
• NCAA chief says death penalty is a possibility for Penn State football program (pennlive.com)
• NCAA boss won’t rule out Penn St. death penalty (tracking.si.com)
• NCAA President Mark Emmert won’t rule out death penalty for Penn State (tracking.si.com)
• NCAA boss won’t rule out death penalty for Penn State football (nypost.com)
• Penn St. says it will answer NCAA within days (espn.go.com)
• NCAA President Not Ruling Out ‘Death Penalty’ For Penn State Football (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• NCAA president mulling PSU penalties (espn.go.com)
• You: What Is the Role of the NCAA in the Penn State Scandal? (bleacherreport.com)
• Penn State to address NCAA, statue concerns within the next week (collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com)

Heart of Penn State Football. Normally alumni would post home-game tickets as if they were for Albert Hall‘s Fab reunion concert.

Now, it’s a place that is much condemned: punishment for Penn State, penalty for Penn State.

Alumni started to flip the script: BOT this and that, the Governor himself, where was he? etc…

This fiasco reminds me of a rack-focused shot from a David Lynch‘s movie, perhaps Mulholland Drive? which slowly reveals what’s beneath the well-manicured auto-irrigated lawn. Finally, real Happy Valley is revealed.

We know now, there is no perfect place. Nor people. Just ordinary human beings with highs and lows.

Like you and I.

It’s like when we receive our transcript: some courses we did better than others.

Oh well.

Ethically, Penn State is getting its report card. We Penn Staters are getting a black-eye.

Hard to imagine “senior panic” plus austerity, plus this. Perfect storm.

I feel for graduating seniors. I want to remind them of Steve Jobs‘ commencement address “Stay hungry, stay foolish”, plus, “Stay clean”.  BTW, I am not ashamed to admit I started out there at Penn State in my first job as a janitor at the HUB. Reports say one of the janitors at PSU saw what happened but “was afraid for his job”etc…

Maybe he too should be taken into custody for not doing his job: cleaning up the mess at Penn State.

Not “where was the Governor”, but “where was the janitor”. Highs and lows.

Well that’s not entirely true. The statue would not be capable of engaging in a fourteen year coverup of the child rapes. Make that AT LEAST fourteen years because now there is word being bandied around that this child rape scandal at Penn State may go back to the 1970′s.

So even though I sarcastically referred to the Penn State football stadium as The House That Child Rapes Built in a previous post that may turn out to be the actual truth if this scandal really does go back to the years when Joe “Child Rape Scandal” Paterno’s football teams were on their way up.  

Meanwhile that statue is a big middle finger to the victims and their families and a monstrous symbol of the reasons why so many children who are victims of rape fear to come forward: they see their assailants AND their assailant’s enablers being elevated and lionized. Think of the victims who testified to screaming as children, screaming while their rapist violated them from behind and nobody helped them. Quite the opposite. Joe Paterno, the Family Values Republican and “pillar of the community”  NEVER called the police or child services about Sandusky and according to the Freeh Report actively sought to cover up the sordid story … no matter how many more future victims that left at Sandusky’s mercy.

Over the years when Paterno saw Sandusky at Beaver Stadium with his victims what was he thinking? Was it “Geez, I wonder if Jerry will rape that poor little boy, too? Sucks to be that kid. Lucky for me I’m Joe Paterno and he’s just a little boy from an underprivileged family. Who knows what great things that poor kid might have done in life to get his OWN statue some day if not for the horrible detour his life is taking here at The House That Child Rapes Built.”

TEAR DOWN THE STATUE AND STRIP THE MONSTER PATERNO OF ALL VICTORIES GOING BACK TO AT LEAST 1998.

BY POPULAR DEMAND HERE IS A QUICK LINK TO MY PAST PENN STATE CHILD RAPE SCANDAL POSTS – http://glitternight.com/category/joe-child-rape-scandal-paterno/ 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Police are aware of three men who say they were abused in the 1970s or 1980s by now ex-Penn State football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, CNN contributor Sara Ganim reports for the Harrisburg Patriot News.

The allegations are the first to involve claims of abuse by the coach before the 1990s. During Sandusky’s child rape trial, his defense argued that it is rare for someone to suddenly become a pedophile in their later years.

