Penn State (and other sports sex crimes) Scandal Thread

[Andy]

The Philadelphia Inquirer's top investigative reporter, Nancy Phillips, has written a story containing what we're told are allegations of child molestation against sportswriter Bill Conlin, a longtime columnist at the rival Daily News. Conlin resigned just moments ago, according to a source at the Daily News.

http://deadspin.com/5869737/legendary-c ... -bombshell

[gullycanyon]

The Philadelphia Inquirer's top investigative reporter, Nancy Phillips, has written a story containing what we're told are allegations of child molestation against sportswriter Bill Conlin, a longtime columnist at the rival Daily News. Conlin resigned just moments ago, according to a source at the Daily News.

http://deadspin.com/5869737/legendary-c ... -bombshell

Once again, the most shocking aspect is not even the behavior allegedly committed by the guy, but the fact that the one thing nobody did was call the fuckin' cops.

[Mulligan]

Conlin's column on November 11:

When I'm King of the World . . .

People who say they would have pounded the snot out of Jerry Sandusky had they been alerted by the alleged shower-room assault will remember Kitty Genovese . . . Everybody says he will do the right thing, get involved, put his own ass on the line before or after the fact. But the moment itself has a cruel way of suspending our fearless intentions. Suspended fearless intentions was the fate that befell a pretty, 105-pound, young New York woman named Kitty Genovese, whose walk home from work through her Kew Gardens neighborhood was ended on March 13, 1964, by a serial killer named Winston Moseley. He picked her out at random and stabbed her to death in front of her apartment building during a horrific assault that lasted nearly a half-hour and took place at three locations outside the sprawling building. As many as 38 residents heard all or part of her shrieking, pleading attempt to ward off a man who stabbed her multiple times. Only one of them called police and that was after calling a friend for advice on what to do. None made any attempt to intervene. Some thought it was a domestic dispute and didn't want to interfere.

The Genovese case has been widely studied as a classic example of an eyewitness behavior social psychologists call "The bystander effect," "Genovese syndrome" or "Diffusion of responsibility." . . . Dr. Dave Joyner, a captain of Penn State's great 1971 team, was one of the Penn State trustees who voted to terminate his former coach and sack president Graham Spanier . . . Could the Trustees' handling and timing of the firings have been botched more badly? I'm surprised they didn't pull up to the Paterno home in a stretch limo with opaqued windows and hand him a blindfold and cigarette. But these guys didn't even have the guts to whack him in person. Instead, they sent a messenger to deliver a note with a phone number on it for Paterno to call, then two Trustees informing, "You are relieved of your duties." Maybe they feared a college football Libya, with Paterno, surrounded by loyalists, refusing to surrender the football palace.

Then, they convened the press conference after 10 p.m., just as beered-up students were gathering downtown to stage an Arab Spring moment that resulted in arrests, injuries and a flipped TV station van. Could have been worse. They could have waited until halftime tomorrow and had JoePa led out of Beaver Stadium by the same campus security that turned a blind eye to so much football team mischief over the years.

So where does this rank on the scale of American tragedies and disruptions in our time? Watergate? Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca murders? The Lindbergh kidnapping? O.J. Simpson? More recently, the Casey Anthony trial? This is right up there with any of them. And if the media coverage is any measure, it is bigger than any of them . . . One more thing the Trustees could have done: Having failed to cancel the Nebraska game, which they should have done, the money generated by the final home game of this blown-up season should be placed in escrow and distributed to the victims once what will be a torturous and bizarre legal process runs its course. That will be a down payment for the huge hit the university will take when the civil awards start coming down. Fortunately, Pennsylvania trial and district courts are still off limits to TV coverage. We will be spared a Casey Anthony circus.

