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Disturbing e-mails could spell more trouble for Penn State officials


Azazello1313
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ouch

 

 

It is a good article, and expresses how I feel. I was duped. A man I thought was my hero, turned out to be as far dorm a hero as one could be. I'm surrounded by PSU fans, and most sensible ones have come to the same painful conclusion as I have. However, there are still some trying to grasp at straws to defend him, which astounds me. It will be hard to cheer for PSU in the next several years, until they prove things have changed, which is sad and unfair to all the fans and athletes who have done nothing to deserve any of this. I won't complain about any sanctions the NCAA deem fit to apply. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach.

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To me, this strikes at the heart of big time college sports. Not saying that there's kids getting raped on campuses everywhere (though the whole Syracuse deal sure went away and quick). Rather, that I'm beginning to believe it truly does stink to the core. Not $100 handshakes and all that, because I could give two craps about that sort of thing, but the perverse notion that the men who lead these programs should get the reverence that they do. And that we should ever assume that they're not ultimately about winning games, regardless of the cost.

 

Around here we're still talking about coach K and his defense of Paterno. Mind you, this was back when he simply admitted that "he could have done more". Yet, K still said that he deserved better than to be dismissed. That his years of excellence earned him the right to be "part of the solution". Even then, when I was furious at both Penn St and Paterno, and even I didn't dream that he'd actually intentionally covered anything up, but simply "not doing enough" was bad enough for me. You're freaking JoPa! How 'bout you "do enough".

 

But it apparenlty wasn't enough to piss off K. It wasn't even enough for him to keep his mouth shut and stay out of it. No, K needed to remind us that we owe these guys something. Yep, we owe them the mulit-million dollar contracts and the platform to earn countless more through endorsements. These guys aren't selfless martyrs, going around the world helping the needy and asking for nothing in return. These guys aren't Boys Club vollunteers helping kids in need just because they think it's the right thing to do. Nope, the ledger is cleared every time they take a fat check home. And I'm not for a second faulting them from getting paid as much as they can. I realize they bring in a bunch of money to the school and, thus, should demand a nice paycheck. But that's freaking it. All your great deeds have bought you a handsome living and likely many a free steak. Forgive me if I don't also let that buy you a get out of jail card.

 

But it's important to guys like coach K that we ignore that. It's important to all these guys that we treat these men like gods. And, frankly, it makes me question the integrity of the whole freaking lot. All of these guys who are coddled and worshiped and what an effect that could have on anyone. Making them think that what they're doing is so important that a little collateral damage may be worth it along the way. Making them feel compelled to stick up for one another, even in light of crimes as horrific as this, if for no other reason to keep the illusion alive a bit longer.

Edited by detlef
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Who cares about what coach K says? :shrug:

 

Menudo, this must be extremely hard for you, watching an icon get knocked off his pedestal.

Well, like Paterno, K gets a lot of run for "doing it the right way" and certainly has ascended to an icon status. More so than plenty of guys who are simply thought of as "good coaches". So, I do think it is a black eye for coaching when a guy of that magnitude makes a point of saying what he said.
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It gets better.

 

In the end, the board of trustees — bombarded with hate mail and threatened with a defamation lawsuit by Mr. Paterno’s family — gave the family virtually everything it wanted, with a package worth roughly $5.5 million. Documents show that the board even tossed in some extras that the family demanded, like the use of specialized hydrotherapy massage equipment for Mr. Paterno’s wife at the university’s Lasch Building, where Mr. Sandusky had molested a number of his victims.
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I seem to be in the minority among PSU fans, but, I want the statue down, all things that honor him gone, or I may drop my allegiance to PSU football. This guy went from a hero to an absolute villain to me. All of the good he ever done means nothing when you knowingly cover up for a monster of a pedophile and allow other children to have their lives ruined. I can't look past it, and, unless they do the right things and truly erase his accolades including the statue, my PSU football allegiance is, sadly, finished. Can't believe I just typed that.

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I seem to be in the minority among PSU fans, but, I want the statue down, all things that honor him gone, or I may drop my allegiance to PSU football. This guy went from a hero to an absolute villain to me. All of the good he ever done means nothing when you knowingly cover up for a monster of a pedophile and allow other children to have their lives ruined. I can't look past it, and, unless they do the right things and truly erase his accolades including the statue, my PSU football allegiance is, sadly, finished. Can't believe I just typed that.

 

 

Excellent Post!

