I know I’ve written about this particular subject before, namely, WHY should athletes be held as “role models” let alone paragons of virtue? The vast majority of professional athletes have been spoiled, pampered persons whose relation to others has been that of royalty to peasants. WHY? Because they can run or jump or hit/catch/throw a BALL? Why should these skills be not only admired, but those who do such things almost worshipped?
I was thinking this again because of all the news about Joe Paterno, the Sandusky child raping scandal, the students rioting against Paterno’s dismissal. Two weeks ago, I had never even heard of Joe Paterno. Now, he is the premier example of the old saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The story is sordid, but simple. Joe Paterno, a man who had immense power over a city and a university and many state politicians because he was a successful football coach and was literally worshipped for this, allowed a pederast to remain with the University, the team and a “charity” supposed to be helping young boys. Let me say the most astounding part – he was literally the most powerful man at a University and the most powerful person for a 300 mile radius because of a GAME. People gave money to the University, not because of its teachers, research or academics, but because of a stupid GAME.
I’m a Texan, I know that people like football games. I know that UT and A&M have popular football programs. But the coaches do not wield power like a despot over the entire University, the town and a good deal of the legislature (not to say real too particular good things about the Lege, but at least they don’t do obeisance to some football coach.)
Paterno – the word comes from the latin word pater, meaning father. He spoke about the athletes, unpaid moneymakers for the University – clearing at least $50 MILL/year in profit, making exactly nothing, as his “kids.” He boasted of his pristeen morals, of fomenting those self-same morals in his clubhouse and locker room.
But what should a good father, a man of unquestioned high morals (and WHY are those morals unquestioned, I ask?) do when he discovers that one of his “kids” is a creature of evil? And make no mistake about it, adult men who anally rape little boys are just flat out evil. There is no other appropriate word. Evil. Do you excuse him because he is your “kid”? Do you think that you should allow him to continue to rape, unmolested (hahahaha) and cover up any tales of his crime? Is it because he is yours and therefore his crime would reflect on you, or is it because you think that your family and the family business, the game of football, is far more important than any 10 year old boy’s rectum.
How could anyone, ANYONE, especially a man with boys of his own, so easily dismiss a crime like this? To protect a GAME?
You all know the story. In 2001, an enormous male, age 20 something, caught a smaller, much older man raping a child in the locker room. The discoverer was an ex-football player. The rapist, his former coach and one of his present bosses. The discoverer did absolutely NOTHING to stop the rape or help the child, just called his own daddy, who told him to keep his mouth shut and tell Paterno in the morning. He did. And what happened with the rapist? Not a thing. Again.
Oh yes, it had happened before.
Paterno, in 1998, was the most powerful man at the University, not just the most highly paid. He obeyed the letter of the law and reported the matter to his immediate “superior.” And went on as if nothing had happened. The rapist was forced to “resign” with a nice severance package, but essentially continued on as if nothing had happened. More and more people witnessed the rapist raping. Paterno heard no evil, saw no evil and did evil by saying nothing.
Did he think his legacy would be tarnished by exposing (hahaha) the monster in lion’s clothing? Did he think people would think ill of him for saying – I discovered that this piece of garbage was molesting little boys in our own locker room and I made sure that he was imprisoned immediately and the victim provided for? How can he defend to himself, let alone the God is supposed to worship, his decision to literally “keep it in the family” at the expense of raped children? Is it that they were not his kids so who cares? Is it that they were the disenfranchised, so who cares? Is it that all he cared about was the image of his football team?
I know that many males will explain to me that being female, I can’t possibly understand the locker room mentality, the importance of omerta at any cost. That football is so crucial a piece of existance that its players and coaches should be allowed to do essentially anything as long as they play winning football.
They are right. I don’t get it, any more than I get the cult of college football and the fanatical fantasy that these athletes are “amateurs” and students who just happen to be able to play a game that nets their University uncounted zillions and themselves nothing but endless sexual partners.
I may be a fan of a team, or of an athlete, but if I EVER found out that the team had supported or enabled a rapist (hello Boston Red Sox and your skeletor in the closet – hahahaha) I would most certainly NOT excuse ANYTHING and would demand that anyone who allowed this to go on or didn’t report it be outed and punished accordingly, even if the only punisment available was social censure.
