Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
Some months ago, the trustees of Penn State University asked former FBI director Louis Freeh to look into allegations that former football coach Joe Paterno, former President Graham Spanier, former Vice-President Gary Shultz, and former Athletic Director Tim Curley conspired to hush up the sexual abuse of minors on and off the campus by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. This morning, Free issued his report. For those of us who had long admired Paterno and the integrity of the football program at Penn State, it makes for unpleasant reading:
Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State. The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest.
In sum, all of these men knew about Sandusky's conduct for a very long time. Vis-a-vis the former assistant coach, they sought to follow a course that they regarded as "humane," and they displayed no concern at all for his victims past or prospective. What they feared most was a scandal that would affect the football program and Penn State's ability to rake in donations. With this in mind, they breathed not one word about the matter to the university's trustees. As Freeh puts it,
[I]in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at Penn State University—Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley—repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from the authorities, the Board of Trustees, Penn State community, and the public at large.
None of this is especially surprising. Institutions and those who lead them tend to take self-protection to great lengths. In the name of safeguarding the institution -- whether a corporation, a university, a political party, or a polity -- its leaders are often willing to commit crimes. We have seen it in politics; we have seen it in business; we have seen it in ecclesiastical affairs. We should not be surprised to discover it at a university. High-minded rhetoric and dirtball conduct all too often go hand in hand.
Update: The Freeh report is now available online here. Apparently, football coaches and others on the athletic staff regularly observed Sandusky showering with minors prior to 1998 but, out of deference, reported nothing. One individual, now an adult male, who was not involved in the Sandusky trial reports having been abused by Sandusky in the mid-1990s more than one hundred times -- sometimes in the Penn State showers.
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Jun '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
The myth is that most of these guys care about the welfare of children and young men. Not really. They care about being at the top of their profession, and their profession is winning games.
Jul '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
Contrast Penn State with Arkansas which fired Bobby Patrino when word leaked out that a mistress 20 years or so younger was riding with him when he had a motorcycle accident. Then it was discovered he had put her on the university payroll. The athletic director wept when he announced Patrino's firing. The Razorbacks were back to being a Top Ten team. They say football is a religion in the south, but the real deal still reigns supreme, as they say on the chef shows. Not even a 12-0 season would have saved Bobby. At Penn State a more sophisticated reasoning was at work.
Sep '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
"Institutions and those who lead them tend to take self-protection to great lengths. In the name of safeguarding the institution -- whether a corporation, a university, a political party, or a polity -- its leaders are often willing to commit crimes."
Religious institutions?
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
Patrick in Albuquerque: "Institutions and those who lead them tend to take self-protection to great lengths. In the name of safeguarding the institution -- whethera corporation, a university, a political party, or a polity -- its leaders are often willing to commit crimes."
Religious institutions? · 13 minutes ago
Yes, indeed. They are corporations of a sort as well.
May '11
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
Not only was their cover up abhorant but stupid. Not that I condone this but, why didn't they tell Sandusky to move to a town far far away? It's either arrongance or stupidity or arrogance and stupidity to think one can cover up this continuous behavior for years on end.
Jun '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
I'm a college football fan. And because I'm a fan, this whole story makes me sick. What were they thinking letting this horrible, evil man run roughshod over the innocent?
To Dr. Rahe's comment, I worked for many years for a large corporation. It, like other large organizations, could go into self-protection mode. However, for several years we had a CEO who operated from the premise that the best way to deal with problems was to be open about them. He was a man of real integrity, unlike a couple of his successors.
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
tabula rasa: I'm a college football fan. And because I'm a fan, this whole story makes me sick. What were they thinking letting this horrible, evil man run roughshod over the innocent?
To Dr. Rahe's comment, I worked for many years for a large corporation. It, like other large organizations, could go into self-protection mode. However, for several years we had a CEO who operated from the premise that the best way to deal with problems was to be open about them. He was a man of real integrity, unlike a couple of his successors. · 47 minutes ago
It is amazing what a difference one good human being can make.
