118 Responses to:
NCAA WENT TOO FAR AGAINST PENN STATE

# 1. 7/24/12 12:50 AM by dave
I agree. It's sad that Penn State, the NCAA, and (not surprisingly) Louis Freeh all used Joe Paterno as a scape goat. He quietly brought this to the attention of those above him way back in 1999-2000, and the allegations were made public in 2001. The school chose to sweep it under the rug and keep it hidden, not Joe Paterno.

And who in their right mind would hire Louis Freeh to conduct an investigation? The man is sorely lacking in integrity. His tenure at the top of the FBI was marked by continual allegations of misconduct, and was forced to resign as head of the FBI amid charges of cover-ups and corruption of his own. ANYTHING Freeh investigates and/or writes about should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, and then thrown away.

Hopefully, history will reinstate the successes of Joe Paterno and the teams he coached.

# 2. 7/24/12 2:28 AM by BSP
I'm with you. I'm fine with everything the NCAA threw at Penn State, except for erasing 14 seasons of football.

What does this mean now? Does it mean that the teams that lost to Penn State are now winners? Should all the record books all be changed to reflect this?

Hundreds, if not thousands of players played for Penn State in the last 14 years. To erase their seasons is idiotic. Paterno just coached those games, but the players played them, won them, and grew or withdrew. They spent their sweat, blood, and muscle to earn a win or suffer a loss. They broke bones, split lips, and pulled their groins for the sake of something they love, and that is the game of football.

Give the seasons back to the players, and put Paterno's statue in the back of a pickup truck on the way to the scrap yard. But let us NOT forget who is really to blame here, and that is Sandusky, Raper of Children.

# 3. 7/24/12 4:19 AM
Too reactionary, too late, too harsh, and just too archaic.

# 4. 7/24/12 4:59 AM by hunter - e. bethany, ny
The NCAA had a role in this human tragedy. They enabled mammon to control thought and actions of PSUs senior administrators. This morally bankrupt entity should declare fiscal bankruptcy and walk away from the NCAA sanctions.

Let Bob Mathews know the statue of Joe Pa along with images of the other administrators should be placed in the shower stalls as a reminder of their unwillingness to protect innocents, nothing more.

# 5. 7/24/12 5:12 AM by Hellboy
The NCAA always tries to play God anyway.

What price can anyone put on the sanity and well-being of those poor, innocent souls in the showers?

Did Joe Paterno make a bargain with the devil?

Paterno made his decision on priorities a long, long time ago.

And he decided to play God.

And now the jealous, vengeful (but forgiving) God has wreaked his vengeance (and payback).

And Joe Paterno is cleaning showers in hell.

And he hears the screams.

The screams of those boys being raped in the showers.

His showers.

All day and all night.

For eternity...

(You will surely hear them as you enter.)

And the worse part about all of it is that the NCAA has put a price on all of this. $60 million.

And they will be in hell too.

# 6. 7/24/12 5:37 AM by Fly - Wayofftopeka, Kansas
Antonio Perez is living in a dream world. It's best he drops the whole patent thing ASAP.

And only then he can focus on fixing Kodak, if that is really what he wants to do.

The most successful, most profitable Kodak products had no patents and concentrated on utilizing PROPRIETARY processes and methods.

But he (or the court) will arrogantly refuse the "low" bids his auction generates.

Then he can proudly hold his chin up high and proclaim that Kodak finally died under him "on principle".

And we all know that principle is much, much more important than money. Or jobs.

# 7. 7/24/12 5:47 AM by Volt-aire - Coudersport, Pa.
A hostile takeover at Beaver Stadium with "unclean hands"; by the NCAA "brass" of pride, envy, greed, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth.
(The doctrine is often stated as "those seeking equity must do equity" or "equity must come with clean hands".)
The NCAA stands for chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility or was that what they burned at the stake in Happy Valley. But business is busy-ness.

# 8. 7/24/12 5:52 AM by ff - roch
No. You need to punish the culture that allowed this. They only way to do that is to behead it. You've got to make that culture so deplorable that nobody will want to be associated with it. Yes, individuals looked the other way, but the culture in which the individuals exist allowed this to happen. Even if you get rid of the individuals that did this, the culture still exists.

The culture of privileged football players and associates needed to end at Penn State. You don't do that by removing individuals, you do it by making sure the root of the culture at Penn State (football and paterno) is gone.

They didn't go too far, they didn't go far enough. Penn State shouldn't be allowed to have a football team ever again. Football and Penn State's worship of it like a god should end forever.

