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John S

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Joe Paterno, long time head football coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, has been fired.
If you have seen any news lately, you know that his former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, has been accused of sexually molesting young boys.
Several others at the university, including the President, have also been fired.
If you aren't from Pennsylvania, you may not know how big of a deal this is. Joe Pa, as he is affectionately known, reached almost god-like status in the state. He has not been accused of doing anything illegally himself, he has just been accused of not doing enough.
 

Zaac

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I am so sickened by this whole sordid mess. There should be no one on the sidelines remotely associated with Joe Paterno or the current Athletic Association. Placing a coach who has been with Paterno for 30 years into the interim position is a big NO NO. After 30 years, he knew what was going on too.

They need to just cancel the rest of their season.

I cannot believe, after reading the Grand Jury report, the number of opportunities GROWN PEOPLE had to stop this man in the act, yet they did NOTHING!!!
 
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Zaac

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Looking at this timeline, I don't know if it sickens me more that the guy did this or that GROWN PEOPLE had numerous opportunities to intercede and did NOTHING!!!

He's asked to promise to not shower with young boys again and he refuses yet no charges are made?

Has the entire world gone crazy? Is football this big a deal?

Jesus, I need to pray.
 
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Archivist

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They need to just cancel the rest of their season.

I agree that others, both in the athletic department and the administration, probably knew what was going on. I think that additional names will probably come out, and others are going to lose their positions. Those convicted of crimes should be punished.

However, to cancel the season now would only hurt the current players and other students (band members, cheerleaders, Thon participants, etc) none of whom had anything to do with the events that led up to this whole mess.
 
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John S

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Zaac - YES - Big time college football IS that big a deal.

Archivist - I agree with you that the players aren't guilty of any wrong doing BUT if there are riots, or whatever, at tomorrow's game, then thought should be given to cancelling the rest of the season.
I wonder if the NCAA is going to shut down the football program for awhile.
 
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I believe Zaac's position is reasonable considering the extent of the cover-up. And that's what it was, a cover-up of ongoing felony behavior. I wish others were not affected, but the situation is what it is. There's not that much left of the season anyhow.
 
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earagun

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I would say that if its not illegal to hide and cover up sexual criminal acts against children, then some new laws need to be established. Poor Joe Paterno! I feel so sorry for his complete loss of his ever loving mind, that he would not demand the firing and investigation of a sexual crime committed by his staff, whom he is entirely responsible for...........thats what happens when your in charge, you are responsible for the actions of those in your authority, He wasn't responsible with his actions and his decisions were practically criminal if you ask the child victims who suffered because of his negligence. They will tell you how criminal his actions were!......I would say its as criminal as a car dealer selling a car he knows the brakes are going to fail and sells the car to a family that lives ontop of a mountian.
 
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katherine2001

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I feel bad for Joe Paterno (and he is a man that I've had a lot of respect for), but the fact is that he was told what happened to one child and didn't report it to the police. Goodness knows how many more boys were molested when it could have stopped if he had reported it to the police.
 
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katherine2001

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One one talk show that I was listening too, there was a woman who dealt with these types of cases, and she said that, in her opinion, Paterno would have have legally been required to report it to the authorities, and he didn't.
 
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SharonL

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This makes me sick to my stomach - all of the people that knew and no one protected those boys - we will never know how many lives they have ruined.

I have 2 step-children who were molested over a long period of time - there were 13 children involved - we were the only one to press charges. The neighbors begged us to drop charges, the priest in the neighborhood ask us to drop charges because he was always in church - the chief of police ask us to drop charges - he was allowed to come home after 3 months in re-had and killed his self in front of the kids.

We had counseling and more counseling - but those lives were destroyed beyond total repair.

All these people sacrificed only God knows how many boys for the sake of their precious football.
 
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Zaac

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Bump the current players, band members, cheerleader, etc. It's an institute of higher learning. This is a SPORT. It is not essential. Every one of those kids parents needs to sue for multi-millions and force them to suspend a season or two.

Penn State athletics needs to be scarred as much as those boys were. And if that means suspending this season and next, do it.

Further accenting just how skewed people's priorities are is the fact that the student body is rioting over a coach getting fired but I haven't seen anything about any of them rioting that those kids were molested.
 
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Zaac

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Then perhaps it is time for big time college football to get a big time dose of reality.

There are enough families out there right now who have had their kids molested at this school that they can bankrupt the Penn State athletic department.

Penn State would do well to appear extremely contrite aand do something out of character for big time college football, and that's to appear more concerned about something else.

They should REALLY consider canceling the rest of this season and the next. When the law suits are done, they should be out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
 
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Zaac

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Joe Pa is so complicit in this, it is ridiculous. I would venture anyone who has been with his staff for an extended period of time knew about Sandusky and what he was doing.

I had always wondered why Joe Pa didn't retire back in his early 70s especially when he had an "heir apparent" in waiting.

He KNEW and that's why he kept coaching. He wasn't gonna allow just anybody to take over the program. And after he realized Sandusky wasn't gonna be the one, he had to keep coaching.

Yeah Joe Pa KNEW and everybody in the Penn State organization covered this scandal up.

CLEAN the proverbial house.
 
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Zaac

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I have always had great admiration for Joe Pa and the values he "seemed" to have put in place at Penn State. But this tells a whole new story about the man. He KNEW and did nothing to keep this man off campus and away from the program.

So in that regard I don't feel bad for Joe at all. He's very privileged to ONLY have been fired. He's as complicit in this as some of the cardinals were in the Catholic Church priest scandals.
 
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Archivist

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Archivist - I agree with you that the players aren't guilty of any wrong doing BUT if there are riots, or whatever, at tomorrow's game, then thought should be given to cancelling the rest of the season.

There were no riots during or after the game.

The only riot that occurred happened earlier in the week following the announcement that Paterno had been fired. About 2000 students took to the streets. A few hundred participated in acst of violence that included turing over a news van and breaking street lights. The number of students who committed acts of violence during the riot was dawrfed by the crowd that participated in a candlelight vigil in honor of those children who were victims of sexual abuse.
 
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