Penn State deserves death penalty for Sandusky cover-up
Joe Paterno and other Penn State officials enabled the actions of Jerry Sandusky. (AP photo)
(Updated: 12:45 p.m.)
If we make a big deal about a college football program playing dumb when a recruit takes free shoes or tattoos, or his family lives in a house rent free, how can we look the other way when evidence screams that one of the nation’s most powerful universities enabled a pedophile?
How can we sit through something so sick and vile as the testimony in the Jerry Sandusky trial and conclude that this was a one-source scandal worthy of only one individual or entity suffering consequences?
Penn State should not be allowed to play another football game. It put sport, image and fundraising above everything else. That is what every cheater in college athletics does, and because of that it deserves the NCAA’s “death penalty.”
Southern Methodist University, one of the nation’s top academic schools, saw its football program given the death penalty in 1987 because it put athletic success above what so obviously was considered morally acceptable. Isn’t it now clear that Penn State did the exact same thing?
In fact, what the powers Penn State did was worse. Their actions involved not materialistic goods but defenseless victims who will suffer for the rest of their lives.
According to a 267-page report by former FBI director Louis Freeh, the four most powerful men overseeing the university and the football program – president Graham Spanier (since fired), athletic director Tim Curley (on “administrative leave,” under indictment for perjury), vice president Gary Schultz (suddenly retired, also under indictment) and the late coach, Joe Paterno (fired in what would be two months before his death) — knew far more about Sandusky’s sick perversions and abuse than they let on. They knew it far longer than they let on.
And here’s the punctuation, your honor: They “concealed critical facts,” according to Freeh.
There’s a term for that: cover-up.
“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” Freeh stated.
We don’t need to know anything else.
When this story first broke, Paterno said, “This is not a football scandal and should not be treated as one.”
Many agreed. Many still do, including some misguided alumni and football All-Americans and probably surely those numbskull students who marched on campus, embraced Paterno’s statue on campus and protested his firing without any regard for the victims.
The problem is concluding that because Sandusky’s reprehensible acts did not lead to a competitive advantage, the football program shouldn’t pay. But the cover-up changes that. What the powers at Penn State did was beyond anything any college athletic program has ever done, beyond free clothes or free rent and academic fraud.
To hell with a free Camaro. We’re talking about sweeping allegations of a child sex offender under the rug in order to protect a school’s image, fundraising and recruiting. There is no more extreme example of a lack of institutional control.
Penn State deserves to be hit hard. That may seem unfair to the student-athletes, officials and fans who knew nothing of Sandusky’s acts or the cover-up. But that’s the case with all NCAA sanctions.
This investigation was commissioned by Penn State at a cost of $500,000 per month. So much for Freeh having some anti-Penn State agenda. The report numbers 267 pages, resulting from 430 interviews and 3.5 million emails and documents. Freeh’s staff included former prosecutors, FBI agents, police officers, attorneys and a Navy SEAL.
Freeh said he found “more red flags than you could count, over a long period of time.” He said the leaders at Penn State had a “callous and shocking disregard for child victims.”
He said an “inference could be drawn” that the school was trying to protect the football program, noting, “bad publicity affects a panorama of different events, including the brand of Penn State, the reputation of coaches [and] the ability to do fundraising.”
He said Paterno was not being singled out, but at one point declared: “The facts are the facts. He was an integral part of the act to conceal.”
Emails reveal Paterno was clearly following the school’s internal investigation into allegations of a 1998 assault of a young boy by Sandusky in the Penn State locker room showers, something Paterno publicly denied. The same school leaders “proposed a plan of action” after learning of a 2001 incident reported by an assistant coach, but then decided against informing authorities.
“The most powerful leaders at Penn State … repeatedly concealed critical facts,” Freeh concluded.
The “Tone at the Top” of the school, he said, dissuaded school janitors from coming forward after witnessing incidents: “The janitors were afraid of being fired for reporting a powerful football coach.”
Sandusky will spend the rest of his life in prison. He could’ve been stopped sooner. But Paterno and the powers at Penn State were too concerned about the ramifications, off and on the field. That makes it a football scandal, as well.
By Jeff Schultz
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810 comments Add your comment
Concerned Citizen
July 12th, 2012
2:49 pm
I like the idea of all profits from the football program going to the victims and child abuse organizations.
Joey
July 12th, 2012
2:49 pm
You can “let it go,” if you wish, Sandy Springs guy. When you see the title of an item about it, just don’t read anything about it. YOU “move on.”
