The delusion continues in Happy Valley

One of my shameful secrets this past year is how much time I've spent reading threads over at Blue and White Illustrated.  That's a Penn State Rivals.com website that is one of the teams most popular forums so it gives a good idea of their fan's opinions.

This past week there was a thread on BWI titled "Completely absurd that people are claiming 'of a sexual nature' is equivalent to MM having conveyed that he just WITNESSED criminal sexual assault".  I thought one person summed the whole thing up nicely essentially stating that "Previous accusation + naked + shower + 60 year old man + 12 year old boy = Police".

The responses are really sad as the fans just can't let it go and want to protect Coach Paterno.  Here are some of them:

• Paterno DID REPORT IT BY THE BOOK (i.e., PSU HR Manual) you blithering, obfuscating a-hole! Your full of crap that it isn't "relevant" -- MM went to Paterno to make an HR Report (Dr. Dranov's testimony confirms this quite clearly). He did not go to Paterno and allege seeing CRIMINAL sexual assault (i.e., it is impossible to allege WITNESSING criminal sexual assault without witnessing a sex act of any kind!). The people who screwed up "the investigation" were above Paterno and they absolutely had all THE FACTS they needed to make the correct decisions but still failed THEIR OBLIGATIONS! 

• The text comes from a transcript of testimony that was transcribed unprofessionally. Simply read the two sentences of Joe's statement regarding this matter. Where he seems to contradict himself. Then have the sense to understand the first statement was a statement of incredulity or you could say a interrogatory in the form of a statement. Joe did this all the time... repeating what he was asked...then giving his response. The transcriber should have typed....something to the effect...."It was of a sexual nature(?)" Then Joe's supposedly contradictory response.... not: "It was of a sexual nature(.)" then Joe's response. It's not that damn complex. 

• It is absurd for people to keep saying that "of a sexual nature" amounts to a de facto description of a CRIMINAL sexual assault (i.e., no internal investigation of the matter required????). Simply absurd.

• ["It seems to me that the only fair criticisms of Joe would be if he discouraged the administration from reporting the incident to DPW."] ---- Joe never changed anyone's mind. All Freeh would have had to have done was read Curley's 26 pages of Grand Jury testimony and put it together with the February 12th meeting that was documented between Curley and Schultz. Curley was asked over and over and over again in the Grand Jury as to how he came about making his decision, what it was based on, and who influenced him. Joe had nothing to do with it. 

• Anybody saying that Joe was part of some conspiracy and was part and parcel to this whole thing is wrong. No sense trying to convince them otherwise more than trying to convince somebody the world is not flat. The only thing anybody can say about Joe is that being who he was and what he stood for and his ultimately high moral character, we wish he would have followed up a little harder with C/S/S on what the end outcome was.

There are threads like this that happen at least once a week.  Penn State fans are more than willing to through the administrators under the bus but still protect Joe.  They blame the board and the governor more about the situation than the coach who was the face of the school for almost half a century and was the first person told of the incident.

If I look at this from an apologist angle I can understand how this happened.  All you have to do is look at the amount of national publicity Pizza-Gate got this week in Columbus to see why Penn State acted as it did.  Any top program is hesitant to release any information they aren't 100% sure because even small items becomes national news overnight.  As a result, a culture of protection that has been built up over decades at many programs that includes players, coaches, administrators, alumni, fans and local media.  If you view the scandal in that light it is easy to see what happened.  In 1998, Sandusky was accused of molesting a child but the DA investigated and the case was dropped.  Three years later Mike McQuery sees something that he thinks is of a sexual nature between Sandusky and a young boy.

