It appears as if I jumped to some incorrect conclusions in my last post regarding the issues at Penn State. It that post, I basically stated that Joe Paterno didn't do when he needed to do because he didn't alert the authorities. It turns out, I was wrong.
Upon hearing whatever it was that he heard from Mike McQuery, JoePa contacted not only the Athletic Director, Tim Curley, but also the University Vice President, Gary Shultz. Why is this significant? Because Shultz was the "overseer" of the University police Department; in effect, Shultz was the Chief of Police at Penn State. So, no, Paterno didn't pick up the phone and call some desk clerk at State College PD, he called the man in charge of the Campus Police (and anyone who has spent 50 years on a campus anywhere would have called campus police and not the city cops).
I've done my best to try to remain as objective as possible here. Obviously, the magnitude of the situation involving the (alleged) sexual abuse of minors by former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky is one that brings about great emotion. But the bloodlust of the national media and seemingly anyone with a twitter account has gone well past too far. Paterno is the one being burned for these crimes; though he's not the one who committed them. If I can find objectivity, I can see how, if I were in Paterno's shoes, I may have reacted the exact same way he did. He's known Sandusky for 30+ years when McQueary came to him. There are people who say "how could Paterno not have known?" as if child molesters divulge this information to their friends. Guess what? They don't. For all any of us know, our best friend might be doing the same thing Sandusky was doing and we would never know it. It's not something that is advertised.
They say that Paterno, upon hearing the news, should have followed up when nothing was done about Sandusky. But if it were your friend, a person you've known and trusted for 30 years or more, that you heard was involved in this (and we still don't know how many, if any, details Paterno was given), wouldn't the natural reaction be one of disbelief? "Surely," you'd think to yourself, "this can't be true. Not this guy. That doesn't sound like the man I know." But doing what he should have done, Paterno did report what he had heard not only to his immediate supervisor, but also to the defacto chief of police. I can only assume (as we all can on this) that he was told they would look into it.
But, nevertheless, the Board of Trustees decided yesterday that Paterno had already coached his last game, ending a 62 year career that was filled with nothing but dignity, honor, and goodwill. They also fired the University president, Graham Spanier. Meanwhile, Curley and Shultz, both facing charges in this case, have been placed on leave from the University. McQueary, the only man (apart from Sandusky) that actually knows anything for certain, as he is the only one who saw what was happening, has not been fired. McQueary didn't intervene with Sandusky when there was an alleged rape in progress, he didn't call the police, he simply phoned his father and waited until the next day to inform Paterno of the situation.
If Paterno was fired for failing to do enough to protect the children that Sandusky (allegedly) abused, and he actually did inform the police, why then does McQueary still have a job? Paterno didn't abuse the children, he didn't witness the abuse, he didn't call a relative and gossip about it. All he did do was what he should have done, what, I think, most of us in his same position would have done.
McQueary walked in on a 10-year-old boy being raped by a hulking 55-year-old man. He didn't stop the assault, he didn't yell or scream for help, he didn't call the cops in his horror of seeing what had taken place. Instead, he waited until the next day and went to his boss about it. Of all the people who had the chance to end Sandusky's reign of terror over these young boys, McQueary was the one who could have made an immediate and lasting impact. The Grand Jury report states that the victim and Sandusky both saw McQueary when he entered those showers. Can you imagine how much more magnified that child's horror would have been when he saw McQueary turn and walk away instead of helping him out of that situation?
How is McQueary punished for literally turning his back on this assault, on this young man? "His status is unchanged", says the Board of Trustees. McQueary has kept his job.
You can place the blame a lot of places in this Penn State debacle, but if you want a hierarchy, it had better start with Sandusky, and the next name on your list had better be McQueary. Joe Paterno's name might also be on the list, but given all the actual factors, it should appear at or near the bottom.
Showing posts with label Jerry Sandusky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jerry Sandusky. Show all posts
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Nothing Happy About Happy Valley Right Now
I don't know exactly how or when it all started for me. I can recall spending time at my Grandpa's house and he would have a ballgame on the TV and another one on the radio. This was common during baseball season. Grandpa was also a football fan, but not to the extent that he loved baseball. I guess I'm much the same way.
Somewhere along the way, it became obvious that, in Grandpa's world, there were a few rules when it came to sports. He didn't seem to mind whether or not you followed "his" teams, but you'd better not be a fan of his rivals. When it pertained to college sports, that meant no Ohio State and no Notre Dame. (Aside: there have been very few times in my life where I've ever lost any respect for my father, but when he became a ND fan because his wife is an ND fan, I felt a bit of shame. Grandpa would not approve. C'mon Dad, you married a woman, not a football team.)