Who would I like to see getting the mops, buckets and playbooks to clean up the biggest mess in college football history? Al Golden might have an escape clause in his University of Miami contract tied to the former Penn State co-captain not being informed his new team was about to be hit by suspensions and sanctions. Golden is young enough to weather the storm of the A.P. (After Paterno) years, is a brilliant recruiter, and bottom line, he's a helluva football coach. Urban Meyer? Nah. Great coach, but he and his wife are too close to Joe and Sue Paterno. If he had health problems coaching a national champion at Florida, imagine him wading into this mess.

When I'm King of the World . . .

There will be a statue of Joe Frazier erected next to the Rocky statue on the Art Museum steps . . . Joe will be in the pose he struck after the 15th-round left hook he brought "from the country" that floored Muhammed Ali in the most anticipated sports event of all time. I was lucky to have covered about five of Frazier's early fights during his 11-bout sprint through his first pro year. The one I remember best was against a palooka named Abe Davis in the Hotel Philadelphia Auditorium. Abe retired with a professional record of 5-27-1. He was the classic "shipped body" and was knocked out in the first round. Frazier stuck his head against the guy's chest and dug a thunderous left to Abe's midsection that produced an "oooooof" you could hear outside on Broad Street. Joe caught him on his glass chin and Abe went down in sections and stayed down. Frazier was the closest I have seen to the relentless, crowding style of Rocky Marciano. Like Marciano, who retired unbeaten, Frazier was a stubby, tank of a man who absorbed a lot of punishment during his career . . .

It is less than a month to baseball's winter meetings in Dallas. Ruben Amaro will have dropped at least one bomb before then. Maybe. Probably. Perhaps. I've never been a Jonathan Papelbon guy. It might be that sucked-a-lemon pucker the former Red Sox closer screws his mouth into while staring in for the sign.

[Ansel Rakestraw]

So where does this rank on the scale of American tragedies and disruptions in our time? Watergate? Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca murders? The Lindbergh kidnapping? O.J. Simpson? More recently, the Casey Anthony trial? This is right up there with any of them.

No sordid sexual deviancy, kidnappping, wacked out group homocide, whatever compares to a President being forced out of office because of criminal activity contravening the Constitution. The trial / scandal of the month blows over and people move on. The sanctity of a nation and risks created by Nixon's actions dwarf the cable news flavor of the month.

Get the fuck over it.

[gullycanyon]

That is a ballsy stand, Ansel, because you are running the risk of being seen as diminishing the gravity of the Penn State/Bernie Fine/Conlin scandals, but you are telling the truth and making a helluva good point.

Goes to show ya how much trouble is behind the door when one starts comparing tragedies.

Thumbs-Up on a Straight-Up Real Deal post.

[Ansel Rakestraw]

That is a ballsy stand, Ansel, because you are running the risk of being seen as diminishing the gravity of the Penn State/Bernie Fine/Conlin scandals, but you are telling the truth and making a helluva good point.

Goes to show ya how much trouble is behind the door when one starts comparing tragedies.

Thumbs-Up on a Straight-Up Real Deal post.

What Sanduskey did and how people covered it up is horrible.

But it directly affects a limited amount of people.

Imagine if Bush II had been given the same coverage when the truth about lying to Congress was unveiled. That had huge ramifications (ballooning debt from a war we don't want to pay for, wholesale changes in local, state and federal programs) and did not get the same level of attention or outrage. No fucking student riots over that.

I do feel bad for the victims, I really do. But we need a little perspective on this.

[gullycanyon]

That is a ballsy stand, Ansel, because you are running the risk of being seen as diminishing the gravity of the Penn State/Bernie Fine/Conlin scandals, but you are telling the truth and making a helluva good point.

Goes to show ya how much trouble is behind the door when one starts comparing tragedies.

Thumbs-Up on a Straight-Up Real Deal post.

What Sanduskey did and how people covered it up is horrible.

But it directly affects a limited amount of people.

Imagine if Bush II had been given the same coverage when the truth about lying to Congress was unveiled. That had huge ramifications (ballooning debt from a war we don't want to pay for, wholesale changes in local, state and federal programs) and did not get the same level of attention or outrage. No fucking student riots over that.

I do feel bad for the victims, I really do. But we need a little perspective on this.