The authorities and the NCAA need to to find out who all knew about Sandusky’s atrocities – ever heard of “aiding and abetting?”
Too bad if you’re a PSU (and JoePa) fan . . .
MC
July 12th, 2012
2:49 pm
Hillbilly D
The Honor Code would be more important than the football team, in my opinion.
–I agree, and so did the Commandant of Cadets, General Paul Hawkins. 90 Cadets were dismissed/expelled, 30-some of them were on the Nationally ranked football team. It crippled the program, but the United States Military Academy kepts true to its vision and maintained its intergrity.
Tami
July 12th, 2012
2:51 pm
All I can say is: WHAT A MESS!! One that could have been avoided.
aconcerneddad
July 12th, 2012
2:51 pm
Eric, you my friend are an IDIOT! We are holding ALL of College Football responsible, but you can best bet, that if Ole Jo Pa children or grandchildren would have been involved, Jo Pa would have had him arrested years ago.
Bulldawg Nation
July 12th, 2012
2:52 pm
If it means wins and championships and for that we need a coach who just needs to spend some “quality” time in the showers with little boys, I say give him what he wants, leave him alone and GO DAWGS!!!
Hillbilly D
July 12th, 2012
2:55 pm
So management screws up and you penalize the employees?
It happens every day in the real world.
Joey
July 12th, 2012
2:55 pm
“There is no indication that any illegal activites are on-going.” – NAMBLA Member
*********************************************
No suprise you see nothing bad here. Sandusky is your hero – dang if only you had access that guy had . . .
Want to tell everybody on the blog what those letters stand for, sick-o? I will – North American Man/Boy Love Association.
Jeff, you should delete anything this creep writes.
Drexel Gal
July 12th, 2012
2:57 pm
Okay, Liberals … exactly HOW was the scandal at Penn State Bush’s fault?
Dale
July 12th, 2012
2:57 pm
People scream about the power of the NCAA and it’s abuse of that power, then why are we asking them to step in and prosecute a clear and blatant “CRIMINAL ACT”? All involved should be prosecuted to the full extent allowed by the LAW! Cars, shoes, tattoos, fake jobs, bogus grades are the job of the NCAA to create a level playing field. If someone that works with you committed these crimes or supressed informationof this type…do they shut down your place of employment? They procecute the CRIMINALS. The Big 10 should not associate with this institution, that is not worthy of the standards set by their organization of which Penn State sought membership, but all colleges are by virtue regulated the NCAA for scholastic and intercollegiate integrity period.
Amazing
July 12th, 2012
2:58 pm
It’s amazing how eveyone is calling for the death penalty when the ones to suffer the most from the death penalty are innocent . . . What should be done is to prosecute everyone involved in this atrocity, i.e. all school officials and any others who were aware of Sandusky’s actions. Don’t penalize all the PSU students and alumni that had NOTHING to do with Sandusky’s actions and the subsequent cover-up. If you really want to “make an example” then “discipline” the guilty parties by prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law, but don’t punish hundreds and thousands of innocent students and alumni!
The Man
July 12th, 2012
2:59 pm
rational person – you are off base on several points.
just because something is not explicitely written in the NCAA rules does NOT mean you cannot be punished for wrongdoing. This has been proven in the past – schools that have ‘pushed the limit’ on what YOU would call vague rules have been punished. NO, I am sure no where in the NCAA rules does it say that raping and sodomizing young men is against the footballl code and will warrant the death penalty, but you must also use common sense. IF you are náive enough to think that the silence of this scandel over the years did not benefit the football program, then it is truly apparant you are not thinking clearly…. by NOT having the scandel, penn state was able to promote a clean and wonderful environment where families could send their potential football star high school players. HAD the scandel been out in the open I would think a vast majority of scholarship offerings would have been turned down in favor of another school where rape was not on the menu……….
Victim of a loose bowel movement
July 12th, 2012
3:00 pm
OK….we all had our say. It’s time to move on and discuss ________________________*
*You get to fill in the blank.
JHP
July 12th, 2012
3:01 pm
Good post Amazing, agree 100%
Concerned
July 12th, 2012
3:04 pm
No More “We Are Penn State”, and thank God for that. May these victims rest that the truth did come out, and that they may heal, feel safe, as well grow again to an all time high. I pray for their souls to be freed and alive, as well pain free.
