In a 2½-hour gathering that capped three days of mourning on campus, Nike chairman and CEO Phil Knight brought the near-capacity crowd at the basketball arena to its feet when he defended the coach’s handling of child-sex allegations leveled against a former assistant. Paterno was fired two months ago by the Penn State trustees.
“This much is clear to me: If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno’s response,” Knight said. Paterno’s widow, Sue, was among those rising to their feet.
Later, Paterno’s son Jay received a standing ovation when he declared: “Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience.
Fuck you, Phil Knight. I haven’t gotten too involved in the whole Paterno thing, because it was pretty clear to me that everyone understands he looked the other way, and I’m not big on shitting all over the recently dead. But Knight crossed a line- he has no idea what was on Paterno’s conscience, and even worse, he’s attempting a pre-emptive whitewash of a Cardinal Law like reign of child rape.
Fuck you, Nike.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Ah, a whole new (and far more valid) reason to dislike Phil Knight (as a WSU guy his bankrolling of Oregon athletics has made the Duckies insufferable).
Villago Delenda Est
As a Duck, I disliked him already, given that he’s quite the bully with his huge fistfuls of bucks, but this is new territory for him. Absolutely agree, John. There is no excuse to make statements that are demonstrably false like that about Paterno. He knew, he covered it up, and more kids were damaged by the actions of his onetime heir apparent. Sandusky was allowed full access to Penn State athletic facilities AFTER he was eased out of his coaching job. They had to know, and the report of Paterno’s “report” is just appalling considering what the assistant coach who caught Sandusky with the boy saw.
Knight is totally off base with this ridiculous, fact-deficient statement. An embarrassment to the University of Oregon community, to be sure.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Villago Delenda Est: Honestly I tuned out the Sandusky saga months ago, it was a bit much to stomach and living in another country means I don’t get bombarded with it all the time. Did Joe Pa actively cover it up, or just choose not to do anything after kicking it up to the AD? One could say that morally that’s a distinction without a difference after it became apparent that the AD was gonna do fuck all about the situation, but I’d probably come down in the camp of degrees on that. If Joe just didn’t pursue it, he’s at best an enabler of an evil fuck. If he actively helped cover it up, then he’s a co-conspirating accomplice of an evil fuck after the fact, which makes him almost as evil and should have been charged with something, if one could make obstruction of justice or something similar stick in that situation. I don’t actually know which it was.
As one other aside, thanks for Bill Moos. I think we’ll do ok with him.
Villago Delenda Est
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
Sandusky was eased out of the assistant coaching job at Penn State in 1999. The incident that was described to the Grand Jury was in 2002. A full timeline is at the link..
As you can see from the time line, this has been going on for well over a decade, and numerous incidents that Paterno was aware of apparently were not acted on by anyone in the chain of command at Penn State.
Knight is flat out wrong in his assertions.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Villago Delenda Est: Oh I wasn’t saying Knight was right. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find any sane person who could say Knight was right. To me, after the story broke, the question was enabler or accomplice? Though, enabling somebody for that God damn long just about makes you an accomplice, doesn’t it?
Villago Delenda Est
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
As is commonly said here on the intertubes, I am not a lawyer. We do have lawyers who frequent BJ who can comment directly on that, but it seems to my layman eyes, and given that there is a legal requirement to report suspected child abuse to the authorities, that SOMEONE at Penn State broke the law. Those who reported it to their supervisor have, in my view, an obligation to follow up and see that the report is processed through to someone who will investigate, and it’s pretty obvious that this was NOT done for a decade.
Protecting the institution became more important than protecting children, basically. It’s a familiar story.
dr. luba
My 79 year old mother, who does not follow sports at all, has heard of Paterno. And thinks he should burn in hell. Forever.
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
Paterno may have, just barely, satisfied his legal obligation. He was, after all, not indicted.
Whether he satisfied his ethical and moral obligations is a different question. The best answer I can give, based on what is publicly known, is “probably not.”
As far as Knight is concerned, well let’s just say that making sound judgments on complex ethical and moral questions requires a different skill-set than building a $50 billion company from scratch. Knight is good at one of those things, not so good at the other. Penn State has been a Nike school for a long time, and Paterno was responsible for that, and Knight is loyal to those who make money for him. If Penn State were an Adidas or Under Armour school, Knight would be at the head of the line to piss on Paterno’s grave.
Waldo
I’m sure every kid who spent his/her formative years making Air Jordan’s in a Third World factory is stunned by Knight’s remarks.
