my thoughts exactly

Good riddance. He should resign now. Penn State is a disgrace.

its like a bad Law and order SVU episode, but it is real, wtf could they possibly have been thinking.

+1 Putin. He should resign now, or should immediately be fired. The fact that he is still coaching is a disgrace to all of Penn State. If I was a student there I would be ashamed of my administration.

Apparently the students of Penn State are without shame:
http://www.centredaily.com/2011/11/09/2979470/students-rally-for-coach-all-over.html

It seems one can never underestimate the insanity that genetic mutants throwing balls at each other can cause in a population of otherwise sane individuals.

I'm walking into the trolls den, but let me give you my take:
First of all, hindsight is 20/20. If Joe knew what we know today, he probably would have grabbed a shotgun and taken matters into his own hands. JoePa didn't rape kids. He didn't watch kids get raped. He didn't get enough information from the grad assistant to really know what was going on. He heard about something unsavory going on, didn't know if it was true or not, so he went to the people who do handle these kinds of events, and those people failed him.

Here's what I think happened: You are at a highly public university as a coach. A student tells you about something unsavory happening with an assistant coach who has been your right hand man for decades. If you go to the cops, and it turns out the guy is innocent, his entire reputation is destroyed, because there is no way the media won’t find out. You go to the administration because they are well versed in ways to handle the situation whether he is innocent or not. Since he is a close friend for decades, it is best for a neutral third party to handle it anyway.

Should he have done more? Absolutely. Because I know what really happened. I’m assuming the information given to JoePa was general enough for him not to understand the significance.

"He heard about something unsavory going on, didn't know if it was true or not, so he went to the people who do handle these kinds of events, and those people failed him."

While this is true, I don't think JoePa deserves to be free of blame. He should have turned it over to the police. The police and law system is put in place to decide whether or not someone is innocent. The administration is not.

I don't think JoePa is evil. I think it was a genuine mistake and error in judgement. But that doesn't mean he shouldn't be held responsible.

He was told the guy was in the shower "horsing around with an 11 year old" that is what he admits, you don't think he should have clarified what that meant?

I respected JoePa, but the fact he was told that a grown man who was always walking around with 14 year old kids was naked horsing around in the shower with them should be enough to delve more deeply into the subject. And, if nothing comes of the investigation, he should do it himself. It depends what the graduate assistant said I suppose, but I don't see what he could have said to make the situation seem anything less of alarming

If you keep reading:
"If you go to the cops, and it turns out the guy is innocent, his entire reputation is destroyed, because there is no way the media won’t find out. You go to the administration because they are well versed in ways to handle the situation whether he is innocent or not. Since he is a close friend for decades, it is best for a neutral third party to handle it anyway."

Anyone that works in corporate HR will tell you, something like a sexual harassment accusation is something to be handle in the company and not to the police, because it needs to be a private matter (involving lawyers and investigators) before careers and livelihoods are tarnished.

I don't htink JoePa is blameless, but I do think that people are more concerned with asking for his head instead of Sandusky (who is the lowest of low and pure evil). JoePa did make a mistake, but resignation and firing is too harsh a punishment. The administrators should get fired and run through the justice system. Sandusky should be put in a situation where his life is hell for every remaining waking hour he has (like neutering him, then putting him in a prison of rapists that all have children).

I read the whole thing the first time. What you need to understand is that this is not innuendo or some whispered rumor, this is a subordinate seeing the guy in the act. And this is NOT sexual harassment, this is the RAPING of underage boys. They should have erred on the side of caution, not to protect an associates reputation as you claim, but to protect kids from a potential sexual predator.

It was a grad assistant reporting vague things about a coach and right hand man to Joe for decades.
Also keep in mind that it was the 80s and child molesters were not seen as prevalent and it isn't what popped into peoples minds immediately.

it was 98 not the 80s, and there was nothing vague about reporting that a man was horsing around with an 11 year old kid (who should have no reason to be in an empty Penn St. Locker Room in the first place) in the shower. And this is just stuff that has been revealed, no telling what else lies beneath the surface.

The rape of the ten year old happened in 2002. Sandusky retired as the d-coordinator in 1998.

I really want to wait and see what comes of the investigation before passing judgment. For what it's worth, it really doesn't sound good at all, and I expect a lot of heads to roll.

What is left out is Sandusky was already investigated before by the police in 1998. Paterno must have known about this. And yet when a grad student comes over to your house distraught and says Sandusky was "horsing around" (which I don't believe that's all the student said), you don't do anything except punt it to your superiors? You don't even investigate the welfare of the child? You don't deprive this predator of access to the school until the thing is cleared up? You let him have access to these boys for another decade?

I mean Paterno has a history of having a non-chalant attitude towards sexual assault. He made comments in 2006 about a Florida case that led to calls for his resignation. I never liked Paterno, and I'm trying not to let my dislike of him color my judgment here, but this whole thing stinks, and if Curley perjured himself by claiming that the grad student only said there was "horsing around" and no indication of a crime having committed, it is likely that Paterno did the same. The fact that he won't answer questions only makes this worse. The fact that the President came out full bore saying he supported the two perjurers is an absolute disgrace.

