Long time no Whitlock…
Been a while since locals have had a chance to chew on former Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock’s cud. Other than his blog on Fox. Or the odd pissing match call to 610 Sports’ Nick Wright to rile up local sports bloggers.
But last night the straw that used to stir KC’s sports shake was live and large on MSNBC‘s "Ed Show" dissing newly axed Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
"If he had an ounce of self-awareness – and he’s no different than the athletes, the young immature athletes (but) this guy is 84 – he would have stepped aside immediately," Whitlock told viewers.
Since his falling out with the Star 2010, Whitlock’s profile (and exaggerated by Nick Wright salary) has been low for all but the most fervent sports junky. But his appearance on the "Ed Show" was a step up and out of the Jock Sniffers Zone into mainstream news.
Like what happened to Whitlock years ago during the Don Imus incident with Oprah.
But last night’s MSNBC cameo was different and superior in some ways. That’s because for once, Whitlock cast himself into the national limelight without have to play the Race Card. or the Reverse Race Card.
No black on white or black on white here race baiting here, just a straight down the line, epic sports scandal.
So how’d the Big Fella do? Pretty dang good.
He didn’t flap his arms like those early days at Channel 9 when he was Greg Hall’s protege. He didn’t fall asleep on the Green Room couch like he used to at WHB. He didn’t threaten anybody or have to be escorted out of the building mid show. And he didn’t accuse the host of kissing on another dude’s neck the night before.
All kidding aside, Whitlock did well enough that I’d be surprised if he didn’t get invited back by MSNBC and other shows when future sports and/or race controversies surface.
And Whitlock did what Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson couldn’t; he delivered the hard-hitting goods.
"Joe Paterno whipped those students into a frenzy (with) his statement today about staying till the end of the season," Whitlock lashed out. "What he did last night – if he were really concerned about this university he would have taken the decision out of the board of trustee’s hands and resigned effective immediately. And told the kids on that campus, that’s the right thing for me to do given this situation. He instead chose a very selfish exit and now we don’t know what those kids are gonna do on this campus. If anyone gets hurt tonight, that’s on Joe Paterno as well."
Rock ’em, sock ’em…
One oddity in Whitlock’s palaver. the part where he likens sports coaches to athletes in financial and sexual prowess.
"As sportswriters we are very quick to criticize athletes when they get caught up in their fame and get delusional about how important they are," Whitlock began. "And sometimes we forget these coaches now are just as big a celebrity as the athletes. They make just as much money as the athletes. They have just as many groupies as the athletes. And they get delusional as well."
I’m down with that last part but, just as much money? Just as many groupies? Paterno, Bill Snyder – I don’t know.– and what’s more, I don’t wanna know.
Mess NBC
Nobody watches MSNBC. Infomercials on OWN at 3:00 AM for vaginal rejuvenation get higher ratings. All the HEAVY HITTERS were on ESPN, Fox and CNN TV and Radio.
So 10 years ago somebody told Joe that someone was (maybe) doing something bad. Joe did his duty and reported the problem to his superior, even though Joe was not sure if it was true or not, he still reported it….NOW you people are saying he should have gone to the police based on what someone else told him?
Hearne, you know all those things you buddy does that are against the law? (yeah, you know) …do you report all of those things to the police? Oh you dont? Well how bad does a POSSIBLE infraction have to be before you do report it to the police.. ESP IF IT IS BASED ON HERESAY. People here act as if they know exactly what Joe knew….. Only Joe knows that, and I give him the benefit of the doubt, based on his 46 years of honest behavior… of course the rest of the “holier than thous” convict him instantly based on heresay.
You “holier than thous” should ask youselves, how do you handle this when it is your friends, brother, father? If someone told you something that was completly unreal, unbelievable,,, so out of chatacter of this person…what would you do? I bet this concept was so foreign to Joe, he could not comprehend it…(Like back, a long time ago when a girl friend told me she was bullemic, I had no idea what that meant, or why someone would do that… it was foriegn to me, so I ignored it, what was I supposed to do?)( I never saw her puking after eating, I never did)(only much much later did I realize she told me hoping I would tell others…but she had made me promise not to tell… and I am a man of my word)
I bet when Joe heard someoen report that this guy was sucking a boys cock in the shower… it was such an “out of this world” that Joe couldnt even comprehend it…. He was 72 years old….. He is afootball coach, not a watch dog….. BUT HE STILL REPORTED IT TO HIS BOSSES, JOE DID THE RIGHT THING….I bet if/when he considered going to the cops, he would not even know what to say…. “that someone had told him this unreal thing”… what if it was not true, then what??……. then years went by…
It is one thing to see the infraction with your own eyes, it is another when it is heresay. I think Joe gave his friend the benefit of a doubt, like good friends do, and a lot of others did too, otherwisewhy did it take 9 years for this to come out? ….yet people are rampagin against Joe ….. as if it was Joe who molested kids.
