Say it ain't so, Joe

[RyanMcD29]

As for PSU switching the channel in the HUB when the press conference started, I found it hard to believe that they'd screw this thing up even worse, so I poked around the internet and found a few accounts that claimed that the switch was made from CNN to PCN (Pennsylvania Cable News - kind of like CSPAN for PA) because the conference was supposed to be carried there but for some reason the other debate was being shown. I have no idea how true that is, but it sounds reasonable enough (not sure why they wanted to avoid CNN's coverage in favor of PCN's coverage though - that part is still fishy.)

I swear, as long as I was there, it was virtually CNN 24/7 there. They have a lounge with couches and they have those wall-mounted TV's throughout the building (i.e. food court, bookstore, etc). To be fair, I've not been there since I graduated in 2008, so in 4 years something may be different now. However, it'd really have to be something for them to change those channels...

I was working, so I wasn't near any TVs - was it known that CNN would cover it live? I know that ESPN was, and I think Comcast was (but they probably wouldn't have Comcast out there), but could it be that someone didn't know that it'd be on CNN? Again, I wasn't near any TVs, so if CNN was constantly advertising "tune in at 9 for the live press conference!", then yeah - it doesn't make any sense to change it.

I would expect most PA stations to cover it. I know the Philadelphia news stations had it live

Well yeah... that's why I'm saying that maybe that's why they changed to PCN. They wouldn't have Philadelphia news out in western PA. My question is whether or not it was well known that cnn would have it live.

I was at the news room at my internship yesterday and CNN pretty much hyped up the press conference all morning long FWIW

[IceCap]

Well there you go. Penn State knew the report would air on CNN and they changed the channel.

[The_Admiral]

And then you have the Big Ten Network saying they didn't show it because they're not a news network. Or because they're a promotional arm of the Big Ten and this isn't a good way to promote it.

[BBTV]

Well there you go. Penn State knew the report would air on CNN and they changed the channel.

But the channel they changed to was also supposed to run the news conference live, unless Penn State knew something that wasn't otherwise announced.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/breaking-news/index.ssf/2012/07/penn_state_university_jerry_sa.html

Still doesn't explain the need to change from one broadcast of it to another when it's not usually your policy to change channels.

[OnWis97]

I dunno. It seems like a lot of the diehard fans are all in this together; I could see where the schools would be too. I'm reading from a lot of Big Ten fans who don't want Penn State nuked because it would affect the games they were supposed to play against them and hurt their strength of schedule. (Sigh, yeah.) It wouldn't surprise me if the football schools banded together to protect their right to not be shut down for systematic child rape; the Mafia operates with more honor than college football does.

I admit that I have thought about that. In fact, when there was a call to shut down the rest of the season in the fall, I thought about the division rival that my team needed to beat en route to the inaugural B1G Title game. And since this is a division rival, shutting it down would impact the integrity schedules in a big way.

And you know what...so what? They should have shut it down last year. And given that they did not, they should do it right now. The other schools will deal with it. The schedule for 2012 will be reshuffled with some lost "schedule integrity", which is nothing compared to the "human integrity" that is on the line.

I'll say this about finishing last year...there is a part of me that is glad they did (and I am not referring to the division rival part). IIRC, They were 5-0 in conference play at the time, primarily on the strength of an easy schedule to that point...their schedule was backloaded with Ohio State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin still to come. Had they shut it down, you'd still be hearing from the PSU faithful how they were the B1G Champs last year (Like the 1994 Expos). It would be another "WE ARE PENN STATE; GREAT FOOTBALL EXONERATES JOPA" thing to hear.

--

The statue thing is depressing. The guests hosts were talking about this on Mike and Mike this morning and the opinions are very split. The ESPN poll to that point had 71% say it should be removed, 25% say it should be left (and 4% "not sure"). I know it's not a scientific poll, but I cannot believe that more than a few whackos and blind JoePa apologists would say that. It's kinda sad. They had a caller that said "He was still a great coach before 1998, so leave it there." That's one guy, but I get the sense there is a lot of that out there. I am shocked. I know you can't just send a mob to tear it down, but it should be gone the next time the appropriate process allows, which would be in the next month or two, I suspect.

Ya know, when someone tells me this is an indictment of sports / college sports, I blow 'em off. But I am starting to think it is. Not of sports in and of themselves, but the degree to which we not only follow 'em, but prioritize them. A sizeable chunk of people (and not just in PA) are letting "great football coach" equal "great man." It's sad. If I was a PSU alum, I'd want to essentially start over with an expansion football team...get rid of all the JoePa crap, take a five year death penalty, and start over. Maybe even (keeping with the them of our board) change the uniforms upon the return. Start a new tradition that includes losses to Indiana and Minnesota and hope for the best in the future. But it appears they are going to try to keep JoePa alive...from a recruiting perspective I hope it blows up in their faces.

