Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/79325
they would have found there is not cited in their report. The recommen- dations are quite revealing. Unless the rules have changed again, no longer does Judicial Affairs have ab- solute authority over student disci- pline. That responsibility is now shared by all colleges and depart- ments within the university struc- ture, including Intercollegiate Athlet- ics. Apparently, the Special Investiga- tive Counsel also didn't feel it was worth his time to interview those at- torneys who defended the players in the 2007 incident and in other disci- plinary cases prior to that. Triponey is significant not only to the Freeh report but to the perception that Paterno is the ultimate villain in this scandal. Shortly after the scandal erupted, Triponey launched a media blitz that continues to this day, an ef- fort that has turned her into a revered whistle-blower. The headline on a CNN.com story from July 15 – "The woman who stood up to Joe Paterno" – has since been copied by other un- challenging media outlets. So, if the Freeh Group was remiss in conducting an incomplete probe and making premature assessments of the OSA, one wonders what other defi- ciencies are contained in the report. The May 1998 report of Sandusky taking a shower with a boy is the crux of this entire scandal. That inci- dent spawned everything that fol- lowed, including the Freeh Group's allegation of a cover-up by Spanier, Schultz, Curley and Paterno. The af- termath of the 1998 incident is too detailed and complex to go into here, but three things bother me about the Freeh Report's conclusions. First, those conclusions are based primarily on selected emails that may have been taken out of context and grand jury testimony that is an inte- gral part of a continuing criminal pro- ceeding and has yet to be proven in court. Second, no one knew in 1998 that Sandusky was a serial child sex abuser. False accusations of child abuse can be devastating to the ac- cused and are common; a close friend of mine had one in his family a few years ago. If there is a second accusa- tion, as there was with Sandusky in 2001, then the alarm bells should go off. That is why Freeh seems to be on firmer ground in his investigation of the 2001 McQueary encounter. But even here, his findings are supposi- tions. The truth is still to be deter- mined, and many questions remain unanswered. Third, after the 1998 in- cident was investigated by the Penn State police, Department of Welfare, and Children and Youth Services, the district attorney declined to press charges. So to use 1998 as the bench- mark for irresponsibility and a 14-year cover-up – as Freeh and the NCAA have done – is clearly disingenuous. Finally, the uncalled for snide re- mark on page 75 and other such innu- endoes spread throughout the docu- ment are indicative of the derisive tone of the report. In trying to claim that Paterno, not Curley, was the de facto athletics director, the report stated that a "senior Penn State official re- ferred to Curley as Paterno's 'errand boy.' " That derogatory remark was out of line and should not have been in- cluded in a report from an experi- enced, high-profile professional like Freeh because it was followed by a second sentence attributed to two dif- ferent interviewees that basically made the same point: "Athletic Department staff said Paterno's words carried a lot of weight with Curley, who would run big decisions by Paterno." A recent editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, entitled "Valley of de- nial: Some Penn State supporters don't get it," praised Freeh personally and his report. The editorial went on to attack Penn Staters who have challenged Freeh, the board of trustees and the NCAA sanctions, characterizing them as "myopic" sup- porters with a "self-destructive atti- tude" and "addicted to the football program and obsessed with old coach Joe Paterno." What the editorial proves is that ig- norance, conceit, bias and irrespon- sibility have no bounds in today's media. Penn Staters get it, all right. Too bad we have to go through such media and public bitterness to prove it.