# 9. 7/24/12 6:59 AM by Rick G. - Spencerport, NY
Penn State had a PR nightmare on its hands and had to go big. This big? Well, yes.

The football fans won't forget the games, but the young men who got diddled in the shower and were swept under the rug by men they respected won't forget what happened to them either.

I think Penn made the right call. Time will tell, though.

# 10. 7/24/12 7:01 AM by Victor
Well said. The NCAA has itself become "too important to fail" and wields too much power. It is akin to, in politics, a president's Executive Order for which there is no vote, no discussion. Time and again, we've seen that the only ones who end up punished by NCAA sanctions are the programs and students left behind. Coaches who are implicated in recruiting fiascos and the like, typically leave their programs before the proverbial fan-colliding substance becomes airborne, and typically land yet another lucrative position at yet another prestigeous school. And THEY aren't held accountable. RIP PSU.

# 11. 7/24/12 7:10 AM by DR (betty) - Phoenix, AZ
Help me understand,

A janitor sees a sex act in the shower and does nothing. He is not charged.

A grad assistant, Mike McQueary, sees something in the shower. He says he slams the locker doors to break it up. Then the next day goes to Paterno with the story after talking to his father. (I'm sorry, I played college football, I know I'd have gone in the shower and screamed at the guy, "What the *^# are you doing!!! Knock it off now!" but at that age the coaches have you by the short ones... I'd have talked to someone too, then called the cops and reported it!)

Joe has 2nd hand information, don't they call this hearsay?

The creep is Joe's friend. He doesn't want to believe it. But he still passes the hear-say info up the chain of command and to the head of campus cops.

It seems that he did enough, legally, but even Joe said in hind site he'd wish he'd done more. [Again, Joe didn't see anything first hand]

The admin hates Joe for the power they perceive him to have. Only they can give him that power. He's got the power by their own making.

Now we see that the info got all the way to a school admin, and he did nothing!

Seems like calculated business decisions. It is wrong anyway you look at it.

Joe Pa is vilified simply for being the mythical head of Penn State because of all the power they perceive him to have. The only power is that which they allow him to have.

The admin hires someone to write a report that justifies the results they want. This report is full of personal opinion and no one questions it because the guy is an ex-fbi administrator.

Hmm, something stinks.

Initially Matt Millen called for Joe Pa's head, yet Mr Millen now is taking another position? Why? Millen was on the board of the Second Mile charity while Sandusky was doing these things... was he protesting too much at first as the old adage goes.

Don’t get me started on the over reaching NCAA jerks…. All I can say about them, “Follow the money and to heck with the ‘sport’.”

# 12. 7/24/12 7:22 AM by OldVietVet - Rochester, NY
The NCAA may be guilty of hypocrisy due to their inadequately addressing, in the past, other instances of criminal behaviour on college campuses.That doesnt mean that they should continue doing so. It could be argued that it was those less-than-stern sanctions of the NCAA that helped Paterno and Co.maintain a clear conscience,as well as a delusion of their own invulnerability -that they had no culpability in this matter.I doubt whether the NCAA ordered the toppling of the "JoPa" icon.But so what if they did? The President of the university has been fired, likewise the now dead Paterno, also an athletic director,a finance wiz, and others.For this here rube,who is on the outside looking in, those elite bums have demonstrated that they were really no better than the countless fanatics mindlessly shouting "We are Penn State"- slaves to a damn rubber ball game.

# 13. 7/24/12 7:25 AM by Tom Dey - Springwater, NY
Yeah - the criminal matter(s) are finally being addressed properly; Paterno dropped dead and Sandusky will get what's coming to him for sure. The only connection to the NCAA is the valid argument that sports-obsession overrode discretion...so indirectly enabled the continued crime spree. But declaring games un-won is 1984-ish. Records can be tainted and even cause for a bizarre shame - but not un-done.

# 14. 7/24/12 7:26 AM
The $60 mil equals PS’s income from football for one season. Profitable little program eh?

The media did not like Joe P because he did not provide unfettered access to players. They also dislike Boeheim fot he same reason. One coach who also kept the media away from his players was John Thompson of Georgetown, but John is black so he received favored coach status for protecting his players.

This is all about money. The NCAA provides the NFL with a free player development system, unlike baseball which shoulders the burden of various leagues including the Triple A RedWings. The amount of money flowing in to schools from men’s sports is needed to support Title 9 programs. But since Title 9 is all about diversity and affirmative action for women (everything except cheerleading) it is a feel good thing - the 'right thing'. In PS’s case, $60 million covers a lot of these programs. Without men’s sports, colleges would just become centers of learning which means college would not be fun. Joe P did drop the ball by not calling the police and trusting the university to handle the problem. But then this is no different than a bishop telling a cardinal of a problem with a priest rather than calling 911 is it?

