th3r0m

It makes little sense for Paterno to apparently have someone removed from his program and avoid him because he is repulsed by his very presence and to then allow them unfettered access to the facilities he basically lives in. And even less sense to then, when handed the ammunition needed to remove permanently from your life in addition to preventing further instances of atrocities against children to be perpetrated by a person who apparently repulses you, to do nothing with it. I think Paterno lacked knowledge of the truth of the situations, but I couldn't say whether it was purposeful or not because I just don't see where it benefits him to keep quiet about this. So Paterno committed perjury in his grand jury testimony? Got it. How much jail time do you think he is facing? Not sure where I said or even implied he committed perjury, I said I thought he lacked knowledge, as in not having the full story of the events that had taken place, not that he knew nothing at all.

It makes little sense for Paterno to apparently have someone removed from his program and avoid him because he is repulsed by his very presence and to then allow them unfettered access to the facilities he basically lives in. And even less sense to then, when handed the ammunition needed to remove permanently from your life in addition to preventing further instances of atrocities against children to be perpetrated by a person who apparently repulses you, to do nothing with it. I think Paterno lacked knowledge of the truth of the situations, but I couldn't say whether it was purposeful or not because I just don't see where it benefits him to keep quiet about this.

Sorry but no. He got fired because he was part of the chain of command that this went through and got shoved under the rug by. That much is documented and admitted. It is not a witch hunt. I don't understand how people can divorce themselves from reality enough to think that this was just a convenient opportunity to get rid of the guy. He tied their hands the day he found out about what went on in 2002 and didn't go directly to the authorities and continued to have Sandusky around the program... and that's assuming he was ignorant of the situation that went on before Sandusky was removed as DC in the 90s. Which isn't very plausible. Funny, but I have yet to read of or see any evidence where this was "shoved under the rug" by Paterno. That's media supposition at it's finest, as is the posting by the media and general public on boards and blogs all over the internet about how he must have been thinking about his reputation/wins/legacy versus the safety of those kids. Sandusky had never been arrested for, nor charged with nor found guilty of any sort of crime (and still hasn't), so how exactly do you justify cutting off all ties with the person based on second hand accounts and hearsay? It's not as if Paterno actually witnessed anything that would have made what you are purporting he do - completely block access to all campus facilitys/programs etc,- actionable without putting the university and himself at risk (and even had he done so, there is zero evidence that it would have prevented Sandusky from continuing to molest children). Did JoePa know about what happened in the shower involving his former staff member? yes, he himself admitted that to a grand jury. Did he report it directly to the police? No. There you go. He's not being charged with a crime because he did not lie about that. That doesn't mean the workplace where this was swept under the rug, by the people that this was known by, needs him to be charged with a crime to see that it was a huge problem. By not being immediately turned over to police it was a problem and that was compounded by having the man accused still around the program. His inaction and those of his direct superiors (which is laughable at penn state) enabled a child rapist. Get that through your head. Everyone involved needs to be and will be canned whether they are facing indictments or not. They taint the entire institution if you allow them to remain. He's not being charged with a crime because he did nothing wrong - he reported it to the "authorities" in charge of his institution (which is how the law/statute is worded... although I imagine that the statute may be amended to rid itself of such ambiguity in the future), not because he didn't lie about it to the grand jury - if the Grand Jury thought he was lying they would have charged him with perjury as they did with Schultz and Curely.. but they didn't, which seems to point to and support the fact that Paterno's testimony that he was unaware of the specifics of what took place in the shower is the truth. I've read the Grand Jury's report and honestly, based upon what's in there, Paterno is, at this time and until any evidence is produced to refute it.... innocent of wrong doing. If you want to talk about inaction, how about the detectives who dropped an investigation at the bequest of Penn State Campus Police, an AG/Head of Police that decided not to file charges, a mother who worked with the police to tape phone conversations but didn't pursue it when the police dropped it, the executives of Second Mile who were apparently informed several times about possible issues but did nothing, Shultz and Curely who did nothing... there was a whole lot of failure going on here by not only Penn State officials but by local and county law enforcement, school coaches and officials and other various authorities. The victims were let down at every single level by every person who should have protected them but to pin the majority of the blame on Paterno and say that it was Paterno who enabled and apparently by way of inaction, condoned, Sandusky's actions is a ridiculous. Could he have done more? Given the information we have now, it appears to be obvious he could have. But he didn't have all of this information, he had an apparently vague report of some sort of sexual misconduct between a former employee and a child, which he had already reported a required by law and "morality". Paterno is the "big name" goat being sacrificed to overshadow the rest of the stuff in the background.. it will be interesting to see where this case goes with regard to the public's interest in the case now that the "blood" we've all been calling for has been shed. Wrong. So wrong. McQueary told him what happened in excruciating detail. Show me in the indictment or in the testimonies of those involved where anyone says Paterno was told in full detail what happened in that shower. Don't you think that the Grand Jury would have indicted Paterno as well if Mcqueary (sp) had testified differently? Because that what happened with Schultz and Curley. Which is from a NYT article with no source named... If there was actual verifiable proof of this why wouldn't they have included it in the indictment. With that kind of testimony they could have nailed Paterno with charges of perjury just like they did Schulz and Curley and if they have they should use it... I'm not for sparing Paterno because he's old or a famous figure, I'm just not cool with a smear campaign targeting anyone ( old, famous or not) that is backed by very little in the way of evidence.