Sandusky was convicted in June of 45 counts of child sex abuse against 10 victims. As the jury was deliberating, more accusers – including his own adopted son – were speaking publicly for the first time about alleged abuse.

Sandusky has probably been molesting kids since he was first able.  And he’s probably been protected by someone all along the way, just as he was protected by Paterno.  Once a molester, always a molester.  Now a molester, a molester for a while.  The molesting leopard never changes its spots.

Related articles

• Jerry Sandusky case: Three men say they were abused in ’70s or ’80s (pennlive.com)
• Rochelle Riley: No mercy for Jerry Sandusky’s enablers at Penn State – Detroit Free Press (freep.com)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Veteran Penn State football coach Joe Paterno began talks that resulted in a sweetened retirement contract in the same month that he testified before a grand jury in the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse case, and all members of the board of trustees weren’t informed of the new package before the scandal engulfed the university, according to a published report.

Paterno and the university reached agreement on the amended contract that eventually totalled US$5.5 million in August, months before charges were filed against Sandusky, but they began negotiating in January, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The amended contract, which was reported on by The Associated Press in April, included a $3 million career bonus if Paterno retired at the end of the 2011 season, as well as well as forgiveness of $250,000 in outstanding indebtedness and an additional $100,000 in loans.

The package also included access to a stadium box for his family for 25 years as well as parking privileges and access to on-campus hydrotherapy equipment for his wife.

The newspaper cited university records in saying Paterno first broached the idea of revisiting his contact in January, the same month he made a brief appearance before the grand jury, and some top university officials had also testified before the panel before the agreement was reached in August.

But the paper, citing “people with knowledge of the events,” said details of the agreement were known to a handful of board members but not shared with the full board, which only learned about the lucrative contract when Sandusky was arrested in November and two university officials were charged.

Paterno then publicly announced he would retire at the end of the season in a statement that also told school trustees to focus their attention on other matters.

“I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can,” Paterno said at the time. “This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”

Trustees, who agreed Paterno had not done enough to stop the abuse, fired him later that same day, a decision that was followed by rioting in State College. Paterno died of lung cancer in January at age 85. Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of 45 counts of having molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period.

Paterno family lawyer Wick Sollers told the Times on Friday that it was Penn State that proposed the lucrative retirement package, and that many elements such as the luxury box and use by Paterno of a private aircraft had existed in previous contracts.

Asked Friday if the university planned to try recover money from the Paterno estate, trustees chairwoman Karen Peetz said, “Contracts are contracts, and no, there’s no plan to do that.”

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Will Penn State Ever be Held Accountable?

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL

Matt Rourke/Associated PressFormer FBI director Louis Freeh spoke about his investigation into the Penn State child sex scandal on July 12, 2012. Freeh said the most “saddening and sobering” finding from his group’s report is Penn State senior leaders’ “total disregard” for the safety and welfare of the child victims.     

Since the disclosure of the serial rape, abuse and betrayal of young boys by Jerry Sandusky, lieutenant to the Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, a lot has been said about how shocking and damaging the revelation was to Penn State, its alumni, its football program, Mr. Paterno’s reputation and other irrelevant things.

I never cared much about any of that, or bought the premise that Penn State and its leaders were somehow victims of Mr. Sandusky’s crimes. The only victims were the young boys. A trial, in which Mr. Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts, including rape, revealed that those boys were drawn in by Mr. Sandusky, who pretended to be their mentor and protector. They were attacked by him and then betrayed by every adult and every institution around them.

That point was driven home vividly by the release today of an independent investigation headed by Louis Freeh, the former head of the F.B.I. and former federal judge. It concluded that the most senior leaders at Penn State systematically organized a cover up of Mr. Sandusky’s crimes for over a decade, even though they had strong reason to believe that he was a serial sex criminal.

“The most saddening finding by the Special Investigative Counsel is the total and consistent disregard by the most senior leaders at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims,” the report said. It pointed to Penn State’s president, Graham Spanier, who was forced to resign; the senior vice president for finance and business, Gary Schultz; the athletic director Timothy Curley; and Mr. Paterno, who was fired and later died.