How about this McCreary guy (6’4” – 220lbs) that saw Sandusky with a kid in the shower and decided that rather than break it up, he would tell his Dad about it later that night.

Seems that all levels of schools, churches, police and fire departments, and public union employees operate under a different code of conduct than the rest of us. Maybe, for the NCAA to punish PS so severely, there might be other offenses that will be swept under the rug while we bemoan the fate of PS.

# 15. 7/24/12 7:27 AM by Lori - Rochester, NY
it is unfortunate that the same thing does not happen to the catholic church; time for them to be held responsible!

# 16. 7/24/12 7:27 AM by Father Finger - Catholic Church
Whew. Dodged another bullet.

At least I know that you're on our side. A couple of indiscretions can't erase all the good, am I right?

# 17. 7/24/12 7:41 AM by Poplar Beach
Bob, in some ways I agree, I hate seeing the students and the student athletes punished for something the had no control over, but if Joe Paterno were alive today, I believe he would be facing prison.

I take exception to this.

“And about Joe Paterno. He should have called 911. He shouldn't have left it to his superiors to decide. He dropped the ball. But he did force Sandusky out of the football program. In fact, the only person who did anything to distance Jerry Sandusky from Penn State was Joe Paterno. “

Joe Paterno had no superiors at Penn State, all titles aside, he was the King, the buck stopped with him, and he kept his 'superiors' from reporting the incident. If you read the report, that is very clear.

To Paterno, at the time, the football program and his reputation were more important than what Sandusky was caught doing in 1998. And if he distanced Sandusky, why was Sandusky still raping boys in the Penn State showers years later?

Yes, most of the time the NCAA is a joke, far to often looking the other way, but I thought the best part of their ruling was to wipe out all those wins after 1998, because that is when Joe Paterno should have and could have put a STOP to Jerry Sandusky!

# 18. 7/24/12 7:44 AM by kqt
Penn State raised money to support the football team based on the school's reputation. They protected that reputation on the backs of, well, you know. If the truth had come out sooner,would Paterno have had the money to buy the best players? It's called cheating or even stealing.

# 19. 7/24/12 7:54 AM by GEORGE (THE OTHER ONE) - GANANOQUE ONTARIO CANADA
*

Agreed.

The students and their institution have been punished for the crimes of those who have already been or will be handled by the courts.

It is unjust.

It is unfair.

The university should 'lawyer-up' and fight this stupidity.

# 20. 7/24/12 7:55 AM by Marlene - Allegany County
As an extremely proud mom of two sons of the Brockport football program, (one just graduated, one to begin his Jr. year) I can begin to imagine the pain and humiliation the families must be facing. Peace to them, this must be so demoralizing and difficult.

# 21. 7/24/12 8:08 AM
How much should it cost to be un-raped?

# 22. 7/24/12 8:08 AM by Ron - Kenmore, NY
The NCAA penalties were okay, except for the erasure of the records. That's just stupid. The games were played and the results are in the book.

If the NFL were to erase the NE Patriots record for Bill Belichick's cheating, I'd agree with it. He cheated in the games.

# 23. 7/24/12 8:20 AM by Christopher - Newport News, VA
Penn State is a great university and will eventually recover from this. The leadership at Penn should suffer greatly for the criminal offenses and the cover up. The problem I have is the extensive collateral damage. The hundreds of student athletes that played during the "lost" years were not responsible for the criminal actions of the leadership. Restore their record of accomplishment.

Let the civil lawsuits begin. May the victims have their way with the evil doers.

# 24. 7/24/12 8:26 AM by Jimmy the Greek
If you gambled on those games in Vegas, do you get your money back now since they don't exist?

# 25. 7/24/12 8:27 AM by Joe L - Rochester, Ny
Joe Paterno, if he was still alive, deserves to be indicted for covering this up. I wonder what God had to say to him about this.

# 26. 7/24/12 8:30 AM by Amy - Fai
I only wish that Paterno were still alive just to see this.

# 27. 7/24/12 8:34 AM by Marie - Chili
Paterno connived in the sexual torture of young boys. He condoned indecency to keep his records intact. The NCAA acted responsibly.

