This email purported to be from linebacking legend Brandon Short is circulating around the Net and describes how football coach Joe Paterno behaved on the day after his Nov. 9 firing from Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Short says that he and his wife spent part of Nov. 10 with Paterno.
The email says Paterno was more concerned about how his current and former players were affected than himself, and was talked out of holding a press conference.
Among Short’s revelations is that Paterno specifically says that Coach Mike McQueary never told him “that he saw Jerry Sandusky raping a boy in our locker room shower.”
Short who says he “thought he knew Jerry Sandusky extremely well” expressed shame and anger at his ow participation in Sandusky’s The Second Mile organization for at-risk boys.
The email refers to Gray Schultz as “chief of university police” when the reality is that Schultz was a university vice president who responsibilities included oversight of the department.
Hat tip to PennLive.com. Here is the complete email:
Captains:
It would be an understatement to say that we are
saddened by the recent allegations regarding Jerry Sandusky and the
subsequent fallout. If these allegations are true then Jerry used Penn
State Football and every one of us who may have helped Jerry with The
Second Mile to lure in at risk children and then exploit them both
mentally and physically. I thought that I knew Jerry Sandusky extremely
well. Jerry was my position coach for five years and I have spent
countless hours with him one on one putting in game plans and discussing
ways to help him grow The Second Mile. I cannot express the confusion,
pain, and anger I feel every time I think of Jerry committing such
vicious crimes. With that said, at this extremely dark hour we have
failed to see that another crime has been committed.
In the media
fire storm that ensued the damning allegations against Jerry a lead
villain has emerged; Joe Paterno. Not Jerry Sandusky, Tim Curley, or
Gary Schultz but Joe the man who took second hand information and
immediately gave it to his superior and the chief of university police.
My
wife and I were fortunate enough to spend a few hours with Joe and Sue
the day after the Board of Trustees made the decision to fire Joe. Even
at the lowest point of his life, in typical Joe fashion Coach was more
concerned with how his current and former players were doing than he was
with his own situation. All of us know the immeasurable quality of
Joe’s character and we also know that he’s a fighter. Coach pulled out
his notes and said that he was ready to hold a press conference in his
backyard to answer any questions and clear up any uncertainty the day
after he was fired. However his advisers thought that it would appear
defensive and be a mistake.
Joe assured me that Mike McQueary never
told him that he saw Jerry Sandusky raping a boy in our locker room
shower. Joe immediately went to his superiors and arranged a meeting
with Mike, Tim Curley, PSU athletic director, and Gray Schultz, chief of
university police. Remember that Jerry was not a football coach at the
time and therefore Joe had no authority to do anything other than report
what Mike told him to the authorities (which he did). Joe trusted Penn
State’s Athletic Director and its Chief of Police to do their jobs and
it appears they didn’t. The university
ultimately fired Joe Paterno because it didn’t do its job. And that is a crime.
Joe
Paterno has always had the courage to stand up and fight for the people
in his life. Joe regularly put his neck on the line and believed in
many of us when nobody else would. In the past, Joe has supported us
because he knew the character of the men that we’ve become. We all know
Joe in a way that rest of the world does not. We know Joe’s true
character. And now it’s time for us to stand up for him in his time of
need.
With the exception of a few brave men, there has been a
deafening silence from the Penn State Football family regarding Coach
Paterno and what has made Penn State a special place for the last half
century. We owe it to each other to speak up and do for Joe what he has
always done for us.
Attached is a link to a recent Wall Street
Journal article which attacks Coach Paterno for defending his players
and calls Penn State an undisciplined program.
http://online.wsj.com/article/…_LEFTTopStories
There
have been suggestions on specific actions that we can take to support
our program. Following the holiday, we plan on sending you a rough draft
of an action plan for your review. Thanks and have a good holiday
weekend. WE ARE!
Brandon
Joe Paterno wasnt told the details, because Joe Paterno didnt want to be told the details.
You would think a big ego, man in charge guy would say: “This is MY football program, MY locker room, MY school. Tell ME exactly what happened.”
But Joe, he wanted to be able to say “I knew nothing”. It’s what a college coach has to do, when assualts, drugs rapes are reported to him, as they are, all the time. Pass it up the ladder, to flunkies who work the cover up.
Sense perfect made me to.