The exchange below from the Posnanski Biography is honest and straightforward. Joe Paterno did not know much of anything about Jerry Sandusky and rumors about his behavior. He did not know and did not hear about 1998 and we have shown that there is NO EVIDENCE anywhere that he did.
All Joe knew was whatever Mike told him in a 10 minuted meeting in Feb of 2001 and Mike spoke to him for 5 or 6 minutes recounting a 45 second locker room visit, 1 or 2 glances at Sandusky's backside and 2 or 3 slapping sounds perhaps using the words "a sexual nature" and "fondling' we think there is good reason to believe he was told shortly prior to his Grand Jury testimony a decade after the 2001 conversation
This verbatim exchange is more proof of the FACT that Joe did not know anything about 1998 unless you are willing to take Freeh's complete lack of any evidence over Joe Paterno's integrity and word to his own sons.
After reading the presentment, Scott Paterno understood how things could go for his father. In that presentment, Joe Paterno testified about a 2001 incident with Sandusky and a boy that was reported to him by then graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary.
“Dad,” (Scott) asked his father again, “did you know anything about Sandusky?”
“Other than the thing Mike told me, no,” Joe answered.“Nothing? No rumors? The coaches never talked about it?”
“No, I don’t listen to rumors. Nothing.” “Dad, this is really important. If there is anything you heard ”
“I didn’t hear anything, why are you badgering me? What do I know about Jerry Sandusky? I’ve got Nebraska to think about, I can’t worry about this.”
“I had to do everything I could to not cry right then,” Scott recalled.
Jay Paterno was on the road recruiting when he got the call from Scott. He asked, “How bad is it?” Scott said, “It’s worse than anything.” Jay sat in his car in an Ohio gas station and stared into the darkness. Posnanski tells of how Paterno’s family and advisors had to beg him to read the presentment.
According to the excerpts, Guido D’Elia, a family advisor who also worked for the university, got through to Paterno.
“You realize that people out there think you knew about this? They think you had to know because you knew about everything.”
“That’s their opinion!” Paterno shouted. “I’m not omniscient!”
“They think you are!” D’Elia roared.
Later D’Elia described watching Paterno read the presentment. “What did he know about perverted things like that? When he asked Scott, ‘What is sodomy, anyway?’ I thought my heart was going to break.”
According to Posnanski, Scott remained adamant that his father could lose his job, expressing it to his mother Sue.And it did kill him so the Board of Trustee's has the last two months blood of Joe Paterno on it's hands.
“I think you need to brace yourself,” Scott Paterno told his mother. “They could fire Dad.” “Scotty, that will kill him,” she replied.
The book also reveals Paterno hardly got along with former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky — who was convicted in June of sexually abusing boys
The book also describes a hatred for Sandusky and the second half shifts to the fallout from the scandal. After reading how Paterno sobbed uncontrollably when he was fired. Joe Pa fans might take comfort reading how he came to grips with it before he died.
Posnanski quotes him as saying in their final conversation, the criticism really doesn’t matter, it really doesn’t. I know what I tried to do. Maybe everybody will see that in time, maybe they won’t, maybe they will. Judge me by what I tried to do, maybe they won’t, what difference does it make. I just hope there is justice for the victims.
“Tension built between the two men as Paterno grew frustrated with Sandusky, whom he thought paid more attention to his charity, The Second Mile, and children than to the Nittany Lions football team. "These feelings had built into a crescendo over the years, as they sometimes do with longtime colleagues," Sandusky hated meetings, overlooked details and was uninterested in recruiting. He and his wife did not drink much alcohol, while the Paternos drank socially. "The tension between Paterno and Sandusky gurgled just below the surface," Posnanski writes. When Sandusky retired after the 1999 season, Sports Illustrated asked Sandusky if he would miss Paterno. "Well, not exactly," Sandusky responded. Despite the tension, the book maintains that Paterno never knew that Sandusky sexually abused children, and only had a vague idea that Sandusky had acted inappropriately with a boy in the Penn State showers in 2001, based on a description by graduate assistant Mike McQueary.Reading these quotes and other information from the book it shows how wrong the Media has been about the "all powerful God like ruler of PSU" and his omniscience. The book shows Joe as Joe - getting older still focused on football and rightfully unaware of any of the rumors about Jerry Sandusky. He knew and heard nothing about the 1998 investigation and told Tim Curley and Gary Schultz about Mike McQueary's suspicions in 2001 and what must have been a very vague and unimpressive allegation of something of a sexual nature or fondling Mike alleged in a 5 or 6 minute description out of all context. Nothing he did or did not do deserves the vilification, slander, libel and defamation he has suffered or the damage to his legacy. Louis Freeh should be ashamed and made to pay for his part in this.
"All Joe knew was whatever Mike told him in a 10 minuted meeting in Feb of 2001 and Mike spoke to him for 5 or 6 minutes recounting a 45 second locker room visit, 1 or 2 glances at Sandusky's backside and 2 or 3 slapping sounds perhaps using the words "a sexual nature" and "fondling" we think there is good reason to believe he was told shortly prior to his Grand Jury testimony a decade after the 2001 conversation."
ReplyDeleteThe issue isn't MM's precise words. The issue is whether Joe had been told that something of a "sexual nature" had been done to a CHILD by Jerry. The answer to that is made EXPLICIT in Joe's Grand Jury testimony:
"Mr. Paterno: Well, I don’t know what you would call it. Obviously, he was doing something with the youngster.
IT WAS A SEXUAL NATURE. I’m not sure exactly what it was."
This is Joe's only sworn testimony on the subject. I know how upset you get whenever anyone calls Joe a liar and I do not intend to do so here. I believe every word of Joe's testimony. Whatever exact words MM may have used, Joe understood that something of a "sexual nature" had been done to a child. All of Joe's actions or inaction thereafter, particularly his reluctance to interfere with anyone's weekend plans, must be viewed through the prism of that knowledge.