Schlemizel
Ted Rall has a cartoon up today that I think says it nicely:
http://www.gocomics.com/comic/explore/1384359/16
Johannes
Based on the grand jury report, as well as the reportage, I think I’m with burns on this one, as to the law, at least.
geg6
I cannot begin to tell you how uncomfortable I have been at work the last couple of days. I have never been a Paterno fan, especially since 1982 when his pettiness, vindictiveness, and overwhelming ego caused him to announce the end of the most important annual football game in the state (which actually ended in 2000 due to contracts already signed) because the Big East wouldn’t have PSU and Pitt wouldn’t agree to a contract that gave PSU two home games to Pitt’s one. Yes, he was kind to my sister when she was a student, but I always thought he was an ass. And the whole Sandusky thing just sealed the deal for me on that.
But I, like you, haven’t said much since I didn’t want to kick around a corpse. But the constant paens over the past few days, culminating with cancelling classes yesterday afternoon so students could go to the auditorium to watch the feed from the memorial, was almost the last straw. I, personally, boycotted it and stayed at my desk working. And I was later happy to see via local news reports that turnout on my campus was not anywhere near capacity (about 350). Apparently, the students are wiser than the faculty, staff, and administration who made such a ridiculous spectacle of this whole thing. Glad to be at a satellite campus because I would not have been able to stomach the orgy of denial that encapsulates the University Park campus. Makes me want to throw up, especially with Billy Baldwin running all over the place up there, blaming lieberals and heathens for killing JoePa. Asshole didn’t even go to PSU, but JoePa was a wingnut so he’s a god to them, too. Disgusting.
dr. bloor
I know that after I die, I want a career sociopath defending my character at my memorial service.
Sphys
A man who uses child workers defended a man who enables child predation? Say it ain’t so!
sherparick
Another reason not buy anything with “Nike” on the label. I am sure the folks in the PR department rolled their eyes and started beating their heads against the wall.
Apparently all these little boys are the villians for not keeping their bleeping mouths shut and taking their buggery like men, eh Phil? No problem keeping the lid on things for 13 years and having Sandusky around the whole time, eh Phil?
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/mothers_of_two_of_jerry_sandus.html
This is another problem with the .1%, they really know no law or shame now as they have completely mainlined John Galt nihilism as their code of conduct.
The sad thing is that in doing this, they really drag Paterno down again (and being dead now, he certainly has no responsiblity for Phil Knight being a doofus). By trying to say Paterno did nothing wrong, they force us all to go through the whole, tragic, sick time line of cover-up and silence before evil, of sacrificing children for the god of Penn State football, that went on for 13 years. 40 years agon in “Sports in America” James Michener wrote that football and mens’ basketball as a mass entertainment industry was crazy, stupid, and hideously corrupting, and it has only gotten worse.
Ken
Personally, I think that JoPa was an enabler; he didn’t want anything rocking his boat.
Jay is just fucking stupid. Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience? Yeah, then “In hindsight, I wish I’d done more”. Maybe at PSU, that qualifies as a clear conscience.
Gromit
The Onion is just brutal on this subject.
butler
I’m continually amazed at the amount of denial the human mind is capable of.
I recently got into a internet shouting match with a real, die heard Joe Pa apologist. He insisted that they whole thing was the Trustees’ fault and that Paterno was only fired as a last ditch PR move, not for any real criminal or moral reason.
What’s worse, he actually thought that the better course of action, from a PR perspective, would have been to have Paterno step away from his coaching duties for a few months in order to be a prominent member of an investigation committee into Sandusky’s abuses. You read that right: he thought it would have been a smart PR move to put one of the most powerful people who looked the other way for years in charge of investigating why so many people looked the other way for years.
And then in a few months he said Paterno should have been returned to his job to coach Penn State in a bowl game. Insane.
Joseph Nobles
Jesus.
I’ll never buy Nike again.
Frank
Choosing to be ignorant about a topic allows one endless opportuniy to be righteously indignant. Whether it’s about the economy, climate change or child rape enabling football coaches.Lots of fun!It’s the new American way.
S-Curve
Sportscenter reported that the child care center at Nike is named for Paterno, so perhaps he was trying to launch a pre-emptive anti-irony attack.
Bulworth
Knight: JoePa did the bare minimum which is more than enough.
Knight also hilariously referred to JoePa’s “superiors” at the U. Ha ha. JoePa was the superior. Yes, F you Knight.
scav
Maybe to Knight and by implication Nike, Sandusky’s Paterno-enabled actions are just another facet of child labor. Does he care to pipe up about how he feels about the Newster’s plan for bathroom maintenance? I also wonder how the PR at said firm will feel about still another link between child <intertword> and the brand?