Sorry but no. He got fired because he was part of the chain of command that this went through and got shoved under the rug by. That much is documented and admitted. It is not a witch hunt. I don't understand how people can divorce themselves from reality enough to think that this was just a convenient opportunity to get rid of the guy. He tied their hands the day he found out about what went on in 2002 and didn't go directly to the authorities and continued to have Sandusky around the program... and that's assuming he was ignorant of the situation that went on before Sandusky was removed as DC in the 90s. Which isn't very plausible. Funny, but I have yet to read of or see any evidence where this was "shoved under the rug" by Paterno. That's media supposition at it's finest, as is the posting by the media and general public on boards and blogs all over the internet about how he must have been thinking about his reputation/wins/legacy versus the safety of those kids. Sandusky had never been arrested for, nor charged with nor found guilty of any sort of crime (and still hasn't), so how exactly do you justify cutting off all ties with the person based on second hand accounts and hearsay? It's not as if Paterno actually witnessed anything that would have made what you are purporting he do - completely block access to all campus facilitys/programs etc,- actionable without putting the university and himself at risk (and even had he done so, there is zero evidence that it would have prevented Sandusky from continuing to molest children). Did JoePa know about what happened in the shower involving his former staff member? yes, he himself admitted that to a grand jury. Did he report it directly to the police? No. There you go. He's not being charged with a crime because he did not lie about that. That doesn't mean the workplace where this was swept under the rug, by the people that this was known by, needs him to be charged with a crime to see that it was a huge problem. By not being immediately turned over to police it was a problem and that was compounded by having the man accused still around the program. His inaction and those of his direct superiors (which is laughable at penn state) enabled a child rapist. Get that through your head. Everyone involved needs to be and will be canned whether they are facing indictments or not. They taint the entire institution if you allow them to remain. He's not being charged with a crime because he did nothing wrong - he reported it to the "authorities" in charge of his institution (which is how the law/statute is worded... although I imagine that the statute may be amended to rid itself of such ambiguity in the future), not because he didn't lie about it to the grand jury - if the Grand Jury thought he was lying they would have charged him with perjury as they did with Schultz and Curely.. but they didn't, which seems to point to and support the fact that Paterno's testimony that he was unaware of the specifics of what took place in the shower is the truth. I've read the Grand Jury's report and honestly, based upon what's in there, Paterno is, at this time and until any evidence is produced to refute it.... innocent of wrong doing. If you want to talk about inaction, how about the detectives who dropped an investigation at the bequest of Penn State Campus Police, an AG/Head of Police that decided not to file charges, a mother who worked with the police to tape phone conversations but didn't pursue it when the police dropped it, the executives of Second Mile who were apparently informed several times about possible issues but did nothing, Shultz and Curely who did nothing... there was a whole lot of failure going on here by not only Penn State officials but by local and county law enforcement, school coaches and officials and other various authorities. The victims were let down at every single level by every person who should have protected them but to pin the majority of the blame on Paterno and say that it was Paterno who enabled and apparently by way of inaction, condoned, Sandusky's actions is a ridiculous. Could he have done more? Given the information we have now, it appears to be obvious he could have. But he didn't have all of this information, he had an apparently vague report of some sort of sexual misconduct between a former employee and a child, which he had already reported a required by law and "morality". Paterno is the "big name" goat being sacrificed to overshadow the rest of the stuff in the background.. it will be interesting to see where this case goes with regard to the public's interest in the case now that the "blood" we've all been calling for has been shed. Wrong. So wrong. McQueary told him what happened in excruciating detail. Show me in the indictment or in the testimonies of those involved where anyone says Paterno was told in full detail what happened in that shower. Don't you think that the Grand Jury would have indicted Paterno as well if Mcqueary (sp) had testified differently? Because that what happened with Schultz and Curley.

