Topic: Celebrity Deaths

[b_dubb]

When someone tells you a grown man is sodomizing boys you don't just stop at talking to your superiors at work. You get the police involved. Regardless. I agree with MVD. He put his sports program ahead of the law and the well being of a lot of young boys.

[Eddie Coyle]

 
           I see an eerie parallel.

        Bear Bryant coached his last game on 12/29/82. He died on 1/26/83 at 69. Football was his life, and when he stopped coaching, he stopped living. Paterno strikes me as the same, where football was his reason for being and once he was fired in November...well,here we are.

         Like Mike said, the atrocities at Penn State occurred because of a culture where football came first and last, all else be damned. There's a history of players acting criminally and it being covered up, and Paterno played the race card in 2000 when a few of his players/thugs were arrested in a brawl. His players were given a sense of entitlement. Clearly that extended towards pederastic coaches too.

          Does Sandusky attend the funeral? That should be somewhat interesting.

[Lovely Bones]

I don't know, guys.  My opinion is that the Board of Trustees had been looking since 2004 for a way to oust an aging coach, and they used the Sandusky scandal as a way to make that happen.  It's not the first time Penn State has done something like that and it won't be the last--just the most public and the most egregious. There's more to the story than the media would have you believe. 

[b_dubb]

Sports doesn't build character. Sports makes characters. If you're a pro athlete you effectively live by a different set of rules. Michael Vick is an excellent example. You think he would've gotten off so lightly if he hadn't been a star athlete.

I don't know, guys.  My opinion is that the Board of Trustees had been looking since 2004 for a way to oust an aging coach, and they used the Sandusky scandal as a way to make that happen.  It's not the first time Penn State has done something like that and it won't be the last--just the most public and the most egregious. There's more to the story than the media would have you believe. 

if paterno didn't want to get fired he should've gone to the police

[Lovely Bones]

Sports doesn't build character. Sports makes characters. If you're a pro athlete you effectively live by a different set of rules. Michael Vick is an excellent example. You think he would've gotten off so lightly if he hadn't been a star athlete.

Vick getting off so lightly, playing for the Eagles, being lauded as someone who has now "seen the light" makes me physically ill.  The difference between pro sports, much of college sports, and the Grand Experiment Joe conducted is a gulf miles wide.  Joe spent decades building character in his players, something I had the honor of witnessing up close and personally.  Even when it meant sacrificing wins, character counted more than football. 

if paterno didn't want to get fired he should've gone to the police

That's where you're being misled. Joe wasn't a witness to anything, just McQueary's boss.   And Joe did report what McQueary told him to both Schulz and Curley, which is exactly what he should have done and likely what most people would have done in his situation without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight--report what he'd been told to his superiors. 

Schulz was senior vice president and the person to whom the campus police reported.  But Schulz and Curley did not alert police.  They didn't take away Sandusky's keys, which they could have done, since Sandusky had retired in 1999.  They did nothing more than tell Sandusky he couldn't bring youngsters on to campus, an unenforceable edict.  Then they apparently lied to a Grand Jury. 

   

[stevesh]

 

That's where you're being misled. Joe wasn't a witness to anything, just McQueary's boss.   And Joe did report what McQueary told him to both Schulz and Curley, which is exactly what he should have done and likely what most people would have done in his situation without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight--report what he'd been told to his superiors. 

I don't have (apparently) your proximity to Penn State, but you're giving Paterno a pass he doesn't deserve.

If McQueary had told him about a rules violation or some sort of academic transgression, fine, tell your superiors and walk away. What we're talking about here is a particulary ugly crime, and Paterno had a moral responsibility to at least follow up and determine whether or not his superiors contacted law enforcement. 

[Frys Girl]

Sports doesn't build character. Sports makes characters. If you're a pro athlete you effectively live by a different set of rules. Michael Vick is an excellent example. You think he would've gotten off so lightly if he hadn't been a star athlete. if paterno didn't want to get fired he should've gone to the police

You don't know much about the Vick case, obviously. Vick, if he got off lightly at all, suffered consequences financial and legal because of the actions of his stupid friends. He grew up with stupid people and when he became a successful athlete, he did not shed these uneducated bums from his clique. As a result, he took a fall for crimes that he was trying to cover up at the tail end. He killed dogs and in the indictment, there's proof that he showed up at the end. His friends got off lightly, actually. He just got the pop because he's famous and it was a way to bring attention to a disgusting past time.

[b_dubb]

I know enough about Vick to know that if I'd done those things I'd be at the bottom of a deep dark hole

And re: Paterno ... he wasn't informed of some bullshit violation of the school ethics code. A grown man was sodomizing children. Talking to his higher-ups should e been the second thing he did. Right After talking to the cops

[The General]

A pox upon all their houses.  The only thing I hate more than pro sports fans are pro athletes and their overpaid coaches.  They're probably all a bunch of doped up child raping dog killers anyway.  It's just our civilization's version of the Roman Coliseum, nothing but pointless gladiatorial contests and public spectacles.  It's just a diversion from the rot infesting our society at every level, especially the upper echelon.  The only reason that we don't see MORE pro sports scandals is because they don't have any power.  Just overpaid gladiators.

