<p>Thanks for your reply, momofthreeboys. FWIW, here’s my opinion of why these men made this mistake: </p>
<p>This wasn’t just an inexplicable random stupid error made by a few men at the top. As I said last night, it didn’t occur in a vacuum. It occurred because football was so important at Penn State that it overshadowed everything else – laws, caution, common sense, and decency. Not just too important to those men, but too important to the entire community. Judging by the vehemence with which many are defending it, it still is.</p>
<p>Oh, make no mistake, BalletMom, they knew it was a crime. In fact, they were just about to turn Sandusky in when Good Guy Joe vetoed the plan (yes, he had the power to veto the president of the university), thereby setting up 11 more years’ worth of victims.</p>
<p>I think one reason they all enabled Sandusky is that in their sick world, they actually may have felt sorry for the guy. He’s a classic sociopath, in addition to being a pedophile. When he was confronted by victim 1’s mother, he acknowledged taking a shower with the boy and maybe he touched him too, and then went into classic sociopath mode, in other words, he harms a child, commits a crime and yet he then acts as if he is the victim. Turn it around to manipulate the person’s reaction to him. classic sociopath. </p>
<p>"According to grand jury evidence, Sandusky told the mother of Victim One: “I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.” </p>
<p>Clearly they were protecting Penn State football, but I honestly think these men were able to ignore the real victims and feel bad for Sandusky.</p>
<p>“Seahorse, this is entirely speculation on my part and I don’t want to believe it in my heart, but when the prosecutors didn’t prosecute and once Sandusky was not in the athletic department payroll perhaps they felt it became someone else’s problem…sounds awful but strange things happen in this world.”</p>
<p>I think just the opposite happened. They knew they had a long-term problem. They knew it wouldn’t go away. They knew it would always be their problem (starting with JoePa). So they strategized how to keep it under wraps. Worked, too - in 1998, in 2001, and almost happy ever after… Professor Emeritus Sandusky was happy as a clam. JoePa wasn’t so happy, but he was in a straitjacket, and he managed to save his beloved football team and his own reputation.</p>
<p>I don’t think they ever felt sorry for the guy - I think the good Professor had them over a barrel.</p>
<p>Not reuiqred because they worked darn hard to make it so</p>
<p>And he was on the payroll…after he retired he was rehired to coach, amd a large amount on Penn state money went to his charity who paid him a salary so how anyone can say theynlet him Tomis beyond me, Penn state and second mile were an entangled mess</p>
<p>And before I get in Trouble again, explain to me how they let Sandusky go and how they weren’t involved with him any more. Seems that is supposed to be some sort of defense, they made him retire. But by no means was he gone. In fact he was more free to hunt little boys to molest. And Penn state was the perfect cover.</p>
<p>It seems to me that what the law does for a place like Penn State is that it allows the powers that be to use the law to their advantage. While public records are open and accessible to the press, Penn State ( and Pitt and Temple as well) are not fully public institiutions and they operate under different rules ( in more ways than one). I just thought it was interesting.</p>
<p>Actually, the 2013 recruits are a perfect example of why the program needs to be shut down. If you read their quotes, it sounds like the team just went 2-9 and 3-8 over the last 2 years and the coach got fired and the new recruits are going to turn things around.</p>
<p>Problem: the program we are going to chose to let children be raped
Solution: win more football games!</p>
<p>here are some quotes:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Restore the roar? If the roar is loud enough, no one will hear the children scream…</p>
<p>So they revoked sanduskys retirement package…Family gets to keep the money but he no longer will have access his title etc…now that’s taking charge.</p>
<p>Glad Professor Emeritus Sandusky can no longer use the locker room or his office. But at least he can keep his academic title - a symbol of Penn State’s academic integrity.</p>
<p>To be exact, this is what he lost:</p>
<pre><code>A lump sum of $168,000
Four free football season tickets for the rest of his life and the opportunity to purchase four more within the 35-yard lines
Two men’s and women’s basketball season tickets for the rest of his life
Lifetime use of a locker, weight rooms, fitness facilities and training room in the East Area locker room
A five-year agreement, subject to renewal, between him and Penn State to work collaboratively in community outreach programs, such as The Second Mile, that “provide positive visibility to the University’s Intercollegiate Athletics Program”
A 10-year agreement, subject to renewal, giving him an office and telephone in the East Area locker room.