Bye, bye, Penn State football. So much for "winning with honor". What a sad joke.

Yeah the President is being forced out today. The Board of Trustees is finally getting their act together. House cleaning time. I doubt Paterno will survive.

What also boggles my mind is this investigation began in 2009 and he had access to the school *as recently as last week!*, including an office! It's not like this just came up. This has been ongoing.

"The rape of the ten year old happened in 2002. Sandusky retired as the d-coordinator in 1998."

These allegations cover events as far back as 1994. There was one boy who was assaulted prior to a bowl game in the hotel the team was staying at. Most of these assaults took place in Penn State facilities, as he still maintained an office throughout the 2000s in which he ran a charity for at risk youth from which he gained access to these boys. Sick fuck.

I think that JoePa isn't blameless, but doesn't deserve to be forced into retirement or fired.
Sandusky was a philanthropist. He helped kids. JoePa was given 'general information' (nothing detailed) about the incident. That means that he may not of assumed rape or molestation... especially since he knew the guy for so long.
Should he have done more? Yes. But not doing so wasn't covering up a rape, it was misjudging what was actually happening.

PS - yes, I was wrong on the year. No idea why I thought it was that long ago.

Oh, and I should clarify: I think Sandusky is the lowest of the low and evilest of the evil. He created a charity to prey on children. There isn't a place low enough in hell to contain that type of evil...
I think the death penalty is too easy for him. I think he should get neutered, then live his life in a prison full of rapists who have children. I want every waking hour of this mans life to be a living hell... so maybe he can understand the pain that he's put (and continues to put) on the kids he abused.

I just think JoePa is an upstanding, while not blameless, bystander. He should be reprimanded and continue on. Guys, I work college football. I know the corruption of the NCAA and coaches. Penn State got a black eye and the most upstanding coach is the one who is being ousted. Penn State will actually become LESS honorable by removing him.

by 'prison full of rapists who have children' I mean a prison full of rapists who are fathers... who would think of a pedophile then think of their kids, then want to fuck him over (literally and figuratively) every moment of his life.

Oh, god, let's not compound this problem by making light of prison rape. People go bezerk with their need for vengeance.

I highly doubt the grad student, who went all the way to Paterno's house and was visibly distraught, only gave him "general information". And even if he did, why wouldn't Paterno ask for specifics? Why wouldn't he inquire as to the well being of the child? Why didn't he remember the 1998 police report? Why wasn't Sandusky at least deprived of access to kids? Again, Curley's testimony about claiming that the grad student didn't give him any specifics wasn't found to be credible. Why Paterno was given a pass by the grand jury, I don't know.

It's completely right an necessary for Paterno to go under these circumstances, but let's make sure we're not overreacting here. JoePa should have done more once he knew about these alleged incidents, but it's not as if he was actually doing anything to these boys. The proper target for outrage is Sandusky.

Harboring a sexual predator and covering it up is being an accessory to the crime, enabling it. I don't think anybody is saying he is as bad as Sandusky, but Sandusky might have the "excuse" of being sick (and from his confession of suicidal thoughts in the eavesdropped conversation with a mother of a victim, it sure appears that way), whereas Paterno could have prevented a lot of abuse and didn't.

This is just like the RCC. There are so many parallels.

We don't know he covered it up yet. I'm far, far from a Penn State fan but we shouldn't be damning the guy until we know more. If I had to guess this was more willful ignorance than a cover-up, but I won't guess since I don't know.

He's leaving after this season, and you can be sure this will be investigated exhaustively. Let's not make an 84 year old man out to be such a fiend before the whole story comes out and is adjudicated.

If this was just willful ignorance (which still warrants Paterno being considered a 'fiend') then we have to believe the AD & co's story that the grad assistant, while distraught, only gave vague generalities after seeing an anal rape of a 10 year old. Very far fetched. Even if we buy that, we can already damn Paterno for doing nothing about the welfare of the boy and not doing anything to rein in Sandusky despite there already being one police report when this was brought to his attention.

And the fact that we don't know more is PSU's fault, since they won't subject Paterno to actual questions.

All I'm saying is it's premature to make those kinds of stark judgements when all we have are media reports. Not even the guy accused of raping the kids has had his day in court, let alone Paterno. Something unspeakably awful happened at Penn State for a long, long time, but it's irresponsible to make up your mind on what happened based just on sensationalist news reports. Paterno certainly can't go on coaching, and he even may be open to some for of criminal sanction himself, but that's an issue for the courts to decide and it's wrong to publicly crucify him just because dreadful things have come to light in the media.

It's not "sensationalist". Read the grand jury report. If anything the media depictions of this have been muted, considering the graphic detail about the eight victims written in that report. I mean ESPN showed the ridiculous "rally" PSU students held for Paterno and nobody condemned it for being in poor taste. This isn't a witch hunt. Paterno has been treated with kid gloves so far.

Do people realize how rare it is to have not one, but two third party eye witness accounts of sexual abuse happening? If this is all fake then a lot of people have be part of this conspiracy to slander Sandusky. The fact that this guy had six adopted kids and multiple foster kids makes me sick, as an adoptee myself.