[Lovely Bones]

Paterno had a moral responsibility to at least follow up and determine whether or not his superiors contacted law enforcement.

But this is what is being missed: Joe did contact police--he told both Curley and Schultz.  Schultz was the head of campus police.  Campus police at Penn State are *real* police, not just a mall security, and in fact had investigated Sandusky in 1998 on the incident now known in the GJ report as "Victim 6."  That investigation was closed with no charges against Sandusky. 

Would Joe have been able to do more?  You be the judge.  In 1978, Pennsylvania State Police knew about Sandusky's proclivities/activities and joked about them.   

[Lovely Bones]

Talking to his higher-ups should e been the second thing he did. Right After talking to the cops

I'd say that about McQueary, who actually witnessed the incident,  who was 30+ years younger than Sandusky, but who left the shower room and that poor child at the mercy of a predator.   

[Lovely Bones]

At the risk of totally hijacking this thread, I need to make one more post.  Anyone interested in truly learning the complexisty of how Joe Paterno has been scapegoated will want to read this rather long piece.  Others can just believe the scapegoating.


http://www.yardbird.com/joe_paterno_takes_the_fall.htm

For Gov. Tom Corbett, meanwhile, there remained one more important task following the nationwide public relations fiasco of Jerry Sandusky's long-overdue arrest. Corbett had to protect his own carcass, and cover his own ass for the nuclear blast he now feared was about to blow.

It wouldn't do to have the public focus on Corbett's own refusal to investigate or prosecute Jerry Sandusky for a year and half. Corbett sought to change the conversation. He looked around for a likely scapegoat(s) to take the fall for him. What's one more victim, or two?

Corbett incredibly settled on a beloved 85-year-old to take the fall.

[BobGrau]

Corbett incredibly settled on a beloved 85-year-old to take the fall. [/i]

It would have been someone younger, but that was kind of the problem in the first place.

[b_dubb]

I'd say that about McQueary, who actually witnessed the incident,  who was 30+ years younger than Sandusky, but who left the shower room and that poor child at the mercy of a predator.

this is an excellent point.  you've made some other good points about Joe being scapegoated.  i still think Paterno should have gone to police outside the University system.  but you'd think the University police would have done the right thing.  i live in a college town and the university police are mostly a joke.  except when they give you a parking ticket.


maybe the bottom line is a whole lot of people did the wrong thing.  maybe McQueary especially

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

don cornelius dead at 75. my Saturday late mornings were never the same after Soul Train..

Don Cornelius Soul Train MC TOSP Theme Song

[Eddie Coyle]

 
       Perennial early round pick in most everyone's death pool, Whitney Houston, dead at 48.
          As a tribute, I will continue to ignore her music.

[Lovely Bones]

       Perennial early round pick in most everyone's death pool,
       

Heh heh.  Except for the clueless reporter last night who breathlessly intoned, "Nobody saw this coming!" 

[Ben Shockley]

       Perennial early round pick in most everyone's death pool, Whitney Houston, dead at 48.
          As a tribute, I will continue to ignore her music.

Coyle, for that crack, along with your line a few days ago about "Jew-rusalem" ....
If I were 20 years younger,
and female,

I'd bear your children.

Oh, and in the Serendipity Category: did y'all notice how I accidentally managed to write "crack" and "line" in something to do with Whitney Houston...??

[b_dubb]

Heh heh.  Except for the clueless reporter last night who breathlessly intoned, "Nobody saw this coming!"

Everybody saw this coming. Except Whitney

[McPhallus]

This, and Courtney Love is still alive.  I don't get it.

Everybody saw this coming. Except Whitney

[Eddie Coyle]

       An aging British guitar "god" should be very worried. Especially if you believe in the "going in threes"

      Neil Young parodied three performers in his "This Note's For You" video in '88
     (1) Michael Jackson (2) Whitney Houston (3)Eric Clapton.

[b_dubb]

Eric Clapton - Most Overrated Musician Ever

[Michael Vandeven]

Eric Clapton - Most Overrated Musician Ever

amen.  tired of hearing about that fucking guy.

[themudking]

amen.  tired of hearing about that fucking guy.

can we go ahead add Jon Bon Jovi again?

[Michael Vandeven]

can we go ahead add Jon Bon Jovi again?

what about bret michaels?

[b_dubb]

or cc deville.  for a guy who couldn't play guitar worth a shit he sure had a shit load of guitars.  what a wanker

[Michael Vandeven]

here's whitney houston's daughter, bobbi kristina brown.  awesome.

[Eddie Coyle]

 
    Crackhead mates with a crackhead and produce a...coke snorter. I guess that's evolution

[Morgus]

Monkees singer Davy Jones dies in Florida at 66

[b_dubb]

sad.  i think most / all heart attacks are avoidable with proper self care.  at least that's what i want to believe.  the idea of having my ribs ripped apart doesn't sound very appealing