I was recruited to play football for Penn State, but Georgia and The Bulldogs won my heart. I can only say what would that have meant now if I had gone to Penn State. See the coach that recuited me was Dick Anderson another Joe Paterno long stay. I would have played for Sandusky as defense was where I was headed. I am sorry, but I am glad for Coach Erskine Russell and his show of real and alive. Erk was like no other, and no one, and I mean no one in America could compare to that man’s charisma. He was better than all his peers, and deserved the biggest of jobs in America. So talk about cover-ups. Georgia had their own as Ray Golf was given a job over Erk Russell. Tell me what do think happen there? Goof up as Ray could not lead, and when it really counted in came Matt Robinson. So good coaching, parenting, and men are not hard to find. It is easy as the Good Olde Boy Status still exsist even at Penn State. These football fraternities are not any different than the one where the small town lawyers and judges pool to do their evil deeds.
So what is to be said of leaders, sport, folly, and life. This thing about idols and greed has us right where the ugly destroyer wants us, eating out of his hand. Not once anywhere is any of the Penn State mess did I hear we pray to God, we need a loving God, nor did a powerful at the base Catholic based university do the right thing. So on religion, you can have it, but on Jesus Christ, AMEN, and more. Joe Pa could have run for Pope and won, and that has to make you sick to your stomach.
As for sport, football at the college level, well shame on you NCAA for diminishing what a true student athlete should be. Herschel Walker was not one. Even he bolted for a Trump and a USFL. So we want to place # 34 as the best football player ever at UGA. Okay on that one, but not the best student/athlete. Possible a Hoage or a Pollack or a Green, and that list can go on.
We need help in America, and wouldn’t it not be nice to see the NCAA do something big on the heels of this debacle. The time is perfect for NEW legislation on going pro, staying in school to get a degree, making service the right choice, as well modeling what a true college student/athlete should and can be. Our leaders are failing us, and if it continues, there will be nothing important, but wins and losses. Are we there now………………you be the judge.
Lurker
July 12th, 2012
3:05 pm
The Man
Are you REALLY indicating that the guilty people in this case should be cleared by the criminal authorities so that a sports governing body can come in and lower the boom on them?
Your ideas sound like “Let’s let the NCAA take control of all criminal proceedings involving sports figures. That will keep silly DUI, drugs, and rape charges from having to worry about silly policemen.”
The NCAA should stay out of this, and the people who are guilty should be convicted and sent to jail where they will have to worry about sodomy. The police and the courts are a higher authority than the NCAA. The NCAA cannot put anyone in jail.
NCAA is not law enforcement
July 12th, 2012
3:06 pm
I wouldn’t mind seeing some of the offenders in this case get the death penalty. However…..
The NCAA is not a law enforcement nor an acccreditation agency. Giving the Death Penalty to PSU football may make you feel good but in a court of law, the NCAA will be found to have overstepped their charter. The NCAA is an athletic organization and yes they do tie athletic performance to grades, but there just isn’t anything in the NCAA guidelines about this type of situation. Go read them – they are pubically available for download for all 3 Divisions. The facts are the facts and you can rise up in anger but you can’t create rules – even if they are to punish inhumanly bad behavior
You want to do something – boycott any company who supports PSU football, boycott any broadcast of PSU football, push the NCAA to add this to death penalty offenses.
The next school, if any, to get the Death Penalty will be Miami.
I will say this – if PSU pulled the plug on their football program, allowed the current (and innocent) athletes to transfer or stay and complete their education and terminate with cause ALL involved people, I think the healing process might begin. Sadly, I’m not counting on that….
What about the "innocent" kids on the team?
July 12th, 2012
3:08 pm
What about the “innocent” kids on the team? What should happen to them? …And you answer to that is???
Atlanta Allen
July 12th, 2012
3:12 pm
Congrats Schultz – you just got read on Fox News.
tomato
July 12th, 2012
3:12 pm
Send the “innocent” football players to another school or let them remain at PSU with their full scholarship. The cover-up culture at PSU must be punished heavily to discourage other programs from doing the same. “Football uber alles” is a horrible mentality.
Rodster
July 12th, 2012
3:12 pm
Paterno was a narcissitic and selfish old man.
Bwolves
July 12th, 2012
3:12 pm
I am in NO way defending Penn State or the School, but this is a Criminal matter. Those that knew and covered it up should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and fired. These individuals and the School should be held liable in civil courts too. Remember it wasn’t the players or the fans that were involved. They would be the ones hurt most by the Death Penalty.
What about the "innocent" kids on the team?