Persia
@sherparick:
This, exactly. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing, but still. Damn.
The Other Bob
Why not? We sure as hell should not be saying great things about Paterno just becuase he died. (As the MSM and his followers did.) He was the head of the football cult at Penn, where a damn game was more important than stopping the raping of children.
He’s dead. May he rot in hell.
burnspbesq
@The Other Bob:
“He was the head of the football cult at Penn”
After that gaffe, you may want to stay out of Philadelphia for a while.
kindness
I used to buy New Balance because the fit me well and were made here in the USA. Most of them aren’t made here any longer, but I still buy them because I think they are a better shoe than the others.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
there is an amazing amount of denial going on amongst those in state college, or those who never left in spirit.
to me, paterno is a corpse than needed kicking if ever there was one.
to those who qualm this on retaining their own humanity grounds, i understand. i disagree.
the thing is, the appearance of “success with honor” was always more of an image to be projected than a reality. to protect the ability to project that image, and the money, lets not forget that, any manner of dishonorable, deceitful, and illegal means was used. the sandusky crimes are not a one-off occurance just as assuredly an ivy league graduate had heard of “rape and a man”.
The essence of Paterno that transcends him personally and professionally, is that he always valued influence over money. He personally could have commanded a lot more of the money that his program brought to his university. Coaching salaries began to really skyrocket in the cable tv era, and after the ncaa restrictions on how many times a team could appear on tv were lifted in the early 80s. this began the arms race in college athletics that transcends even lucrative tv money. its about how universities will cram another thousand terrible seats onto a stadium that already seats over 100k.
This time frame is important, because it is also when Paterno was at the peak of his power. He had a choice, influence or money. He decided that he had enough money and the security it could bring, he chose to have influence. it was his willingness to appease the greed of others, and work relatively cheap that endeared him to the powers that love virtues on other people. as he made more and more money for the school, his influence and power grew. his need to project influence and power grew. his need to project his image in the face of all reality grew.
whereas some folks are money-hungry, paterno was power hungry. that is the real thing people need to remember him for. it is the essence of how and why sandusky, and everything else wrong with penn state.
there was no power the football program wouldn’t wield for the sake of wielding it, and thus ultimately glorifying paterno, who by not taking the more obvious vanity, money, was able to fool all of them into believing they weren’t seeing what they thought they must be seeing.
trollhattan
Is it safe to asume Nike is a paying Penn State sponsor (their uniforms sport swooshes somewhere) and that Knight is protecting his investment? If so, Trumph of the Free Marketz, bitchez!
What a tool.
dj spellchecka
wow, just wow! how dare those abused kids open their months and how dare responsible adults investigate of behalf of those kids??
thinking about blaming the victims? nike says “just do it!”
dollared
@Gromit: Thanks. Satire is brutal when it is directly on target. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Onion hit anyone quite this hard.
Benjamin Franklin
@Joseph Nobles:
They hurt my feet.
The Sheriff Is A Ni-
Just Ignore It. ™
Davo
Knight might be more disgusting than Sandusky… Not really but you catch my drift. There aren’t words to describe the Knights of the world.
Paul in KY
If that idiot (Paterno) or given his age (his wife/son) had retired at end of 2010 season, he would have been spared much of what occurred.
But he just had to keep coaching, getting those wins beside his name, getting those fat paychecks. Hubris brings down many a man in the end.
Jade Jordan
Anyone who knew Joe Paterno or knew of him outside of this scandal, realizes how he worked Penn State like a dictator. There is no part of the University’s business that he did not butt into.
I knew of him through a comparable coach and athletic director. The statements he made in meetings and the stories he told let everyone know how much of an iron fist he wielded
He made sure that everyone knew the football program was his and his alone. They were exempt from all academic and moral codes of conduct, self-policing, and above all else above the law.
The shrinking violet portrayal since the Perv State scandal broke is ridiculous. Paterno was involved in this beyond his initial report. Unfortunately it was to make sure it never saw the light of day. He wielded absolute power with Thor’s hammer.
The good news is that now he is answering to the one entity who knows all, knows Joe’s true heart, and true involvement in the Perv State scandal. He is receiving the punishment he deserves.
History will eventually record the true JoePa. The Penn State bully core will dissipate and everyone will realize that the most powerful man in Pennsylvania failed to save the most vulnerable citizens from continued abuse because it might damage the only two things he cared about: JoePa and Penn State Football.