Mr. Schultz was allowed to retire and Mr. Curley was permitted to go on “administrative leave” before they were charged with failing to report allegations of child abuse and for committing perjury before the grand jury investigating the case. I never understood why they were not fired, but Mr. Freeh’s report shows how heightened the sense of self-protection at all costs is at Penn State.

The Freeh report said that these four people “exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky’s victims.” Actually, it was much worse than that.

Michael McQueary, a junior member of the football staff, reported to Mr. Paterno and other university leaders that he saw h Mr. Sandusky rape a-10 year-old boy in the shower in 2002. They not only failed to try to identify and help the child, or report the case to the police—they actually told Mr. Sandusky what Mr. McQueary saw, putting the boy at great risk.

Since 1990, Penn State, like all educational institutions that receive federal funds, has been legally required by the Clery Act to identify and report crimes committed on campus, particularly sex crimes. The report shows Penn State had utter disregard for that responsibility. It never created a Clery protocol, and obviously had no intention of reporting these crimes.

The law provides for the suspension of federal funds to colleges and universities that fail to abide by its provisions, along with a civil penalty of $27,500 for each infraction.

So, let’s see, that’s 45 times $27,500, which covers only the criminal counts on which Mr. Sandusky was convicted. That gets us to$1,237,500, plus suspension of federal money. The fine will be devastating to the school and certainly harm blameless students and faculty.

But laws have no purpose if they can be so flagrantly disregarded, with such impunity.

 Will Penn State Ever be Held Accountable? – NYTimes.com.

Related articles

• Freeh report: The investigation of Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children implicates Penn State’s top leadership. – Slate Magazine (mbcalyn.com)
• Michael McCann: Freeh Report finds Paterno, PSU leaders concealed Sandusky abuse (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• Someone Actually Thinks The Freeh Report Exonerated Joe Paterno, And It’s Bill James [Penn State Scandal] (deadspin.com)
• Report: Penn St. disregarded children’s welfare (espn.go.com)
• Paterno’s legacy may now be damaged beyond repair (mysanantonio.com)
• Freeh Report On Penn State’s Handling Of Sandusky Scandal Set To Be Released (pittsburgh.cbslocal.com)
• Freeh Report Finds PSU Officials Concealed Facts About Abuse (pittsburgh.cbslocal.com)
• Louis Freeh Penn State Report: Alleged Cover-Up Damages Joe Paterno’s Legacy (bleacherreport.com)
• Analysis: FBI Director Louis Freeh, state’s results differ greatly. Why? (pennlive.com)
• Penn State probe accuses Paterno of cover-up|With related stories, videos in Sports (rep-am.com)

Life is great when it’s not your OWN children and grandchildren repeatedly getting raped

 Dateline State College, PA, the Child Rape Capital of North America. Welcome to the first day of the rest of “the Joe Paterno Legacy”. Today saw the announcement of the results of the Louis Freeh investigation into the multiple child rapes and alleged coverup of same by Joe Paterno and others at Penn State.

The findings maintained that Joe Paterno and his superiors (some of whom had played football for the coach decades ago and over whom he seems to have had inordinate influence in my opinion) showed complete disregard for the safety of the victims and potential future victims of Paterno’s assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was found guilty of continuing to rape several children over the course of fourteen years at least. So make that at least FOURTEEN YEARS since Joe Paterno and company were made aware of the accusations against the convicted child rapist.

Yes, the investigation held that “Family Values” Republican Joe Paterno had known since at least 1998 about the Jerry Sandusky situation. The investigation further held that Paterno and his superiors seemed more concerned with sparing Paterno and the Penn State football program public embarrassment than with alerting child welfare authorities. Meanwhile Sandusky continued to rape children, sometimes IN PENN STATE FACILITIES during that time and the strongest reaction of Paterno and company was to advise Sandusky to stop “hosting” his child “guests” on Penn State property. 

What a strong stand! A reasonable person could paraphrase that sentiment as “Kindly refrain from raping any more children at Penn State facilities. It might inconvenience Joe Paterno by embarrassing him with a police investigation and giving his bureaucratic critics at Penn State some ammunition to keep him and his football program in line.”