[coozapalooza]

The more and more I think about it here, the death penalty is quite literally NEEDED. Right now, based on the Penn State students and alumni I know, they're either A, completely ignoring that any of this is happening in hopes that it will go away, or B, wondering why everyone hates them and is making it about their beloved god Joe Paterno. Joe Paterno and the football program CANNOT continue like this, being bigger than the school itself. Again, I highly doubt this will happen. The NCAA will be too scared to do it. But they need the death penalty for more than a year. Give the time for students to snap out of it and realize that life in Happy Valley goes on without football and offer a little bit of perspective for when they come back. I'd change the uniforms a bit too. Knock down the statute. Things need to be completely erased from this era, whether they like it or not. Then, come back in 3-5 years a totally new program and maybe students and alumni will realize what happened and how they can never be THAT obsessed with someone again.

[Sodboy13]

This process is showing us just how many people think college football is greater and more important than humanity. It's not just like that in SEC country, folks.

[Kramerica Industries]

During Mike and Mike, I heard one of their brief caller bits saying (to the effect of) "Yeah, removing the statue is going to renege all the bad that Paterno did".

God I hate that strawman argument. Any sane person knows it should be removed, as it is essentially glorifying an enabler of pedophilia in perpetuity otherwise. And I don't see how anyone could possibly argue in favor of keeping the statue up.

I feel a bit sorry for the position Paterno's family has been put in for all of this, as well. They did no wrong in any of this, and they, essentially, have no choice but to defend him, lest they be ostracized, and of course the one person who should have to deal with all the media and potential criminal investigation, conveniently died before the worst of this stuff started coming out. I've been glad to have mostly read this thread, because almost everyone is ridiculously cutthroat about all of this.

And, dammit, everyone should be ridiculously cutthroat about all of this.

[OnWis97]

During Mike and Mike, I heard one of their brief caller bits saying (to the effect of) "Yeah, removing the statue is going to renege all the bad that Paterno did".

God I hate that strawman argument. Any sane person knows it should be removed, as it is essentially glorifying an enabler of pedophilia in perpetuity otherwise. And I don't see how anyone could possibly argue in favor of keeping the statue up.

I feel a bit sorry for the position Paterno's family has been put in for all of this, as well. They did no wrong in any of this, and they, essentially, have no choice but to defend him, lest they be ostracized, and of course the one person who should have to deal with all the media and potential criminal investigation, conveniently died before the worst of this stuff started coming out. I've been glad to have mostly read this thread, because almost everyone is ridiculously cutthroat about all of this.

And, dammit, everyone should be ridiculously cutthroat about all of this.

That almost did me a disservice. I think I assumed this thread provided good indication of the greater reaction...I don't think it did, which is funny; since we are generally pretty big sports fans, I'd think we'd be more likely to put football first.

[bosrs1]

This process is showing us just how many people think college football is greater and more important than humanity. It's not just like that in SEC country, folks.

Agreed. Makes me glad I went to a school that killed off it's football program in the 80's. Otherwise I might have been infected with this disease of football is more important than life too.

[njmeadowlanders]

Someone just made a great point to me:

Why not let Sandusky's victims decide if they want the statue removed, the name off the library, the season cancelled? Let's be honest, at the end of the day, they're the ones with the damage done.

[bosrs1]

Someone just made a great point to me:

Why not let Sandusky's victims decide if they want the statue removed, the name off the library, the season cancelled? Let's be honest, at the end of the day, they're the ones with the damage done.

Sandusky's "Victim 1" from the trial would. I was reading what he and his mother had to say about Paterno after the report was released. They were less than complimentary. In fact I believe their lawyer indicated they'll now be suing the hell out Paterno's estate among others in the civil suit.

[OnWis97]

Someone just made a great point to me:

Why not let Sandusky's victims decide if they want the statue removed, the name off the library, the season cancelled? Let's be honest, at the end of the day, they're the ones with the damage done.

I thought of that but would not support it. I can imagine some of the apologists giving them hate mail and threats if they voted (or however they'd decide) to do any of those things, particularly cancelling the season. I think it would add undue pressure.

[dfwabel]

January 14, 2012: Washington Post columnist, Sally Jenkins had the last public interview with Paterno and wrote this accompanying article.

Yesterday: She wrote this after the Freeh Report was released.

Joe Paterno was a liar, there?s no doubt about that now. He was also a cover-up artist. If the Freeh report is correct in its summary of the Penn State child molestation scandal, the public Paterno of the last few years was a work of fiction. In his place is a hubristic, indictable hypocrite. In the last interview before his death, Paterno insisted as strenuously as a dying man could that he had absolutely no knowledge of a 1998 police inquiry into child molestation accusations against his assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. This has always been the critical point in assessing whether Paterno and other Penn State leaders enabled Sandusky?s crimes.

If Paterno knew about ?98, then he wasn?t some aging granddad who was deceived, but a canny and unfeeling power broker who put protecting his reputation ahead of protecting children.

If he knew about ?98, then he understood the import of graduate assistant Mike McQueary?s distraught account in 2001 that he witnessed Sandusky assaulting a boy in the Penn State showers.

If he knew about ?98, then he also perjured himself before a grand jury.

Guilty.