Are you kidding me? You must be a PSU fan. Just because you didn't break the law doesn't mean you didn't do anything wrong. He did the absolute bare minimum from a legal standpoint, but given this situation, EVERYBODY (not just a head football coach) should be held to a higher standard. His cowardly inaction enabled Sandusky to roam freely to molest other innocent children, and Paterno KNEW that was the case (or he was in denial about it, which doesn't make it better). If your argument is really that he didn't break the law, or that lots of other people were wrong too, then get your head out of the sand. Paterno screwed up in a huge way, and he deserves everything coming down the pipe at him (which by the way, is not jail-time. Just unemployment and shame). Not a Penn State fan at all, just not a fan of being led around by my nose by the media. The majority of what I've seen posted by media and in comments around the web is by people who are angry and start "reading" between the lines and filling in the blanks with "facts" that don't exist and then using those "facts" to stir up others into mindless frenzies. My argument is that Paterno, based upon what we currently know is factual, is the legally and morally innocent, he did what he was supposed to do. The fact that you or I wanted him to have done more doesn't make him morally bankrupt, it just makes us disappointed and mad that someone we elevated to and recognized as a "godlike" epitome of perfection failed to live up to our expectations, so know we're tearing down our idols to him and smearing his name.

Sorry but no. He got fired because he was part of the chain of command that this went through and got shoved under the rug by. That much is documented and admitted. It is not a witch hunt. I don't understand how people can divorce themselves from reality enough to think that this was just a convenient opportunity to get rid of the guy. He tied their hands the day he found out about what went on in 2002 and didn't go directly to the authorities and continued to have Sandusky around the program... and that's assuming he was ignorant of the situation that went on before Sandusky was removed as DC in the 90s. Which isn't very plausible. Funny, but I have yet to read of or see any evidence where this was "shoved under the rug" by Paterno. That's media supposition at it's finest, as is the posting by the media and general public on boards and blogs all over the internet about how he must have been thinking about his reputation/wins/legacy versus the safety of those kids. Sandusky had never been arrested for, nor charged with nor found guilty of any sort of crime (and still hasn't), so how exactly do you justify cutting off all ties with the person based on second hand accounts and hearsay? It's not as if Paterno actually witnessed anything that would have made what you are purporting he do - completely block access to all campus facilitys/programs etc,- actionable without putting the university and himself at risk (and even had he done so, there is zero evidence that it would have prevented Sandusky from continuing to molest children). Did JoePa know about what happened in the shower involving his former staff member? yes, he himself admitted that to a grand jury. Did he report it directly to the police? No. There you go. He's not being charged with a crime because he did not lie about that. That doesn't mean the workplace where this was swept under the rug, by the people that this was known by, needs him to be charged with a crime to see that it was a huge problem. By not being immediately turned over to police it was a problem and that was compounded by having the man accused still around the program. His inaction and those of his direct superiors (which is laughable at penn state) enabled a child rapist. Get that through your head. Everyone involved needs to be and will be canned whether they are facing indictments or not. They taint the entire institution if you allow them to remain. He's not being charged with a crime because he did nothing wrong - he reported it to the "authorities" in charge of his institution (which is how the