Russell do you really think the athletic director has more power than paterno at penn state? you're the one that's misinformed if you believe that. paterno has more sway at that place than anyone in the university. if he wanted the issue to be handled, he would have.

By going through what you consider to be 'the proper channels' all he was doing was washing his hands of the issue, nothing more. "Well, at least now I won't be the one to blame. Let's play some football."

As for his philanthropy - I don't think that does a whole lot for his name. These sorts of situations speak a whole lot louder than that. The guy has a lot of money, and he's a big part of the school. ANYBODY in that situation would have strong PR and be known for philanthropy as a result of that.

While what was actually said to him is still ambiguous at this point, and likely will remain so, it still stands to reason that he was a POWERFUL man there and if he wanted to look into it, if he wanted to learn the truth, he would and could have. He should have. Instead, he put the program first and either knew the truth and hid it or didn't want to know the truth.

I just don't think there's any scenario that can be brought forth as evidence that Paterno did no wrong, so as to clear his name of this. Even if he had only a vague idea that 'something bad happened' then he had a responsibility to act.

The guy was hailed as a humanitarian.

What humanitarian doesn't make sure someone who is sodomizing children is locked up and prevented from causing any further harm?

Oh, right, it's Joe Pa, so we should let it slide.

Fuck that.

He put the interest of his precious program first, instead of doing what everyone would have expected him to do in the first place.

quote:

Originally posted by LAdazeNYnights Russell do you really think the athletic director has more power than paterno at penn state? you're the one that's misinformed if you believe that. paterno has more sway at that place than anyone in the university. if he wanted the issue to be handled, he would have. By going through what you consider to be 'the proper channels' all he was doing was washing his hands of the issue, nothing more. "Well, at least now I won't be the one to blame. Let's play some football." As for his philanthropy - I don't think that does a whole lot for his name. These sorts of situations speak a whole lot louder than that. The guy has a lot of money, and he's a big part of the school. ANYBODY in that situation would have strong PR and be known for philanthropy as a result of that. While what was actually said to him is still ambiguous at this point, and likely will remain so, it still stands to reason that he was a POWERFUL man there and if he wanted to look into it, if he wanted to learn the truth, he would and could have. He should have. Instead, he put the program first and either knew the truth and hid it or didn't want to know the truth.

That's all a testament to the fact that if he had spoken up about it at all, people would have taken his word that much more seriously.

The mere act of accusing someone of sexual assault is enough to damn them, no matter if they're guilty or not, especially when it comes from a source of authority. He knew this.

You have to be extremely careful in these situations, and he probably made the wisest decision to tell his official superiors of it before going to the police directly, without any evidence or even witness testimony, himself.

___________________
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

It's the same reason we all give IGK so much shit about being a kiddy fiddler, despite the fact that not a one of us has a shred of evidence to support it:

We don't give a fuck about him or his reputation.

___________________
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

He did not handle it seriously. Unless we learn that Penn State financed an exhaustive investigation into the matter, then he did not handle it seriously. It is a very serious situation, so of course a public accusation would have been cruel, but the matter could have been illuminated behind closed doors beforehand. It obviously wasn't.

Also...in any other facet of life when such claims emerge, appropriate measures are taken immediately. A forced leave of absence while the issue was sorted out was certainly in order. Publicly that could have been attributed to any number of things - positive things, so as to keep any suspicion or rumors out of the equation.

Well I definitely agree the administration should have investigated. Maybe they even did, but you'd think we would have found that out by now.

I'm just saying it's not right to incriminate him with aiding a pedophile, like he was withholding information from anyone. Of course, all that's happened to him is he was fired, but it's not as though he'll be living on the street or anything.

___________________
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

i didn't know about this angle until earlier today.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45244328/

this case may go beyond child molestation.

___________________

quote:

Originally posted by LAdazeNYnights Russell do you really think the athletic director has more power than paterno at penn state? you're the one that's misinformed if you believe that. paterno has more sway at that place than anyone in the university. if he wanted the issue to be handled, he would have. By going through what you consider to be 'the proper channels' all he was doing was washing his hands of the issue, nothing more. "Well, at least now I won't be the one to blame. Let's play some football." As for his philanthropy - I don't think that does a whole lot for his name. These sorts of situations speak a whole lot louder than that. The guy has a lot of money, and he's a big part of the school. ANYBODY in that situation would have strong PR and be known for philanthropy as a result of that. While what was actually said to him is still ambiguous at this point, and likely will remain so, it still stands to reason that he was a POWERFUL man there and if he wanted to look into it, if he wanted to learn the truth, he would and could have. He should have. Instead, he put the program first and either knew the truth and hid it or didn't want to know the truth.

It's actually what the state law of Pennsylvania considers "proper channels." Paterno being more well known doesn't mean he has more power. The AD could fire Paterno, Paterno couldn't fire the AD. Paterno.

quote:

Originally posted by LAdazeNYnights He did not handle it seriously. Unless we learn that Penn State financed an exhaustive investigation into the matter, then he did not handle it seriously. It is a very serious situation, so of course a public accusation would have been cruel, but the matter could have been illuminated behind closed doors beforehand. It obviously wasn't.

It's not his responsibility to handle it. He was a football coach.











A football coach.

quote:

Originally posted by LAdazeNYnights Also...in any other facet of life when such claims emerge, appropriate measures are taken immediately. A forced leave of absence while the issue was sorted out was certainly in order. Publicly that could have been attributed to any number of things - positive things, so as to keep any suspicion or rumors out of the equation.

A forced leave of absence from retirement? Sandusky had retired 3 years before the allegations.