The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Home 2013 Archives for February 2013

Archives for February 2013

You Must Watch This Interview

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Jim T. Clemente is the former FBI profiler who wrote the most compelling sub-report incorporated into the Sollers report commissioned by the Paterno family. A former sexually abused child himself, he is intensely passionate about the subject of child abuse, which comes through clearly when he is interviewed. I would recommend that anyone with any interest in not only the Penn State Sandusky case but also the entirety of the child abuse issue pay keen attention to his words in this interview, which I thank Joe for passing along. (I’m going to change my will to bequeath The Nittany Turkey to Joe, because he does such a great job of news gathering for me.)

This is a long interview, transcending the usual short attention span crap we get on network and cable TV. You don’t have to watch it all at once, but most of you will after you get a dose of Clemente’s sincerity and intensity.

Line up, boys and girls!

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In December Karen Peetz stepped down from her chairmanship of the Penn State Board of Trustees and expressed her intention to leave the board, then, last week, John Surma decided that he would bail out in June. Both stated increased business commitments as the reason for their voluntary departures. Peetz is President of BNY Mellon Bank and Surma is chairman and chief executive officer of United States Steel, so both have unassailable excuses to fall back on.

Now, Trustee Alvin Clemens comes along and declares that the BoT should have another look at the Freeh report. Another? Did they ever look at it in the first place? Clemens uses the word “reexamine.” Same thing. To reexamine something, one would have had to examine it at some point.

I imagine that some trustees took the matter seriously enough to read the Freeh report on their own, but I doubt that anyone read all 267 pages of it. The board never considered it as an agenda item for the record, so the proper conclusion is that the report was never read and digested by the inner circle on the board, the vaunted Executive Committee. Peetz and Surma are both members of that inner circle, as is Rod Erickson. Clemens, although a governor-appointed trustee, is not. This is a digression, but I’m want to continue to assert the point that the board blindly accepted the Freeh report, and the Executive Committee is the power center of the board.

Can we expect to see more polarization of the BoT? I believe that we will. Two rats hopping off the ship while one trustee expresses misgivings about the Freeh report in the wake of the Sollers report is just the beginning. Suddenly, the board of trustees takes on a different complexion. The purge could be on. At least we hope it has started.

Read a brief story about Clemens’ statement in Onward State. Thanks, Joe.

How to Come Up With $60 Mil

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As you know, Penn State is faced with the requirement of paying a directed $60 million fine assessed by the NCAA. How will the University amass the resources to deal with what seems to be such a huge financial hit?

Athletic Director Dave Joyner describes the situation as a war. “We’re in an occupation, if you will, and so now we’re rebuilding.”

Mark Dent of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has written a two-part, informative piece in this subject area. In the first part, he focuses on where the money will come from, and along the way he discusses in detail the trade-offs involved in the notorious STEP program. In the second, he examines the effect of the financial pinch on other sports beside football.

Check it out.