law/statute is worded... although I imagine that the statute may be amended to rid itself of such ambiguity in the future), not because he didn't lie about it to the grand jury - if the Grand Jury thought he was lying they would have charged him with perjury as they did with Schultz and Curely.. but they didn't, which seems to point to and support the fact that Paterno's testimony that he was unaware of the specifics of what took place in the shower is the truth. I've read the Grand Jury's report and honestly, based upon what's in there, Paterno is, at this time and until any evidence is produced to refute it.... innocent of wrong doing. If you want to talk about inaction, how about the detectives who dropped an investigation at the bequest of Penn State Campus Police, an AG/Head of Police that decided not to file charges, a mother who worked with the police to tape phone conversations but didn't pursue it when the police dropped it, the executives of Second Mile who were apparently informed several times about possible issues but did nothing, Shultz and Curely who did nothing... there was a whole lot of failure going on here by not only Penn State officials but by local and county law enforcement, school coaches and officials and other various authorities. The victims were let down at every single level by every person who should have protected them but to pin the majority of the blame on Paterno and say that it was Paterno who enabled and apparently by way of inaction, condoned, Sandusky's actions is a ridiculous. Could he have done more? Given the information we have now, it appears to be obvious he could have. But he didn't have all of this information, he had an apparently vague report of some sort of sexual misconduct between a former employee and a child, which he had already reported a required by law and "morality". Paterno is the "big name" goat being sacrificed to overshadow the rest of the stuff in the background.. it will be interesting to see where this case goes with regard to the public's interest in the case now that the "blood" we've all been calling for has been shed.

Sorry but no. He got fired because he was part of the chain of command that this went through and got shoved under the rug by. That much is documented and admitted. It is not a witch hunt. I don't understand how people can divorce themselves from reality enough to think that this was just a convenient opportunity to get rid of the guy. He tied their hands the day he found out about what went on in 2002 and didn't go directly to the authorities and continued to have Sandusky around the program... and that's assuming he was ignorant of the situation that went on before Sandusky was removed as DC in the 90s. Which isn't very plausible. Funny, but I have yet to read of or see any evidence where this was "shoved under the rug" by Paterno. That's media supposition at it's finest, as is the posting by the media and general public on boards and blogs all over the internet about how he must have been thinking about his reputation/wins/legacy versus the safety of those kids. Sandusky had never been arrested for, nor charged with nor found guilty of any sort of crime (and still hasn't), so how exactly do you justify cutting off all ties with the person based on second hand accounts and hearsay? It's not as if Paterno actually witnessed anything that would have made what you are purporting he do - completely block access to all campus facilitys/programs etc,- actionable without putting the university and himself at risk (and even had he done so, there is zero evidence that it would have prevented Sandusky from continuing to molest children).

Well that's just too damn bad, tell it to the 40 kids or their families and see if they agree with you. "In the heat of the moment" doesn't absolve people of crimes of omission, just like it doesn't absolve them of crimes of commission. And what exactly was Paterno's crime? Because apparently no one can find any legal issue with how he handled it. Oh, never mind, I forgot, it's a "moral" crime... and thus need not actually require any kind of factual basis or evidence to back up.

