In Defense of Paterno

dualradius

dualradius

Well-Known Member
Just kidding of course, but here's the question that is intriguing about human nature...

A guy devotes his life to other people, and donates MILLIONS of dollars to his university. From what I have read, he is a very generous man. Probably has done "bad things" less often than most people.

But then there is the time that he finds out that a kid is being fondled / molested / raped (not sure what he was told... and no one will likely ever know EXACTLY what he was told) on his campus, he tells the AD, and then leaves it at that. Why? Why does a person choose to do so much good, and then on this one occasion, he basically "passes it off"?

Please don't say he's a "bad man". People aren't good or bad. They do good and bad things. People are simply people. Some do a lot more bad than good, and vice versa.

Really though... why would he choose not to do something more than just tell the AD?

Was he under the impression that Sandusky was just fondling the kid and viewed that as something less serious?

Maybe he wanted to salvage his relationship with Sandusky and / or Sandusky supporters on his staff and thought it would be better if the university went after him, and never imagined that the university would just "let it go".

Is it possible that Paterno actually DID pursue this and university threatened him or his family somehow if he spoke up? Has anybody considered this?

I would like to know if anyone can offer an intelligent view on why Paterno would just "pass this up the chain of command" and not pursue it further, because I have a hard time believing the notion that he didn't care.
 
My opinion, based only on the scant information available, is that Paterno opted to punish Sandusky "within the program", which is an act of incredible arrogance. He told Sandusky he would not become the next head coach of PSU and shunned him from that day forward. It sounds like others within the program shunned him as well.

They aren't above the law, and only the deluded would ever think that this was punishment enough.
 
dualradius said:
Just kidding of course, but here's the question that is intriguing about human nature...

A guy devotes his life to other people, and donates MILLIONS of dollars to his university. From what I have read, he is a very generous man. Probably has done "bad things" less often than most people.

But then there is the time that he finds out that a kid is being fondled / molested / raped (not sure what he was told... and no one will likely ever know EXACTLY what he was told) on his campus, he tells the AD, and then leaves it at that. Why? Why does a person choose to do so much good, and then on this one occasion, he basically "passes it off"?

Please don't say he's a "bad man". People aren't good or bad. They do good and bad things. People are simply people. Some do a lot more bad than good, and vice versa.

Really though... why would he choose not to do something more than just tell the AD?

Was he under the impression that Sandusky was just fondling the kid and viewed that as something less serious?

Maybe he wanted to salvage his relationship with Sandusky and / or Sandusky supporters on his staff and thought it would be better if the university went after him, and never imagined that the university would just "let it go".

Is it possible that Paterno actually DID pursue this and university threatened him or his family somehow if he spoke up? Has anybody considered this?

I would like to know if anyone can offer an intelligent view on why Paterno would just "pass this up the chain of command" and not pursue it further, because I have a hard time believing the notion that he didn't care.
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Does anybody know if Paterno did or did not follow up with the AD or whoever else he told?

There is always the possibility they told him they had looked into it and contacted the authorities and that there was in fact nothing to the allegations. If that was the case, then it would be understandable that he would not do anythinge else. I have no idea if this is the case at all but if the two guys were willing to lie to a grand jury to cover things up they could easily lie to Paterno and say they contacted authorities and that nothing in fact took place.
 
Being reported now that Sandusky was on campus just last week, had an office across from the football complex, part of his 1999 retirement package. Makes you wonder how many victims he did these unthinkable acts to. Just pisses me off that no one would step and help these kids.
 
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As a cancer survivor, let me offer this analogy: you discover a cancer in your program, you take all steps possible to determine the extent of it, you have it excised, you take the necessary follow-ups to heal and then you repeatedly check that it hasn't come back. Your doctors can help with all of that, but ultimately your health is your responsibility. There have been many times I have had to remind my doctors that it's time for a check-up.

JoePa learned of the cancer and may or may not have been responsible for having it excised. He failed to do any of the rest, it appears.

That cancer ultimately will cost him his life, in this case his reputation and his coaching career.
 
