This is a toughie.
I have followed the whole sordid Sandusky mess. It's awful, it's putrid and it's sad. Disgusting, revolting, and all nothing to do with sports. Sure, it involves Penn State. A once-revered coach who's dead now and apparently looked the other way.
I'm not sure this awful cover-up can be fully dealt with in a forum like sports-talk radio. That's not a knock on sports radio hosts. As a matter of fact, I commend Damon Bruce for his dogged coverage and attempts to talk about this and provide a forum for callers. I'm not sure what else can be said. One thing is for sure. It puts sports into perspective. Most especially, college sports, where exists a lot of powerful people. I'm not suggesting in any way that creeps like Sandusky and his enablers only exist in college sports.
These monsters exist in all walks of life. It's just a topic and epic that happens to involve a college coach and forever, however unjustly, permanently scars the Penn State University. That may be unfair to a lot of students who had nothing to do with this horrible affair, but that's another story altogether.
This is a horrible event. I commend Ray Woodson on KNBR who gave a very thoughtful summation of this terrible story. It was pointed, perfectly apt and done with the utmost care, ditto Damon Bruce.
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Ray Woodson has always come across as a genuine dude who has not sold his soul. He does not appear to be the type of cat who'd stab a coworker in the back (Rudy and Raddy..). Is there an archive of his comments? The Sandusky affair is certainly one of the ugliest in recent memory
ReplyDeletethe thing i appreciated about Woodson was that he saved the subject for last unlike the rest of the sports dial which went into overkill.
ReplyDeleteDamon Bruce was excellent yesterday. Passionate and intelligent discussion. I didn't hear Chris Townsend on 95.7 but heard he was very good too. Rod Brooks solo yesterday was out of his league. Actually Rich, this has EVERYTHING to do with sports. The whole point of the cover-up was to protect almighty Penn State football. If this happened in the math department, would they have looked the other way?
ReplyDeleteWhat really pisses me off about this whole thing....is the continued reverence by Penn State apologists for Joe Paterno. YES--he is the all-time winningest coach in major college football...and YES, he has help graduate a ton of players.
ReplyDeleteBUT...this all shouldn't serve as an excuse for what he allowed to happen under his watch. These apologists are myopic or showing their blind allegiance if they believe a football coach such as Paterno didn't know what was going on under his watch. If this were some loose-cannon such as Barry Switzer, then yeah, maybe I'd believe Paterno was oblivious to it. But Paterno ran his program as tight as a drum. He knew about the stuff ever since 1998, but chose to ignore it. He became just like any other big-time Football Factory coach: Concerned with his winning football program (although at this time, Penn State was in a "down" cycle)...and perhaps more importantly, concerned about his own legacy.
Because of this, he should rightly be vilified. Remember, he allowed Sandusky to basically a**-rape little boys (I roll my eyes whenever I hear the euphemism "sexually abused." C'MON--he SODOMIZED those kids).
They ought to take down that damn statue on campus. Think about it: How would you feel if the McVeigh family decided to build a statue at the site of the OKC bombing site..."because he was such a great little boy and son?"
Paterno was once a great man...who in the end fell victim to his own personal greed...and in my mind is no longer viewed as that great man. He was a "cover-up" crook, and thus should be remembered as such.
Well put.
DeleteExcellent post!
DeleteRod Brooks was way out of his league. He jousted with callers when the discussion turned to the future punishment of Penn State. At the end of the first segment, he threw up his hands. Them's fightin words. He continued the show with his fake concern and reverence. Ooohh boy, a whole month of Rod flying solo with his pahtner in London.
ReplyDeleteI would normally identify myself on this forum, but I choose not to, this time around, for reasons that will become obvious.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who personally was sexually molested at the age of eight, I can tell you that what Jerry Sandusky did, during his many years of child abuses, was to completely ruin the life of every single one of those kids that he raped. And yeah, raped is the correct word. They were all too young to be consensual for such an act. It was no mere coincidence that Sandusky selected them that way.
And for anyone to give Sandusky a wink and a nod, in the name of keeping a college sports program at or near the top of the heap is obscenely unacceptable, whether it was Papa Joe, or whomever.
I'd indelicately suggest the appropriate penalty is for Sandusky to be neutered with a dull pair of scissors and no anesthesia, at the very start of his prison sentence. That's just to make sure that he doesn't "enjoy himself" in prison too much.
And anyone who winked and nodded, as Sandusky's spree of child rapes continued, should get to experience what those kids did, but with a large, dry, corn cob.
Big deal, we can all stand on our soap boxes now. It's just a sad story, period. I hope justice will be served now that Sandusky is in jail and hopefully the other three who headed up Penn State are also going to prison
ReplyDeleteBrooks has always been out of his league, what are his qualifications?? he has none , zero, his opinion means nothing and never will. complete waste of time if you are unfortunate enough to listen to that clown
ReplyDeleteAgree. Ray Woodson and Damon Bruce both gave compelling takes and offered qualify program content to the results of Sandusky scandal as reported by Louis Freeh.
ReplyDeleteAlso a shout out to Kate Scott for her level-headed commentary.
Rod Brooks must be a real bastard. Like what I wrote years ago..that KNBR consevative bent?..it creates and fosters that stupidity of Brooks.
ReplyDeleteBut then Rod is conflicted too...his weird "super black pimp" accent, while waking everyday wishing he was a white man.
Rod,who thinks stuttering is a sign of deep thought!
Have no reason to think Rod is a "real bastard" but completely agree that he's difficult to listen to.
DeleteThe "black pimp" accent is offensive and annoying and the stuttering thing gets old real fast.