When you face a harassment claim two things always muddy the issue, namely perception and reputation.  The facts are rarely as clear cut as the initial discussion and most times can be resolved behind closed doors with a quick investigation and quick disciplinary action.  One of the keys is most times it is kept entirely quiet.  Imagine if every time a Fortune 500 company had a claim like this it was put in the Wall Street Journal.  The reputation and stock price of that company would take a hit.  The managers and the employee involved would be forever tainted and never able to work again even if the process proved that it was all a misunderstanding.  That's why there is always a reluctance to speak in publicity situations.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying I agree with Penn State's actions I'm just saying that I understand how it could happen.  They were faced with a situation where a man who had worked with children for over 20 years and had already been investigated once and nothing was found and again faced with an accusation.  It is normal not to want deal with something like this because if nothing is found the accused, the victim, the whistleblower, the school, and the reputation of all involved is harmed forever and nothing you do can change it.

I want to restate that I know that Penn State made egregious mistakes.  In any organization the first thing you do is get Human Resources/Legal involved.  If it is criminal you get the police involved.  If it is less than that you investigate and document your findings.  Penn State did none of this because they wanted to protect the school and the reputation of a man that worked there from 30 years.  In hindsight their actions are certainly wrong and in some cases, criminal.

The worst part of all this is Bill O'Brien has done a fantastic job of keeping his team focused as they are now 4-2 and undefeated in the Big Ten.  It's the type of comeback story that Americans love but Penn State fan's focus on the past is making it impossible for anyone to root for their team.

I am well aware to paint all fans with a broad brush using posts from a website is unfair.  If this happened at Ohio State I know the lunatic fringe on the O-Zone website would be saying similar things.  For anyone who doubts that all you need to do is go back a year to the Jim Tressel scandal and see the posts regarding a simple case of him hiding/lying for his players when they broke NCAA rules.  It took almost six months before the majority of posters accepted the truth but even today there is the occasional thread that claims that "Tressel took the hit for the university" or my personal favorite "Tressel is still working with the FBI in a sting operation and saying more would hurt an ongoing investigation."

This level of delusion happens at all big programs and it is what causes some fans to go too far and do things like poison your opponents trees.  It's just sad to see what is happening in Happy Valley and I've got to force myself to stop reading the BWI website as it is not fun to watch them continue to mire in their delusion.

JoePa and the CNN AC360 emails

I've been thinking about writing a followup to the article I wrote last fall when the Grand Jury indicted Jerry Sandusky. A week after I wrote that I predicted riots and a few days later it happened as the fans showed their support for their fallen coach.

I understand supporting a leader of a place you love and since then I've thought many times of doing a followup. I've read all the articles but at some point I just couldn't do it anymore. It was obvious that Sandusky was guilty after the 1st testimony. Dan Wetzel at Yahoo did a great job covering the trial and I'd expect he is still taking a shower to wash off the stench. This was my feeling at the time:

I'm sure I can read his reports anymore as the whole thing makes me so mad and I know the rest of the trial is going to be more of the same. No Buckeye fan wants to give Wetzel props because his article last March that pushed Ohio State into a fiasco of a press conference. Despite that I have to admit he is doing a nice job on the Sandusky trial.
Mike McQueary Testimony
Victim 1 Testimony
Day 1 Recap with Victim 4 Testimony
Opening Statements

The big question in the aftermath was what would happen to Spanier, Curley and Schultz. With JoePa dead there was little that could change the perception as 'dead men tell no tales'.

I made a joke a few weeks back that JoePa's saving grace might be that it was well known at Penn State that he never used a computer or email. Little did I know how wrong that would be. A few days before the trial someone leaked a statement that the prosecution had been given a document that was a clear paper trail that Spanier, Curley, and Schultz knew more than they were saying publicly.

As it turns out, as the DA was finishing up their case against Sandusky, the Penn State Board of Trustees hired former FBI director, Tom Freeh, to lead an independent inquiry to clean up their own mess. That's what was leaked to the press before the trial. Tonight CNN''s Anderson Cooper had a show where they released the 4 incriminating emails.which tell a much different story than we were lead to believe.

CNN doesn't have a summary up of their show but NBC in Philly has a good recap.

Essentially the 4 emails went like this.

