We interrupt the 49er talk for news out of University Park, PA. The NY Times is reporting that Joe Pa’s tenure is over at Penn St. Whether that means immediately or after the season remains to be seen. This is in response to allegations of sexual misconduct by Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno’s DC (among other things), and used Penn State’s locker room and showers for a playground of sexual misconduct with minor boys that he ‘recruited’ from his foundation that he started to help at-risk kids called 2nd Mile. He also had ‘sleep-overs’ at his house with some of these boys, where they would stay in his basement.
Matt Millen was pretty emotional talking about this. He went to Penn St. and Sandusky was his first position coach. He’s known the guy for 35 years, and he said that Sandusky is your next door neighbor. Nice guy. Salt of the earth. Millen’s on the 2nd Mile board, and said he had no inkling in all the years he’s known him that Sandusky was a sexual predator or pedophile.
Millen stopped short of saying that he wanted to strangle Sandusky, and he stopped to gather his emotions a couple times, but he did say it’s time like this you “want to take care of things yourself.” Anyone with children certainly understands where he’s coming from. Millen also stressed that they have to wait for the shit to go through it’s course and not to crucify anyone before the facts come out, take the emotion out of it, let due process take its course, etc. But the fact that a guy who is in charge of a foundation to help at-risk children instead uses it as a hunting ground for his own sexual perversions is beyond the pale.
What a nightmare. The board of trustees certainly seems to have made their feellings known. How much did they know? How much did Joe Pa know? Well, there were 2 spearate allegations raised against Sandusky. Once in 1998, and again in 2002. Joe Pa heard of the 2nd allegation but only reported it to the AD. No one ever went to the police even after a student-assistant said he witnessed Sandusky in the middle of a sex act with a 10 year old boy in the showers on campus.
Just this morning, a 9th person has come forward alleging being sexually molested by Sandusky as a child. So, as it stands, one of the greatest and most legendary college football coaches will go down as complicit in a disgusting and heinous scandal that he did nothing to stop.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Here’s the indictment:
Click to access C4181508116.PDF
Pretty disgusting stuff. As of yesterday there were 8 kids involved in the indictment. Once more has come out today. No one should survive this if these allegations are true. And it’s hard to imagine that 9 kids who didn’t know each other can have pretty much the same story.
No one has any feelings about this? It’s a fairly big deal that the nation’s most respected college coach is being caught up in something that will ruin him and all the work he’s done for the past 50+ years at Penn State.
It’s a shame for Paterno that his name is tarnished and he’s done at Penn State. The perp will get what he deserves (prison) but many years too late for the kids he damaged. Paterno knew to some degree what was up but did nothing much to end it. He knowingly ran the risks and now it caught up. No tears for Joe. Those will be shed for and by the abused boys. Hopefully they will begin to recover with treatment now that the truth is coming out. That’s a very slow process at best.
Sadly the Catholic Church had a similar policy of “See no evil, hear no evil” in exactly this same situation. How did their denial work out for them? Tens of millions of dollars poorer they emerged finally with reputation badly tarnished and more victims racked up. Wonderful
The truth sometimes hurts but it can set you free they say. Denial and lies however are gonna cost you a bundle in the end.
Yeah, that’s the 1st thing I thought of was the Catholic church’s desire to pass the buck and sweep this kind of abuse under the rug for as long as they could. It’s the worst kind of abuse af power where the adults that are supposed to be watching out for kids are the ones doing the molesting. I’ve said in the past, although it never happened to me, but every Catholic school I attended (3) had at least one prieist or nun who was arrested for child molestation. My HS had a molester and a priest who posted tons of child porn pics that he took.
The thing is, Jo Pa apparently knew and did nothing in 2002. This will tarnish all his 30+ years of coaching, player development, and all the good he’s done over those 35 years at Penn State. Sad, tragic, and horrible all around. That it could have been stopped in 1998 is all the more galling.
College football is one of the grandest games of all time. It is the ultimate gathering ground for school spirit and team unity. It seems now that it’s being tarnished by some very unsavory characters. Giving child-molesters free will within the facilities has brought the downfall of a once respected and revered football program, it’s forever head coach, and the people(faculty, supporters, alumni) who honestly have tried to make things better. This is a very bad business indeed.
Yes winder, too true I’m sorry to agree
Unbelievable. And according to what I read, Sandusky was actually CAUGHT IN THE ACT!!?? And they allowed this to go on. I could even understand if they handled it with the authorities as discretely as possible but to just let it go…again, unbelievable
This guy better have some KY Jelly in prison. He might as well hang a sign in his cell that reads “PARK IN REAR”.
Guys like that are shivved. End of story. I’m sure he’ll be in solitary. General pop for him is a death sentence.
It’s way too late for this Sandusky guy. But I admit to feeling pleased if he will suffer a little of what he inflicted on others.
