When the pass that is the scandal was in the air, spiraling downfield towards multiple wide open Penn State employees, the pass was dropped. The situation has been mishandled by not one but multiple men in positions of higher authority at the school. As we live through the horrifying scandal unfolding at Penn State University, we all try to point fingers at who is to blame. Sometimes in situations such as this one, it is impossible to blame one person. But what if you could blame just one person; who would it be?
Jerry Sandusky
Can we all just take a step back from the blame game for one second? Let’s forget who did not speak up and let’s remember the essence of the charges against Penn State. The Grand Jury Report against Jerry Sandusky does much more than raise questions about the Penn State authority figures. The Grand Jury Report against Sandusky is graphic, disturbing, and repulsive making even ones with the strongest stomachs a bit queasy. Sandusky violated at least eight young boys between the ages of about 7 and 15 years old. Too much time is being spent talking about who didn’t do anything when the reason there is even a scandal right now is because of Sandusky. Although the name Sandusky is now synonymous with the heinous actions alleged by this man, I plead that the name also bring thoughts and prayers for the well-being of the lives of the children that this man forever tarnished.
Mike McQueary
Mike McQueary is the graduate assistant who reported the most recent deviate act performed by Sandusky in 2002. Upon discovering Sandusky with a young boy, McQueary, who was visually disturbed by what he had seen, called his father. Eventually, McQueary told Coach Joe Paterno who then passed the information of the incident along to athletic director Tim Curley. Great. McQueary passed along the information to the people in charge of him. However, the entire reason that Joe Paterno is standing trial in the court of public opinion is because he did not notify the police. McQueary not only failed to notify the police, but he also walked away from the scene of the crime without stopping the actions of Sandusky. We aren’t talking about an 18 year old graduate assistant here. McQueary was at least 26 at the time of the incident. Think about it, what would you have done in his situation?
Tim Curley and Gary Shultz
I will group both of these men together because they are in similar situations. Curley was the athletic director and Schultz was a senior vice president for Penn State. Both heard about the incident from either Paterno or McQueary. It is claimed that one of these men passed along information of the incident to University Police. As we all know nothing ever happened with that. You can argue that Paterno had more power at the university than both of these men, however you must remember that in their job descriptions these men have a duty to fulfill and both dropped the ball. Not only are Curley and Schultz in hot water for not passing along the information of the incident, they are also charged with perjury in continuing their cover up attempts in the Grand Jury Report.
Graham Spanier
Spanier is/was the president of Penn State University. News of the incident did make it all the way up him. Again, inaction on his part makes him guilty along with the rest. Spanier is perhaps a bigger player than we expect. In keeping the façade of a moral football powerhouse, Spanier ultimately gave the “ok” to sweep this mess under the rug. The actions of Schultz and Spanier bother me the most because they are the ones that are supposed to be neutral in not having athletics ahead of education.
University Police
There were incidents reported on Sandusky in 1999 and 2002. Both times the incidents did fall into the hands of the University Police. As we clearly know, both times no legal action came of it. In 1999, Sandusky simply got a slap on the wrist for his actions. I think that there is a lot more information to come out and I think that the University Police will have a much bigger part in the cover up than everybody initially thought.
Dottie Sandusky
Dottie Sandusky is Jerry’s wife. I’ve never been married before so I am just speculating here. If my partner was constantly having little boys over and leaving to go “check on them” in the middle of the night, I think I would be a bit suspicious. After reading the Grand Jury Report, I do not believe there is any possible way that Dottie Sandusky did not know the actions of her husband. With that said, she is obviously as guilty as anybody here.
The actions and inactions of Penn State are despicable. This scandal involves a lot of important people and I believe that more information will come out showing that many more important people knew. What is getting lost in all this is that the scandal is not all Joe Paterno’s fault. Do not confuse this with me saying that Paterno is innocent. I believe he is far from that. You could argue that he had a moral obligation but again that is not the law. Paterno has simply become the face of the scandal because of his status at the school. As much as I want to remember him for his efforts in coaching and philanthropy, his reputation is tarnished by this. We should not take this to the extreme and praise him as an innocent godly power and we should also not say that he single-handedly ruined the school completely. There are a lot of people to blame in this, not just JoePa. All of the people in question here should be removed from their positions, but not until a thorough investigation is done. They should all be put on administrative leave in the meantime. Regardless of who you blame for this, remember to keep the victims of one man’s vicious actions in your thoughts.
Who do you blame?
-Written by Kevin Rossi
Kevin Rossi is a sophomore Sport Management major at Drexel University. Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevin_rossi. Comments or suggestions? Send Kevin an email at ktr36@drexel.edu.
Kevin, some interesting points here. I think they're all to blame, obviously some to different degrees. The public are focused on Paterno because he's the big name, as you said. No one's putting it all on Paterno's shoulders, but he's implicated just like the rest of them.
ReplyDeleteAnd with regard to Sandusky's wife, you're speculating a little too much to say she's "obviously as guilty as anybody".
Otherwise, I appreciate the points you made. Good stuff.
-Dan
A big issue I have with this, aside from the essence of the case, is how people are taking JoePa's part in this case to the extremes. Maybe I know too many people that attend Penn State and I keep hearing their blind support of him. A lot of what I am hearing is either ignorance to the fact that JoePa did wrong and also on the other side that he is responsible for now bringing the entire school down. Many people fail to meet in the middle hear and accept that JoePa did something morally wrong (which he admits by the way) yet he did not single handedly bring down PSU. Hopefully this piece just offers a little insight into how widespread this scandal currently is and how big it could potentially blow up to be.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point that I did not bring up in the article because it is a little off topic is that the situation is surreal when you take a step back. This is one of those situations that already has countless articles written about it and the number continues to grow daily. This is one of those situations that will be made into a number of books, documentaries, maybe even a movie. This goes beyond players trading their memorabilia for tattoos and money. It's truly unreal.
-Kevin Rossi
People like to think that Joe is the most powerful person at the university when in fact, he is not. Joe does not deserve a free pass here like some of the students and alumni believe. Yes, he did do what was legally correct, but did not do was was morally right. I personally put most of the blame on McQueary for not taking action the moment he witnessed the shower incident taking place. Breaking it up or even just dialing 911 that instant would have been the correct thing to do. He was a 26 year old man at the time, not just and 18 or 19 year old college student. He should not be calling his daddy and telling paterno the following day. With that, leaves the question, did Penn State give McQueary a job to hush up about the incident? It will be interesting when more things start to unfold.
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