First off, I think that in light of the extent of detail that was found in the Freeh report and the damning evidence it presents we can understand the Blather’s reasons for blogging about this story for our readers.
This isn’t just a PITT-Penn State thing any more than it is just an administrative matter for PSU. It is the biggest sports story in history. These person’s actions weren’t confined to the playing field as in the Black Sox scandal or the Boston College point shaving scandal, but were the manipulations by sports coaches and administrators that directly impacted and abetted sexual crimes against children.
It is the sums of all fears for an organization, especially one which prides itself on having their faculty and students reach higher for excellence which I think Penn State does on the whole.
I abhor all that is detailed in this report although I have to say that nothing in the report came as a shocking surprise to me. Anyone who has followed this case had to have some idea that Paterno and his three Stooges; Curley, Schultz and Spanier, must have known and discussed the 1998 incident and its aftermath. Nothing escaped Paterno’s influence when it came to the football program and we see that writ large in the reporting on his actions of 1998.
But here is one huge point I think is being generally overlooked and one that came as new information to me. Tim Curley and Joe Paterno granted Jerry Sandusky an emergency extension on his contract that was due to expire at the end of the 1998 season.
Get that? Even after all Paterno and friends knew about Sandusky abusing that young boy in ’98 and after all the hoops they jumped through to protect both the program and the university from the impact Sandusky’s crimes would have if they became public… they rehired him to help win football games in 1999!
To quote from the Freeh Report; page 21, 2nd para from the bottom: “As the (1998) retirement package is being finalized Curley requests the emergency re-hire of Sandusky for the 1999 football football season, which is approved.” Inserted date is mine.
Why you may ask?
