In February 2001, Penn State graduate student Mike McQueary saw former football coach Jerry Sandusky having sex with a 10-year-old boy in the school's locker room showers. McQueary went to Joe Paterno's home and reported what he saw. The legendary coach and Jerry Sandusky had been colleagues and close friends for decades. Paterno, given his status at the school and in the community, could have done whatever he wanted with this troubling information. In 2004, when the president of the university and the head of the board of trustees went to Paterno's office to tell him it was time for him to retire, the coach threw them out. (They were lucky Paterno didn't fire them.)
After the sex scandal broke in November 2011, when Joe Paterno was called before the grand jury looking into the case, he said, under oath, that he had passed McQueary's information on to his supervisor, athletic director Tim Curley. His supervisor? At Penn State, Joe Paterno didn't have a boss. If the coach wanted to do the right thing, he would have reported the matter directly to the state department of welfare, or to the police. He didn't want to do either. Jerry Sandusky was his friend, and he was worried about the reputation of his football program.
On January 14, 2012, eight days before his death, Paterno spoke to a reporter with The Washington Post. Regarding what he had done with McQueary's information, Paterno said, "I didn't know exactly how to handle it, and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what university procedure was. So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more experience than I did." What a load of crap. Joe Paterno knew exactly how to handle this situation--keep the outside world from knowing that his friend and colleague was a serial pedophile.
On June 20, 2012, CNN's Susan Candiotti broke a story based on the content of key emails written by Penn State President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and Vice President Gary Schultz. When read in context, these emails present strong evidence of a cover-up.
On February 26, 2001, V.P. Schultz, in an email to President Spanier, says it is his plan to report the Sandusky matter to the department of welfare. The next day, Athletic Director Tim Curley, in an email to the president, said this: "After giving it some thought and talking it over with Joe [Paterno]...I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps [reporting the matter to the authorities]." From this email we see who the real boss is--Joe Paterno. In this email, Curley tells the president that coach Paterno wants to "work with Sandusky" instead of reporting him to the authorities.
In a later email to the president, his VP, Gary Schultz, writes: "There is a more humane and upfront way to handle this." More humane to whom? Upfront? This revealing email brought the following response from President Spanier who indicates that while he supports Paterno's plan, "the only downside for us is if the message [to Sandusky] isn't 'heard' and acted upon...we become vulnerable for not reporting it." There it is, the cover-up. And Joe Paterno was the architect.
Sandusky, who had retired in 1999 but kept an office in the football building, and had access to all of the sports facilities, including the locker room showers, was asked to stop bringing "guests" on campus. This rule, of course, was not enforced. Paterno's pedophile friend remained in his inner circle as a member of the Penn State football family, the beneficiary of a code of silence a Mafia don would have envied.
Coach Joe Paterno, in my opinion, cared more about Penn State football than the fates of Jerry Sandusky's victims. By dying when he did, Paterno avoided being indicted for lying to the grand jury, and his role in the Penn State sex scandal cover-up. To name anything after this guy at Penn State would be an abomination.
After the sex scandal broke in November 2011, when Joe Paterno was called before the grand jury looking into the case, he said, under oath, that he had passed McQueary's information on to his supervisor, athletic director Tim Curley. His supervisor? At Penn State, Joe Paterno didn't have a boss. If the coach wanted to do the right thing, he would have reported the matter directly to the state department of welfare, or to the police. He didn't want to do either. Jerry Sandusky was his friend, and he was worried about the reputation of his football program.
On January 14, 2012, eight days before his death, Paterno spoke to a reporter with The Washington Post. Regarding what he had done with McQueary's information, Paterno said, "I didn't know exactly how to handle it, and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what university procedure was. So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more experience than I did." What a load of crap. Joe Paterno knew exactly how to handle this situation--keep the outside world from knowing that his friend and colleague was a serial pedophile.
On June 20, 2012, CNN's Susan Candiotti broke a story based on the content of key emails written by Penn State President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and Vice President Gary Schultz. When read in context, these emails present strong evidence of a cover-up.
On February 26, 2001, V.P. Schultz, in an email to President Spanier, says it is his plan to report the Sandusky matter to the department of welfare. The next day, Athletic Director Tim Curley, in an email to the president, said this: "After giving it some thought and talking it over with Joe [Paterno]...I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps [reporting the matter to the authorities]." From this email we see who the real boss is--Joe Paterno. In this email, Curley tells the president that coach Paterno wants to "work with Sandusky" instead of reporting him to the authorities.
In a later email to the president, his VP, Gary Schultz, writes: "There is a more humane and upfront way to handle this." More humane to whom? Upfront? This revealing email brought the following response from President Spanier who indicates that while he supports Paterno's plan, "the only downside for us is if the message [to Sandusky] isn't 'heard' and acted upon...we become vulnerable for not reporting it." There it is, the cover-up. And Joe Paterno was the architect.
Sandusky, who had retired in 1999 but kept an office in the football building, and had access to all of the sports facilities, including the locker room showers, was asked to stop bringing "guests" on campus. This rule, of course, was not enforced. Paterno's pedophile friend remained in his inner circle as a member of the Penn State football family, the beneficiary of a code of silence a Mafia don would have envied.
Coach Joe Paterno, in my opinion, cared more about Penn State football than the fates of Jerry Sandusky's victims. By dying when he did, Paterno avoided being indicted for lying to the grand jury, and his role in the Penn State sex scandal cover-up. To name anything after this guy at Penn State would be an abomination.
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