Friday, It's So Fetch! Vol. 27

Last night the Hokies tightened their grip on the ACC Coastal just a bit by beating the Yellow Jackets 37-26 in the ATL Shawty! Logan Thomas had five total touchdowns and while it seemed the Hokies had lost momentum for a moment a well, or poorly perhaps, timed punch by Jeremiah Attaochu of Georgia Tech fixed that situation. The Hokies should keep weaseling their way up in the rankings while the Jackets have to cope with losing three of their last four games.

Now we've got to continue the mode we've been in all week, Beastie Boys for ya:


This week has been hell folks. The Penn State scandal has really brought out some of the worst and we'll get into that ordeal after the jump but first, oh Texas fan, you slay me.

Remember the controversy that sparked this entire Bomani Jones-Barking Carnival-Recruitocosm-Street Agent ordeal in July of this year? At the heart of that was the Texas community talking about this dirty "street agent" and how bad he was for the game, how he'd been dirty and known to be dirty for awhile and other schools shouldn't be allowed to associate with him.

Enter yesterday's OTL release regarding Will Lyles and the $15,000 Texas paid to him for services during 2008-2009. Yup. The same guy that people have been banging on other schools for using now is revealed to have associated with Texas, and for quite a lofty recruiting fee. These payments began in July of 2008 and lasted for a full year as quarterly payments were made for services.

"Oh but we stopped using him! We stopped once we realized he was dirty!"

This is cute actually because Major Applewhite, the Texas assistant who was notified by a booster about Lyles soliciting payment to deliver a player for a visit, actually did report this to compliance and advise against making the payment. The problem here? That was February 2008. Texas then decided four months later to work with Lyles?

Interesting to say the least.

Now, I've stalled long enough and it is finally time that I get a bit more writing done about my Penn State thoughts. Earlier this week I sat down and did a podcast with Kevin McGuire, but that was pre-Joe Pa firing, pre-riots and pre-McQueary and the decision for him to sit out the game. So, as is normally the case with Fridays, I'll knock out a couple of things at once.

We'll start with the NCAA situation. There seems to be a call from people for some sort of NCAA penalties and action against Penn State. Folks have kicked out the "now, if that doesn't scream lack of institutional control, then nothing does" and of course "USC got crushed for a guy's parents taking a house, Ohio State got in trouble for some stupid tattoos, surely the NCAA has to give Penn State the death penalty for this."

No. No, they don't.

First let's get some things straight; real laws aren't the NCAA's area of expertise. That's why when players get arrested their school suspends them. That's why when a coach gets arrested the school fires him. Not the NCAA. That's not what they do. They police their own rules, rules regarding competition and the elimination of a competitive advantage obtained through "cheating" as some call it.

In other words the NCAA is a gang of mall cops. They have rules, not laws, rules within their organization that they are enforcing. My take on the NCAA attempting to step up to working with actual laws has always been let the mall cops handle their rules and let the real cops handle the laws. This Penn State case fits into that ideal.

For one the NCAA isn't exactly good at the job they have now! The way we've all flipped at what Southern Cal got for their offense, the seemingly rhyme-less and reason-less means by which they enforce their will is not something I want to see expanded. You're basically asking a group that the bulk of fans, regardless of stance on the rules, has little faith in doing their job to expand and get into actual real world issues?

Count me out.

It's like saying, "You're really, pretty not good at your job but you know what, we're going to task you with another, bigger responsibility, k?"

And regarding "real world issues" folks; that's what we're dealing with right now at Penn State. We've got a slew of families and individuals whose lives were drastically affected by the evils allowed to be perpetrated against them. We've got a legitimate cover-up scheme that encompasses, at best just the president, athletic director and the overseer of the campus police; at worst an institutionalized pattern that seeps to the very core of Happy Valley. The men convicted need to end up in jail, Sandusky needs to rot in jail, Penn State needs to deal with the coming federal investigation and they need to clean house.

That's their punishment; jail, federal penalties, losing jobs and the years that it will take to repair trust in the university. Yet somehow people think losing scholarships, forfeiting games or skipping a bowl or two is the way to fix the freaking problem? That's a good punishment? This is real life and people are worried about "showing that Penn State football team a thing or two."

