Howe: Memories From Penn State Abuse Case Remain Strong

They shouldn’t have a program anymore. If that isn’t a death penalty then nothing is. I have no respect for any fan who supported Paterno and rushed to defend a game over the victims. It’s sickening for the team having to go there.
 
While the Nittanies probably deserved it, the NCAA will probably never administer the "death penalty" to a major program again. They still talk about their regret of giving it to SMU in 1987. SMU was a borderline blue blood football program that has never recovered. It may also have been the vanguard to breaking up the old Southwest Conference (Texas, Baylor, A&M, etc.)

Maybe someday the people who run the NCAA will be given the death penalty and it will be run by another organization. Will never happen but can only hope.
 
scumbag-penn-state-riot.png
 
To this day I fail to comprehend the idea that someone who was an eye witness to that wouldn't do the most obvious of things. Grab a towel go wrap that kid up get him away from him and call the authorities right then and there or drive him strait to the authorities. To just walk out and go to Joe Paterno about it and then never speak of it again for years and years just blows my mind. And for Joe to not go strait to the police with it at that point as well. We are talking about the most life changing terrible thing one can do to a child short of murder. I fail to comprehend how either of them thought that was the way to handle that. Then of course the powers that be above them that just continued to keep it quiet... If it wasn't true it'd hardly be believable.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
To this day I fail to comprehend the idea that someone who was an eye witness to that wouldn't do the most obvious of things. Grab a towel go wrap that kid up get him away from him and call the authorities right then and there or drive him strait to the authorities. To just walk out and go to Joe Paterno about it and then never speak of it again for years and years just blows my mind. And for Joe to not go strait to the police with it at that point as well. We are talking about the most life changing terrible thing one can do to a child short of murder. I fail to comprehend how either of them thought that was the way to handle that. Then of course the powers that be above them that just continued to keep it quiet... If it wasn't true it'd hardly be believable.
Click to expand...

I find it beyond credible that no one else ever saw anything in 40 years.

I forget who said it, but I do agree with the theory that PSU officials suspected SOMETHING, and that was why Sandusky was initially pushed out. Remember, he was once Paterno’s right hand man and heir apparent for a long time.
 
RobHowe said:
Appreciate all the kind comments on the column. I've had some Penn State truthers hit me on Twitter this morning. But as I wrote, I don't care. We all know they're out there like a cult. It's disgusting.
Click to expand...
Wish mankind was better than that... That's not even a sports thing that's just a what kind of human being are you thing.
 
RobHowe said:
Appreciate all the kind comments on the column. I've had some Penn State truthers hit me on Twitter this morning. But as I wrote, I don't care. We all know they're out there like a cult. It's disgusting.
Click to expand...

PSUProud....sickening, I see Pedo State Proud. Everything about them makes me want to puke!
 
RobHowe said:
Appreciate all the kind comments on the column. I've had some Penn State truthers hit me on Twitter this morning. But as I wrote, I don't care. We all know they're out there like a cult. It's disgusting.
Click to expand...
Sometimes the truth hurts. Some people just can't face it and continue their state of denial. My reference earlier to my church's issues made me face reality ten years ago and I made the decision not to support that organization any longer and left. Based on recent reports they still have not fixed the problem. Even a blind person should know when there is an elephant in the room, it stinks.
 
Last edited:
Hawk1960 said:
Sometimes the truth hurts. Some people just can't face it and continue their state of denial. My reference earlier to my church's issues made me face reality ten years ago and I made the decision not to support that organization any longer and left. Based on recent reports they still have not fixed the problem.
Click to expand...
Talk about another can of worms... Yeah organized religion hasn't exactly had a good run. I have family that are members of a huge church in Des Moines. I have attended a few times with them and this is after having grown up in a small small town one. Needless to say I don't like either very much. Call them what they are businesses with tax breaks the rest of the country don't get.
 
tanaros said:
I find it beyond credible that no one else ever saw anything in 40 years.

I forget who said it, but I do agree with the theory that PSU officials suspected SOMETHING, and that was why Sandusky was initially pushed out. Remember, he was once Paterno’s right hand man and heir apparent for a long time.
Click to expand...

