Unsealed Court Documents state that Paterno knew in 1976
- Thread starter Mr Janny
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I think we're willing to turn a blind eye to some things, like alcoholism. So I guess I agree there.
But I think if it came out that Johnny Orr did something like Paterno, our fanbase would be on the right side of it. I sure like to think that.
The sheer depth of the cover up makes it worse. PSU prided itself on their high character program and there were more bodies buried there than most places.
With any fanbase, there would be a period of denial. But it's been 5 years. After 5 years, I think most people would realize that they should stop with the denial and that there was a lot of evil in that program. And even assuming that Paterno wasn't completely in the know, he still did not do enough to stop the abuse and report it to the right person.
As far as the comparisons to Larry go, they really aren't the same thing at all. And I think that most people after 5 years (or really after a year or 2) think that the right thing was done for Larry and for Iowa State.
I would say the parallels are a lot closer in the Fennelly racists issue than the LE issue. Not saying I think Fennelly is a racist it is just a much more offensive issue potentially than being an alcoholic.
I get what you are saying about how you have to have, what I call leaders, who will stand up for what is right regardless of consequence. But the two situations are not remotely the same. LE had a disease, at worst. Sandusky at best is the lowest of low people in the world. Right with Dahmer and those select few people that no one would want to be associated with. The acts are not even close to comparable, so the supposed protections of LE are not comparable either. The argument is flawed.
I'd like to think that we would be better about it but then again, I was a fan of Lance Armstrong and I had a hard time believing the depth of the **** that went down. I never totally believed it until George Hincapie came out and confirmed it. I guess part of it was the fact that the French press had been making accusations for years and years without a shred of proof. It kind of got me in the "We've heard this one before" mold. Now I can't watch cycling without wondering which of these guys are doping. I'm just waiting for Froome and his Sky team who never seem to have a bad day to test positive. I can't look at the Sky black jerseys without seeing USPS blue.
The point being - you never really know how you will react until you are right in the situation with a figure you have respected for a long time. Most PSU fans had worshiped the dude for their entire lives.
The point being - you never really know how you will react until you are right in the situation with a figure you have respected for a long time. Most PSU fans had worshiped the dude for their entire lives.
I agree. As almost every institution should have as its primary mission the protection and betterment of all students and youth it interacts with, i think the NCAA bears some responsibility for using the tools at its disposal to reinforce that athletics must come after that mission. Any school that clearly violates that principle should be punished severely. Penn St. did that. Baylor has done and seemingly continues to do that. The NCAA would be absolutely in the right to provide disincentives to continue doing that in the future, enough to make it not worth it to try to cover up those offenses or look the other way.
I also think people rallied behind him because that specifically is something you can come back from. Had BVDV gotten ahead of the story (which would have been entirely possible given photos were on the internet) Larry couldve gotten into rehab, been put on administrative leave, and come back to lead the program when he was ready. You cant come back from covering up pedophiles and rapes, so there's nothing to rally around there.
Using Eustachy and his drunkenness is pretty easy, even if it doesn't come close to what happened at Penn St, simply because it happened at ISU. A much closer example would be the rape incident at Iowa with several football players raping a female athlete, then Ferentz, Barta, Mason, and the Regents swept it under the rug, and nobody wearing black and gold in the state of Iowa even batted an eye.
Yes the amount of people still talking about the two being comparable is beyond me. Larry had a drinking problem, didn't do anything illegal, maybe morally questionable at times, and had a disease. How is that at all comparable to what is happening at Penn State?
DUI's and drug possessions are worse that what Eustachy did according to the law, yet those get a game or two suspension max, so I'm not sure how you think Eustachy and Child Rape are anywhere near even apples to oranges.
Penn State's program, fans and community have consciously chosen to be branded as pedophiles for eternity. They have asked for it. In my opinion there's little wrong with people dropping "Ped State", it's their self chosen motto just as much as Nittany Lions.
A program knowingly endorses child molestation for decades from the very top and the university and program do absolutely zero to punish themselves. Disgusting. It's not just disgusting, it was the wrong choice for the long term self interests of that university.
A program knowingly endorses child molestation for decades from the very top and the university and program do absolutely zero to punish themselves. Disgusting. It's not just disgusting, it was the wrong choice for the long term self interests of that university.
Eh, I think they are really slowly moving through the stages of grief. I mean it's a huge program and this is a massive black eye to them, I can see how they can still want to be in denial about it all. But it seems like they are moving towards anger as they are lashing out against any reports/accounts of the stories.
An institution very clearly enabled a system of long term child molestation. Other than the NCAA's slap on the wrist of scholarship limits they quickly dropped anyway, what punishment has that institution received? Practically nothing. If it were ISU I'd have demanded, and still be demanding we play an empty stadium home season. It punishes the program more than the players, they use this punishment in European soccer for racist or violent fans and it's more punishment than PSU is going to get for raping many kids. If that doesn't fly do something else, but do something. With all these fans rallying around Paterno from day one and PSU football rolling on completely unaffected they have forever branded themselves Ped State.
I decided to punish myself and read that whole thing. They really think the majority of this is made up and JoePa had no knowledge of anything and he was a saint. Come on take of that navy blue glasses and come into the real world. This isn't a he said she said battle, This 30 different cases of sexual abuse, for sure we know that JoePa became aware of in some time in the 2000s, if not in the 1970s, he did nothing. At a minimum he should have gone to The Second Mile and told them so they could keep kids away from him. But no, they let him have his on private shower after her left the school and to bring kids to campus and show them around. It is absolutely sick and disgusting, if you are still defending JoePa you are just as sick and disgusting.
IMO one reason LE still comes up at all (outside of this discussion) is because the story hit the newswire in May, when there's not much else going on in the sports world, so it really stood out to have a lasting effect/black eye on ISU even though technically nothing illegal happened. It still would have made news, probably had the same results, etc., but the story being so magnified was the result of a perfect PR move for the guy who released the photo.
The JoePa situation is light years removed from anything involving alcohol/drug use. We're talking about morbidly awful people ignoring morbidly awful things because money and stature were more important to them.
Google "Pedo State University" and see what comes up. I agree, they have branded themselves and it will never go away.
