Louis Freeh report on Penn State & Sandusky

[Pinky]

PSU got off easy, as far as I'm concerned.

- $60 million fine? Chump change for a program like that. It's a state school so that's taxpayer money anyway.

The real reason the fine is inadequate is that the football program previously wasn't taxpayer funded. It earned tens of millions in profit every year. This penalty is small enough that an administrator in a similar position might still decide that covering something up to protect a profitable program is worthwhile.

[TerryB]

I read that $60 million is basically one year of revenue generated by the football program.

[clutch]

The only people punished by taking the wins away are the players. Sandusky will die in jail, Paterno lost every thing he was about and is dead. Penn state football is done, I think to never recover.

Paterno is dead. Fuck him.

I hope he is burning in hell

I hope Satan's minions fuck JoePed up the ass with a fence post wrapped in barbed wire, 24x7xeternity.

[Fat Cat]

It's hard to understand how someone's moral compass could be so distorted as to prioritize football over the safety of children. He could have come out of this even more legendary if he would have pounded Sandusky out and called the cops the first time he caught whiff of trouble.

[Kraj 2.0]

It's hard to understand how someone's moral compass could be so distorted as to prioritize football over the safety of children. He could have come out of this even more legendary if he would have pounded Sandusky out and called the cops the first time he caught whiff of trouble.

That's jock culture for you. It teaches you to value loyalty over doing what's right. That's how you get young men to go off and commit atrocities with a clear conscience.

[Fat Cat]

I never really have been around hardcore jock culture, but it looks like you're right. I totally understand loyalty, it's something which I prize, but there are limits and raping little boys is waaaay beyond the bounds of reasonable loyalty.

[Jay]

It's hard to understand how someone's moral compass could be so distorted as to prioritize football over the safety of children. He could have come out of this even more legendary if he would have pounded Sandusky out and called the cops the first time he caught whiff of trouble.

That's jock culture for you. It teaches you to value loyalty over doing what's right. That's how you get young men to go off and commit atrocities with a clear conscience.

Not always the case but I will say this..

I went to an inner city high school and we had some amazing athletes you never heard of because of crack dealing, armed robbery, etc.. One time the coach got pissed because our star RB got arrested for beating up a lady for her purse... catch is this, he was more mad at the cops for keeping him locked up before Friday's game than he was at the kid himself.

This is also the same coach who forged a racially charged letter "from" the rival's team head coach to a player trying to fire him up before that game. Needless to say that got him fired.

[Turdacious]

It's hard to understand how someone's moral compass could be so distorted as to prioritize football over the safety of children. He could have come out of this even more legendary if he would have pounded Sandusky out and called the cops the first time he caught whiff of trouble.

Disagree. Psu wasn't just a football program, but one that prided itself on being morally superior. Ignoring and tacitly condoning what happened was necessary to preserve the illusion. Turning him in would have made them ordinary. Unfortunately more kids had to suffer before balance pertained.

[Fat Cat]

It's hard to understand how someone's moral compass could be so distorted as to prioritize football over the safety of children. He could have come out of this even more legendary if he would have pounded Sandusky out and called the cops the first time he caught whiff of trouble.

Disagree. Psu wasn't just a football program, but one that prided itself on being morally superior. Ignoring and tacitly condoning what happened was necessary to preserve the illusion. Turning him in would have made them ordinary. Unfortunately more kids had to suffer before balance pertained.

Much like the Roman Catholic Church.

[nafod]

It's hard to understand how someone's moral compass could be so distorted as to prioritize football over the safety of children.

Paterno definitely meant it when he preached Victory with Honor. Sounds crazy now, but he was enormously successful for many, many years in graduating players who were class acts. This diminished in later years, but it absolutely permeated the culture of the football program.

The culture was also notoriously insular. What went on in the program stayed in the program, to include disciplinary issues. This culture of keeping it in and handling it within the program allowed them to deal with disciplinary issues internally, and likely rescued many a player who would have been thrown in jail, but instead suffered the withering pain of JoePa's doghouse. Easy to get into, hard to get out of.

My thinking is that this insularity went too far, that they thought (without really thinking) that they could deal with it themselves. Get Sandusky some counseling, let 2nd Mile know, keep him out of the locker room and kids, no need to alert the press or police. Utter fail.

I wonder if the two cultures are separable. If what it took to make your average football recruit an honorable grad required the space to allow him to make mistakes, but that habit of keeping it inside ultimately can bite back. I don't know.

[Fat Cat]

You know way more about this place and culture than I do, but it's pretty warped to think that a serial rapist of children is something for anybody but the cops. After a savage beating, of course.

[dead man walking]

jock culture?

i don't buy that.

institutions end up being focused on institutional survival, and the underlying purpose of the institution can get lost or sacrificed as the institution becomes an end in itself.

the catholic church is a perfect example. there are others.