Anyhow, whether it was the colors that so closely match those of my beloved Detroit Tigers, or the history and tradition of the uniforms and the ageless head coach, somewhere in my earlier years, I became hooked on Penn State football. I remember the Fiesta Bowl win against a heavily favored Miami team, I remember the days when Penn State was independent. I grew up being proud to sport that Lion's head deep within Ohio State territory. I wore it like a badge of honor.
When the news broke a couple of days ago that former longtime Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky had been indicted on charges that he sexually abused young children, I was shocked. That type of news is always difficult to swallow; it's a subject that makes anyone uncomfortable at best, and downright sick at worst. While I've never met Sandusky, I did almost feel as if I knew him for all those years. Years that I had extolled the virtues of his defenses and told anyone who would listen how great he was. It wasn't ever just Joe Paterno, it was Paterno and Sandusky (and later Tom Bradley) that made Penn State so wonderful on the field.
In reality, however, "on the field" is all any of the fans ever knew, ever saw. Perhaps it was the innocence of my childhood, or maybe just the blindness I chose to have because I was a fan, that lead me to believe that these leaders of men were infallible. Much the same way a son looks up to his father and doesn't see the flaws, we do the same with our sports heroes, right or wrong. In this case, it looks like I was wrong.
I drove into work this morning in a great mood. I had just finished voting and was feeling pretty good about myself; like I had somehow made a difference. Listening to the radio, I was besieged by nothing but stories coming out of State College. This was the first time that I had heard some of the more damning details. Mike McQueary, a former Penn State quarterback now wide receivers coach, apparently witnessed an incident involving Sandusky and a young boy in 2002. McQueary told Paterno, who told the Athletic Director (who has been charged with perjury in in this case) and that was it. But, you know what? I'll get back to that in a moment.
Much of the coverage by the media here has centered on Joe Paterno and, to a lesser extent, Mike McQueary. There seems to almost be more outrage directed at them than at Sandusky. This seems backwards, but I do understand the mentality. It's almost as if we accept that Sandusky is a monster, but we want to vilify the Penn State officials for not doing enough to stop said monster. We aren't blaming Godzilla, we are blaming the Japanese citizens for not being able to kill the monster before he destroyed their city. I think it's important to remember that it was Sandusky, not McQueary or Paterno, who (allegedly) abused those children. It is Sandusky who should bear the brunt of the ire that is reigning down of State College.
I think it's easy to say that if it were me that witnessed this act, that I would have done things differently than McQueary did. Or that if I were Paterno, that I would have followed up with law enforcement or made sure Sandusky was banished from the University (at least). I think that, because so very few of us are put in those positions (thank God), we imagine ourselves doing the heroic thing, the right thing. But none of us were there and none of us knows exactly what happened. I'm doing my best here to maintain as much logic as I can in thinking this through, but it really isn't working.
For as long as I can remember, I have loudly and proudly supported Penn State and Joe Paterno. Never once, no matter how many of the players were arrested in bar fights, no matter how many 3-8 seasons took place in the down years, no matter how loud the cries for Paterno to retire grew, never once did I ever feel anything but pride in "my" Nittany Lions.
All of that changed this morning. Because for as much as we don't know what we would have done if it were we that walked in on Sandusky raping a young child, or what we would have done if it were us that heard that our longtime friend and co-worker was capable of such reprehensible behavior, I know that I assumed that Paterno, and even McQueary
I don't know how much responsibility to heap on the shoulders of the Penn State staff, but I'm not sure it matters all that much. Paterno had avenues he could have taken if the athletic department wanted to cover this up (and it appears they did). He could have removed Sandusky from the program, he could have called the authorities himself, he could have done more than he did. But he didn't. And while Sandusky is the real monster here, it looks as if Paterno didn't do everything he could to protect those kids. And I can't support a program or a coach that would quietly accept what McQueary described to him.
But how much more could Paterno have been reasonably expected to do? Sandusky was an employee of Penn State; he did not work for Paterno, although Paterno would have to have been considered his immediate supervisor. Paterno also works for Penn State and Tim Curley (the AD) was his immediate supervisor. By all accounts, paterno heard the allegations from mcQueary and passed them along to his boss, a man he could have and should have assumed would investigate the claims and take the proper action. It was Curley's negligence, much more than Paterno's, that allowed Sandusky to continue to have access to the University. Ultimately, it was Curley's job to take this information and alert the authorities. That's seems logical and reasonable to me, but it still assumes that Paterno bears no real responsibility here, and I'm just not comfortable thinking that's true.
If we blindly assume that everything we've heard about the situation at Penn State is true, we may have no brain. But if we blindly assume that no one but Sandusky should bear the responsibility, we may have no soul.
Somewhere along the way, it became obvious that, in Grandpa's world, there were a few rules when it came to sports. He didn't seem to mind whether or not you followed "his" teams, but you'd better not be a fan of his rivals. When it pertained to college sports, that meant no Ohio State and no Notre Dame. (Aside: there have been very few times in my life where I've ever lost any respect for my father, but when he became a ND fan because his wife is an ND fan, I felt a bit of shame. Grandpa would not approve. C'mon Dad, you married a woman, not a football team.)