JWL
The child who was raped in the shower continues to be raped by Penn State. I can appreciate the University is in a tough spot where public statements are concerned, given its current and pending legal troubles. Yet the fact remains that a cover-up occurred, and many (if not all) of the perpetrators are unrepentant.
In the name of simple decency, I continue to believe that Penn should have shut down its football program immediately, to best acknowledge the depth of its culpability. Could it be that it might also make the best sense from a legal point of view? Could the inevitable damages the school will (certainly) suffer be mitigated if the school now cancels its football program outright? There could be no better evidence of its resolve to eradicate the culture in which the rape and cover-up occurred than if it does. If public statements such as Knight’s can be introduced in a courtroom by the victim’s attorneys, it certainly affords any jury a wider-angled view of the sheer scope of the school’s negligence. Perhaps enough to incline a jury towards awarding far more substantial damages that might otherwise be the case.
If, for whatever reason, Penn did choose to cancel its football program, few reasonable people would disapprove of it reemerging down the road. On top of everything else, it might even be the school’s only path to rehabilitate its reputation. God knows, so long as Penn State’s partisans continue to rally to clowns like Knight, that rehabilitation is rendered impossible.
geg6
@JWL:
I cannot correct people on this enough. Penn and Penn State are two completely different institutions. As someone who attended one (albeit for only a very short period) and who works for the other, this irritates me no end.
LongHairedWeirdo
I’ll say this much: if Paterno died with a clear conscience – that is, if he died thinking “well, I did the right thing, no questions asked, I have no regrets” – then I’d *despise* the man with every fiber of my being.
If he died with a very troubled conscience, having nightmares of children being raped, because he chose to look away, then that would make me feel a bit better about him.
Not that his inner thoughts or feelings are any of my business. But, you know.
I find this whitewashing of him to be especially despicable. It happens all the time to victims of sexual violence. People who were assaulted are basically told “we don’t care about you! We care about these other people, and they’re a lot more important than you!”
JWL
@geg6: So, Penn State it is. I regret the misunderstanding.
BillinPA
I’ve had to change my normal posting name to prevent reprisals – I’m serious. That’s how much the JoePa bullshit affects this university.
I’ve worked and taught at Penn State for a number of years. My children went to Main and got degrees. We have friends and contacts at Main.
Believe everyone on this thread who say Paterno was a dictator. He only cared about power and his legacy.
Don’t agree?
Then explain how he could tell President Spanier and AD Curly to piss off when they went to his house around 2005 to suggest he retire.
Explain how sideline workers told me that Paterno was so feeble minded that he would call out to players on the field using the names of players from 5,10,15 years ago. With the uniforms having no names, he went by the number and his poor memory.
Explain why he only stayed 15-20 minutes at the retirement dinner for Sandusky – the man that was his right hand guy for so many years and, until he was told no way, was considered Paterno’s replacement.
Explain why the big cheeses had to tell the person in charge of enforcing academic and student policy that Paterno says get out of my football program or else.
Explain to me how, when interrupting Paterno as he reviewed game tapes to tell him about 9-11, Paterno said a few things and went back to the tapes.
Like Bear Bryant who died 4 months after he retired, Joe was all about Joe, Football, then Family. A balanced life he did not have and an example for our children he is not unless we are willing to encourage mindless devotion and lack of humanity.
As the trial goes on the 42% who said he shouldn’t have been returned, will grow. Believe me…
Zach
I have to take all this Paterno hate with the grain of salt I’ve gotten from Berube. He obviously was a fan of Paterno, and hardly someone who would just go along to get along. I believe his admiration of Paterno was sincere. I trust his take over, well, all of yours. I think there is a lot of heaping on here, a lot of people claiming they knew how evil a man Paterno was.
I don’t believe he was evil. People claiming that he should have followed through and made sure it was investigated. What if he did? The investigation was horribly flawed, at what point could he trust the judgment of the investigators? How many investigations should he have questioned? Why should he believe that the police in the previous investigations hadn’t done their job? Was the system good? No. How many of you are asking for the parents of victims of pedophiles to be brought up on charges for not investigating further and allowing it to happen in the first case? How many catholic parents in the 70s “didn’t investigate enough?”? Maybe we should be dancing on their graves and proclaiming our superiority. How many of you penn staters heard the rumblings and didn’t do anything? The amount of knowledge you all have of Paterno makes it hard to believe you didn’t have an inkling of something with Sandusky. Why did you let the previous whitewashings stand? Seriously, why?