In a nut shell - power PSU administrators and an iconic football coach - covered up a grotesque, disgusting sexual abuse scandal for 14 years. This is really really nothing more than a sad and depressing case, that will plague Penn State University for a very long time.
The people that stepped forward were thrown under the bus and shunned publicly. In this case it would appear that the football program appears to have run the univeristy - when there was evidence of wrong doing - these same powerful people from the athletic department covered this disgusting scandal up and swept it under the rug.
Why? Because these same selfish people cared more about the football program and it's image than the health and welfare of young boys. I can tell you one thing, I wouldn't send my child to this school.
For 14 years they were silent and complicit in Sandusky's sexual abuse. For 14 years Paterno, President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz could have picked up the phone to call the cops and tell what they knew about Sandusky sexually assaulting young boys. But they didn't. All they cared about was negative attention and how it might reflect on the program and the university.[CNN Opinion]There is no way anyone can defend this mess, this is totally unacceptable and there is no way anyone can defend this or sugar coat this. You can put chocolate sprinkles and frosting on a turd but in the end it's still a turd.
Earlier this week I said that the NCAA should throw the book at PSU, but after thinking about it what could they do about it. There also may not be any NCAA response to this mess/scandal.
That's the sad part is; I begrudgingly believe the Sicatoka might be right - there might not be anything that the NCAA can do about this, because it would be outside of their scope of control – as disgusting as this is, this would appear to be a criminal issue and maybe not worthy of a single NCAA sanctions. Sicatoka said recently in the comments of another blog post“…until the events can be shown to have violated some NCAA rule (lack of institutional control, maybe?) I don't see where the NCAA has any jurisdiction in this matter.
Going forward I think the first thing the University should have done to begin the healing process is tear down the statue Joe Paterno, unfortunately, that's not going to happen either or at least for now.
Don Van Natta Jr. , ESPN.com --- The embattled members of Penn State's Board of Trustees quietly have decided to leave Joe Paterno's statue standing -- at least for now and, some hope, forever, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of the trustees' private discussions this week. The trustees' reluctance to remove the statue is motivated, in part, by a desire not to offend alumni and students who adore the late coach despite the damning findings of his role in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse cover-up detailed in the Freeh report, the sources said. Some trustees also said in interviews they want to resist being pressured by the media into a sudden decision about such an emotionally charged issue.I would love to see PSU take that statue of Joe Paterno and smash it into a thousand pieces and then melt it down into a molten blob. In my opinion, from now on when Penn State will be for the crimes of Jerry Sandusky and how he sodomized young boys for 14 years in the showers of Penn State University athletic buildings and when he was caught the university swept it under the rug and covered it up - these people should also go to jail for a very long time because they are just culpable as well in this matter. I hope the victims sue Penn State into the ground.