Anyhow, whether it was the colors that so closely match those of my beloved Detroit Tigers, or the history and tradition of the uniforms and the ageless head coach, somewhere in my earlier years, I became hooked on Penn State football. I remember the Fiesta Bowl win against a heavily favored Miami team, I remember the days when Penn State was independent. I grew up being proud to sport that Lion's head deep within Ohio State territory. I wore it like a badge of honor.
When the news broke a couple of days ago that former longtime Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky had been indicted on charges that he sexually abused young children, I was shocked. That type of news is always difficult to swallow; it's a subject that makes anyone uncomfortable at best, and downright sick at worst. While I've never met Sandusky, I did almost feel as if I knew him for all those years. Years that I had extolled the virtues of his defenses and told anyone who would listen how great he was. It wasn't ever just Joe Paterno, it was Paterno and Sandusky (and later Tom Bradley) that made Penn State so wonderful on the field.
In reality, however, "on the field" is all any of the fans ever knew, ever saw. Perhaps it was the innocence of my childhood, or maybe just the blindness I chose to have because I was a fan, that lead me to believe that these leaders of men were infallible. Much the same way a son looks up to his father and doesn't see the flaws, we do the same with our sports heroes, right or wrong. In this case, it looks like I was wrong.
I drove into work this morning in a great mood. I had just finished voting and was feeling pretty good about myself; like I had somehow made a difference. Listening to the radio, I was besieged by nothing but stories coming out of State College. This was the first time that I had heard some of the more damning details. Mike McQueary, a former Penn State quarterback now wide receivers coach, apparently witnessed an incident involving Sandusky and a young boy in 2002. McQueary told Paterno, who told the Athletic Director (who has been charged with perjury in in this case) and that was it. But, you know what? I'll get back to that in a moment.
Much of the coverage by the media here has centered on Joe Paterno and, to a lesser extent, Mike McQueary. There seems to almost be more outrage directed at them than at Sandusky. This seems backwards, but I do understand the mentality. It's almost as if we accept that Sandusky is a monster, but we want to vilify the Penn State officials for not doing enough to stop said monster. We aren't blaming Godzilla, we are blaming the Japanese citizens for not being able to kill the monster before he destroyed their city. I think it's important to remember that it was Sandusky, not McQueary or Paterno, who (allegedly) abused those children. It is Sandusky who should bear the brunt of the ire that is reigning down of State College.
I think it's easy to say that if it were me that witnessed this act, that I would have done things differently than McQueary did. Or that if I were Paterno, that I would have followed up with law enforcement or made sure Sandusky was banished from the University (at least). I think that, because so very few of us are put in those positions (thank God), we imagine ourselves doing the heroic thing, the right thing. But none of us were there and none of us knows exactly what happened. I'm doing my best here to maintain as much logic as I can in thinking this through, but it really isn't working.
For as long as I can remember, I have loudly and proudly supported Penn State and Joe Paterno. Never once, no matter how many of the players were arrested in bar fights, no matter how many 3-8 seasons took place in the down years, no matter how loud the cries for Paterno to retire grew, never once did I ever feel anything but pride in "my" Nittany Lions.
All of that changed this morning. Because for as much as we don't know what we would have done if it were we that walked in on Sandusky raping a young child, or what we would have done if it were us that heard that our longtime friend and co-worker was capable of such reprehensible behavior, I know that I assumed that Paterno, and even McQueary
I don't know how much responsibility to heap on the shoulders of the Penn State staff, but I'm not sure it matters all that much. Paterno had avenues he could have taken if the athletic department wanted to cover this up (and it appears they did). He could have removed Sandusky from the program, he could have called the authorities himself, he could have done more than he did. But he didn't. And while Sandusky is the real monster here, it looks as if Paterno didn't do everything he could to protect those kids. And I can't support a program or a coach that would quietly accept what McQueary described to him.
But how much more could Paterno have been reasonably expected to do? Sandusky was an employee of Penn State; he did not work for Paterno, although Paterno would have to have been considered his immediate supervisor. Paterno also works for Penn State and Tim Curley (the AD) was his immediate supervisor. By all accounts, paterno heard the allegations from mcQueary and passed them along to his boss, a man he could have and should have assumed would investigate the claims and take the proper action. It was Curley's negligence, much more than Paterno's, that allowed Sandusky to continue to have access to the University. Ultimately, it was Curley's job to take this information and alert the authorities. That's seems logical and reasonable to me, but it still assumes that Paterno bears no real responsibility here, and I'm just not comfortable thinking that's true.
If we blindly assume that everything we've heard about the situation at Penn State is true, we may have no brain. But if we blindly assume that no one but Sandusky should bear the responsibility, we may have no soul.
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