</code></pre>
<p>EXCEPT that the university has no plans to retrieve the lump sum. (He’ll need it at the state pen.)</p>
<p>That’ll teach him, and set an example for all other pedophile Professors.</p>
<p>^^Not that I approve of slavery to the least degree, but to liken Paterno who enabled and abetted the rape of children to Thomas Jefferson who owned slaves is a very poor analogy, if for no other reason than the simple fact that in Jefferson’s day owning slaves was perfectly legal and always had been for thousands of years. Raping children has been a felony in every state in the US for a long, long time.</p>
<p>For me it’s putting paterno in the same arena as Jefferson as if paterno should be held in the same regard as Jefferson</p>
<p>And I wish every statue of Jefferson every book talked about his owning slaves and how that was a horridn part of American history no matter how lwgal</p>
<p>Not surprised more victims are turning up. No one turns into a pedophile at 50. In all likelihood he was abused as a child and then turned into an abuser himself. I don’t know at what age someone makes the switch from the abused to the abuser. Is it unheard of to think teenage years? I know we had an incident of a middle school boy molesting a little 5yo. </p>
<p>I’m guessing once more start stepping up there will be cases dating back to the early 70’s or late 60’s! </p>
<p>I think this will end up even worse than what we’re all aware of now. Penn State could be looking at staggering settlements so no wonder they aren’t contacting anyone about anything yet. </p>
<p>Given how people are still protecting PSU and it’s football team shows you how pervasive the denial is of the atrocities of this entire situation.</p>
<p>I think that sinking to attacking students who are not yet on campus, student-athletes or no, is beneath posters here. (#6150) Or I thought it was. Breneman (quoted in the story about the incoming class of football players) did not say, at any point, that the way to fix all this is to win more football games. I thought he was saying he’s looking forward to being the change everyone wants to see. But if you want to be disturbed by a 19 year old’s choice of school, have at it. Should he change his aspirations based on a catastrophe he had no part in? Or, instead, be part of creating a new culture? Some players did decommit. Many more came to join an entirely new staff in creating a new culture. Do you want to FIX things or just rant?</p>
<p>Incidentally, he will not be playing (apparently he’s injured), so he’s keeping busy. I’m sure someone will have a smart aleck remark about how it isn’t enough, or doesn’t matter, or is for some personal gain. Jeez, guys…</p>
<p>So many Penn Staters seem to think that if it were not for this one scandal, JoePa would be entirely free from tarnish–they don’t realize that illegal and amoral things were going on for years and years, and it had to take something so vile and objectionable that people could no longer turn the other way. When campus sexual assaults rates were released a few years back, experts said that it is not the campuses that have higher reported rates that you need to be careful of–it’s those that have very few or no reports that are the most dangerous–because they are hiding something and making it difficult for people to file police reports–people from PSU were always citing the fact that they were one of the only schools in the country with no NCAA violations whatsoever–we all know now why that was–everything was being swept under the rug and people were afraid to come forward–and for good reason. It’s far better to have many small violations that are addressed and acknowledged than to hide under a veil of deception.</p>
<p>I agree with you greenbutton. The response of the new freshman class and even the kids that have been on campus this year is to be expected. The desire on their part to rebuild and become part of something “good” and “uplifting” is totally normal. People have three responses to crisis…some will give way to flight and want to get as far away as they can, some will want to stick through it and some will become paralyzed and not know what to do. That is all normal. That is part of the healing that I wonder why people find difficult to understand. </p>
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</p>
<p>Have they discovered NCAA violations? I thought that at this point the NCAA stayed out of criminal issues and dealt mostly with athletic issues that weren’t covered under criminal law.</p>