Satan Wears Cleats

There was supposed to be a press conference on this today. Initially Joe Paterno said he was only going to answer questions about football and the BIG GAME Saturday. But once he realized nobody in the media gives a shit about the game with this going on he cancelled.

How bad is this story? Here at Daily Downers it's our job to stay on top of these things, but this is easily one of the worst stories we've read in at least...a week. Now I have a lot of friends and co-workers. If I hear or witness one of them molesting children I'm going to call the police. And that's AT MINIMUM, assuming I'm not in a position to express real personal rage. Not these guys. It sounds like EVERYONE was informed about this and NOBODY called the police. The Mafia should send its members to Penn State to take lessons. I've read elsewhere that this Sandusky guy was still doing "football camps" with kids at Penn State facilities outside of their MAIN field.

Was there any small talk? "How's that child molesting thing going man?" I mean what did these people talk about when they saw each other? They pretended nobody saw anything and nobody heard anything? "Nice draw play on that third down Jerry, great call." Joe Paterno hears this and tells these other guys and moves on to the next game. How many people can imagine doing this? I'm no saint, but I can't. Nobody even knows who this kid was. Nobody asked and nobody cared.

It's ironic that football, this bastion of American manhood, would turn into this non-confrontational hear no evil mush when confronted with something that would make anyone's blood boil. I thought POLITICS was the last refuge of a scoundrel. Apparently Ben Franklin didn't know what would happen later on at Penn State. To compound this, in America today, guys that steal billions of dollars or help cover up child molesting are looking at less time than a guy holding a few rocks of crack. This story reflects an endless pit of downers at every turn. I think the Nittany Lions need to build a new field so they can put these guys under it. I'm even going to waive the "judge not, lest ye be judged" clause. Guilty! As for moral vs. legal guilt and "just dealing with legal issues" that's fine too. They better fill Joe Paterno's casket with ice cause he's gonna be HOT down there!

Pennsylvania attorney general Linda Kelly said in a news conference Monday that the Jerry Sandusky child-molestation case is an ongoing investigation but that Penn State football icon Joe Paterno is “not regarded as a target at this point.”

Kelly stopped short of offering the same protection for Penn State president Graham Spanier, declining to answer specific questions about his place in the investigation.

Kelly said Paterno responded as legally obligated when informed, in 2002, by a graduate assistant coach (identified in news reports as current Penn State staffer Mike McQueary) that he witnessed Sandusky sexually assaulting a child in the showers at the Penn State football facility. She said his timely reporting of the incident to his titular superior, athletic director Tim Curley, fulfilled the coach’s legal responsibility.

The Pennsylvania attorney general said Penn State coach Joe Paterno is "not regarded as a target at this point" in the Jerry Sandusky case.

“The graduate assistant reported to Paterno,” Kelly said. “Paterno then reported to school administrators. They were the ones who chose to act as they did.”

Kelly did not offer any extralegal opinion on Paterno’s handling of the situation.

“We know there is a difference between moral and legal guilt,” she said. “We’re dealing with legal issues.”

Despite the current clearance of Paterno, Kelly did acknowledge that the alleged presence of Sandusky at a 2007 preseason Penn State football practice with a child – identified only as Victim 1 in the attorney general’s finding of facts – could still be an avenue of investigation. When asked by Yahoo! Sports whether Paterno and McQueary would have had a heightened legal responsibility to report seeing Sandusky and a child together at their team’s practice, Kelly responded, ”That’s a good question. That might have to be addressed down the line.”

McQueary, according to the attorney general’s presentment, was “distraught” at the sight of Sandusky raping a child in the shower five years earlier. Yet he and Paterno presumably would have witnessed Sandusky with another child at practice. Once again, no report was made to police.

After the 2002 incident, the only action Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz took was to ban Sandusky from bringing children from his charity, The Second Mile, into the football building. They did not report the incident to police, which led to both men being charged with felonies in the case. They stepped down from their university positions Sunday night and were arraigned in Harrisburg on Monday.

The question now is whether Spanier will be charged. According to the attorney general’s presentment of the case, Spanier “reviewed and approved … without further inquiry on his part” the ban placed upon Sandusky. Spanier did not inform police either.

[Yahoo! Sports]