In my draft folder is a kind of longform piece I’ve been working on regarding the seemingly neverending UNC cheating scandal. The scandal has been fascinating to me because as Carolina has struggled to do everything in its power to minimize the mess. From claiming it was an academic scandal for the entire school, not just the athletic department. To saying it was a rogue professor who made it all happen. To smearing an of their own people who might say this is a problem. All to protect “the Carolina Way.”
But in the end, they have only made it worse. They keep trying to cover, obfuscate, deny, attack, etc. All because they are so heavily invested in “the Carolina Way” as mythos that defines them.
I was going to draw a parallel to the Penn State/Sandusky scandal. As much as the Joebots, Franco Harris, and fringers won’t let it go, the school itself did. The Freeh report was forceful. It was strong and coupled with the accepted NCAA penalties actually let the school move on from that spot.
Their mythos may be tarnished. Argue that the culture of football first hasn’t really changed. But the school itself has removed most of the individuals and moved forward.
Then this happens.
At the end of Friday’s trustees meeting at the Penn State campus here, new trustee Al Lord proposed a resolution to delve into the Freeh Report with an open-ended goal of identifying possible flaws and missing information and fully investigating that information.
“I want the board to agree that we’re not done,” Mr. Lord said. “That’s all. Very simple.”
Moving such a resolution to an action authorized by the board will require significant legwork. The resolution would have to be introduced and recommended by a committee and then put in front of the entire board for vote. That likely would not be possible until at least the board‘?s next meeting, in September.
It gets better because the leading Joebot loon on the Board of Trustees made the actual goal very explicit. Not to review the report that came out 2 years ago. To reject it.
“In the end, we’re looking for a repudiation of the conclusions reached by Louis Freeh,” trustee Anthony Lubrano said.
Though just 10 trustees who were on the board in November 2011 remain as voting members of the board, the majority of the 30-person board still tends to act opposite of Mr. Lord, Mr. Lubrano and the seven other alumni trustees when it comes to sensitive issues as the Freeh Report and Joe Paterno’s firing.
The alumni trustees were elected in the months following the Freeh report and NCAA sanctions. When the fans and alumni were at their most defensive.
The alumni trustees didn’t run to be on the board, nor were they elected by alumni, for the broader good of Penn State. They were elected to battle for the legend of Joe Paterno and the mythos of the “grand experiment.” That is what they are doing. Damn reality and the passage of time.
Regardless of what it does to the school and the image. Regardless of the fact that it won’t change anyone’s minds. They can’t let go, and unlike some fringers on a message board who try to turn every string into their issue. These fringers actually sit in some position of authority and will keep plugging. Making sure no one forgets the scandal.
Just not the way they hope.
I think what happened to the DA is a bigger story, what did the law know and when
I would have the kid that finally spoke up, on TV shows. Talking about this is what you do when stuff like this happens to you.
I disagree with your last sentence. Lessons have been learned. We should not let the actions of the JoePa whackos lead us to believe that most people do not understand what happened.
H2P
dcpinpgh, these were troubled kids probably without a whole lot of parental involvement. Sandusky preyed on the vulnerable making his acts even more heinous if possible. PSU administrators including Paterno knew it, ignored and then covered-up. Those that should have been protecting the children betrayed them, whether it will be proven in a court of law remains to be seen, but much like with OJ, logic tells you what happened.
Wow, Ray Gricar’s death and Sandusky? Maybe I read too many Agatha Christie mysteries when I was a kid—but I can believe that Gricar was killed by a PSU whacko, or maybe even by Sandusky. At this point, anything is believable when you realize how much was known by how many, and how determined they all were to keep the crimes hidden.
H2P
Moral of the story, some people will always believe only what they want to, irrespective of the facts.
Think about it, how do you possibly rationalize that there is still a faction that actually exists in this “age of information” that professes that the Holocost never really occurred either.
All of a sudden, the mind control evident in creepy valley becomes easier to comprehend. Still wrong in so many ways but easier to get your head around when you consider the culture that still remains there even after exposing it to the harsh light of investigative reality in the first place.
Just one more reason why, “PENN STATE SUCKS”!
So here are my two Paterno stories from back in the trickey Dick days. It was easy to know then that he wasn’t the kind of person you wanted your sister to marry.
The nitters always used to claim he was a gentleman and would never run up the score. That was the coverup for his pathetic offensive philosophy.
Disproof number one. Remember the game at Pitt stadium when Hufnagle called time out seconds before the half in the middle of their own territory with a huge lead. Then he threw the bomb for another score to finish the half. Now if that was against Joe’s gentlemanly orders then Hufnagle wouldn’t have started the second half like he did. So total gentlemanly points to Joe = zip by my score. Which puts him in the same class as the Parsegiuns and Switsers of the college football world.