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I seem to be in the minority among PSU fans, but, I want the statue down, all things that honor him gone, or I may drop my allegiance to PSU football. This guy went from a hero to an absolute villain to me. All of the good he ever done means nothing when you knowingly cover up for a monster of a pedophile and allow other children to have their lives ruined. I can't look past it, and, unless they do the right things and truly erase his accolades including the statue, my PSU football allegiance is, sadly, finished. Can't believe I just typed that.

 

 

I saw something on the news last night about a picture with Paterno in it, and the halo being removed. It was reported that the action was taken by the artist on his own. And that the halo had been added after Paterno died. Can you provide any more specific info.

 

I agree in general with the way people are characterizing Paterno. The whole "he didn't do enough" was how I initially felt when the story about Sandusky came out. As you heard more and then see the Freeh report, its hard not to see that he was actively trying to cover it up and worried more about tarnishing the PSU program than doing the right thing and stopping Sandusky's disgusting behavior.

 

ETA Here is a link to the story about the mural being "edited"

http://www.inquisitr.com/277781/joe-paterno-loses-his-halo-on-penn-state-mural/

Edited by stevegrab
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I saw something on the news last night about a picture with Paterno in it, and the halo being removed. It was reported that the action was taken by the artist on his own. And that the halo had been added after Paterno died. Can you provide any more specific info.

 

 

The painting also has a blue ribbon added to his lapel, which the ribbon signifies child abuse.
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The painting also has a blue ribbon added to his lapel, which the ribbon signifies child abuse.

 

 

Yes the mentioned that, and I found that part a bit disturbing. Because Paterno's actions don't indicate he cared a lick about child abuse, so why make it appear as he does by putting that ribbon on his lapel?

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Yes the mentioned that, and I found that part a bit disturbing. Because Paterno's actions don't indicate he cared a lick about child abuse, so why make it appear as he does by putting that ribbon on his lapel?

 

 

Maybe the ribbon was for how his team was getting abused by the top of the BIG 10 for the past decade or so...

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Yes the mentioned that, and I found that part a bit disturbing. Because Paterno's actions don't indicate he cared a lick about child abuse, so why make it appear as he does by putting that ribbon on his lapel?

 

 

I thought the same thing. It's more insulting that he put it on there.

Edited by Chief Dick
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I overheard someone here at work say they read the whole report (~220 pages?) online somewhere. She said it was pretty damn detailed about all the research and time lines of events. I cant get in touch to get the location of the report (she is out of the office this week), and I did all sorts of searches in Google with no success. Anyone here even know if the report has been published? I am thinking that maybe that someone was fibbing about reading the actual report.

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I overheard someone here at work say they read the whole report (~220 pages?) online somewhere. She said it was pretty damn detailed about all the research and time lines of events. I cant get in touch to get the location of the report (she is out of the office this week), and I did all sorts of searches in Google with no success. Anyone here even know if the report has been published? I am thinking that maybe that someone was fibbing about reading the actual report.

 

 

This: http://thefreehrepor...onpsu.com/ 267 pages

Edited by Big John
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I don't agree with all of it, but, this kid makes some very good points, in my opinion.

 

http://www.iankenney.com/apps/blog

 

 

 

 

258 days ago, I couldn't have possibly been prouder of my university and more enthusiastic about what the future had in store. The 2012 THON fundraising season had begun with the promise of another record-breaking total, and the university continued to receive national accolades for academic success. There was much hype surrounding Pat Chambers and the future of Penn State Basketball, the Penn State Women's Volleyball and Wrestling seasons were underway with the promise of possible national championships, our iconic and legendary football coach Joe Paterno had just eclipsed a once-in-a-lifetime milestone by winning his 409th (and unbeknownst to us, his final) game after an electrifying play as the clock hit 0:00. Penn State stood along with Boston College, Northwestern, and Stanford as the only four institutions from the six major BCS conferences without a major NCAA infraction, and the motto "Success With Honor" was ingrained into the heart and soul of every student lucky enough to have been sent an acceptance letter. It would be baseless to say that the pride that every student, alumni, and fan had for Penn State at that time transcended that of any other university in the world, but, with as much that we had to be proud of, it was unique. It was the very pride we had in all that was good that strengthened the bonds of our love for our school and our tight-knit sense of community. 257 days ago, akin to a tiny ball of snow starting it's destructive roll from a high mountaintop, our will, our pride, our heroes, and most of all, the school that we loved so dearly perilously stood in the path of something far greater than we could have ever perceived.