It’s all bad of course, but to me, the worst part was they knew about ’98 and ’02 and yet still had the dude on their campus with kids from the 2nd Chance place. Even if they didn’t actually see it they knew what he was doing. I can’t imagine how this many human beings could allow this to go on for so many years. They went to sleep every night, no problems. Meanwhile Sandusky is lurking in the shadows of the gym showers with some kid. It incomprehensible that sane human beings let this go on…
And don’t forget paterno’s idiotic 60 minutes appearance from a couple of years ago. This dude does not understand anything…
Flavor I share your disbelief that so many for so long could and did allow and consciously chose to let it be. Plenty of enablers involved who will never be charged but who share in the crimes that were committed. Are you happy now administrators, asst. coaches, football program booster, those who knew in any degree this was going on? Or just sad the Coach and DC had to leave? Sickening, disgusting, corrupt. Go State! Yeah go to hell…
We have a similar situation over here that is not sexual but financial with my Filipino wife and I as the intended victims. Omitting the shabby details, what I/we find to be the worst is that the perpetrator is the son of the former Del Monte physician, my family doctor. This guy, one Carlito Frias, with the non-interference of his large group of siblings, his many Filipino friends and the current plantation manager of said Del Monte pineapple plantation, has persisted for going on two years in his attempts to steal one of our commercial tree farms. As far as I know, no one has called him to account just like at good old Penn State. Many people know, “the best people” too, I’ve made sure of it. So naturally the wannbe criminal continues. Sound familiar?
Here it is ‘cultural’ as the wife says it’s in their blood NOT to get involved even in cases of pure fraud, deceit and criminality. “Don’t rock the boat”. So at Penn State apparently no one wanted to be the whistle blower who called attention to rot at the heart of their sainted Football Program. Sad that football became far more important to them than childrens welfare, far more important than human decency, honor, or morality. Fuck the Nittany Lions, Joe Paterno, Mr Sandusky, Penn State.
But this does give me a great idea to combat the local evil we have here: Publicity, which is what killed the evil over there. Hmmmmm….
Chuck, I nominate the above post/rant for the new Post of the Month.
And now can we talk about the Niners please??
But thanks for bringing this up!
Yeah, it kinda sucks when the real world intrudes on diversions like football, but this kind of shit is so deplorable. The fact that so many KNEW this was going on, and chose to ignore it really should be a crime. Joe Pa may be senile and unclear on what was really happening, but that doesn’t excuse him from not going to the authorities. Why the guy who saw the sodomy in the first place didn’t go to the police is incomprehensible. If I saw something like that, I mean, beyond taking a baseball bat to Sandusky, I’d go straight to the cops, and pray the guy got 100 years. Being a product of a few different Catholic schools, I certainly was around some perpetrators of some sick stuff. Fortunately, me nor anyone I knew (as far as I know) was involved in any of the cases of molestation, but it was happening when I was there. Every school I went to had at least 1 priest or nun hauled off on charges of molestation or child porn. Some were caught at the time, others were shielded for 10-15 years before their crimes came to light.
I almost feel bad for Joe Pa. His legacy of his work with student athletes over the past 35 years is very highy regarded, and he is seen as the dean of college football. Once of the all-time greats. That all goes out the window. He will now be seen as just another guy who put his football program above the well-being of children that were in his locker rooms, in his clubhouse, and being abused by one of his coaches. He’s now complicit in a heinous pedophilia ring that he did nothing to stop. I can’t believe the school will let him finish out the season. Although they are as complicit as he is in what went down. The fucking university prez, Graham Spanier, 2 days ago stood behind the AD Tim Curley and VP Gary Shultz in what their actions were. They’ve since been charged with failing to report the molestation. How Joe Pa escapes that is beyond me.
Sorry to hear about your troubles over there, Phil. Maybe a good bunch of bad publicity pointed at him will bring the situation into the forefront.
Last thing. I’ll leave this up a little longer, but I’ll change it by the end of the day…
Unless otherwise instructed . . .
LOL
Joe Pa saying he’s going to coach til the end of the year shouldn’t carry any weight at all. He should be ashamed of himself. The whole school is implicit at this point. No one is saying a goddamn thing, and everyone in that athletic department and administration should be fired.
Kirk Herbstreet is is complaining about how pulling Joe Pa and the coaching staff would affect the current team. Sorry, but that doesn’t matter. Not in the least. Howe about the 9 kids that we know about that have been molested ON CAMPUS? The team gets caught up in the fallout. Joe should be canned right now. The program should be, if not disbanded for the rest of the season, at least be cleaned out of every last coach. This has been a dirty secret that too many people knew about for far too long. Clean everyone out. Start over.
Programs get banned from bowl games for minor recruiting violations. It’s good to hear (or not hear) the NCAA weighing in on this. What a crock. They are ALL still in ‘protect the program’ mode. Penn State should be forced to disband the team for 10 years.
Sadly I agree. He should go.
Graham Spanier, Penn State’s president, is gone by Friday. The wonderful respose when these allegations first came to light was for the administration to say ‘no more bringing underage kids to the facilities.’ In other words, molesting kids is fine, just don’t do it here.
Everyone involved in the program should be gone. Forfeit the rest of the season. The damage done to the kids pales in comparison to the current team and their focus on the Nebraska game.
Paterno is out. There goes his illustrious career. Tough shit, skippy. In the end, you were nothing more than what you thought you hated most. A guy who put football over integrity and human decency.