They suspected something but didn't want to tarnish "The Brand," by really doing anything about the issue.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Talk about another can of worms... Yeah organized religion hasn't exactly had a good run. I have family that are members of a huge church in Des Moines. I have attended a few times with them and this is after having grown up in a small small town one. Needless to say I don't like either very much. Call them what they are businesses with tax breaks the rest of the country don't get.
Click to expand...

If you attend Penn St. you're part of Pedo State, even though none of the players, coaches or fans now had anything to do with it. If a few priests molested kids decades ago, all of them have guilt despite the fact almost all priests nowadays have never molested kids. All Germans should be ashamed because of the Nazis.... Got it.
 
Hawk1960 said:
Excellent article and spot on Rob. Kudos to you for not letting people forget. Sweeping these crimes under the rug ... and/or ignoring the problem is the reason why it went on so long and why it still happens today. I used to belong to a certain church (which we read about every day now) whose leaders continue to do both. For years they have simply moved problem individuals from church to church, never addressing the issue. I happen to know 2 individuals who were molested years ago by those they trusted. They both claim that was bad enough but what is worse to them is others knew about it but it continued to go on for years.
Click to expand...
Good for you on leaving that church. It seems to me that many of its members are unable to bring themselves to do the same. To my thinking, it's the right and proper thing to do.
 
Last edited:
I must disagree with all who say PSU should be given the death penalty. I must also say, howver, that I want them--as well as Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers--out of the B1G. Now that CCG games can be had with 10-team conferences, boot those four. Rutgers and Maryland have ZERO history as "Midwestern" football institutions, and PSU is, for all intents and purposes, an "Eastern school".

If we "must" add two to bring it back to 12, make it Missouri and maybe ND. But not the Eastern schools, for certain. And unless/until Nebraska is willing to stop talking about 1995, AND the BTN is willing to purge the pre-2011 Nebraska "library", I think they must remain in eternal banishment. BTN has a movie about Brook Berringer--in and of itself, nt a problem--but the best they can do for #CMS40 is the occasional ten-minute "memory". Absolute hogwash.
 
ssckelley said:
What took place there was extreme, children were forced to have sex with a coach, it was covered up, and people looked the other way! If this had happened at Iowa I would be embarrassed to call myself a fan and I would burn every Hawkeye thing I owned. The Pierre Pierce incident damn near did me in and that was no where near the level of Pedo State. They got a slap on the wrist, they shall forever be Pedo State to me.
Click to expand...

In many respects, the PP situation was MUCH worse. That was our basketball coach actively working to impede the criminal justice process. That he never faced obstruction charges is, in retrospect, mind-boggling.
 
For those who say PSU was "worse" than the PP situation, wrong. In the case of PP, our basketball was all but obstructing justice. Not "covering up", but rather, actively blocking and/or attempting to influence any investigation.
 

This guy is a common poster on PSU rivals. That board consist of clowns like this, a lot of lawyers, who have spent years trying to weasel out of PSUs responsibility, especially JoePA's.
 
I'm a severe childhood abuse survivor. Honestly I don't know how I survived. My abuse was to a large part institutionalized. Lot's of denial even today. There is actually an article about the issues at a small Iowa town. It wasn't written by me, but it could have been as that is my home town. Rob, I salute your willingness to be open about things. Not sure I could do that non-anonymously. PSU should have been hit with the death penalty. I got laid off due to budgets from a Big school. I was offered a job at PSU and I just couldn't do it and turned it down. I also applied at MSU and couldn't go through with it.

But, it can happen at a lot of places. Some of you that are upset would likely be defenders of your favorite university should the tables be turned. It's human nature.

One last thought as a survivor. I abhor the use of the term Pedo State. To me it diminishes what happened. Victims suffer in shame and use of that term seems to add the shame. Can't really explain it, but it does to me.

One needs to call it what it was. It was childhood rape. It was sexual assault of a child.

Penn State University of Child Abuse Enabling sounds better to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top