Rockne's Roundtable

Good heavens! Brian Kelly is seen on national television purple in
the face, ranting about yet another quarterback error that could
prove very costly! Brian Kelly cost us the Tulsa game! What about
Dayne Crist? What about Navy? How could we be so flat against
USC?

Enough!! Enough! I am simply amazed that some of us,
in our little cocoons, lambast a coach for at worst,
modest misdeameanors committed while trying to build a
program that had fallen into a state of virtual bankruptcy
in the light of CNN's recent reports concerning the Penn State
cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky tragedy. Emails now seem
to confirm, that President Spanier, Schultz et.al. agreed to cover
up and not tell authorities about the Sandusky molestations
in 2001 (that's right, 2001!!) after, get this, a discussion with
"Joe." Can you believe it? I'll repeat that---"after a discussion
with Joe."!!!!

This confirms what I already knew--Joe Paterno ran that
school with an iron fist. It always was Joe's way or the
highway. And nobody, nobody, not Penn State officialdom,
not the plight of victim after victim, not the Pope, not even
God was going to get in the way of Joe Paterno, his
Penn State football team and his almighty quest to
become college football's winningest coach.

The entire fabric of Penn State was for and by the
football program. "Institutional control" was a joke. And
yet, some die-hard loyalists will continue to defend the
man and the school.

I am usually an optimist about our capacity for good;
but, I am constantly reminded that our capacity for
evil is unsurpassed and our willingness to be duped
truly a part of our genetic make-up.