Sex, Lies, and JoePa

I live in the state of Pennsylvania. Some friends of mine go to Penn State. Therefore, I will write.

Lots of crazy things happen in college. Some of them can be so crazy that they require mindless riots and sex scandals to make things interesting for everybody.

Tonight on this lovely post here at The Sports Nut Blogs, we're going to talk about some controversy. Oooohhh, nice juicy controversy. ...Not.

Jerry Sandusky (left) and Joe Paterno (right)

Our story begins way back in the 90's, where Jerry Sandusky was defensive coordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions college football team since the 1977 season. However, during that time, it was allegedly told from assistant Mike McQueary that he was seen performing a sexual act on a ten-year old boy in the men's locker room. Although he was investigated for suspicion of this in 1998 (while he was still coach), it was never reported to higher officials for criminal charge. Sandusky then left the squad in 1999 later to create charities and events while continuing to support Penn State's football team. A few weeks ago, Sandusky was finally arrested for about 40 charges of sexual molestation over the period of fifteen years. Back in 2002, Joe Paterno (by McQueary's word) did report of certain molestation acts performed by Sandusky, but they were never reported to police.

Last night, Paterno, along with PSU president Graham Spainer were relieved of their duties as coach and president, respectively.

What? Why?

A lot of people have been wondering why Paterno has gotten the axe because of this. People said that he did nothing wrong--that he actually did the right thing by reporting the incident to the University's athletic director. However, he was more or less guilty by association. The reason why he was cut from the program was because he (as well as Spainer) didn't follow through with this and they never reported it to police. (We just wish that some of the student rioters understood this part.) Because of this, Paterno's near-Hall of Fame status is now tainted and he's going to be nothing more than taboo. The obvious was also made on something because Paterno previously announced before the season began that he was going to retire after this year. Something was definitely up, don't you think?

After the announcements were made, it was almost as if Penn State University went into meltdown.

I know that football is a big deal out in State College, Pennsylvania, but those rioters made Penn State University look like a school filled with a bunch of idiots. A lot of the people I know on Facebook are incredibly upset and practically apologizing for the stupid acts that they did. If you didn't read, the riots after the announcement of the firing of Paterno resulted in students pushing over an Altoona news van. Are you kidding? It's not like you guys have the right to do that. Pushing over a news van isn't going to get what you want. You guys are all about 20 or so, right? You're not 7. Nobody stole your crayons, for goodness sake. Grow up. I didn't get to read if any of them were arrested or reprimanded in any other way for that, but they do deserve a little something for immaturity.

On top of this, the Nittany Lions' football team is planning on sitting out on their game against Nebraska on Saturday. What's that going to do? Gain sympathy or something? No, it will make you guys look stupid. Nothing that the school is going to do will take away from the fact that boys were molested and they had to live with it while the attacker got away with it for so long. It sucks, I get it. But the last thing you want to do is to reduce yourself to a rebellious piece of a whiner.

Unfortunately for Penn State this is getting blown out of proportion, and it's pounding this painful controversy in every student, student-athlete, and coach's mind right now. I don't even go there--I only live in the state--and it's getting ridiculously annoying and painful to watch and listen to.

Now all that we have to look forward to is to hear about the aftermath of what had happened last night. Fun fun fun.

--AZ