How, HOW???? could students support Joe Paterno, no matter what ELSE he had done, after learning that he put the importance of a football GAME above the safety and sanity of these poor raped boys? The support is based on, what, that he won football games and obeyed the letter of the law and only informed a person who he knew could be relied upon to sweep the unpleasantness under the rug?
You could try to excuse the graduate assiatant who witnessed the rape and didn’t call the police on the grounds that he was afraid for his future and chose to protect himself and let the child go to hell. Some excuse. But excusing the ONE person who had absolute power, the power to stop the rapist because he won FOOTBALL games – that is the utmost in unforgiveablilty.
I understand those who, like Joe Posnanski, who believed Paterno to be the moralest of the moral, shocked into disbelief. Disbelief, I understand. I would feel the same kind of disbelief and shock if someone who I believe is one of the moralest of the moral, like Lance Berkman, was accused of a heinous crime. BUT faced with incontrovertable evidence, I would certainly not be telling him – well, I still love you because you hit .300 as an Astro and had a 1.063 OPS+ in the World Series. That is less than nothing vs evil. And what Paterno did, keeping quiet, placing a stupid GAME over multiple human lives, was just as evil as the rapist.
sigh
It isn’t that I don’t understand the instinct of preserving the family - I guess this Paterno creep was virtually head of a family. I understand not wanting cops. I understand not wanting trouble. I understand not wanting scandal. I understand not wanting disgrace. But What I do NOT understand is tolerating a child rapist in your family because he is your family and at least so far, his victims are not One Of Your Own.
You want to know if I am going to let my own children play football. The twins don’t want to and Da Bull, who is enormous and urged frequently by those who don’t know better to go play football, tells them (and I quote): No thank you – I abhor gratuitous violence.
Yes, I did teach him them big ol words and he DID have to practice it until he got it juuuuuuuuust right…
And yes, their daddy and I HAVE sat down with them, discussed the importance of them feeling comfortable enough to tell us if someone tries to touch them in such a way that it makes them uncomfortable. We hope we made them understand that they would NOT be punished and that they should not think they should have to pay the price of silence and rape to continue on with their lives.
Tags: MLB
I’m at a loss for words about this. Am I shocked……..no. Sexual predators are
EVERYWHERE. They prey on innocent children, who grow up to be violent adults.
The circle of violence is not broken, until someone is “found out:”. Then, and ONLY then, is the sick individual caught. Look how long it took the Catholic church to come “clean” with their abusive Priests! I *PUCKED* when I read the
articles about this man, and NO BODY DID ANYTHING!! As far back at the early 2000′s there were accusations, and the DA did NOTHING to this man! Don’t get me started, Lisa. I’m so angry I could rip his head off….. like someone SHOULD have done YEARS AGO! Becky grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Be careful to not rush to judgment with “facts” gleaned from the media.
Remember the “Duke Rape Case” from a few years back?
zagger- The District attorney is a BIG part of why this story could have been different. Sandusky ADMITTED to the woman who brought charges against him,
and the DA did *NOTHING*. That was back in the late 1990′s or beginning of the 2000′s. He was NEVER investigated after that, and was left to continue his
sexual abuse of these little boys. I’m sick to my stomach just thing about it. Becky
Zagger is correct. The “accused” in the Duke lacrosse rape case were judged,found guilty in the media and nearly everyone. Nevermind the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law which is a *crucial* cornerstone of the judicial system.
You all know how that turned out. Currently Duke U and the state of North Carolina is facing a lawsuit from the wrongfully accused lacrosse players. Not only that..but the REST of the lacrosse team is also suing Duke U and the state as well – both sets of lawsuits are currently still pending.
This is a cautionary tale of rushing to judgement. It cuts both ways for the guilty and accused..anyone remember the OJ trial ?
And speaking of miscarriage of justice…the state of Texas currently leads the entire nation in overturned sentences based on DNA evidence ? Then there’s the Cameron Todd Willingham and the Michael Morton cases. Did you realize that Morton came DAMN near getting a death sentence instead of life ?
