Phil KNight was among the eulogizers at the memorial service for JoePA yesterday in a packed Bryce Jordan Center. Phil received an extended standing ovation calling out the Board of Trustees for their treatment of Joe and their handling of all aspects of the situation. He, also, called out the media. Most importantly he, also, said the investigation needs to get to the bottom of the situation. Phil Knight speaks During the procession earlier in the week many of the students and fans lined the road in black shoes and rolled cuffs.
So knowing of childhood molestation in your facilities since 2001 and brushing it off like a fly on a summer's day is okay with you? Or is senility an acceptable defense?
LOL, yeah it was the Board of Trustees who mistreated Joe and didn't handle the situation well. It wasn't Joe turning a blind eye and then as a Catholic trying to claim he didn't comprehend the crime.
JoPa and a large number of folks at PSU had a simple choice. Protect the kids or protect the football program. They made the worse possible choice. They have no one to blame but themselves.
Phil Knight's speech was a disgrace. If you think he called it right well....I don't know what to say to you.
Played well in Happy Valley, but I doubt he did much for Nike sales anywhere else. That wasn't the time or place to start calling people out unless you were including the deceased. The BOT did what they had to do. And cleaning house in the football program was also the only direction to proceed. Despite all that went on they still want to pretend everything is okay with the Penn State football "family".
Since when does anyone listen to Knight when it comes to anything ethical? Nike for years exploited near slave labor overseas to ensure its profits. Anyone not thinking that JoePa was culpable in the scandal is either blinded by their allegience to Penn State or an idiot.
The worst IMO was Jay Paterno saying his father died with a clean, clear conscience, which got a standing ovation. Shut the hell up, Jay. Joe himself said he should have done more. That means even he knew he had FAR from a clean OR clear conscience. Just because you say it and it gets a standing ovation doesn't make it so. No matter how much you or the nits want to believe it. He was incredibly culpable and will be for all eternity. DEAL WITH IT.
Knight wants to blame those at the top and those at the bottom (i.e. Sandusky) of the situation while ignoring those in the middle that knew or should have known and done something about it. That's because to do so would recognize that St. Joe Pa acted, at a minimum, as an enabler - doing the precise minimum he had to do and then conveniently looking the other way for another decade. It's disgusting but to acknowledge it would require a level of introspection that many in the Penn State community are either not willing to do or incapable of performing. Anything that threatens to shake up the image they've crafted in their own minds must be someone else's fault. Joe Pa was almost all powerful - even at one of the weakest points in his career a decade ago (when Penn State had a number of mediocre seasons) being able to stare down a president and trustees and get away with it. When you take on that kind of power you also have a commensurate level of responsibility. Now his apologists want to ignore those obligations.
Agree. Knight's words ignores the reality that the PSU President, AD, and the chief of police all reported to Paterno and not the other way around. Wasn't Curley JoePa's lawn boy growing up?
Someone a lot wiser than me(dad) told me a long time ago, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". It makes UConn fans look cheap when they pick at the carcass of a dead man so why don't you just let the guy rest in peace and start aiming your concern at the guy who was actually responsible for all this.
Sorry to disagree with many posters in this thread but I think that Joe Pa did what he had to do and the real villain, as Phil Knight put it, is in the investigation and not with Joe. I have thought about it a lot and I continue with my belief that the vitriol and badmouthing of Joe Pa is misdirected and needs to go to Sandusky , of course, and the PSU administration and Police who dropped theb all AFTER BEING NOTIFIED BY JOE PA. Phil Knight was spot on CORRECT in his statements and assessment.
FastEddy, please explain to me why Jerry Sandusky was on the sidelines of Penn State practices, with young boys in tow, as late as 2007. Anyone, please answer that for me...
Nobody is picking at the dead carcass. We are simply dealing with the reality that others seem willing to ignore. Save the sanctimony.