Disproof number two. I have no concrete proof of this but I also had no reason to disbelieve the allegation. I had a close female friend in college that claimed one of her friends up in Creepy Valley had been raped by a member of the football team and that it had been covered up.
And now after all these years I’ve become ambivalent about resuming the rivalry. I’ve come to view them as irrelevant nationally and to us. They somehow seem like the little kid playing off in the corner with their imaginary friends just not part of anything real. Maybe I’ll change my mind after we actually play them but it is hard to get all worked up over someone who is delusional.
And to bring it all together, maybe it has something to do with the colors blue and white. 😉
Meanhile, PSU continues to sink millions of dollars in the program, and the donations by the PSU alums/backers are actually HIGHER tha ever!
I am not implying that he was killed by a PSU whacko as you put it. But is is quite possible that he committed suicide because of it .. possibly due to his lack of effort in getting Sandusky charged .. if indeed, he is even dead at all. His compter was found near a river and his body never found … you don’t think that’s fishy!! (no pun intended)
In ’98, he decided not to prosecute Sandusky. In 05, he went missing and still not found (and no suicide note). His computer was found near the Susquehanna River with the hard drive gone.
Could he have been mixed up in something else .. sure. Could he either have been killed or committed suicide … sure. Could he have had the foresight that the Sandusky case would one day blow wide open … sure. (It had been allegedly invesitgated by the state for year before charges were finally brought forward.)
I don’t believe Franklin will turn out to be worth all that money.
@wbb, concur
Will we ever win a NC again, that’s a tough one.
I do believe we can be a consistent top 25 team again, possibly flirt with the top 10 every once in awhile, maybe once every 3 or 4 years, when we are “loaded”, the seniors dominate the team, those type of years.
Here is the magical thing, a little secret that I will let everyone in on. Most people don’t know this, and don’t understand this, but I’m going to let my fellow Blatherites in on this crazy theory of mine.
It depends on WINNING!!!
Yep, there you have it! LOL!!!
Coach Chryst has got to do this first step pretty much by himself. He’s got to elevate the team to a 9-3 or even 10-2 season, with what he has and what he has recruited including the coaching.
That’s where the coaching comes in.
If you start to consistently having 9-3 and 10-2’s, the recruiting will immediately get better.
No, not Alabama or Texas or Florida State better, but you may pick off a 5 star, maybe an OL if HCPC starts putting some in the NFL, once in awhile or if homegrown.
Certainly more 4 stars, and solid 3’s.
Better records means everything is better. The record itself, the recognition, tv appearances,
people on tv talking about you, all in a positive light.
Certainly the bowl games are better too. Maybe not the New Years games, but the next ones down, instead of the Beef O’ Booty, and the Muffler Bowls.
It all comes together, and adds up.
Will it be hard, sure will.
Is it possible, sure is.
Just win. Go from 7-6 to 10-3. Easy.
Well, looking at last year, that means winning the games against Va.Tech and Navy. Can’t let those slip away. Can’t “not be ready”, have to be ready for all games. You have to beat all the other teams in the middle of the pack or around your status.
Then, you probably need to pick off a team that maybe you could beat, but may not be favored to beat.
So, GTU, UNC or Miami needed to be a win.
All the while, certainly can’t have any slip ups against any lower Div 1 teams or even Div 2. teams if scheduled.
That’s what it takes.
Going from 7-6 to 10-3 seems like “only a few games”, but it’s a big task.
Hopefully HCPC can pull it off in the next couple of years.
We had the talent to beat both Navy and GT last year. maybe UNC too. Both games we played below the level we played in beating Duke & Notre Dame.
This is where coaching has to get you over the proverbial hump. I was extremely disappointed the coaching staff couldn’t figure out ways to protect Savage better other than to throw shorter passes.
Which negated Savage’s biggest strength, that of throwing the deep throws or the bomb if you like.
Beating Navy & GT would have put us at 9-4. 10-3 if you include UNC.
I certainly hope they can get more creative with a more mobile QB and let’s hope Huebner can get the right guys at the right positions along the O-line this year.
Cause that was horrid last year. And the biggest reason we weren’t 9-4.
He is a PC wet dream …. 6’7, 290 with a 3.5 GPA
This year’s benchmark that HCPC is on the right track, 8-4
Solid indication that this young team has taken ownership , 9-3
Record that would have us exclaiming, “RUFRICKINKIDDINME”? after a surprise win over Miami, most likely, 10-2
11-1 FORGETABOUTIT
12-0 priceless
I’ll be just fine and satisfied with 8-4 realistically.
And the Sandusky scandal proves that !
This is so predictable … the new board will find the Freeh invetsigation incomplete, and even though there is proof positive that four of the most important people at PSU chose to not expose a child molester, PSU nation will claim innocence and actually believe that the real culprits here are Freeh and the NCAA … but certainly nobody connected with PSU (except Sandusky.)
All of this only proves that there was not one lesson learned from this heinous incident!