Paterno didn?t always give lucid answers in his final interview conducted with The Washington Post eight days before his death, but on this point he was categorical and clear as a bell. He pled total, lying ignorance of the ?98 investigation into a local mother?s claim Sandusky had groped her son in the shower at the football building. How could Paterno have no knowledge of this, I asked him?

?Nobody knew,? he said.

Everybody knew.

Never heard a rumor?

?I never heard a thing,? he said.

He heard everything.

?If Jerry?s guilty, nobody found out till after several incidents.?

Not a whisper? How is that possible?

[infrared41]

This is something I've been thinking about off and on throughout this entire mess...

If Penn State moves on Sandusky at the first sign of trouble, they're heroes. If someone, anyone, had just done what was right from the outset, Penn State would be held up as an example of how "it's supposed to work." Think about it, all it would have taken was a simple "We have discovered that Mr. Sandusky showers with kids. We do not do that at Penn State. It's entirely inappropriate and Mr. Sandusky has been relieved of his duties." Do that one simple thing, and Penn State is a shining example if how college football is supposed to work. Everyone involved is a hero for simply doing the right thing. And, it fits right in with their squeaky clean image.

Instead, Penn State spends years cultivating this squeaky clean image, this "grand experiment" and when the perfect chance comes along to actually prove that Penn State isn't "like everyone else", that they are "better", they blow, and they blow it big. Ironic isn't it?

[njmeadowlanders]

Someone just made a great point to me:

Why not let Sandusky's victims decide if they want the statue removed, the name off the library, the season cancelled? Let's be honest, at the end of the day, they're the ones with the damage done.

I thought of that but would not support it. I can imagine some of the apologists giving them hate mail and threats if they voted (or however they'd decide) to do any of those things, particularly cancelling the season. I think it would add undue pressure.

Fair enough.

And by the way to clear this all up:

Yes, I was there from 2004-2008 and did attend games regularly. I was never a college football fan before I got there, and I've watched maybe one game since I graduated. I'm an NFL guy, college never did it for me, still doesn't. [insert joke about me being a Jets fan here.]

But the one thing I noticed right away, it was scary how many people would jump off a bridge if Paterno said go ahead and do it. Despite the fact that he was a figure-head (i.e. he just stood on the sidelines, he didn't make any real decisions and yelled at a referee just for the hell of it) most people ate it up, mostly because people are stupid and couldn't realize he was of a bygone era. Hey, JoePa is the man, how dare you say he should go!

When I was there my first season of 2004 they were awful, I think they won 4 games including the powder puffs. I remember sitting through a 6-4 loss to Iowa. No, that's not a typo: 6-4. That was probably the worst sporting event I've ever been to save for maybe a 1996 game at the Meadowlands that the Jets lost 13-6 to the Giants, maybe the worst NFL game ever played. At that time some in the administration started leaking stories about how it's time for him to go, maybe he can't do it anymore, etc. etc. At the time I thought yeah, he's washed up, and it's embarrassing to see him hang on like this just for the sake of it. It was ugly.

But the cynic in me now thinks maybe they were trying to push him out for other reasons, maybe perhaps so that this wouldn't leak out?

[Sport]

I wonder what would've happened if Paterno had just retired at a normal age like everybody :censored:ing else. If he retires at even a normal age, like 70, then does this whole thing still go down?

Maybe it's not a good idea to let an 80 year old man preside over an institution as powerful as that one was.

[bosrs1]

I wonder what would've happened if Paterno had just retired at a normal age like everybody :censored:ing else. If he retires at even a normal age, like 70, then does this whole thing still go down?

Maybe it's not a good idea to let an 80 year old man preside over an institution as powerful as that one was.

Age has nothing to do with being a decent human being. If Paterno had been 20 years younger he still would have been the same morally bankrupt fraud that he was at 76 when he made the decision to throw those kids under the bus for the "good" of his program.

[rams80]

This is something I've been thinking about off and on throughout this entire mess...

If Penn State moves on Sandusky at the first sign of trouble, they're heroes. If someone, anyone, had just done what was right from the outset, Penn State would be held up as an example of how "it's supposed to work." Think about it, all it would have taken was a simple "We have discovered that Mr. Sandusky showers with kids. We do not do that at Penn State. It's entirely inappropriate and Mr. Sandusky has been relieved of his duties." Do that one simple thing, and Penn State is a shining example if how college football is supposed to work. Everyone involved is a hero for simply doing the right thing. And, it fits right in with their squeaky clean image.

Instead, Penn State spends years cultivating this squeaky clean image, this "grand experiment" and when the perfect chance comes along to actually prove that Penn State isn't "like everyone else", that they are "better", they blow, and they blow it big. Ironic isn't it?

Debatable. Sandusky had been at Penn State for 30 years at that point. I think it's just as likely that everyone in PSU's administration and Paterno would have been forced out in disgrace then because "You had to have known; you've known him for so long and this isn't something that just happens." I suspect that said self-interested concern probably helped prompt the cover up in the first place.

[rams80]

And then you have the Big Ten Network saying they didn't show it because they're not a news network. Or because they're a promotional arm of the Big Ten and this isn't a good way to promote it.

Well yeah, the Big Pravda Network routinely takes this stance whenever some scandal or another erupts.