Academia, Criminal law, Justice, Media, Society

Down In the Valley I: Penn State – What Did They Know and When Did They Know it

Submitted By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Who Are Penn State?

That ultimate question uttered by Senator Howard Baker encapsulated the Watergate Era as Congress grappled with assessing culpability of President Richard Nixon, who was then at the zenith of his presidency. Now almost forty years later, the nation is again captured by a fall from grace as steep and as fast as Nixon’s. And again that question has to be asked of “America’s Football Coach.”

While I’m certainly no Woodward or Bernstein, it seems my blog post about the expanding scandal has reached  some folks in Pennsylvania with  knowledge about the inner workings of  the institution of Penn State Football and about the characters involved. One reached out to me with disturbing questions and a “theory” that has the distinct ring of truth. Here’s the version:

It’s 1999, and you’ve just been handed the American Football Coaches Association’s Assistant Football Coach of the Year award. The son of hard-working second generation Polish immigrants from Western Pennsylvania’s coal region, you graduated first in your class at Penn State after starting on the football team for three years. You’re coaching at your alma mater in a profession known as much for long hours, low pay, and eating its young as for being carried off the field in victory. Oh, you’ve had your share of shoulder pad rides, too. First, when you held everybody’s All-American (and arguably the finest player to ever play college football), Georgia’s Hershel Walker to 3.2 yeards per carry in the 1982 national title game. Then again in 1987 when your protegés intercepted Heisman Trophy winner, Vinny Testaverde, five times, in one of the sports most improbable victories over the heavily favored bad boy of American athletics, the infamous fatigue-wearing Miami Hurricanes, and in so doing vindicated the Nittany Lions’  hoary motto of  “Victory with Honor.”

It’s your dream job and you’re coaching with one of the true legends of the profession. Your mentor is in his mid-70’s and you’ve been proclaimed his heir apparent by everyone who would listen. You’ve been approached by several schools to coach their floundering teams, including the University of Maryland, and even made the perfunctory rounds of interviews at places like the University of Virginia. You’ve produced 10 consensus All-Americans including NFL Hall of Famer, Jack Ham. You’ve been at your job for 20 years, and you’ve gained the respect of colleagues, peers, and the public alike for your charitable work and well-publicized interest in helping disadvantaged kids through a charity you founded. At age 55, you’re making good money — for an assistant coach — but a head coaching job would earn you ten times as much and give your family of six adopted kids and a devoted wife financial security. You’ve even written the definitive book on your area of expertise which you generously entitle, “Developing Linebackers the Penn State Way.” In short, you’re hot in your profession and uniquely poised to either succeed the legend or take one of the plum coaching  jobs in America’s football pantheon. You know, the Notre Dames, Michigans, or Southern Cal’s of the world.

With all this professional and financial potential, what do you do? Well you retire, of course. You set yourself on a path of summer football camps, and chicken-dinner speeches with appearance fees earning roughly two-thirds of what you’ve made and orders of magnitude less that what you could make. You throw yourself into charity work from whence you derive some income and you rely on the largesse of a town where you preside as a demigod. But there are rumors.

In 1998, you’ve been investigated for “inappropriate” conduct with a minor. The mother of the child sets you up in sting operation where a detective hiding in a closet overhears you say, ” “I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.”  Luckily, the DA in charge of the case rules the matter “unfounded,” declines to prosecute, and thankfully later winds up missing after a 60 mile pleasure ride. You’ve dodged a bullet. Yet, you resign just under a year later.