• Email 1 - Recapped a meeting from Schultz to Curley had where they confirmed the plan was to contact the 2nd mile organization along with children's services about sandusky. 
• Email 2 - From Curley to President Spanier that said - I am having trouble with going to everyone, but the person involved. I would be more comfortable meeting with the person…tell him about the information we received 
• Email 3 - From Spanier to Schultz - I am supportive. The only downside for us is if the message isn’t “heard” and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it. But that can be assessed down the road. 
• Email 4 - From Schultz to Spanier and Curley stating that he would contact 2nd mile regardless of the conversation with Sandusky. 

Nothing was ever sent to any outside organization.

The 2nd email is the one that is getting all the attention for this quote:



This states in writing that after talking with Joe Paterno, Curley decide not to press the case forward. This is the same Joe Paterno that stated without question that he didn't know anything about the details of this case. Assuming these emails are confirmed by Curley/Schultz, this email proves that JoePa lied. Not only was he involved but he could be viewed as the ringleader of the cover up.

The more troubling part is the quote that isn't included in the picture.

I would be more comfortable meeting with the person…tell him about the information we received…tell him we are aware of the first situation.

The first situation is the 1998 allegations that were dismissed. On a positive note for them, the way this is worded leads me to believe that that Curley and Schultz were unaware of the 1998 investigation before 2001. When exactly did they find out? It's hard to know that until they are questioned and it is proabable we will never know. I do know it would have been easy for Schultz once he was told of the allegations by McQueary since the 1998 investigation was in his department. Another possible source is they found out when Curley/Schultz met with JoePa. When the 3 of them sat down, they realized the PR backlash if this went public so they backed off.

That leads to the last part of President Spanier's quote in the 3rd email.

The only downside for us is if the message isn’t “heard” and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it.

At this point they all knew about the 1998 incident. They all knew what McQuerary was alleging in 2001. They decided to do nothing. Spanier. Curley. Schultz. Paterno. They are all guilty and they make the statement that the ONLY downside is if Sandusky doesn't stop molesting kids then they are vulnerable for covering it up.

I got into an argument with a guy on the ESPN forums that claimed this proved nothing. My response was a bit sophomoric but I think it is understandable given this shocking nature of these revelations:

Seriously? You can't be serious.

 I can't believe people are still defending JoePa. He was told that something of a sexual nature occurred. It's in his Grand Jury testamony. He said he did nothing as it was for the higher ups to decide what to do. Now we hear that after talking to "Joe", the higher ups changed their mind about going to Childrens services and doing any type of investigation?

I'm not saying JoePa is evil. More likely he was naive. It doesn't matter as he's at the heart of this mess now and his imagine is forever tarnished. It should. All signs point to him enabling his long time assistant to get away from prosecution from crimes in 2001 and if this would have happened many other kids would have escaped Jerry's clutches.

That's the bottom like. If you read the statement Curley and Schultz recently released:

...if we were going to do this case, we had to have the best possible case to go against somebody like Mr. Sandusky who was…loved by everybody…carried out of the football stadium on the shoulders of his football team…For Curley, Schultz, Spanier and Paterno, the responsible and ‘humane’ thing to do was, like Governor Corbett, to carefully and responsibly assess the best way to handle vague, but troubling allegations. Faced with tough situations, good people try to do their best to make the right decisions.

There are times in life where good men need to stand up or the innocent get hurt. Not one of these men followed up after the events. They didn't want to know the truth. Sandusky molested at least 4 others after 2001. It wouldn't have been that hard for them to see that he hadn't changed his ways. He was doing it on their campus and at their bowl games. They make it sound like they were afraid to proceed because Jerry Sandusky was the most powerful man in Pennsylvania. That was patently false. The most powerful man in Pennsylvania was involved in the case and these emails prove to me that Joe Paterno decided to protect his friend and his university at the expense young children. Frankly at this point its a good thing he's dead because I couldn't handle another set of excuses from a hero of mine that I no longer recognize.

Penn State Riots

I called it yesterday and although it happened a bit earlier than I expected, the Penn State students took a bad situation and made it worse.  As you can see from the picture on the right, last night the Penn State students took to the streets and left a path of destruction in their wake.


