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The way the ball bounces
Jeff and I had been looking forward to heading to PA this weekend to see Penn State play Nebraska this Saturday. With Penn State having a good record as well as Paterno achieving the record of being the winningest coach on college football history, we expected the game to be one for the books. Their last home game of the season, the celebrations for both the team and Paterno's wins, etc. Jeff and I figured that ol' JoePa, hanging in for as long as he had been, was doing so not just for his own record, but to keep the team riding high, to go on to championship games, will finally call it quits. No one could have expected the sudden scandal to engulf the university and some of its top officials, including Joe. So, in a matter of a couple days, the jubilant air of excitement has collapsed into shock, disbelief and anger. Joe Paterno was fired late tonight, despite saying that he would retire at the end of the season.
There is so much to this unfolding story that it is tough for me to figure it all out. I have never been much of a football fan until Jeff came into my life. He's the diehard, and because he would watch the games so intently, often cheering or yelling at the screen, I ended up becoming involved, and not just to find out what the noise was all about. We've gone to many football games, college, pro and Jeff's nephew's school games (the latter being pure awesomesauce). While I might not be as animated as Jeff at the games, I get caught up in his enjoyment, which makes it all worth it. I have no idea what will happen this weekend, and Jeff had earlier said that part of him does not want to go. Now that Paterno has been unceremoniously fired, the increasingly weighty scandal will undoubtedly crush the enthusiasm of the players, students and fans, which is the one thing that makes an otherwise complicated and oftentimes baffling game a joy to watch. Win or lose, over 110 thousand people always have a great time in that stadium. That alone is the reason to experience such a game at least once in a lifetime. I have a feeling it's going to seem more like a funeral.
There is so much to this unfolding story that it is tough for me to figure it all out. I have never been much of a football fan until Jeff came into my life. He's the diehard, and because he would watch the games so intently, often cheering or yelling at the screen, I ended up becoming involved, and not just to find out what the noise was all about. We've gone to many football games, college, pro and Jeff's nephew's school games (the latter being pure awesomesauce). While I might not be as animated as Jeff at the games, I get caught up in his enjoyment, which makes it all worth it. I have no idea what will happen this weekend, and Jeff had earlier said that part of him does not want to go. Now that Paterno has been unceremoniously fired, the increasingly weighty scandal will undoubtedly crush the enthusiasm of the players, students and fans, which is the one thing that makes an otherwise complicated and oftentimes baffling game a joy to watch. Win or lose, over 110 thousand people always have a great time in that stadium. That alone is the reason to experience such a game at least once in a lifetime. I have a feeling it's going to seem more like a funeral.
Paterno has been unceremoniously fired
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/sexual-assault/prayers-from-joe-paterno-647903
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But even more spooky is the tangentially linked disappearance of Ray Gricar 7 years later. Something I had strangely heard of ages ago...
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If Paterno was aware of it and was complicit by ignoring the abuse, fuck him. That he says he will pray for the kids is staggeringly obnoxious.
Sandusky will, I would imagine, get his inside.
Apart from the lives of the victims you can't help but wonder what they else they didn't give a shit about. Their families? Check. The team? Check.Penn State? Check.
What did they care for? Their own egos perhaps.
Unfathomable.
I think Jeff is right to not want to go. Why risk destroying the memory of something he has a real love for more than these bastards have done anyway.
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Sadly in the current climate this will lead to more paranoia regarding thankfully usually rare things like this. I hear that apparently amongst youth workers or summer camps there now has to be 2 adults to take one child to the toilet visible to each other at all times - to make sure each other doesn't do anything untoward, or to back up against any accusations. This is totally crazy...
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But along with this there is the scandal over here of the Benedictines forfeiting the right to run a school because of systematic and widespread abuse. When I was 'kicked out' of my school for propositioning a monk (I was 18) their brutal reaction, it turned out, was because they were entirely aware of at least two monks abusing boys at the time and were intent on keeping it covered up and terrified my behaviour would draw attention to it . This entailed allowing one of them to remain as head of the junior school and thus have access to 8 year olds who he abused regularly. I was just fed into their hypocritical smokescreen. Both monks have now done time but it took 20 years for that to happen.
With Penn State it seems they were willing to cover it up for fear of risking continued sporting success.
Appalling.
But it seems those in certain institutions will always be willing to cover up abuse if they think they can.
Of people I know I am aware of 4 who have been abused. Two are women who were abused by their fathers, another by her step father.
The family being the one institution not easily monitored.
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