Joe Paterno has claimed ignorance of the 1998 episode, but according to a person who contacted me, that’s highly questionable. State College, Pa is a 40,000 person enclave devoted to Joe Paterno and Penn State — in that order. Hell, there’s a bronze statue of the man in the middle of campus replete with those thick, black glasses; William Penn just gets some pages on the Paterno Library book shelves. Located in the largely unpopulated heart of Pennsylvania, the town was little more than an encampment when Joe Paterno arrived in 1950 with another icon of Pennsylvania’s venerable football coaching priesthood, Rip Engle. Engle, who was paranoid of losing even against vastly inferior teams, inculcated his charge with the notion that a coach must exercise iron-fisted rule over his program, and to borrow a modern bromide, “what happens inside the program, stays inside the program.” Brown University graduate, Joe Paterno was a good student to his football teacher, and when he took over for Engle in 1966 he inherited a strong football program and a town enamored of it.

Football coaches call their profession a “brotherhood.” Almost exclusively male and established as a true hierarchy, the work is exhausting as every aspect of the opponent must be broken down, scrutinized, and prepared for as if for a sea-borne military invasion. It’s overkill sure, but the adherents love the challenge and, most of all, the camaraderie in pursuit of the challenge.  It harkens back to a time of face-painted men pledging their lives around a camp fire to the hunt of some sabre-tooth tiger for the glory of the tribe. It’s machismo pure and simple and most coaches will tell you it’s their life. Oh, they pay dutiful homage to “family and faith” of course, but it’s football that keeps the brotherhood together in almost an exercise of devotion. As I mentioned in the earlier post, it’s a religion in most every sense — ritual, zealotry, ornamental dress, and rigid tenets. Probably the most important tenet is that coaches live out every win and loss together. Like most closed circles of the faithful, they talk, they argue, and they critique their fellows — all the time.

With that background is it really plausible, that in a town as ga-ga over football as State College is, Paterno really didn’t know about Sandusky’s run-in with law enforcement? Is State College immune from the marriage that all authority figures have for one another in most every other small town. You know like when the police chief and the high school football coach meet over coffee to discuss who’s handling security for Friday’s game and whether that trouble-making Jones kid will be there. Or when the mayor runs into the school superintendent and they talk about the kid who bullied the mayor’s little precious. These conversations go on every day in every small town in America — and most big ones, too.

Put those little facts together with the fact that Paterno did not attend Sandusky’s retirement party, and was rarely seen outside of the football facility with Sandusky, and you might wonder what happened to the relationship after 1998. You might wonder why Sandusky quit applying for head coaching jobs. You might even conclude that Coach Paterno nudged his former right-hand man out of his position at age 55, and refused to recommend him for any job at the head of  another football program.  No, not even at Virginia or Maryland who were desperate for a big name, sure winner and who rarely ever played Penn State. Nobody ever explained why Sandusky didn’t get those jobs despite their stated interest and his brightly burning star. Just the usual, “we have a number of good candidates … blah, blah, blah.” You might conclude that Penn State knew about the transgression with the child and, in exchange for his leaving the Program, cut  a deal to grant him and his charity unfettered access to the program and satellite campuses, but no direct role in its operation with young men. That way, you see, there’s no taint. No questions on the  propriety of a program that made $51 million for the school last year and funded 26 academic departments — all on the efforts of 18-22 year old-young men. Nope, no questions indeed, except the big one whose answer may be locked away in some ancient personnel files that seem to have the nasty habit of getting lost amid all that moving that goes on within campus departments.

What does a person do who’s banished from the  priesthood? How do you react, after a life of high achievement in every sphere, and then are abruptly denied your goal when it is within your grasp? What do you feel, and how do you act on those feelings?  Those are the questions that can only be answered by answering the first one I asked.

~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

190 thoughts on “Down In the Valley I: Penn State – What Did They Know and When Did They Know it”

  2. mespo,

    Thanks for the updates…My god what has this world come to when Football Coaches call the shots in education…..wink…

  3. Sandusky charity faced contempt motion over missing records
    By Michael Isikoff
    NBC News National Investigative Correspondent
    http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/21/8939650-sandusky-charity-faced-contempt-motion-over-missing-records

    Excerpt:
    Pennsylvania state prosecutors filed a secret motion to hold The Second Mile children’s charity in contempt in July after the organization failed to turn over expense records of founder Jerry Sandusky in response to a grand jury subpoena, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

    The contempt motion, filed under court seal, was withdrawn in October after some of the missing Sandusky records were found and produced, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But the charity’s new lawyers are still looking for the rest of the subpoenaed material and seeking to determine whether the missing records were destroyed or removed in an effort to impede the investigation into Sandusky’s relationships with The Second Mile children, said the source, who has been briefed on some of the details of the investigation.