July 12th, 2012
3:12 pm
I’ll tell you what though. I am for the death penalty in that I think it will bring the NCAA commission (which is already thought to be something that needs to be changed) their Death Penalty. The NCAA is horrible with coming up with punishments. They need to be disbanded and be filled with real and new leadership.
NeoDawg
July 12th, 2012
3:13 pm
Hey Jeff. Shep Smith just read a portion of your article on his Fox News show. Welcome back from vacation!
5150 UOAD
July 12th, 2012
3:13 pm
Liberal SCHULTZ on FOX NEWS? He must be so happy.
gcs
July 12th, 2012
3:14 pm
I don’t think it is fair to give them the Death Penalty when all of the people involved are gone.
Allow PSU to field a team, just take away ALL their scholarships, incrementally giving them back in small amounts over the next several years (0 in 2013, 5 in 2014, 8 in 2015…). Players who already have scholarships should be allowed to keep them until they use up their eligibility.
Six year post-season ban and 10 years probation.
USMC2841
July 12th, 2012
3:14 pm
It is known as “Lack of Institutional Control” and has been used on several occasions. The argument that only a few at the top knew isn’t substantiated by the report. Even the janitors knew and said nothing. I am not for an indefinite ban. Just ban them until the last remaining victim has taken his last breath. These men allowed a man to continue rape young children. That is all that needs to be known. Football isn’t more important than that.
boycott
July 12th, 2012
3:15 pm
Do you believe the men of our Naval Academy should be forced to share the field with the PSU program this fall? Navy, and the rest of PSU’s opponents, should give PSU the first opportunity to cancel the game; if PSU declines, their opponents should inform them that they are withdrawing from the competition
woodrow
July 12th, 2012
3:15 pm
So basically you feel like they should connect pedophilia to football because a football coach was a pedophile. And I would never connect those two dots. I think you have to maintain perspective when bad things happen. You have to separate the cause of the bad from the unrelated things, like football, or males, or homosexuality, or Penn State. Sandusky was bad. Everything around him was not.
tomato
July 12th, 2012
3:15 pm
If PSU had any honor, they would take it upon themselves to shutter the football program for a while and send the money to be spent on football to child abuse prevention programs. They won’t though – they’ll creep low and keep on taking those alumni dollars.
5150 UOAD
July 12th, 2012
3:15 pm
tomato
July 12th, 2012
3:12 pm
The cover-up culture at PSU must be punished heavily to discourage other programs from doing the same.
____________________________________________
HAHAHA like ANYTHING done to PSU will stop the cover ups many of the schools are currently involved in. Yes, that will happen.
NCAA
July 12th, 2012
3:16 pm
DEATH= by hanging…….
Lurker
July 12th, 2012
3:16 pm
USMC2841
Lack of Institutional Control has a definition. You can find the NCAA definition on their website. Criminal activity unrelated to NCAA rules is not covered by the definition. Read it yourself if you must.
tomato
July 12th, 2012
3:17 pm
Yes 5150, it’s much better to ignore everything and let boys be boys.
Michelob
July 12th, 2012
3:17 pm
No Jeff, they should not get the death penalty. Most of these guys, the players, coaches etc. are trying to start fresh and want to put this behind them. This is the NCAA’s opportunity to do something right for a change. What they need to do is vacate ALL wins and titles from the Sandusky years. Paterno is (was) as guilty as Sandusky when he decided to cover it all up, if it had been found out years ago, they probably would have gotten the Death Penalty. Therefore, force them to vacate. Nothing will ever make this right, but for Paterno to hold the win record based on what we know now…it is just wrong. These victims and their families will take PSU to the cleaners, as well they should
Taylor Wooten
July 12th, 2012
3:17 pm
If PSU had any honor/integrity left, they would self impose their own “death penalty”. Spin it all you want. Its disgusting.
True Dawg
July 12th, 2012
3:18 pm
I agree Jeff! This crime may not be directly related to Penn State or the football program, but the cover up certainly was and for that reason the school’s football program should get the death penalty. It’s beyond sick what ALL these men did, not just Sandusky.
Penn State University - The Freeh Report - Page 6 - CycloneFanatic
July 12th, 2012
3:18 pm
[...] permalink I found this piece which is well worth the read. Penn State deserves death penalty for Sandusky cover-up | Jeff Schultz [...]
Voice of Reason
July 12th, 2012
3:19 pm
What about Barney Frank banging page boys in congress.
