As someone said at the time, Sandusky went "From Penn State to the State Pen."
Here's what George Vescey, one of the greatest sportswriters of all time, had to say in the November 7 edition of The New York Times:
Football is the central fact of life in the State. When a large male newborn is on display in the hospital nursery, people make loving jokes about sending him out to JoePa to play linebacker. Not so funny at the moment, is it?
Apparently, young boys were brought to the massive football program by Jerry Sandusky, who was first a major assistant coach and later an emeritus member of the football "family." Some family. The guy had keys to the facilities, with enough freedom to take showers with the boys, and, if we believe the warrant for Sandusky, jeopardize the balance of their lives.
People saw. People knew. A few people even talked. But ultimately it got swept under the rug for years because of the rush to Saturday, those autumn game days when people funnel into Happy Valley for the biggest thing in the State...
The legalities of all this are going to have to play out. We do know that Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts of abusing boys over 15 years. The athletic director, Tim Curley, took an administrative leave Sunday night so he could defend himself; and Gary Schultz, the senior vice president for finance and business, resigned Sunday night. Both were charged with perjury for their testimony to a grand jury investigating Sandusky.
That leaves Joe Paterno, the 84-year-old coach, the icon, the benefactor, and most important, the winner of 409 football games, the most by any coach at this highest level. Apparently, Paterno knew about his former assistant in 2002 and went to Curley and then he went back to supervising practices and giving news conferences and recruiting large young men to play football for the program...
The attorney general said Monday that Paterno is not a suspect in this case, so I would think he deserves a polite retirement at the end of the season.
(Bold = emphasis mine, not Vescey's or the Times'.)
A polite retirement?
Joe Paterno, often called Saint Joe, was, in effect, as culpable in this mess as the Catholic Church officials who covered up similar crimes by its priests.
Football is the central fact of life in the State. When a large male newborn is on display in the hospital nursery, people make loving jokes about sending him out to JoePa to play linebacker. Not so funny at the moment, is it?
Apparently, young boys were brought to the massive football program by Jerry Sandusky, who was first a major assistant coach and later an emeritus member of the football "family." Some family. The guy had keys to the facilities, with enough freedom to take showers with the boys, and, if we believe the warrant for Sandusky, jeopardize the balance of their lives.
People saw. People knew. A few people even talked. But ultimately it got swept under the rug for years because of the rush to Saturday, those autumn game days when people funnel into Happy Valley for the biggest thing in the State...
The legalities of all this are going to have to play out. We do know that Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts of abusing boys over 15 years. The athletic director, Tim Curley, took an administrative leave Sunday night so he could defend himself; and Gary Schultz, the senior vice president for finance and business, resigned Sunday night. Both were charged with perjury for their testimony to a grand jury investigating Sandusky.
That leaves Joe Paterno, the 84-year-old coach, the icon, the benefactor, and most important, the winner of 409 football games, the most by any coach at this highest level. Apparently, Paterno knew about his former assistant in 2002 and went to Curley and then he went back to supervising practices and giving news conferences and recruiting large young men to play football for the program...
The attorney general said Monday that Paterno is not a suspect in this case, so I would think he deserves a polite retirement at the end of the season.
(Bold = emphasis mine, not Vescey's or the Times'.)
A polite retirement?
Joe Paterno, often called Saint Joe, was, in effect, as culpable in this mess as the Catholic Church officials who covered up similar crimes by its priests.
The fact that Paterno was already dying of cancer was not widely known, but it meant that he wouldn't have coached in 2012 and beyond anyway. But it should not generate sympathy for him. His tolerance of Sandusky's indefensible actions is his greatest crime, but hardly his only one. For decades, his supporters said he "ran a clean program." Even before November 4, 2011, this had been revealed as a lie. But we had no idea just how big the lie was.
Paterno died on January 22, 2012. On June 22, Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of the 48 counts against him. On October 9, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison, with his first chance for parole coming after 30 years -- on October 9, 2042, when he would be 98 years old.
As of November 4, 2022, Sandusky remains at State Correctional Institution – Laurel Highlands, a minimum-security facility in Somerset, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
*
November 4, 2011 was a Friday. The baseball season had ended 7 days earlier, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the World Series.
There were 2 college football games that night. Number 21 Southern California beat Colorado, 42-17 at Folsom Field in the Denver suburb of Boulder, Colorado. And Kent State beat Central Michigan, 24-21 at Dix Stadium outside Cleveland in Kent, Ohio.
The NBA team owners had locked the players out, so the season didn't start until Christmas Day (a day whose revenue, more TV than arena-grounds, the owners did not want to lose).
There were 5 games in the NHL:
* The Washington Capitals beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-1 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.
* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa. Vincent Lecavalier scored the winning goal with 54 seconds left in overtime.
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators, 2-1 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 at the Scottrade Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.
* And the Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche, 7-6 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Loui Eriksson scored the winning goal with 1:05 left in overtime.
And in New Jersey high school football, my Alma Mater, East Brunswick, beat South Brunswick, 45-20 at Mike Elko Stadium in South Brunswick.
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