May '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If we know that, why do we give people, organizations, even sports teams, power over our lives? There is a certain sense in which every sports fan in America bears culpability for this by granting sports such power. Such things may happen at smaller teams and lower levels, but when there isn't so much at stake a more open manner of dealing with it can take place.
May '12
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
Bread and circuses, sir.
That university presidents and trustees have allowed this to become so is damning. It is abundantly clear they love the prestige of sponsoring "amateur athletics"(at least the illusion of) but love the money generated from these professional sports leagues(the reality) even more.
Although Americans haven't embraced the tribalism, violence, and hatred one sees in the organized hooliganism of European and international soccer, it's headed that way, more likely on the college level than anywhere else.
Edited on July 12, 2012 at 9:42pmDec '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
What???? Moving would have been the solution?! Please!!! A MAN would have gone to the police ASAP. These were mice.
May '11
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
BKelley14
What???? Moving would have been the solution?! Please!!! A MAN would have gone to the police ASAP. These were mice. · 1 hour ago
I wasn't condoning what they did. Of course they should have gone to the police. I was pointing out that not only were their actions horrific but the way they handled the cover up was stupid.
May '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
I think the report makes clear that Joe Paterno was a liar (maybe even a perjurer) and a coward.
Oct '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
After reading the report, it seems likely that there had to be others involved because it went on for so long. You do not become a pedophile at 50. Sandusky played at PSU and was a full-time coach from 1966 to 1999. After that, he had complete access, until Thanksgiving of last year. Sandusky had the run of PSU for 42 years with Satan Paterno as his protector.
A very experienced former Prison Psychologists at San Quentin, told me that prisoners that were pedophiles, stated, that if let out they could not control themselves and they would abuse children again. There is no know effective rehabilitation or treatment that works.
PSU should close down the football program, if not the school. PSU needs to determine the revenue generated by football from 1966 to today. That amount should be the start of the fund, but it will cost billions more because of the time-frame involved.
How many hundreds or thousands of young boys were sent mostly by single mothers to Sandusky and his crew, so the young boys could have a male role model?
The Paterno family and the defenders should just shut-up. Paterno was evil.
Apr '11
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
Sally Jenkins, who conducted Paterno's last interview, calls him exactly that:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/joe-paterno-at-the-end-showed-more-interest-in-his-legacy-than-sanduskys-victims/2012/07/12/gJQAMUX9fW_story.html
Those who used to defend Paterno's integrity have gone silent - good riddance.
Apr '11
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
It's unclear how many were "involved" in the cover up, but it was widely known that something was up with Sandusky for years. The local talk radio blowhard wrote a column about it months before the indictment:
http://www.timesonline.com/columnists/sports/mark_madden/madden-sandusky-a-state-secret/article_863d3c82-5e6f-11e0-9ae5-001a4bcf6878.html
There were so many who were eager to have this story go away - Penn State leaders, alumni, and fans. Even after the indictment and for months leading up to the trial they still defended and rationalized JoePa's actions. We can only hope that this whole story leads to fewer people holding an institution's reputation in higher regard the safety of children.
Nov '10
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
As a young teen, I attended classes at the Minneapolis Children's Theatre Company. It was an open secret that artistic director John Donahue "liked young boys". But his enormous talent led any responsible person who heard about it to look the other way. In this case it was the entire "arts" community in the Twin Cities who protected a pedophile and rationalized his behavior. The only way I could explain what they were thinking is that somehow in their minds his talent and high artistic vision placed him in another class of human being who did not have to follow the laws of average men. Not sure if they thought about the poor abused kids at all. When he was finally arrested in the early 80's, dozens of victims came forward with heart-breaking stories.Whether it is sports or the arts, are talent and success a drug powerful enough to induce child neglect in others?
Apr '11
Re: Louis Freeh's Report on the Penn State Shenanigans
I have been trying to follow this story both because I am interested in sports and because it's a huge news story.
But I've found that I can't stomach reading any more about it. The depravity is just too sickening.
And Professor Rahe, I know using "shenanigans" in your title was meant with bitter irony, but the word seems a little flippant.
Edited on July 14, 2012 at 3:00pm