    The move to hold The Second Mile in contempt, which has previously not been reported, is the latest indication that the investigation into the Penn State sex abuse scandal may have widened to include obstruction of justice. Asked Monday if obstruction was a focus of Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly’s investigation, her spokesman, Nils Frederickson, declined comment, citing rules covering the secrecy of matters before the grand jury. “This is a comprehensive, active and ongoing investigation,” he said.

  4. Paterno’s moral compass is his conscience and an improperly formed conscience creates an an improperly formed moral compass.

    If the markings on a compass show the needle to be slightly off North, it doesn’t matter how carefully the compass is followed one is still going to be going in the wrong direction. And, as we can see, the longer one continues to move in the wrong direction, the further one moves from true North and the more wrongs one commits.

    Integrity and responsibility can take one just so far … compassion is the often ignored influence that, when missing, causes the needle to drift. A conscience without compassion is thus improperly formed and the resulting moral compass is incapable of providing good directions. We may not be able to pinpoint exactly what is wrong except to say, “You know, there’s just something a little off about that guy.”

  5. Mike Spindell
    1, November 21, 2011 at 5:05 pm
    The best thing Mr.Sandusky could do for all of us is to kill himself now
    =========================================================

    Polish seppuku?

    gotta be a joke in there somewhere

  9. Another disturbing report from State College about Paterno’s complete control over the University’s judicial process as it related to football players. It’s a story of megalomania and fund-raising might making right. It also bolsters my supposition that had one female been in the decision making loop –and been listened to — this would never have happened:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204443404577052073672561402.html?mod=us_news_newsreel

    According to the article: “Mr. Secor [former University Provost] says that Mr. Paterno told him that he didn’t think other people should be able to decide whether a football player should be able to play or not. “And we agreed with that,” he says.

    On Oct. 1, 2007, Mr. Spanier accepted the committee’s recommended changes. Under the new rules, the judicial-review process would have only a limited ability to end a student’s participation in activities—including football.”

    And for the topper:

    “The incident [discipline of a Penn State FB player accused of making harassing calls to a retired assistant coach] prompted [University President] Spanier to visit Dr. Triponey [then in charge of enforcing University discipline] at her home. Dr. Triponey confirms he told her that Mr. Paterno had given him an ultimatum: Fire her, or Mr. Paterno would stop fund-raising for the school. She says Mr. Spanier told her that if forced to choose, he would choose her over the coach—but that he did not want to have to make that choice.”

    Positively Orwellian in scope and obsequiousness.

  12. The best thing Mr.Sandusky could do for all of us is to kill himself now -Mike S.

    The suicide of Mr. Sandusky has certainly crossed my mind… The harm that he’s done is incalculable. In my opinion, he shouldn’t have been released — he should still be in jail. But I’m a nurse, not a lawyer.

  13. The best thing Mr.Sandusky could do for all of us is to kill himself now, but my guess is that somehow he feels he did nothing wrong and will be vindicated. He has inflicted great harm on many innocent lives. By that I talk of the victims and not the University or its supporters.

  14. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/alleged-victim-in-sandusky-case-leaves-school-due-to-bullying_n_1105867.html

    “The first known alleged victim in the Jerry Sandusky case, known as “Victim One” was forced to leave his school because of an onslaught of bullying, The Patriot-News reports.

    Mike Gillum, psychologist for the family, told the news source that officials at Central Mountain High School didn’t step in and provide guidance to the boy’s classmates, who began to blame Joe Paterno’s firing on the 17-year-old.