 

I have been mum on the subject mostly because I felt that it wasn't my place to pass judgment, make rash comments, or knee-jerk reactions to the seemingly endless barrage of damning news and events that have occurred over the past 36 weeks... from the indictment of Sandusky himself, our athletic director, the ex-overseer of University Police, to the horrific stories of terrible acts that took place in the Lasch Building (which is less than two tenths of a mile from the apartment building that I live in on campus), to the firing and death of a man that we had all looked up to so much. All of this of course in addition to the stress of my own position of leadership, mounting student loans, and upper level academic courses. Duplicate my own situation forty-thousand times over and you’ve got an accurate picture of the University Park campus over the past eight months. As I have digested the most recent developments, and more specifically, the overreactions and overgeneralizations, I felt it was only appropriate to speak up on the behalf of so many people being cast in an unfair light due to circumstances that were never in their control to begin with.

 

I am not going to defend Joe Paterno. At the same time, I am not going to say that he was a rotten to the core as a human being either. I'm going to let time determine how I'm going to remember Joe. As for the present moment, I can speak for most of the Penn State community when I say that I'm extremely let down. It is not my fault, nor is it anyone else's that we all looked up to Joe Paterno for decades as a symbol of unequivocal generosity, leadership, and success. If everything in the Freeh Report is legitimate (which is in serious question at the moment), then we have been all duped, and duped well. As much as the rest of the country is riled up and furious about this, we are equally so. It’s a life lesson we’re all learning together that, as the old saying goes, we should “never judge a book by its cover.” Although we may have been let down, we can’t forget what “The Paterno Way” stood for when it was still pristine in the eyes of the world – excellence in the classroom, honorable ethics, and a simplistic, selfless, and all-business approach to being successful at the task at hand. We don’t need Joe Paterno to exemplify those ideals – we are perfectly capable of exemplifying them ourselves. I hope those principles continue to live on as fundamental Penn State ideals.

 

There is one thing I am certain about - one unmistakable fact of this entire scandal that most people outside of Centre Country, Pennsylvania come up way short on. I personally did not cover up, condone, approve, and allow Jerry Sandusky's actions to happen. Neither did any other student at the university, neither did any professor, and neither did any fan of Penn State. It's unfortunate enough that the lives of at least ten children were tarnished in an unfathomable way. What I can’t understand is why the media and the rest of the world are trying to pull the students of the university under the bus is beyond me. It's irrational. The scandal has not only brought out the worst in our university, but it seems to have brought out the worst in humanity. I've seen the comments on Yahoo!, CNN, Fox News, you name it... they range from "Hold a raffle and the winner gets to blow JoePa up with some C4. Then give the money to the victims", to "Penn State is an institution of higher education as much as scientology a religion", to "Penn State is a cult, and JoePa is their god". They get even more senseless and uneducated as they go. It amazes me how outspoken and brash people are when behind the comfortable shield of their computer screen, and it's equally as amazing that people will believe everything as it is portrayed - perhaps the more prevalent theme since November 4, 2011. Go ahead, poll the country - I'm willing to bet that a significant amount of people honestly believe that Joe Paterno abused children. Did the man make mistakes? Absolutely. But did he ever intentionally and personally abuse a child? Absolutely not. It’s outrageous, and signifies a massive failure in journalism, and in society. It would take an equal time to post an insensitive and incompetent comment on a news article as it would to go online and donate to a charity that supports abused children. It will be a much better world if someday people could channel their anger into a means of something positive.

 

So, I say to those who believe that Penn State “should burn to the ground”, as one person so politely put it - what do you have to say to the student-run organizations who work year-round for charities, foundations, and organizations that benefit children? There’s THON for starters, the world’s largest student-run philanthropy that raised $10.5 million last year alone to fight pediatric cancer. That same Penn State football team that people want to unrightfully punish with the NCAA’s “death penalty” - they raised over $110,000 for Uplifting Athletes just last weekend. What do you have to say to all of the good-natured and kind-hearted young adults who chose Penn State University for an opportunity to get world-class education, become leaders, and make a difference in the world? What do you have to say to those who still live by “Success With Honor”? Does the rest of the country honestly expect us to shrug our shoulders, pack our suitcases, fill out our applications to transfer elsewhere, accept defeat due to our defunct leaders, and then close up shop? Where do we go from here?