But do we send Barney to jail? NO Do we give congress the death penalty?NO
Instead, we let lisp boy go scott free, and make a new law to let him marry a man
who get his infinate congressional benifets and share his trough, whatever that means!
tmc
July 12th, 2012
3:19 pm
It was the “institution” that mishandled the entire scope of the problems.
It should be the “institution” that pays the penalty in the form of no football.
Yes, the kids there didn’t do anything wrong. They should be allowed to transfer without penalty, but the school deserves the football death-penalty. No question.
But that is way to logical thinking. It won’t happen the way it should.
rivercard
July 12th, 2012
3:21 pm
Just for the sake of discussion-
If Sandusky were a professor in a renowned finance /english department and the head of department and school officials were involved in same level of cover-up would you support the elimination of that department?
Michael
July 12th, 2012
3:21 pm
The reason the administrators did not pursue the child abuse allegations boiled down to money. They enjoyed the money that football brought to the university and they made morally bankrupt decisions to get at that money. It was NOT football at the heart of their decision. It WAS the money that football brings. And the only way to get rid of the money that football brings is to get rid of football for PENN State.
True Dawg
July 12th, 2012
3:22 pm
I wonder if that picture of Joe and Sandusky was taken after 2001?
Doug
July 12th, 2012
3:22 pm
Jeff, you represent the typical group of misinformed and mislead idiots in the witchhunt media. I happen to be one of those “numbskull” students. And i am called this because at the time I supported the one person who made Penn State the institution everyone envied? No, in your puny eyes, I support child abuse. Well as a little FYI Jeff, at the time of the riots, all we knew was that the university had fired Joepa in a classless manner. We were not rioting for a child-abuse cover upper. Now that know what part he had in the whole situation, I do not support Joe Paterno in the same light. Thats where you find terrible fault and jump to very hasty conclusions. You make it sound like Penn Staters in general support child abuse, which is a gross accusation to make. You also make it appear that the student body rioting was after all the information was known, that we willingly rioted in support of a cover up. That could not be any further from the truth.
The NCAA does not have jurisdicition in this case. The NCAA is not the moral police or the judicial branch. While I completely agree that the events are totally disgusting, and the 4 psu officials deserve to be faulted for all of their actions, the rest of the university should not be punished for actions of a few. Just because certain events took place in the football building does not make it a football issue. And While you have the right to approach the issue from moral standpoint, from a legal and NCAA standpoint, it is a completely different conversation. Just remember Jeff that penn state is a university with 500k living alumni, none of which are happy at their university for what has happened, all of whom are ashamed and wish only the best for the victims. You can definitely show a little more respect and class with this piece to say the least
THE Dixie Redcoat Band
July 12th, 2012
3:22 pm
We can still remember those idiot students marching and protesting when he got fired.
Never really cared for the guy anyway…he was never friendly to the media before or after the game.
RTD
July 12th, 2012
3:22 pm
How is punishing today’s student athletes going to solve the problem? The issue went far beyond the athletic department. Many former “leaders” (for lack of a better word) at PSU should be held accountable for their behavior and lack there of. I do however think that the “career” of Jeff Schultz should be given the “death penalty”, for trying to score cheap points by comparing what happened at SMU to this awful set of events.
The Truth
July 12th, 2012
3:23 pm
You’re a dumb*** Shultz. Let’s punish the student athletes, coaches, and administrators who didn’t have anything to do with allowing or covering up the actions of the little boy toucher – brilliant. What does that solve? Maybe we should disallow slave holding states from the 1700s and 1800s from being states from this day forward, and revoke the citizenship of each person living in those states. How in the world do you function as a human being with such an incredibly low IQ? Seriously, this may be the dumbest thought you’ve ever had – and that is really saying something considering some of your other stories. As much as I hate Penn State and all of the other northern schools, the death penalty shouldn’t even begin to enter this conversation. Thanks for throwing the turd on the table – now retract said turd and move along.
tomato
July 12th, 2012
3:24 pm
Doug, are you petitioning to remove the JoePa statue at PSU?
TRS
July 12th, 2012
3:24 pm
@Sandy…this is FAR from done. Still a lot more criminals to convict. The entire coverup crew is the next to face the justice system.
AussieDawg
July 12th, 2012
3:26 pm
As someone who works everyday with children who have been subjected to the horrors of all kinds of abuse, including sexual, I am appalled by this whole situation that has arisen at Penn State. It isn’t very often I agree with you Mr. Shultz, but in this case, I wholeheartedly agree on the punishment that SHOULD be handed down. Now it is time to see what kind of gonads the NCAA has!!