Of course. Perspective.

I hope my remarks didn't cause you to feel as though you had to clarify or defend your statement. You made an excellent point, and if my comments caused you to feel awkward, or as though you may have come off as being dismissive in re: the pedo-scandals, I apologize. You didn't come off that way.

[Ansel Rakestraw]

That is a ballsy stand, Ansel, because you are running the risk of being seen as diminishing the gravity of the Penn State/Bernie Fine/Conlin scandals, but you are telling the truth and making a helluva good point.

Goes to show ya how much trouble is behind the door when one starts comparing tragedies.

Thumbs-Up on a Straight-Up Real Deal post.

What Sanduskey did and how people covered it up is horrible.

But it directly affects a limited amount of people.

Imagine if Bush II had been given the same coverage when the truth about lying to Congress was unveiled. That had huge ramifications (ballooning debt from a war we don't want to pay for, wholesale changes in local, state and federal programs) and did not get the same level of attention or outrage. No fucking student riots over that.

I do feel bad for the victims, I really do. But we need a little perspective on this.

Of course. Perspective.

I hope my remarks didn't cause you to feel as though you had to clarify or defend your statement. You made an excellent point, and if my comments caused you to feel awkward, or as though you may have come off as being dismissive in re: the pedo-scandals, I apologize. You didn't come off that way.

Not at all, just the longer this thing drags out and the more furious the hand wringing gets the more irked I become by the outsized level of coverage. The shit going on in Syria affects lives (be ending them violently) and has huge implications for further destabilization of MidEast security....yet, that is an after thought.

[The Beav]

Not at all, just the longer this thing drags out and the more furious the hand wringing gets the more irked I become by the outsized level of coverage. The shit going on in Syria affects lives (be ending them violently) and has huge implications for further destabilization of MidEast security....yet, that is an after thought.

http://arf69er4.tripod.com/Duckman-england.wav

[Ansel Rakestraw]

Not at all, just the longer this thing drags out and the more furious the hand wringing gets the more irked I become by the outsized level of coverage. The shit going on in Syria affects lives (be ending them violently) and has huge implications for further destabilization of MidEast security....yet, that is an after thought.

http://arf69er4.tripod.com/Duckman-england.wav

Yeah, but when our troops just back from Iraq have to gear back for Syria...

[meme]

I really doubt that we would do anything about the mess in Syria. Especially as we have left Iraq which is right next door....you know, drive right in close...

[gullycanyon]

Yeah, Ansel, I read you loud & clear-- and I'm with you on that-- but ya gotta remember that a lot of folks really don't give a shit what's going on in Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, etc., and while I don't feel that way, they have a point, and I see that point.

The concept of the world being some kind of "global village" where the shit in one area has an eventual effect on everyone else's plumbing is a concept that is not universally-held, particularly in relatively-affluent western societies.

Or: What The Beav said (or linked to.)

[Andy]

"Pedobear" Showed Up At The Houston-Penn State Game Today


http://deadspin.com/5872516/pedobear-sh ... game-today

[Ansel Rakestraw]

"Pedobear" Showed Up At The Houston-Penn State Game Today


http://deadspin.com/5872516/pedobear-sh ... game-today

I'm usually a fan of pushing the envelope, but that is just assinine. Ever is too soon, in this case.

[Heywood McCrakin]

So where does this rank on the scale of American tragedies and disruptions in our time? Watergate? Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca murders? The Lindbergh kidnapping? O.J. Simpson? More recently, the Casey Anthony trial? This is right up there with any of them.

No sordid sexual deviancy, kidnappping, wacked out group homocide, whatever compares to a President being forced out of office because of criminal activity contravening the Constitution. The trial / scandal of the month blows over and people move on. The sanctity of a nation and risks created by Nixon's actions dwarf the cable news flavor of the month.

Get the fuck over it.

Not sure if I agree.....breaking the law for political gain is bad...no question. Deciding not to turn in a child molester out of fear that it would injure your football program is obscene.