Read the Grand Jury report. You have no idea what you're talking about when you say this is fueled by the media. This has been entirely driven by Joe Paterno's lack of action over nine-plus years of knowledge of Sandusky's actions. All reading the Grand Jury report does is make one mad (aside from the fact that we're assuming Paterno knew a crap ton more about Sandusky's actions than we can prove). And being mad feels great, it sets up the foundation of "righteous" anger, on which we can build our soap box and then use that to mount our high horse. Once mounted we can then proceed to justify and all of my actions to "punish" people in the name of "justice." The whole "morals" thing that everyone is preaching right now has very little to do with defending innocent children or any kind of "morality" at all, it the excuse we're using to vent anger at people who may or may not deserve it (although anybody we're mad at does, of course, deserve it, right?). Firing Paterno doesn't actually make anything better (in fact I highly doubt if anything at all comes out of this case in regards to truly making positive changes to prevent this sort of thing in the future), it just appeases the masses - he's a sacrificial goat, put out there by not only the BoT but also the police and AG to draw a ton of attention to the case, so much attention in fact, that they can sweep under the rug the fact that many people, including those now calling out Paterno for not doing more, did less than he did (because we have short memories and once the bloodthirst has died off we typically forget about it and move on... at least until the next time our thirst rises again). And the media laps it up and feeds it because it's money in the bank as far as they are concerned and if/when they find out they were wrong they don't have any culpability. It's the modern day version of the Salem Witch trials, seen most recently during the Casey Anthony case as well where the media stirred up a frenzy with suppositions and assumptions. So now we've gotten mad and someone has been punished/sacrificed. Do we all feel better now? Can we all stand tall and talk about how justice was done? As I said before, disgusting.

Ridiculous... this was a modern day witch hunt fueled by careless media making a lot of assumptions and suppositions with no real basis on factual evidence - that the BoT fired Paterno is not surprising given the rumors they've been trying to oust him for years, but fervor for which "we" were clamoring for his firing to "punish" him is repugnant. The whole "he should have morally done more" argument is the result of hindsight and a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. It's always much easier to see how a someone screwed up after the fact and what they should've/could've done to change things - it's much, much harder to perform at that kind of level of self-realization during a situation. As for the "I would've done this or kicked this person's ***&^^*, " well, we're all real tough on the internet, but the majority of us would have done no more than he did - reported it to his superiors - and of those who actually may have done more (which is very few) even fewer could actually back it up. Honestly, disgusted at what was done to those boys, disgusted it was covered up and disgusted with the pitchfork and torches mob mentality that we've allowed ourselves to be stirred up into by the media. Thank goodness our legal system gives zero weight to judgement of the court of public opinion, else we'd all hang. I only hope that the rioting is quelled before anyone gets seriously hurt as there's no need to had further injury, hurt and pain to this mess of a situation.

get off your high horse or get off the board. one or the other. this is an internet message board. i dont see many professing themselves to be coaches or whatnot.. what i do see is fans...and as extension of your local watering hole the internet is the new playground for those to shell out their opinions. some are obviously longer than others... No thanks I like the board and my high horse, it makes it easy to judge others for their opinions and decisions - it's especially nice because I get to hide behind the anonymity of internet to do it. I do apologize that my opinion was to long, however I didn't realize there was a character limit on Huskerboard. I'll try to make sure my opinions in the future are shorter and better reflect those of others on the board. In that vein, "FIRE Watson!!!! ...and let them eat cake!!!" Have a nice day!