The investigation also showed that Paterno lied when he claimed no knowledge of the 1998 investigation into Sandusky’s activities. In addition evidence indicated that even when Curley and others among Paterno’s supposed superiors wanted to go to child welfare authorities they met with Paterno and, suddenly that plan went by the wayside.

Paterno often pompously moralized about Family Values, especially when doing political commercials for Republican candidates like George W Bush. Who better to lecture the rest of us about Family Values than a man found to be involved in a coverup of multiple child rapes? 

Paterno’s family kept claiming the investigation would clear “JoePa” (or maybe that should now be “JoePed”) just like they kept claiming there was no danger of the rude and petty little man getting fired  … the same day he DID get axed. That same night Paterno complained to the soon-to-be-rioting mob on his front lawn about the indignity of getting fired BY PHONE! Tsk, tsk! And people call the raped children the victims in all this! Poor JoePed! 

What will the deluded zombies of State College do now to pretend that Joe Paterno wasn’t involved in covering up multiple child rapes for fourteen years? I’m sure they’ll come up with something. While they’re busy doing that (and I’m sure I’ll get more threatening emails from Paterno’s savage fans and players) let’s ponder a few questions: 

Q: Should “Camping out in Paternoville”, which used to refer to the tent city where students would camp out for tickets to Penn State football games, now be used as a euphemism for people disgracefully failing to act on accusations of multiple child rapes? You know, something like “Instead of calling the police or child welfare authorities while several children were being raped over and over and over again for fourteen years they were too busy camping out in Paternoville.” 

Q: What really did happen to District Attorney Ray Gricar, who disappeared during an earlier investigation of Sandusky? (He’s been declared legally dead and his computer hard drive, containing details on his investigations at the time, was found in the same body of water that his office computer was found in after he vanished. The water damage prevented any data from being recovered.)

Q: Should the Penn State Nittany Lions now change their name to the Sodomy Lions? Or maybe the Fighting Child Rapists?

Q: Shouldn’t Paterno get stripped of all victories going back to 1998 so we no longer have to hear about this unfeeling monster leading Division One for football victories? Coaches have been stripped of wins for much less.

Q: How about changing the name of the Penn State football stadium to “The house that child rapes built”? 

And most importantly: 

Q: What can be done in the future to prevent callous and in the end pathetic figures like Joe Paterno from exerting so much influence over an institution of higher learning just because they coach a winning football team?

Whatever failings that may have happened at Penn State, whatever conclusions about my or others’ conduct you may wish to draw from a fair view of the allegations, it is inarguable that these actions had nothing to do with this last team or any of the hundreds of prior graduates of the “Grand Experiment.”

Penn Staters across the globe should feel no shame in saying “We are…Penn State.”  This is a great University with one of the best academic performing football programs in major college athletics.  Those are facts – and nothing that has been alleged changes them

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State’s long-awaited internal investigation into a child abuse scandal involving the university’s football team says senior leaders disregarded the safety and welfare of his victims.

A 267-page report is the result of an eight-month inquiry by former FBI director Louis Freeh, hired by university trustees weeks after Jerry Sandusky was arrested in November to look into what has become one of sports’ biggest scandals.

Freeh was tasked with uncovering the school’s failings in stopping Sandusky, a retired assistant football coach. The report also is expected to address broader issues including the influence wielded by the late coach Joe Paterno and the balance of power among athletics, school administrators and trustees.

Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of 45 criminal counts. The scandal led to the ouster of Paterno and the school’s president.

09:54ET 12-07-12

By T. Rees Shapiro, Published: June 23

In an ordinarily quiet cul-de-sac about 10 miles down the road in Lemont, the triumphant crackle, burst and flare of fireworks lit up Sandusky’s front lawn. His closest neighbors — expressing their collective relief — had cause for celebration, too.

Penn State students and alumni say they stand ready to help the victims in the Jerry Sandusky case, but are also ready to close this chapter and move on.

Jerry Sandusky was convicted Friday of sexually assaulting ten boys, accusations that shattered image of Penn State football and led to the firing of coach Joe Paterno.