The catalyst was a press conference at 10pm EST last night where the Penn State Board of Trustees fired Joe Pateno ending his 62 year run on the sidelines for the football team.  All day was known that the Board was meeting last night where it was expect that the University President, Spanier, would be fired and that they would also address Paterno's future as well.  Paterno made his opinion known mid-day when he released a personal press release that stated he was going to step down at the end of the season but would coach the rest of the games.  A key component of his statement was,

Penn State students take over

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.

While his stated goal was to make it easier for the Board, in effect this statement told the public what he wanted and dared the Board to defy him.  He got his answer a few hours later and the students hit the streets.

I wholeheartedly agree with the Board's decision and I'm pretty sure a large majority of Americans agree.  This morning ESPN reported that Joe wants to meet with the press and get his side out.  The ESPN sources said his message was that "Paterno recalls McQueary "vaguely" referencing "fondling" or "touching" or "horsing around" by Sandusky and a youth. But Paterno never had the understanding that McQueary had witnessed a "sodomy" or "rape.""  The sad thing is his statement to the Grand Jury also said that he could tell that was McQueary traumatized by what he saw and it was bad enough that JoePa thought it necessary to tell his boss..  I'm not sure how he believes clarifying that is going to improve his situation as I'm pretty sure everyone understands what he is saying but doesn't agree that passing it up the line to his superiors and never following up was an appropriate response.

The Board did the right thing.  They failed in a couple of other ways.  


First they fired JoePa on the phone.  I understand their reasoning as the timeline was short and visiting his home in person would have turned into a media circus.  Still, they should have seen this issue coming and asked him to attend the meeting so they could let him know what was going on either way.  I'm sure they thought of that and figured that would turn into a circus as well.  They are probably right but it doesn't seem proper to end a 61 year career with a phone call.


Another issue is that they didn't alert the local police of the press conference and instruct them to be on heightened alert in case of a student outburst.  Perhaps they didn't do this because that action would be stating that Paterno might be fired and they didn't want to tip their hand.  The lack of preparation had consequences as after the announcement the students hit the streets en masse and the police scrambled to get the situation under control.  It took a few hours as the student mob got so large they had to call for reinforcements from neighboring counties before they felt they were able to act.  In the meantime, television vans were overturned, windows were smashed and general lawlessness took over the campus.  This went on for about 3 hours until the police took action and took back the streets though it might also be true that the students got tired and went to bed.


The actions of the students have brought shame on their university and shown the world that the insular world in Happy Valley can be just as violent as any other campus.  I really feel for the football team in this situation as they have worked hard and performed well on the field.  Now they will be going into a big matchup with a new coach and will be cheered on by 100,000 angry alumni.  As a Buckeye fan I am rooting for a loss but I hope their fans respect their team enough to be on their best behavior before and after the game.  


Either way, I hope the Board of trustees have learned their lesson and bring in a large force to control the drunken masses.  Else, they risk a repeat of last night's sad events.

My take on the Penn State scandal

I first heard about the investigation of Jerry Sandusky in an ESPN report last spring. At the time the story got little press which I thought was a bit odd considering the nature of the charges but this did come out about a month after the Tressel charges. The media circus was full go around the Ohio State program at the time and this story got little coverage. That changed last Saturday when the Pennsylvania State Attorney's office released a report that charged Sandusky with 40 criminal counts and also charged Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz of perjury. The official report from grand jury is a graphic depiction of a serial child molester that is difficult to read without anger. Late yesterday the Penn State Board of Trustees had an emergency meeting and afterward it was revealed that both Curley and Schultz resigned and are expected to turn themselves over to the authorities today.

I'm sure these charges came as quite a shock to most Penn State fans that don't obsessively follow every story about their team. Even the hardcore fans had to be floored because even though there have been snippets of information on the case, there wasn't any sign from the Attorney General the case had much merit. That all changed on Saturday and the reaction has been emotional on all sides.