Had that occured, Texas would have gone 2 for 2 in executing a innocent man. The Willingham inquiry committee subquesently found that every single one of the 20+ arson indicators in the Willingham case did NOT support the finding of arson. In other words…had Willingham’s trial been held today..he would have been found NOT GUILTY.
http://camerontoddwillingham.com/?p=688
Sorry – just got wound up by those cases.
zagger,
i remember the Duke “rape” thingy only too well – and the accuser who made the whole thing up was not prosecuted or sued. the DA who manufactured evidence had his license taken away and was not prosecuted. the journalists who stated that te accused WERE guity have never apologised (hello serena roberts)
thing is that with sandusky, there are simply waaaayyy too many accusers. and his, uh, horsing around – ahem – with young boys reminds me of michael jackson and all the boys who slept in his bed.
the DA in the sandusy case who did nothing was mysteriously murdered not much later – still unsolved.
eric,
the number of inmates in texas who are imprisoned on no evidence, bad evidence, withheld evidence, manufactured evidence – is stupefying. the fact that it takes YEARS for a convicted inmate to get old DNA evidence tested is a travesty. remember the harris county forensic lab scandal from just a few years back?
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7242906/report-approval-houston-astros-sale-conditional-move-american-league
I wonder if it’s possible for a class action suit against MLB for ignoring the wishes of Astros fan and to remove the antitrust immunity from MLB as punishment ?
I’d love to see Selig and Co..get blindsided by something like this.
Eric
eric
they have the congressmorons right where they want them. unless you know someone who wants to joing the suit who has more money than MLB + ESPN + Fox combined AND, unless you have lots of pics with a whole LOT of congressmorons with live boys/dead grrls, we’re out of luck and out ball team is gone.
it’s how things are, what can I say. it’s our last year, the team is gonna be terrible and we won’t have real too much to miss…
So, it’s official. The Astros move to the AL at then end of the 2012 season. This is my last post — I’m removing my browser bookmarks to all the Astros sites, I’m not renewing my mlb.com video and audio, and I’m done with this. Up yours, Selig.
Lisa, thank you very much — I enjoyed your blog tremendously. Sorry it has to end this way.
I think those of us saying they’ll stop following and watching the team because of the move to the AL are overreacting a bit. Yeah, this really sucks. Jim Crane seems like a terrible owner and a scummy human being. But they’re still the Astros. They still represent Houston, for whatever that’s worth.
I mean, they could start playing in the NPB and I’d still get up at 3AM to watch them play. I’ve watched them lose 106 out of 162 games this year, after all. Not too much is worse than that when it comes to baseball.
And that goes doubly for you, Lisa. The Astros fan community would be drastically lessened if you stop writing about this team.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Becky:(
I just hope Selig and Crane got to hell holding hands together while they burn in the fires of Hell.
That’s the PG rated version too.
Eric
Hi All: Been away from my desk leaf peeping in beautiful northeast Texas.
Great comments here. I have no love lost for the good old boy system, which is alive and well in the courts, in the locker rooms, board rooms, etc. and would wish the tortures of the damned on anyone harming a child. This is particularly salient to me since my business is dealing with children who have been harmed.
Nevertheless, one of the most precious pieces of our liberties is the presumption of innocence part. We’ll lose it soon enough as things are moving today.
And the media is not our best source of info. They lie. As do the officers of the courts. We have to handle their data with care.
In the Duke case, those students were literally saved by the internet. If it hadn’t been for K.C. Johnson’s and Bill Anderson’s blogs, among others, those boys most likely would still be locked up. And we wouldn’t have a new verb added to our Eng. language: “nifonged”.
Happy cranberries to all.
z
Lisa,
Interesting that the AL discussion is being carried on under “Athletes And Morals Or Lack Thereof.” I’d like like to see a title like “Baseball Commissioners And Morals Or Lack Thereof.”
This fiasco is the result of one man’s greed and one man only, Bud Selig. The entire problem is the result of the life and times of his beloved Milwaukee Brewers. If we had had an owner with as much love and fraternal care for our team as Selig has always had for the Brewers, this whole situation would be non-existent.