Fuck football. Seriously. People need to go to jail, Penn State, the school itself, staring down plenty of federal government heat and the crumbling of their core ideals; and there isn't a single punishment the NCAA can levy that fits these heinous crimes; that's what laws and trials and jail and real cops and real lawyers are for folks.

Now, on to Mike McQueary, who has now become the target of everyone who didn't actually feel any of the relief they thought they'd get when Joe Paterno was fired. Wednesday as Paterno told everyone he wasn't going anywhere until season's end he was the target of the popular ire and that situation melted into a faceless firing, a Lord of the Flies like press conference and culminated in the riots Wednesday night and going into Thursday morning. Wake up Thursday and the target has now shifted to Mike McQueary, the grad assistant who witnessed Sandusky raping a child in the shower.

Look, I get it, everyone would have murderfaced Sandusky. There would have been two hits, you hit him and he hits the floor. Everything is saved. Or they would have calmly called the cops, no panic, no being horrified or in a state of panicked disbelief. So there's really no need to rehash the initial reaction to the scene here. If you want to debate the merits of McQueary staying on staff and his questionable decision to not revisit the issue when Sandusky was at practice or on bowl trips then feel free, I've got a lot of the same questions myself.

But let's get into McQueary not being fired as it seems everyone is baffled by right now. At first it baffled me as well but then the wheels started turning in regard to the situation we are now dealing with. First we take a look at McQueary's reaction, not from the "what he should have done" as a human, but what he was legally obligated to do by the state of Pennsylvania. In talking with Joe Paterno and Tim Curley it seems McQueary has fulfilled that base level obligation in notifying the proper people to make this case against Sandusky move forward.

That brings us to what happens next; Curley and Gary Schultz, the man in charge of Penn State's campus police, working to minimize the actions themselves, not taking the words of McQueary and acting upon them. Rather these two decided to brush them aside, not initiating the investigation that is required of them by law; filing a report, contacting the Department of Public Welfare and working to identify victim.

What's more we have Curley lying to the Grand Jury about what McQueary told him during their meeting. McQueary testified that he spoke of the rape of a young boy while Curley testified that he was told of fondling and "horsing around" in the shower area. This is where the Curley and Schultz perjury charges come into play.

If you're the state of Pennsylvania that has their mind set on sending Sandusky to jail for a long time as well as successfully prosecuting, at the minimum, Curley and Schultz for perjury then you're going to need a witness beyond the stories of the victims. The boys who were abused who have come forward that can establish Sandusky's pattern of behavior, but they can't speak to the systematic cover up at the higher levels. You need a witness and the only witness, given temp janitor Jim Calhoun's dementia, is the testimony of Mike McQueary, deemed credible by the Grand Jury.

McQueary is their case. Without McQueary they have the stories from the boys that should be enough to send Sandusky to jail but not enough to bring down the entire administrative body that was complicit in the cover up of the transgressions. Like it or not McQueary may be whistleblower in this case, the guy who can bring the house down on more than just Sandusky. And whistleblowers, regardless of the public's thirst for their head due to inaction on the human scale, are protected by the law.

So pump your breaks on McQueary still having a job because as "cowardly" or as selfish as you find his actions in all of this he is a key cog in sending a pedophile to jail along with the people who actively worked to hide the despicable acts from the authorities. Not saying cut the guy slack for his inaction but perhaps there's a reason he hasn't been fired, beyond Penn State just not caring.

As for Joe Pa, apparently he has not lawyered up as we were led to believe last night. There will be questioning of the head coach but, it appears at least, he did some good wordifying in his original action with the Grand Jury. Paterno said McQueary told him about "fondling" or "something of a sexual nature." Doesn't explicitly say anal rape as McQueary testified he saw but he also has the technicality win through "something of a sexual nature" that can serve to keep him out of the same realm of the cover up as Curley and Schultz.

The case is ugly and it appears that it may continue to get uglier with a recent investigation surfacing regarding more pedophiles involved. Justice is the most important issue here, working to put the man responsible for these horrific acts, and those who enabled him, in jail.