# 28. 7/24/12 8:35 AM by Matt - Rochester, NY
I honestly don't see how this punished anyone who was truly involved in this scandal. The students were punished, the student-athletes were punished, all those proud Penn State alumni were punished, and as college football fans, we were all punished. There were some bad things that happened there, and our hearts go out to the victims and families. But now they have created more victims unfortunately. Go Irish!

# 29. 7/24/12 8:36 AM by hc

Hmmm... I don't know. I'm okay with the $60 million fine and the bowl suspensions for the next few years, but the erasure of all wins and championships from 1998 to current seems a bit extreme.

It's not the players' fault(those who played during those 14 years)their coaches were evil.

I really love that Paterno statue, but I'm glad it came down.

~xp

# 30. 7/24/12 8:38 AM by Earl
Are you trying to equate Joe Paterno with Jesus Christ? Was that really your intent here?

"The NCAA tried to wash away its sins in the blood of Joe Paterno."

"This crucifixion yesterday was nothing more than throwing somebody to the crowd to satiate an upset public."

Instead of comparing Paterno to Christ, you should compare him to Pope John XXIII.

After all, according to an article run by the Observer in August of 2003:

"The Vatican instructed Catholic bishops around the world to cover up cases of sexual abuse or risk being thrown out of the Church.

The Observer has obtained a 40-year-old confidential document from the secret Vatican archive which lawyers are calling a 'blueprint for deception and concealment'. One British lawyer acting for Church child abuse victims has described it as 'explosive'.

The 69-page Latin document bearing the seal of Pope John XXIII was sent to every bishop in the world. The instructions outline a policy of 'strictest' secrecy in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and threatens those who speak out with excommunication."

# 31. 7/24/12 8:38 AM by Tony - Gates
Hitler defeated the French but still lost the war. Mr. Paterno has lost the war of "history". He will be remembered as the coach that allowed little boys to be raped down the hall from his office and he covered it up. History is like an ex-wife it forgives nothing.

# 32. 7/24/12 8:41 AM
But on Wall Street the gangsters that brought our whole economy to it's knees with their Paterno-esk sham of being pillars of the community walk away with nary a slap on the wrist---no one!!!

# 33. 7/24/12 8:41 AM by Ella - Alfred
This is a better outcome than adding a category for the number of children raped to Joe Paterno's statistics.

# 34. 7/24/12 8:47 AM by john - rochester
Penn State was punished because NCAA and academia hated Joe Paterno and what he stood for, hard work, integrity, belief in God and country, and doing your best. As expected, when you break the left's religious code of political correctness, you are brutally punished and made an example of, and even if your memory is considered a possible threat to the left, they just change history to erase your existence. NCAA made its message very clear.

# 35. 7/24/12 8:47 AM by Tom
Someone comes to you and says, "Hey, I just saw a kid getting sexually abused in the shower."

What should you do: 1. Report this to the cops. 2. Tell your boss and do nothing. 3. Say, "Get that kid out of there and then let's go kick the abuser's butt" and then tell the cops.

# 36. 7/24/12 8:51 AM by Jodie - Batavia
You really can't seem to grasp that this happened at PSU facilities through the elaborate web of the 2nd Mile Foundation.

# 37. 7/24/12 8:54 AM by Linda - Penfield
Because the criminal activities were unquestionably associated with the college's football program, the college's football program absolutely had to be punished. These punishments seem very appropriate.

# 38. 7/24/12 9:06 AM by [Original] Lurker
My problems are with the vacating the wins and taking away the scholarships. The first because they are trying to change history, and none of those wins resulted from Sandusky's crimes. Maybe they're trying to say if he had been removed as he should have been, they wouldn't have won those games. Well, I don't believe that. Paterno was key to those wins, but I don't believe Sandusky was.

And taking away the scholarships punishes kids who had nothing to do with this, so what can that possibly do except, as you say, severly wound PSU's football program, because those kids will just go elsewhere.

The NCAA definitely went too far against PSU. By the way, I'm a total outsider in this. I'm not a PSU fan, particularly; I didn't go to school there, and I'm not even from Pennsylvania.

# 39. 7/24/12 9:24 AM by Chris
On it's website, the NCAA lists the full set of bylaws Penn State violated, the most applicable on being:

"19.01.2 Exemplary Conduct.

Individuals employed by or associated with member institutions for the administration, the conduct or the coaching of intercollegiate athletics are, in the final analysis, teachers of young people. Their responsibility is an affirmative one, and they must do more than avoid improper conduct or questionable acts. Their own moral values must be so certain and positive that those younger and more pliable will be influenced by a fine example. Much more is expected of them than of the less critically placed citizen."