We don't have all the facts yet and as this is only a grand jury finding I'm sure much more will be brought out in the next few months. Even so here is the timeline as I see it:

• 1969 - 1998 - Jerry Sandusky is hired by Joe Paterno and the two lead the team to multiple undefeated seasons and national championships in football. Sandusky is the defensive mastermind behind these teams and seen as the heir when Joe Paterno retires. 
• 1977 - Sandusky founds the Second Mile which began as a foster home to troubled boys and grew to a statewide organization that helped boys from dysfunctional or absent parents. It's mission was to "help children who need additional support and would benefit from positive human interaction." 
• 1998 - Sandusky is charged in Centre County (county where Penn State is located) with molestation but the charges are dropped when the county Attorney General, Ray Gricar, decides there is not enough information to prosecute. 
• 1998 - Sandusky's pay is cut in half but he continues to coach at Penn State. I'm sure Paterno would claim there is no relation between this and the charges of molestation but the timing seems odd to me. 
• 1999 - Apparently not getting the hint, Joe Paterno forces Sandusky out. His retirement package includes a pension, an office in the Penn State athletic offices, and the right to use the campus hotel on visits to the university (This is a pretty normal package for an exiting coaches. Earle Bruce/John Cooper at Ohio State have similar arrangements). 
• March 1, 2002 - Mike McQueary, a former QB and grad assistant on the Penn State football enters the locker room at the Lasch Football Building about 9:30 pm to get some game film and hears noises coming from the showers. He sees Sandusky with a boy about age 10 pinned against the wall having anal intercourse. McQueary left the scene distraught and calls his father who tells him to leave the scene and come to his house to discuss the situation. 
• March 2, 2002 - McQueary reports the incident to Joe Paterno the next day. 
• March 3, 2003 - Joe Paterno informs the Athletic Director, Tim Curley, of the incident. 
• Approx 10 days later - McQueary is questioned by Curley and Schulz and he is told that they would look into it. Joe Paterno is not present at the meeting. 
• A few weeks later - McQueary is told that Sandusky's keys to the university locker room have been taken away and the Second Mile foundation has been informed of the incident. 
• Also - Curley informs Penn State University President Graham Spanier of the incident and actions taken. Spanier approves Curley's method of dealing with the matter though no police agency is ever told of the situation. Schultz's job responsibilities include the campus police department though he is not engaged in the day to day running of the office. He doesn't bring it to attention of the campus police as was done in 1998 and no report is ever filed. 
• April 15, 2005 - Probably totally unrelated but oddly the DA in charge that dropped the 1998 incident for lack of evidence disappears after leaving work and is never heard from again. The only thing that is found is a laptop which has been thrown into the Susquehanna River near where is car is found. No body is ever found and he is declared legally dead in 2011. 
• 2005/6 - Sandusky meets an 11 year old boy designated at Victim 1 through the Second Mile program and over time becomes close to him. They attend many events together and eventually it leads to Sandusky performing oral sex with him more than 20 times in the next few years along with other sexual acts. 
• Early 2008 - Victim 1 is seen by various faculty at his school engaged in "suspicious activity" with Sandusky. School officials become aware of potential abuse when Victim 1's mother calls to report it. School officials forward the information to the authorities as mandated by law. 
• 2008-2011 - Investigation into Jerry Sandusky by local and state authorities leading to the Grand Jury finding released on Saturday. 

The story seems ready made for Hollywood if the subject matter wasn't so disturbing. A few thoughts:

• Some people are outraged that McQueary didn't intervene during the 3/1/02 incident. While he was a 28 year old man at the time, he witnessed a disturbing act by a man he'd grown up admiring. I think it is reasonable to think any person in that situation would be traumatized, retreat and get advice from a mentor on how to proceed. While we all would like to think we'd be a hero in the situation none of us really know how we'd react unless we were there. 

• I have seen a few comments similar to "Gays are perverted people and this is where their lifestyle leads" in regards to Sandusky. Ignorant comments like this piss me off as their is a big difference between homosexuality and pedophilia. Most pedophiles get sexually excited only by young children and the vast majority consider themselves heterosexual. It drives me nuts when people use an incident like this to falsely categorize a segment of the population they don't like. 

