Nike Is Taking Joe Paterno’s Name Off One Of Their Buildings In Oregon
Well, that certainly didn’t take very long. On Thursday, the Freeh Report was officially released. It revealed that former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and a host of other Penn State officials knew that Jerry Sandusky was abusing young children back in the late 1990s and did absolutely nothing to stop it. If true, it makes the Penn State scandal that much more disgusting and completely tarnishes whatever positive legacy Joe Pa had left. And, since he passed away a few months ago, he’ll never get to tell his side of the story and defend himself. That means that we’re basically left with the Freeh Report to explain to us what happened at Penn State during Paterno’s reign—and what that report says is not good for Paterno or the school.
It’s already having an effect outside of the Penn State community, too. Almost immediately after the Freeh Report dropped, Nike CEO Mark Parker, who happens to be a Penn State alumni, released a statement saying that Paterno’s name would be removed from the Joe Paterno Child Development Center immediately. The Nike campus has 18 buildings featuring the names of sports legends and Paterno’s name is the first one that’s ever been removed because of a scandal. In the statement, Parker explained why he made the decision to remove Paterno’s name.
“I have been deeply saddened by the news coming out of this investigation at Penn State,” he said. “It is a terrible tragedy that children were unprotected from such abhorrent crimes. With the findings released today, I have decided to change the name of our child care center at our World Headquarters. My thoughts are with the victims and the Penn State community.”
So, that’s that. Paterno’s name will no longer be plastered across the side of a building in Beaverton, Oregon. Do you agree with Nike’s swift decision to remove it—or should they have waited a little longer to make a decision?
The Louis Freeh report covers failures by responsible Pennsylvania State officials including former Attorney General, now Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, and former Center County District Attorneys and Pennsylvania department of welfare who could have prosecuted Sandusky because they received complaints years ago, and did not.
Why is it that these officials are not responsible for a cover-up? It was their job to take action. A Philadelphia jury recently convicted Monsignor Lynn of enabling pedophile within the church. How is Sandusky any different?
As candidates for Attorney General and Governor , Tom Corbett received over $647,000 in campaign contributions from board members of the Second Mile Foundation headed by Sandusky, while only assigning one investigator to investigate Sandusky in 2008 after the case was sent to corbett’s office. Meanwhile, at the same time, he assigned 14 investigators to Bill Deweese, who spent more than 5 years trying to get him.
It is difficult to believe these campaign contributions did not improperly influence his decision to not file charges against Jerry Sandusky.
The State police trooper who initially handled the Clinton County case against Sandusky believed there was enough evidence from a teenage boy — now known as Victim One– to charge Sandusky with indecent assault, but was ignored by Corbett.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji7UQhr3z3M