The Brewers was baseball’s answer to the removal of the short run of the Braves in Milwaukee. Milwaukee fans were just as outraged as we are now when they split for Atlanta after their Rich And Fabled 13 year history in Cheesetown.
Bud Selig to the rescue! Here ya go, a wonderful new team I found in Seattle!
Boo hoo hoo, go the Milwaukee fans. We wanna be in the National League, like the Braves were. (sniff, sniff)
Bud Selig to the rescue! Your wish is my command. I don’t care if it messes up the structure of the leagues. We’re going to the NL, and won’t be nobody’s red-headed stepchild.
Boo hoo hoo, go the Milwaukee fans. There’s too many teams in our division. We have less of a chance to win than those lucky boys in the AL West.
Bud Selig to the rescue!
Zagger,
once the guy admits to, and i quote, “horsing around” with 10 year old boys in a shower, that is more than enough for me. no normal adult man “horses around” with children – with both of em buck nekkid – in a shower. there are too many – waaaayyy too many people who have come forward.
thi is nothing like those poor guys at duke who had exactly ONE person say they did the crime. and the DNA actually exonerated them – which the criminal DA suppressed. it was more than an outrage – in fact, the biggest outrage is that that the woman who perpetrated the hoax was never charged with a crime.
Lisa…
While I share your outrage over Sandusky’s admission…he does, after all, have the right to a fair trial. Until then, you and I must stomach him and grant him the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Otherwise…we sink to anarchy and mob rule. You do remember that in Texas out forefathers used to lynch others without the benefit of trial and jury determining whether or not they were guilty as hell or not.
This is exactly what separates us from complete anarchy and chaos. If we ignore the rule of law, we might well as start stocking up on guns and ammunition and enforce “the law” as we damn well please. My way or else at the point of a .357 Colt Python.
Somalia is a damn good lesson on what happens when the rule of law disappears. It’s just like a Mad Max movie over there..just with heavily religious overtones…but I’m not sure exactly HOW religious the “Islamists” over there really are. Maybe they’re just in it for the power..and Allah is just a nice tidy little cover for them. But then…we had “Christians” like David Koresh….
I digress.
Eric
And if it’s any relief to you..Nifong was completely destroyed by the scandal. While he only served one day in jail..(really really bogus IMHO) he’s currently in bankruptcy and a judge just greenlighted the way for civil lawsuits against him to proceed. As far as criminal charges go..he got off scotfree, relatively speaking. From a civil standpoint..well..he basically got trash compacted. I’m astonished he wasn’t prosecuted on civil rights grounds…but maybe the higher ups thought it would be overkill.
As for the woman accusing them..I don’t know what became of her…but she was as much Nifong’s pawn for his push to gain the African-American vote in Durham to keep him in office.
He’ll have to live with the ignominy that his name is now a byword for selfish manipulation of the law for one’s own benefit. That’s his legacy. In that case, I’d say he got his justified karmic punishment.
to everyone:
steve has been reading my blog since august 04. he’s been awesome and i’m gonna miss him. at least he can watch the giants…
zuludown,
watching DH ball regardless of number of wins is worse than watching the NL astros lose 106 games. next year they won’t BE a baseball team. or the astros any more.
eric,
i hope they both suffer on this earth, too
wags,
no, the greed of more than buddy boy. his interest is making the most money, no matter WHAT it entails. except steroids, now that those are no longer OK. crae is a disgusting piece of work, but selig needed a patsy to complete his life’s work of destroying the NL nd the AL, and he got his creeep. it bothers him not a bit that he may turn into the next mccourt. the next commissioner can deal with that and besides, the astros have no fan base to speak of any more.
nifong belongs in prison. civil suits won’t do nothing since he has no money to take. so big deal
and the woman who made up the accusations should also be in prison for that – you talk about hate crime. and White people should not be victims of racism or hate crimes neither. absolutely not one thing happened to the woman who accused. nobody cared because she has no money and nobody dared bring charges of hate crimes because she is Black.