    Victim One testified he was forced into multiple sex acts between 2006 and 2008. During that time, Sandusky was also assisting the high school with their varsity football program, the report states.

    Gillum told The Patriot News that name-calling and verbal threats at the school, which is located about 30 miles northeast of Pennsylvania State University, became too much for the boy to bear.”

  16. Elaine M:

    Transference of realty to a family member for substantially less than market value and in the face of impending claims are normally considered “badges of fraud,” and may subject the transfer of realty to being set aside as a “fraudulent conveyance.” Not a particularly savvy move, IMHO.

  17. Here’s an interesting bit of news about Joe Paterno:

    Joe Paterno’s Curious Real Estate Move
    Wednesday, November 16, 2011
    http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201111/joepas-real-estate-move-raises-suspicious-eyebrows

    Excerpt:
    Every detail, no matter how small it might seem, is under the intense spotlight in State College, Pa.

    Joe Paterno’s recent real estate transaction, reported by Mark Viera and Pete Thamel of the New York Times, has led some to speculate he knew his world was going to come crumbling down around him at Penn State. The winningest coach in major college football history quietly transferred complete ownership of his house to his wife for $1 less than four months before the bombshell sex abuse scandal erupted.

    Some legal experts believe the move was made to financially shield the Pennsylvania pigskin legend.

    The Times uncovered documents that show Paterno, who had joint possession of the home, handed control of his residence over to his wife, Sue Paterno, for a dollar plus “love and affection.”

    JoePa’s home was originally purchased for $58,000 in 1969; the home’s fair-market value in 2011 was listed at $594,484.40.

    It’s a development that has at least two explanations, depending on your point of view.

    A lawyer for Paterno told the Times that the 84-year-old former football coach transferred the home to his 71-year-old wife as part of a “multiyear estate planning program,” and the move, which was made on July 21, had absolutely nothing to do with the public embarrassment the child sex scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky brought to the beloved football program.

    Not everyone agrees.

    Lawrence A. Frolik, a law professor who specializes in elder law at the University of Pittsburgh, feels that possible lawsuits from victims against Paterno might have inspired the real estate shift.

    “I can’t see any tax advantages,” Frolik told the paper. “If someone told me that, my reaction would be, ‘Are they hoping to shield assets in case if there’s personal liability?'” He added, “It sounds like an attempt to avoid personal liability in having assets in his wife’s name.”

  18. Here’s a good piece of writing on the moral decay of corporatism along with the banality of the religious habit of binding up uncleansed wounds from Charles Pierce writing on the Grantland website.

    http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7233704/the-brutal-truth-penn-state

    Here’s an excerpt:

    “It happens because institutions lie. And today, our major institutions lie because of a culture in which loyalty to “the company,” and protection of “the brand” — that noxious business-school shibboleth that turns employees into brainlocked elements of sales and marketing campaigns — trumps conventional morality, traditional ethics, civil liberties, and even adherence to the rule of law. It is better to protect “the brand” than it is to protect free speech, the right to privacy, or even to protect children.”

  19. I guess pedophiles have a little group of contacts who “understand” them.

    I wonder when this will be an episode of Law and Order Special Victims Unit?

  20. Bron:

    Libel is a form of the tort of defamation. To be liable or an intentonal tort, the tortfeasor must intend the harm of the false written statement or act with reckless disregard for the truth thereof. Sometimes we refer to that as actual malice (“hot blood”) versus NY Times v. Sullivan (recklessness) “malice.” In the cae of public figures — like football coaches — there must be proof of either form of malice to prevail.

    Negligence can also form the basis of defamation if the defendant knew or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known that the defamatory statement was false. The conduct of the defendant is judged on whether the conduct was that of a reasonable person under the circumstances.

    In many states, one can be liable for negligently repeating defamatory remarks such as the one you refer to but it is an exceedingly rare event.

Comments are closed.