 

A good friend of mine works in Old Main. I have seen and heard first-hand through her the accounts of the toll and great strain this episode has had on many people, particularly the people who have been left to pick up the pieces and clean up the mess that others have made. They’re the ones who have to make all of the decisions from here forward, for better or for worse. While we’re all super critical of every decision and statement that they make, can anyone really envy the situation they’re in? After the fallout from the Freeh report, I had the chance to speak with my friend in-person about it. She said one simple thing, the same thing she had said to some trustees, other employees, and any others concerned with the future of Penn State. She said: “Our students will be the ones to bring us out of this.” It brings to mind a recent series of TV and print advertisements for the university with the seemingly ever-present logo with “It’s Your Time” encased in a circle. Well, it really is our time now. While we don’t have the individual power to make the big decisions, or undo what has been done, we do have the power to be heard and do great things. We have the chance to go out into the world and dedicate our lives to making a good name for our university. We have bright students in every field, and the more of us that step up to the plate and swing for the fences, the more that the world is going to see the real Penn State. We now have the responsibility to become proponents for good, to be responsible future leaders and citizens, to resist corruption and the lure of personal gain at the expense of others. Come what may – whether sanctions or penalties are brought upon us, we have the responsibility to excel, now more than ever, because the spotlight is brightly shining on us - the first proponents of this new era in our school’s rich history. There is no margin for error.

 

 

Regardless, I still believe in all of the good that exists at Penn State.

I’ll look no further than to consult our Alma Mater.

 

I still believe in the glory of Dear Old State. I still believe our founders were strong and great. I’ll still raise the song and sing my love, loyalty, and hopes, bright and free. No act of mine will ever bring shame, and I will continue to swell thy fame.

 

 

 

 

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This whole story still makes me so damn mad. And after reading the above I have so many angry thoughts still in my head about this. Not even sure where to start.

 

 

Imagine if you've been a lifelong fan, and the man that you looked up to, because you thought he put kids lives above the program's, turned out to be the exact opposite of what you thought he was. The whole thing still makes me sick to my stomach.

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Although we may have been let down, we can’t forget what “The Paterno Way” stood for when it was still pristine in the eyes of the world – excellence in the classroom, honorable ethics, and a simplistic, selfless, and all-business approach to being successful at the task at hand. We don’t need Joe Paterno to exemplify those ideals – we are perfectly capable of exemplifying them ourselves. I hope those principles continue to live on as fundamental Penn State ideals

 

 

no. they do not. they live on in many people and maybe even some institutions, but not in Penn State's football program. Sandusky, Paterno, Spanier, Curley....they have morally contaminated that institution beyond a foreseeable repair. that is just a simple fact beyond dispute. when it comes to "ethics" and "selflessness", Penn state's football program may as well be Chernobyl at this point. the sooner people like this accept that, the better.

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Menudo

Interesting letter, and I kind of get what the guy is saying, but have too issues with it.

 

"If everything in the Freeh Report is legitimate (which is in serious question at the moment), then we have been all duped, and duped well. "

 

What exactly is in serious question? Is he saying the report is not true or accurate? Wasn't this an independent review performed at the request of Penn State, with the firm doing the investigation selected by them?

 

 

"There is one thing I am certain about - one unmistakable fact of this entire scandal that most people outside of Centre Country, Pennsylvania come up way short on. I personally did not cover up, condone, approve, and allow Jerry Sandusky's actions to happen. Neither did any other student at the university, neither did any professor, and neither did any fan of Penn State. "

 

While that is true, many PSU fans when the scandal first broke were not willing to believe it. That their beloved JoePa would be involved, would cover things up, and neglect to do the right thing. All to protect their football program. And many fans and alumni were very vocal that this couldn't be. I'm not in the "burn Penn State" to the ground camp, although I do think the football program needs some serious sanctions.

 

The fact is, the way the fans, alumni and university officials put the football program on such a pedestal allowed those in charge to have the leverage to cover these things up. No individual is to blame, but the collective body did things to put create an environment where these things were allowed to happen. (No, I do not believe that PSU is the only such school like that, its a pervasive problem in athletics at the college and even HS level.)

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I seem to be in the minority among PSU fans, but, I want the statue down, all things that honor him gone, or I may drop my allegiance to PSU football. This guy went from a hero to an absolute villain to me. All of the good he ever done means nothing when you knowingly cover up for a monster of a pedophile and allow other children to have their lives ruined. I can't look past it, and, unless they do the right things and truly erase his accolades including the statue, my PSU football allegiance is, sadly, finished. Can't believe I just typed that.

 

They are currently taking down the statue
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They are currently taking down the statue

 

 

Definitely the right thing to do. I'm so sick of hearing my fellow PSU fans try to defend Paterno with the "He might have messed up, but, he did so many great things, blah, blah, blah" Any great things he did have been completely over-ruled when he not only turned his back on the situation, but, he stopped the administrators from doing the right thing. He wanted to do the humane thing in regards to Sandusky. Are you kidding me ? How can you defend a man that did those things. Taking down the statue was the right thing to do, and they need to remove his name from anything it is on that attempts to honor him.

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