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The bigget question I have regarding this entire PSU story is why is it breaking now? All of this seems like old information, why did it take so long to finally come into the limelight and what finally made it come into the limelight? Sandusky hasn't been coaching there for years, I'm not sure when the grand jury testimony happened but I don't think it was recently. Why did it take so long for this to come out?
 
Perhaps, at 75 years old at the time, he was befuddled on what to do. Maybe he compartamentalized it somewhere into his mind so he wouldn't have to deal with it. Perhaps he was just thinking "old style" and didn't handle it like most people would nowadays. Not an excuse for his incredible lack of judgement but maybe a little bit of understanding.
 
mccarthyizm said:
My opinion, based only on the scant information available, is that Paterno opted to punish Sandusky "within the program", which is an act of incredible arrogance. He told Sandusky he would not become the next head coach of PSU and shunned him from that day forward. It sounds like others within the program shunned him as well.They aren't above the law, and only the deluded would ever think that this was punishment enough.
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I agree with you that Paterno opted to punish within the program. However, shun? How do you shun someone yet let them come to your practice, with a child in 2007? How do you shun domeone, yet let them have access to the PSU weight room(last week)?

This was Paterno's friend and he decided to protect him instead of a child/children.
 
RACHawk said:
The bigget question I have regarding this entire PSU story is why is it breaking now? All of this seems like old information, why did it take so long to finally come into the limelight and what finally made it come into the limelight? Sandusky hasn't been coaching there for years, I'm not sure when the grand jury testimony happened but I don't think it was recently. Why did it take so long for this to come out?
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The grand jury report was just released.
 
all the people in question knew about the grand jury because they testified already, some as long as a year ago. and they still let the creep on campus? i just don't get it.
 
HawkeyeMike23 said:
The grand jury report was just released.
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the report was just released, but IIRC, paterno said he testified to the grand jury in march. doesn't that make this look all the more worse that sandusky was still allowed on campus even as recently as last week?
 
I think it is plausible that JoePa might take the word of a long time friend and colleague to have some value, so maybe he WAS fooled, as he claimed. I could certainly see where they could ask JoePa to resign today and he would tell them to go to hell. But, I don't think it's wrong for us to expect more than that of Paterno.
 
David79 said:
Does anybody know if Paterno did or did not follow up with the AD or whoever else he told?

There is always the possibility they told him they had looked into it and contacted the authorities and that there was in fact nothing to the allegations. If that was the case, then it would be understandable that he would not do anythinge else. I have no idea if this is the case at all but if the two guys were willing to lie to a grand jury to cover things up they could easily lie to Paterno and say they contacted authorities and that nothing in fact took place.
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Exactly. Another possibility.

People are now calling this man morally bankrupt. I would say he made a bad error in judgement / trusted the wrong people at least, and at worst he ignored a serious matter in order to protect his university. The latter would be pretty bad, I will admit.
 
big10fan said:
the report was just released, but IIRC, paterno said he testified to the grand jury in march. doesn't that make this look all the more worse that sandusky was still allowed on campus even as recently as last week?
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Compared to the fact that he was caught performing oral sex on a kid by a janitor and raping a kid in the shower by an assistant coach almost ten years ago and still allowed to keep an office on campus? No it doesn't, it couldn't possibly make it look worse.
 
SteveGarvey said:
Perhaps, at 75 years old at the time, he was befuddled on what to do. Maybe he compartamentalized it somewhere into his mind so he wouldn't have to deal with it. Perhaps he was just thinking "old style" and didn't handle it like most people would nowadays. Not an excuse for his incredible lack of judgement but maybe a little bit of understanding.
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I think this is the most likely scenario, but who knows.
 
HawkeyeMike23 said:
Compared to the fact that he was caught performing oral sex on a kid by a janitor and raping a kid in the shower by an assistant coach almost ten years ago and still allowed to keep an office on campus? No it doesn't, it couldn't possibly make it look worse.
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To me, this is the most disturbing. How in the world could you let a man who has been accused, have access to the same sick playground for this long, makes no sense at all to me.
 
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