Keith's response to Paterno family's latest statement:

[Are_grits_groceries]

RT @KeithOlbermann: Just. Shut. Up.
RT @BreakingNews Paterno family: NCAA sanctions are a 'panicked response' and 'defame the legacy and contributions of late coach'.

Amen!

[truebrit71]

1. I luvs me sum Keef!

Boy do we need him around nowadays...

[LoisB]

3. AMEN!!!!!

[awoke_in_2003]

23. I love him too...

It is too bad he cannot show up for work.

[Iggy]

2. But Seriously

What is the paterno family whining about?

did not JoePa conveniently renegotiate his no doubt generous retirement package when the sandusky shit started
hitting the fan? and is his wife not collecting this dough?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

4. ...I can't say it any better than that.

I agree with Keith.

[Greybnk48]

5. Man do I miss him.

[Alduin]

6. Amen indeed.

[lapislzi]

7. Kudos to Keith

For not saying what I was thinking in the STFU department.

As far as I'm concerned, they should turn off his pension and bill the family retroactively.

[ejpoeta]

8. the man knowingly covered up a pedophile. period.

it is not a panicked response. whatever good that man did he wiped out when he helped a pedophile continue to be a pedophile. he could have stopped it but chose not to.

[Posteritatis]

9. No room for doubt as to what he thinks, is there? Nice! (nt)

[IggleDoer]

10. PSU administration threw Paterno under the bus

to save their own asses. They made him out to be the only bad guy in this. The administration tried to make themselves look pure as the driven snow.

[frylock]

11. louis freeh has no association with PSU..

joepa threw himself under the bus with his inaction.

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. Freeh flayed them in the report.

He made it crystal clear that the administration was culpable.
Joe made a decision to cover the abuse up. He is responsible for his own demise.

[lapislzi]

13. How, how, how, this many people could make such an egregious error in judgment...

simply boggles my mind. HOW did they think this was the way to protect the football program? What collective denial/psychosis/delusion of grandeur was at work among these men to make them think that covering up a sex abuse scandal was the best way to protect the football program?

Rather than, say, firing Sandusky's ass, making sure he was turned over to the authorities, taking the moral high ground, and saying, "we run a clean program."

I simply cannot fathom this, and I am not a stupid person. Perhaps someone with more of a sports mind can explain it to me.

[Are_grits_groceries]

17. There is a culture of worship of athletics

at a lot of schools. They all need to think about what they are doing. That includes my alma mater.

JoePa was a particularly egregious case because of several things. He became bigger than life by building a winning program and promoting how clean it was run. I have followed them for a long time. I think he did do a lot of good and lived up to a lot of what he preached in the first part of his tenure.

At some point, he began to put the FB program first. He was never as saintly as he was made out to be. He began to protect his football players long before this scandal broke. I think the general culture began to outpace him. He had 'Wally Cleaver' and 'Theo Huxtable' players for a long time. Then he began to get some players who were not so willing to jump when he said to. They were crucial to his program so he protected them instead of punishing them.

He was not willing to have his image or the image of PSU stained at all. If that meant letting Sandusky have free reign, so be it. He was willing to pay that price. The problem is that he didn't pay the price. A lot of kids did.

If he had blown the whistle as soon as he knew, there would have been some bad publicity. However, people would realize that JoePa and PSU had done the right thing and the damage would have been repaired fairly quickly.

Instead, JoePa and company lead an entire university and fan base into the middle of this mess. The worst part is that he sentenced an unknown number of boys to a horrible fate.

[lapislzi]

18. My point exactly.

If Paterno had dealt with Sandusky as soon as he found out, there would have been a kerfuffle for sure. But then Paterno would have been the hero he wanted to be. In my (tiny) mind, THAT would have been the way to protect the precious football program*, save a lot of kids an untold amount of trauma, and preserve his institution's reputation.

Did he really possess the level of hubris required to believe that the abuse would NEVER be found out?

*about which not a crap is given in my humble opinion.

[Are_grits_groceries]

19. I think he either reached that

level of thinking or he thought he had so much power that he could control any problems if it came out. He really was out of control for a while. This didn't just start recently.
I also know from his actions that he didn't think those kids were worth anything. That is an unforgivable sin.

[lapislzi]

21. Thank you for explaining.

I understand a little better now. Genuine megalomaniacs are uncommon; one doesn't always spot them when they do turn up. His crimes are monstrous. A sense of decency prevents me from saying more.

[ellenfl]

27. i think it passed the 'error in judgment' threshold. it was flat out criminal. eom

[lapislzi]

28. No disagreement here.

It was criminal. No question.

My question is, how did P arrive at the conclusion that this was the best way to protect the precious football program? It defies logic.

He could have been a hero. Now he is a craven criminal, his legacy demolished, his holy program decimated.

I am interested in the megalomaniacal thought process that brought him to that place.

[Avalux]

16. Sorry but Paterno is not the righteous man he was worshipped to be.

They are ALL complicit; Paterno and the administration. None of them chose to act when they should have and now, my school is trying to pick up the pieces.

A future without Paterno's legacy is the only way forward. And I'm saying this as a die-hard PSU football fan.

[alphafemale]

22. No. Paterno and others at PSU threw little boys under Sandusky's dick.

I wish that POS shit had lived to see his statue torn down and all those wins purged.

[obamanut2012]

25. No, they didn't -- Paterno owned the damn bus

[nc4bo]

14. I really miss Keith.

I know some people may not have cared much for him but he had a purpose and served a good cause and there's a mighty void without his voice.

[Avalux]

15. Great Response. Paterno family needs to STFU and move out of State College.

What's happened has happened, and making such statements is like pouring salt in a wound. LET IT BE.

[MrMickeysMom]

20. Movie: Night Shift... scene where...

Where Henry Winkler shouts into Michael Keaton's tape recorder... "This is Chuck telling Bill to SHUT UP!

[obamanut2012]

24. The Paterno Family are scum, entitled scum

Who are living very well off because of the hidden rapes of children.

[grasswire]

26. what Keith said

You go KO.

In fact, that makes me want a pinback button made.

I GO KO.


Like the old Pogo buttons. I GO POGO.

I GO KO!