I dont know Joe, I have no attatched ment to him or the school, but I give a man who has been a good mna for 46 years the benfits of a doubt, until it is proven he is guilty…and so far I have not heard any evidence that Joe is the bad guy he is being made out to be.
Good Job Jason
Whitlock lives large…he’s still in the mix…getting on a national show…be it this one or any others…isn’t easy. So Jason still matters. Hey I only garnered the KC Star a few radio shows for Fraziers death, so there is much going on in the sports world. In fact Sports now dominates most news stories outside the prez and the economy or terror, its top attention today….good job Jason.
There is good and bad in everyone
The fact that Joe Paterno may be, in many contexts, a good and decent man, is what makes this scenario a tragedy.
“In order for evil to flourish, all that is required is for good men to do nothing.” — Edward Burke
Even Paterno concedes now that he should have done more. Whether that is a heartfelt sentiment or just ass-covering we may never know.
Well, big deal. As far as former columnist predicaments, Joe Posnanski’s is a lot more interesting. He’s living in State College, Pa. right now researching a book on Joe Paterno he was commissioned to write.
“If anyone gets hurt tonight, that’s on Joe Paterno as well.”
What a crock of shit. All those morons running around the Penn State campus last night should be held accountable for their own actions. They’re all adults. Tipping over a news truck, chanting stupid shit like “one more game” and displaying an incredible detachment for the gravity of what’s at the core of the entire situation. Maybe they all need to get F’d in the A by some pervert football coach before they get a f’n clue. Stay classy Pennsyltucky.
Kenny–are you serious?
We aren’t talking about a friend getting a little weed and failing to report it.
We are talking about 10-12 year old boys getting fucked in the ass. Ass raped. Did you read what Paterno was told? The kid was pushed up against the shower wall with his hands up above his head (like he was being searched by a cop) and a 60 year old guy was ass fucking the little boy. Then Paterno told his superior and yet–now get this–nothing happened. The guy continued to come around the locker room and facilities with young boys for years.
Would it be ok if he was just raping little girls?
And furthermore, I think there had been a previous incident that Paterno may have known about that may have been hushed up and the guy resigned as a coach but continued to come around with little kids. How many chances do you give a pedophile before making sure it doesn’t happen again? Everyone gets a couple of freebies?
I don’t care how old you are or how clueless or how senile you are, you cannot just continue to say I told the AD and now I am clean. Not by a long shot. Would that be ok if it was your 10 year old ass that got raped or your child? Wouldn’t you have wanted a stronger response?
Paterno should have reported it to the police but having failed to do that, should have banned him from the facilities and demanded reports on the follow up investigation–at the very least.
People were rightly incensed over the Catholic priest scandals and the cover up. This is not quite as bad but very similar.
Please picture this happening to your child or grandchild and rethink your position.
Beg to differ on MSNBC but….
Agree that last night most people were watching CNBC where the debate was aired. Maybe that’s why – after watching the debate – I was alone among local bloggers, newsies in catching Whitlock’s act. I googled it. Imagine some folks have caught up by now.
Based on what Paterno has said he was told, he should have done more. He said he didn’t get the exact details but got the big picture. It was totally on him then to drill down and get to the bottom of it which he obviously did not.
Hey, Penn State would not have made the moves that they did – after fully investigating for like three years and having all the facts which we still do not – unless there was clear wrongdoing
I’m gonna go out on a limb and go with ass-covering.
I’m with Whitlock on the fact that he should have come clean with the kids right up front, resigned and told them not just,” Go home and study – I’m screwed, I’m out – but the he was wrong and his leaving now was entirely the right thing to do.
Jason nailed this one. Paterno did not. And a lot of young boys and their families are paying the price.
Joe’s a nice guy but he never met a puff piece he didn’t like
A little harsh on the wording, but overall I think you’re right. Except for that last part.
Here’s a tale we will probably never be told…
And that’s the the guys who are replacing Paterno and the prez probably knew about some of this same stuff and didn’t do anything either. How could they not?
So the figureheads take the hit – which they should – and the others who likely knew get a pass. Wonder how many of them could pass Herman Cain Lie Detector tests if they had to that they knew nothing.