# 40. 7/24/12 9:40 AM by RMS - Rochester, NY
Bob,

You write that "football had become too important".....what had (and has) become too important is the "WIN WIN WIN at ANY cost" sports mentality which unfortunately is pervasive in every segment of society (including presidential politics, but that's a subject for another day). It is a sad day indeed when a damn sports record is more important than the welfare of innocent children - it would have been far better for Penn State to have dealt with the situation then, rather than sweep it under the rug and have it magnified a thousand times later. I agree totally with what the NCAA did.....Paterno is a disgrace.....we can only hope that maybe this is the proverbial wake-up call for the future.

# 41. 7/24/12 9:55 AM
Too bad you and far too many people regard football as what makes Penn State when all along, it should be education, which BTW, students may still avail themselves of there. And saying other colleges have been guilty but never penalized is just a rationalization of the gross abuse that was swept under the rug at PSU. Guess child abuse isn't really THAT big a deal to you as you seemingly have (ahem) gotten through and past it.

I'm as glad the Joe Paterno statue was taken down as I was that the Saddam Hussein statue was toppled. Neither man ever deserved a statue for their heinous conduct.

# 42. 7/24/12 9:55 AM by Michael McEvoy - Mifflinburg, PA
Mikey, Here, I'm from PA and I live 42 miles east of Penn State. Sorry but I can't agree with you. All for the sake of football and reputation this was hushed, and Sandusky wasn't even removed when it was first reported. I know it's now the mind set to sue if you feel the you've been offended but there are times you need to take the chance of erring in the right direction. How many children would have been spared if something would have been done in the beginning. If one of the boys would have been a son of one of the fired execs, what would have been tolerated then. To be a victim kills something within you, you may be a survivor and live an enjoyable life; but it's like losing a finger, you adapt successfully but that part of you is still missing. To me sexual abuse, particularly of children deserves execution or incarceration for life; I would assist to insure either. Take Care, Mikey

# 43. 7/24/12 10:01 AM by Jim - Rochester
If the Rochester Radio community knows who's doing who,(And you know they do) why should we not believe the Penn State Athletic community Knows when there's a pervert in their midst?

Fact is there was a cover up, and a lot of innocent kids paid the price.

Paterno was the most known, but I'm sure others were also in the know, and should pay the price.

I believe the penalty's against the university are fair, and would like to see more individuals prosecuted.

# 44. 7/24/12 10:02 AM
Yea right, just as long as it wasn't one of your kids.

# 45. 7/24/12 10:07 AM by Philip
Sorry Bob, you are just plain wrong on this. Saint Joe only needed to make one phone call and he would still be Saint Joe. But, for whatever reason, he chose not to make that call, and to try to cover it up when someone more concerned about young boys than the football program at Penn State did make the call.

No tolerance policy when it comes to pedophiles.

# 46. 7/24/12 10:15 AM by Big B
Bob I couldn't disagree more. The ncaa while a overstuffed full of itself organization, has every right to punish a member institution beyond whatever criminal and civil penalties might be levied. Just as the NFL can punish a player for criminal activity The NCAA can punish its members. Joe Paterno may have pushed Sandusky out of his staff but he still allowed him to use the football facilities for his boys camps. For Joe or any other adult to look the other way while knowing these boys were being raped is shameful and if removing his statue and vacating his wins is what needs to be done to send this message to the other college institutions than good for the NCAA.

# 47. 7/24/12 10:18 AM
I agree with all of the penalties except taking away the victories back to 1998 (or whenever it was). It would have been different if there had been recruiting violations that could have given Penn State an unfair advantage on the playing field, but that wasn't the case.

The other penalties make sense. I think it's good to send a very strong message that colleges can't let sports become all-powerful.

# 48. 7/24/12 10:49 AM by Don - Fort Worth
As for the survey poll: Who cares?

# 49. 7/24/12 11:55 AM by Bart - Webster
If Penn State just quits the NCAA will it have to pay the fine? Maybe Penn State should get out of football now and save itself the from the many years it will be forced to operate under the NCAA punishment. The question is how 'profitable' football is to Penn State and when will it recover (if ever)? They could save $60 million right now.

# 50. 7/24/12 12:04 PM by Cal - Rochester, NY
Bob,

What wisdom you show here. How you came up with all this, is beyond my understanding. It looked like an impossible situation to me and I thought that Penn State would get off with just a slap on the wrists. But the NCAA went way to far. Where`s the real justice?! And look at all of the innocent athletes that have been ruined!

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