[Kraj 2.0]

We can come up with reasons all we want. The bottom line is that Penn State is supported by a bunch of backwoods wackos who have nothing going for them other than a football team -- a team which wasn't even that great. I don't get the obsession these hicks have with JoePa. He led them to TWO National Championships in FORTY-FIVE years. Pete Carroll did the same at SC in only 8 years, and that's without having to keep any chi-moes under wraps. All this damn hubbub over a program that's slightly above average at best. They're not even the winningest football program in the state. These goobers need to get a grip and stop obsessing over their shit football program.

[nafod]

You know way more about this place and culture than I do, but it's pretty warped to think that a serial rapist of children is something for anybody but the cops. After a savage beating, of course.

It was warped. Indeed.

[Yes, I'm drunk]

There's something I don't understand here. If Joe Paterno wasn't the only person to know about this, then why is he getting all the shit? Surely there are others, if others knew, who had just as much, if not more, of a responsibility to inform the proper authorities about what was going on*.

And, if that's not the case, and only Joe Paterno knew about the abuse, then why are we talking about the failure of a corrupt institution, when in fact it would only be about the moral failure of a corrupt individual?

*Plus, the corollary here is that if this scenario is true, then there should be a shitload more prosecutions in the pipeline, not just Sandusky's.

[Fat Cat]

No, your first proposition is the right one. Others knew and every one of them gets a bite of the shit sandwich.

[Yes, I'm drunk]

No, your first proposition is the right one. Others knew and every one of them gets a bite of the shit sandwich.

Gotcha.

[Turdacious]

No, your first proposition is the right one. Others knew and every one of them gets a bite of the shit sandwich.

Should but won't-- that's Bureaucracy 101. Others will pay the price for their failures (students, athletes, etc...), they will lawyer up and get a slap on the wrist.

[Fat Cat]

[Jay]

[QUOTE="Fat Cat"][/QUOTE]

Hey Jerry, how's that kid looking on the field?

Tight, joe, real tight.

[nafod]

There's something I don't understand here. If Joe Paterno wasn't the only person to know about this, then why is he getting all the shit? .

He's not getting all the shit, but he deserves the most shit. It was his "victory with honor" culture that came up hollow. It was his culture of insularity that led them to keepi it in house. He was the one with a statue celebrating his humanitarianism.

[Protobuilder]

I do not get why it is ok to take away wins from past players who trained and played their hearts out. Why is it ok to punish the players for choices that the school made.

I would agree with this the vast majority of the time that the NCAA "takes away" wins but not this time. Sandusky was a premier coach whose presence probably led to more than a few defensive standouts coming to the university and who was certainly responsible for more than a few wins that PSU wouldn't have had otherwise.

PSU got off easy, as far as I'm concerned.

- $60 million fine? Chump change for a program like that. It's a state school so that's taxpayer money anyway.
- 4 year ban from bowl games? Big effin' deal. So you miss 4 bowl games. They probably wouldn't have even qualified for a bowl game.
- Scholarships cut from 25 to 15? Again, big effin' deal. No blue-chip recruits are going into that mess right now anyway. That team is going to suck even if you doubled their scholarships.
- All wins since '90-whatever wiped out? Seriously? Who gives a crap about that? What does wiping out a win do? Those games have come and gone. Money was made on them. Players have come and gone based on them. It's over. Taking them away does nothing to punish anyone except the guy in the NCAA records office who has to go back through his databases and adjust all this bullshit.

And then to see all those PSU students shocked and crushed at the news? Get back to fuckin' studying, you dopes. You're not at school to watch football games. You're there to earn a degree and move on in life.

The NCAA wussed out. They slapped PSU on the wrist. In my opinion, the JUST punishment should have been NO FOOTBALL whatsoever for a period of years from when Sandusky was first found out (What was that? Late 90's?) until this mess blew its lid. So no football program at all for 13-14 years. THAT'S a proper punishment that would change the culture of PSU football forever. Not this slap on the wrist bullshit.

I agree with this. When you get through all the whining by PSU fans and decipher what they are saying behind their poor grammar and spelling, what they are generally most pissed about is that they won't be able to compete for a national championship for a number of years. PSU hasn't been relevant, in a top 20 kind of manner, for over a decade and wouldn't be anywhere near a top bowl for years to come anyway. The $60m is cash that is able to be made back immediately, as they won't miss a single game on their schedule and will likely use it as a rallying cry for donations. If they want to hold PSU up as an example, the program should be closed down for the next 4-5 years at least.

[Kraj 2.0]

There's something I don't understand here. If Joe Paterno wasn't the only person to know about this, then why is he getting all the shit?

Because the whole point of this report is to pin it all on the slow-witted patsy and the dead guy, to cover up the others involved.

[Protobuilder]

There's something I don't understand here. If Joe Paterno wasn't the only person to know about this, then why is he getting all the shit?

Because the whole point of this report is to pin it all on the slow-witted patsy and the dead guy, to cover up the others involved.

Precisely. Others have careers and money to be made.

[Kraj 2.0]

There's something I don't understand here. If Joe Paterno wasn't the only person to know about this, then why is he getting all the shit?

Because the whole point of this report is to pin it all on the slow-witted patsy and the dead guy, to cover up the others involved.

Precisely. Others have careers and money to be made.

As well as sharing in Sandusky's sick fetishes.