Said Paul Kletchka, whose house is next to the Sanduskys’: “It really hit me last night how this has been occupying my thoughts every waking moment. Now, I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Sandusky was a revered figure in nearby State College. He was a longtime assistant football coach under Joe Paterno and he founded a respected charity for underprivileged children.

That a jury of his peers determined Friday that Sandusky had used the Second Mile charity to lure victims into his basement bedroom shocked an already divided community.

Karl Rominger, Sandusky’s co-counsel, had stayed up past midnight smoking a cigar and drinking a beer at the Hotel Do-De bar, across the street from the courthouse. He said Saturday morning, in between several television interviews, that the appeals process will vindicate his client.

Rominger said the judge turned down a request by Sandusky’s lawyers to resign from the case on the eve of the trial.

According to Rominger, he and Joe Amendola made a sealed motion as jury selection began saying they had not been given enough time to adequately prepare, but that after discussion in the chambers, Judge John Cleland ruled against them.

“We told the trial court, the Superior Court and the Supreme Court we were not prepared to proceed to trial in June due to numerous issues, and we asked to withdraw from the case for those reasons,” Amendola told the Associated Press.

In Bellefonte, the television crews were mostly gone by 9 a.m. Saturday.

Eric Perryman, the owner and operator of the J & E Guns shop, across the street from the courthouse, said the past week had been business as usual despite all the commotion. He sold several guns throughout the week, he said, including some to out-of-towners here for the trial.

Kathy Sulkowlski, a longtime friend of the Sandusky family, said she was appalled by the jury’s verdict.

“The man I know would never have done this,” she said. “I think he was tried and convicted by the media when this first came out. He didn’t even stand a chance.”

For the time being, Sandusky is incarcerated at the Centre County Correctional Facility, a low-slung brick building with very few windows. It’s on a two-lane road dotted with cornfields and signs that say “DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS.”

While Sandusky spent his first day behind bars, Paul Kletchka enjoyed Saturday afternoon with his toddler son, playing in the grass next to Sandusky’s home. The neighbors had seen Sandusky’s wife, Dottie, return home in the early afternoon, and the house’s blinds were drawn. They’ve been neighbors for 11 years.

“I kind of feel like as a neighborhood we are over one big hurdle but there are still many to go,” he said.

Inside, his wife, Dana, made a snack for their daughter, a first-grader at Lemont Elementary School. Sandusky’s property backs up to the school’s playground.

“It shakes your foundation,” Dana Kletchka said. “Your town isn’t what you thought it was. Your neighborhood isn’t what you thought it was. We’re looking back and thinking, was there something we should have known? Something we might have missed?”

Strauss, a Pennsylvania State University linguistics professor, spoke to The Washington Post last November but did not allow the paper to quote her by name. She was afraid to speak publicly because tensions were so high in the leafy cul-de-sac.

“There were always rumors around town, pieces of a puzzle about Jerry that you could never put together,” Strauss said. “People would say ‘Keep your boys away from Jerry Sandusky.’ And yesterday that puzzle took a very vivid shape.”

Strauss and the Kletchkas gathered Friday night after the verdict was announced to launch fireworks to ease some of their tensions and also to make a statement.

“It was about us speaking up and going public,” Strauss said. “We have voices now. We’re not being silent anymore.”

 After Sandusky verdict, neighbors release emotions – The Washington Post.

Related articles

• Jerry Sandusky trial juror: Sandusky ‘knew it was true’ as guilty verdict was read (pennlive.com)
• Jerry Sandusky’s attorneys tried to get out of case because they felt unprepared, Karl Rominger says (pennlive.com)
• Juror: No Doubt on Sanduskys Guilt – Daily Beast (thedailybeast.com)
• Jerry Sandusky’s crimes made verdict easy, juror says (pennlive.com)
• Sandusky Lawyers Raise Appeal Issue on Timing – ABC News (abcnews.go.com)
• Jury finds Sandusky guilty on 45 of 48 counts (espn.go.com)
• Jerry Sandusky Jury Reaches Verdict: Guilty On 45 Counts (webpronews.com)
• Jerry Sandusky Verdict: Guilty on 45 Counts of Child Abuse (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• Judge denied lawyers’ request – ESPN (espn.go.com)
• Jerry Sandusky on Suicide Watch (theroot.com)