I think that the expectations of many fans with regard to the Husker offense and/or Watson and the offensive coaching staff are so high as to be unable to be met - I feel the same is true of the defense as well. The offense is either too multiple or not multiple enough, it either passes too little or to much or on the wrong down or with the wrong quarterback; Watson goes away from the running game too soon or stays with it too long, etc, etc, etc. While I don't think Watson is the most brilliant OC to ever grace college football I think that expecting our offense to be some kind of powerhouse given the injuries, shifting play styles and the quarterback carousel that the last 3 years have been is ridiculous. I most definitely would have like to see touchdowns and W's in the games that have been posted as evidence of ineptitude but I don't think Watson leaving solves the fumbles, bumbles, penalties, miscues, drops, bad reads and blocking issues that the offense has experienced. On the defensive front, a few big plays against a player or the defense as a whole and it's like the Titantic is sinking all over again. Simply put my expectations were too high. After last years torching of Arizona, I expected a potent offense, a stout defense, a North title, Big XII championship and possibly a trip to the National Championship - we had a lot of talent returning and started the season ranked high enough to really make a go of it. Upon finding out Lee had been dropped to 3rd string and the starter was a freshman, I was worried and ready to temper my expectations of the Big XII title and National Championship chances (I though the North was still easily in hand). But Martinez looked good, Helu and Burkhead looked good, David looked good - in fact the whole team looked pretty darn good and so I didn't temper anything. All was actually going pretty well, just a few missteps on offense, even after the Texas game until the injury bug really started hitting. Now, before the injuries there were some issues with execution, loss of focus, etc, but they were relatively easily overcome with big plays and better talent. Once some of the playmakers started going down and opponent talent levels moving up, the issues that were once a bit of a pain in the side became a full blown cancer - killing drives, taking points off the board and putting the defense in often insurmountable positions. But, ugly as it often was, the Huskers still won and my expectations, batter and bruised a bit, remained high, although after the loss to Texas, National Championship became just a dream. The loss to A&M was tough, but even then only the National Championship was foregone. In fact, until the second half of the game tonight, I still expected to win the Big XII championship - and I held out hope until the end of the 4th. While I fully believe, and will until the day I die, that Husker fans are the best fans in all of college football - the fans, myself included, have become a fickle, spoiled, whiny, entitled bunch. The Osborne years, especially the 90's, were great, but they've somehow managed to convince us fans that we DESERVE championships, high rankings and no loss seasons just because we're the Huskers. How we measure success has become skewed such that anything less that complete domination of the North, Conference and FBS as a whole is failure. A 10-3 or 11-3 or 10-4 season, in the wake of some close, ugly and heartbreaking losses is obviously a bit tougher to swallow than an 13-0 season as conference champs, but it's kind of like playing the lottery and complaining about only winning $200K instead of the jackpot. Every week we're calling for coaches heads, throwing players under buses, calling out refs and conference officials, badmouthing sports writers... from the inside looking out and the outside looking in it's gotten pretty ugly folks. Should there be accountability for the performance of the team? No question. And there is, thankfully by cooler, more level heads than those of the fans.

Keep in mind that the "awesome D" also let Colorado receivers get behind them not once, but twice for 14 of those 17 points. If you're going to remove the big plays the defense made for NU then you need to be fair you should remove the big plays they gave up to Colorado as well, making it a 24-3 game (offense to offense).

I think people are going to find something to complain about regardless of how things are going (although it's endemic across all spectrums of life, not just as Husker fans). If Bo didn't go ballistic last night, everyone would be asking why Bo wasn't in the ref's ears. Instead, he did and now everyone's complaining about how embarrassing he was. I don't really hold it against Perlman for saying what he did, but agree that it should have "no commented" and handled inside the organization. As far as not representing Nebraska well or the "that's not how we handle things at Nebraska", in my opinion, I'll take honest, expression of how one feels over all the politically correct BS that "everyone" seems to want to spread around just so someone is not offended. Even if it makes Nebraska look "bad." Even if it makes a booster or three unhappy. I'd bet that at the end of the day, even if it were to cost him his job at Nebraska or future jobs, Bo would rather have done what he did and looked the fool than to have just taken what was happening lying down.

I imagine that had they actually been doing their job (calling a fair, unbiased game) last night instead of, well, whatever the heck they were doing, Bo wouldn't have been tearing them a new one all night.