07-12-2012, 10:38 AM
I haven't read the Freeh Report yet, but from press reports, it contains a much bigger bombshell than whatever the details are regarding what happened after McQueary reported the 2001 rape to Paterno.
It turns that Paterno did know about the 1998 report, and followed its handling with keen interest. (I'm not surprised by this revelation, by the way. Of course he would have been told; he was the most powerful person at the university.)
This news casts in a completely different light what happened after McQueary's report. It's one thing to agonize over to report to police if this was the first time you'd heard such allegations; another thing completely if you'd heard a similar allegation a few years earlier.
In addition, JoePa apparently lied prior to his death by saying that he didn't know about the 1998 report. (Or at least his family did so on his behalf.)
These are just preliminary thoughts are based on my quick reading of the NYT story. But it's hard to see how anyone could defend JoePa at this point.
One last thought: his attempt to separate this scandal from his on-the-field legacy -- "not a football scandal" -- is pathetic.
It turns that Paterno did know about the 1998 report, and followed its handling with keen interest. (I'm not surprised by this revelation, by the way. Of course he would have been told; he was the most powerful person at the university.)
This news casts in a completely different light what happened after McQueary's report. It's one thing to agonize over to report to police if this was the first time you'd heard such allegations; another thing completely if you'd heard a similar allegation a few years earlier.
In addition, JoePa apparently lied prior to his death by saying that he didn't know about the 1998 report. (Or at least his family did so on his behalf.)
These are just preliminary thoughts are based on my quick reading of the NYT story. But it's hard to see how anyone could defend JoePa at this point.
One last thought: his attempt to separate this scandal from his on-the-field legacy -- "not a football scandal" -- is pathetic.