Lee,
IF it was so fkn bad…. and it was so fkn damaging…. and so fkn serious…..
why the fk did it take 9 years to become public? I am not saying it is OK,
I AM ASKING WHY IT TOOK SO LONG TO COME OUT!!
But…. you know what???…. fk you and your pathetic attitude you asshole, you are a waste of time
Kenny, I am going just pretend
Kenny 02:59:19 PM – Thu. Nov 10. 2011
you are retarded and didn’t just condone a 10 year old boy for getting raped by saying “Well you got raped 10 years ago, it couldn’t be that bad?” Let me guess, he was asking for it right? Just because it was swept under the rug to protect the football team doesn’t make it less shitty. I bet you don’t have kids, because saying that a kid being rapped and the following “IF it was so fkn bad…. and it was so fkn damaging…. and so fkn serious…..” is stupid.
Lee,
IF it was so fkn bad…. and it was so fkn damaging…. and so fkn serious…..
why the fk did it take 9 years to become public? I am not saying it is OK,
I AM ASKING WHY IT TOOK SO LONG TO COME OUT!!
But…. you know what???…. fk you and your pathetic attitude you asshole, you are a waste of time
I asked a question…. you have no answer, not even specualtion…. yawn ..you are a bore
Because everyone covered it up!
Read the Grand Jury indictment, then come back
The link
http://cbschicago.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/sandusky-grand-jury-presentment.pdf
HUH?
Whitlock revives his sagging career by stating the obvious!!?? Anyone with half an ounce of sense knows that Paterno should have reported this to the police. If you hear that someone is abusing a child as was reported to JoePa, you have to involve the authorities and let them sort it out. This is to protect the children. So, how is what Whitlock said “superior”? 99% of the adults in this country know that Paterno was wrong. Whitlock was just stating the obvious.
Biggest Problem
I believe it either 1994 or 1998 We Sandusky’s punishment was to not shower with boys! WTF!!! I think we will all find out this has gone on longer then originally thought. All of the coaches and administrators who are linked should be prosecuted!!
Why with this and the priest does not call the police????
SOOOOooo, let me get his straight, Joe Paterno is fired and crucified… BUT… Mike McQueary (the person who actually witnessed the kid being molested in the shower, and supposedly relayed the story to JoePA, but not police) IS STILL WORKING FOR PENN STATE?..AND HE ALMOST WAS GOING TO COACH THE TEAM THIS WEEKEND???
Mike McQueary is the one who should be taking all the heat, not Joe Paterno.
REPOST FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE….
THE CASE FOR JOEPA BEING CORRECT-
(cut and pasted exactly)
“”I too am an attorney, a criminal defense lawyer, a former special prosecutor, and an adjunct professor of Trial Advocacy, and as to his judgment of Paterno I completely disagree with Professor Semer. I think Paterno did what was both morally and legally correct.
After contacting his chain of command superiors, he let them do their jobs. He knew there was a campus police force that investigates ( and prosecutes ) crimes on campus. He took whatever information he had to the head of his department. He took it to the person who is, for all intents and purposes, the police commissioner of a 256 person police force which according to the Campus website says: “(The University Police are) governed by a state statute that gives our officers the same authority as municipal police officers.”
Paterno didn’t just give his information to a superior, he turned it over to the highest ranking official in that police department. That man, PSU’s VP of Business called in the ACTUAL WITNESS and spoke to him. In other words Paterno could see an investigation.
Suggesting Paterno should have then done more is both ridiculous and dangerous. Paterno should not have approached Sandusky,for fear he tip him off to the investigation; he should not have called University police after nothing happened because 1. A police department has a right to set its policing priorities. The Courts have consistently held that: it is a “fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen.” Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981).
2. Once he reported the incident (and not having any information as to the progress of any investigation or the results thereof) Paterno had no other action he could reasonably take. If he pressed further or went public he risked opening himself and the University up to a law suit from Sandusky for libel , and that is assuming Paterno thought the grad assistant was both reliable and accurate. By that person’s own admission he was distraught. He would be accused of trying to eliminate a potential competitor for his job. He would also call into question the safety of the campus and without any proof of his own on the allegations of another. Pattern is not a witness and arguably isn’t even an “outcry witness.” ( an outcry witness is one who verifies that another witness was so distraught that what they are saying must be true. To be an outcry witness the original witness must make his statement to you first and within a few minutes top hours after witnessing the incident. More than a couple of hours usually spoils the outcry’s reliability. It gives the maker too much time to make up the testimony)
3. Assuming Paterno did go to the Chief of Police for the Penn State police department, the person under Gary Schultz, would that not be an act of insubordination? What if he were wrong? He would lose a long time friend and PSU family member. He would hurt alums, recruits and his teams. His fellow coaches could not trust him, all of this without being an actual witness to anything. Taking one man’s word against anothers.