• Joe Paterno released a statement saying we all were fooled and that he met his responsibilities. He also said he was shocked by the revelations in the Grand Jury report. I'm not sure how we are expected to believe this as 1) Sandusky was his right hand coach for almost 30 years, 2) he had to have known of the charges in 1998 as they weren't exactly a secret in State College, 3) he essentially fired his heir apparent Sandusky the next season but never disclosed the reasons, and 4) he admits he was told by McQueary that suspicious activities occurred by Sandusky in the shower of their locker room and McQueary was traumatized by the event. Are we to believe after knowing all this Paterno never followed up or asked any questions? The person that witnessed the incident (McQueary) was one of his best players in the 90s and now is his Wide Receiver Coach. Are we to believe the two never talked about it again after he discussed it with Paterno on March 2nd? Or that he never asked the athletic director what happened with the case at a university athletic department he virtually ran and was well known for his no nonsense beliefs? Sorry but that isn't remotely believable. 

Three thing were damaged by Sandusky's actions and the subsequent decisions by Penn State:

1. Victims - My heart goes out to all of them and hope they can work their way through the residual damage caused by Sandusky. Words don't do this situation justice and I won't attempt it. 
2. Legal - Sandusky has been charged and will eventually spend the rest of his life in jail if he doesn't kill himself first. Curley and Shultz have been charged with apparently trying to cover up the incident and no doubt they are going to spend some time in jail and pay large fines. I do feel an odd sense of sympathy for them as they were put in a terrible position by Sandusky. They had two terrible options. They could turn Sandusky in and see their university endure a scandal that would cost it millions of dollars and see its reputation dragged through the mud. Or they could cover it up and hope Sandusky stopped his actions while they prayed none of his former victims came forward. They chose to do the latter. I don't in any way agree with their decision but anyone that has been in a large organization can tell you that there is enormous pressure to do whatever is necessary to protect it and sometimes lines are crossed. They chose poorly and now they will goto jail while the university will still need to pay out millions in punitive damages. 
3. Reputation - I touched on this in the last point but Penn State will forever be linked to this scandal. Twenty years from now you will still be seeing opposing fans called them "Ped State" and this has to be grating for the thousands of players/alumni/fans that did nothing wrong and only bring credit to the school. That is forever lost due to the actions of a few men. 

I want to end with a thought. A year ago I wrote an article about Jim Tressel and how grateful I was that he was the coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes. He is a moral man that was a great leader of young men that also happened to have the ability to win football games. Over the next six months the Tressel regime came to an inglorious end due to one bad decision. Something similar happened with Woody Hayes about 30 years about so it is safe to say that Buckeye fans are intimately aware of the fragility of their hero's reputations.

Everyone loves heroes. Whether it be Wyatt Earp, George Patton, or Knute Rockne we like to look to these men as models to which we can aspire. We place our values on them and build them up to a level that no man can possibly achieve. That doesn't stop us.

One of the best things I have ever seen on television is a show called "Friday Night Lights". It's the story of a small town in Texas that is filled with amazingly human characters that happens to have a good football team. The characters in the show are constantly making mistakes but they can always count on their football team to bring them relief. As for the team, many of the players find themselves in trouble but you can always count on "Coach Eric Taylor" to get involved and resolve the situation with integrity. He's the rock for the whole community.

That's what we expect of our heroes and whether they want it or not football coaches are revered in our society. They are molders of young minds and in today's age of electronic warfare, they lead their men in to combat. This appeals to the human psyche on a primal level. We want to believe these men are perfect but in truth that is an impossible bar to reach. They are human and as we have seen, they make human mistakes.

We will probably never know the full truth of what Joe Paterno was thinking on March 2, 2002 but one fact is clear. He failed the hero test and this incident will forever be linked to his legacy. That saddens me as the world needs more heroes and it lost one of its brightest with the revelations over the weekend.