Noone wants to see kids hurt, and I believe Coach Paterno heads that list. People suggesting he needed to do more either don’t understand the law of criminal investigation, or have a different ax to grind ( like the head of the PA State Police who is grand standing in saying people have a greater responsibility than to report crime to the local Authority. He would be the first guy to defend a civil rights suit against his agency, (brought by a crime victim claiming that the failure to arrest caused her injuries) by invoking the Warren case.)
Paterno handled this exactly as he should have and to suggest otherwise is to use 20/20 hindsight to judge what was a fluid real time situation. I guess the path is always clear for the Monday Morning Quarterback. “”
Posted by Anthony Colleluori at 11/08/2011 01:41:00 PM
After reading this re-post, somebody explain to me…..
How’d that guy pass the bar exam?
Lawyers often do a great job at defending clients against attacks regarding breaches of the law. The bar is not so effective in arguing morality.
The bottom line is that Paterno satisfied his obligation as a mandatory reporter under the PA statue. His superiors did not. The serial child rapist was angling for his job back in the late 90’s, he would not have looked good by taking his accusations (which were not personally witnessed) to the public.
This was not Paterno’s foundation, he was not lapse in any supervision of the children.
JoePA is a football coach, his job is football.
IMO, they did a man dirty that had given his life to Penn State. PSU will never be on top again with football. They will slowly slide back to the back of the Big 10 pack.
It was also disrespectful of the student athletes by firing Joe now instead of letting him leave after the bowl game.
FACT- “It was also disrespectful of the student athletes by firing Joe now instead of letting him leave after the bowl game.”
……. and the fact that Mike McQueary (the person who actually witnessed the kid being molested in the shower, and supposedly relayed the story to JoePA, but not police) ALMOST WAS GOING TO COACH THE TEAM THIS WEEKEND, PROVES THAT THIS WHOLE THING IS A BUNCH OF CRAP!!!!
FK THIS FUCKING WITCH HUNT. …but sex scandal is the MO for running old timers out of town these days (Brett Favre)
If a older women who likes young guys is called a “Couger”
Then an older man who loves young boys, must be a “Nittany Lion”.
Ok, that was bad.
Paterno knew.
A LOT of folks knew (xxMillerTimexx) is right, read the indictment.
Its walkin just like a fuckin duck, quackin like a fuckin duck, and it IS a fuckin duck.
Mike McQueary saw the rape and is still employeed by PS?
You dont know jack shit, chucky, but you sure seem to have fun babbling about it.
Too funny watching a bunch of hypocrits go after JoePA, and not say a word about Mike McQueary who is still on the Penn state payroll, not on leave…… and the only reason he is not coaching the team today is becasue his life was properly threatenened.
If Joe had been the one to see this with his own eyes, I would feel differently, but Joe did not see this BS, he heard said 2nd hand info from Mike McQueary, and Joe reported the incident to the head of the campus police.
Not True Floyd
It just so happens that Chuck and I are good friends.
I read the idictment, and Chuck and I agree. JoPa knew what was going on in our esteemed opinion.
I dont give a fuck if you are friends… who cares?
You fucking witch hunters, fuck you. Lets see you address the concept that Mike McQueary is still being paid by Penn State ,ad was going to caoch today….. This fucking shit was 10 years old, why bring it our now?? The only reason they brought it out now was to get rid of Joe Paterno…. and they did that…. yet Mike McQueary is still there, still getting a salry…. fuck that…… fuck all this…. and fuck you.
They should have let Joe finish the season… Joe gave them so much, for so long….. Joe Paterno did not molest any kids…. and they shit on him in the end,…. fucking people over, it is the American way of doing things….. I hope you get shit on the same way…. fuck you very much.
Chuck is Craigs dad Stan.
craig all about me
“I only got on a few shows after Joe’s death”. Way to insert yourself in there. Maybe if u had said that as a special cop for the attorney general you suspected Joe of molesting up and COMING boxers you might of gotten more play.
uh
Uh…I thought Hearne’s post was about Whitlock.
Bishop Finn meet Joe Paterno
“I don’t know how Richard Nixon could know so much about college football in 1969 and so little about Watergate in 1973.”
-Joe Paterno