Trust me I get that. Then you also have the varying levels on display here. Some agree he should be in jail, but want to relive his case daily or somehow think a new trial will fix things. Others have convinced themselves every victim is a money sucking grub. Anyone not championing Jerry's cause here is somehow the bad guy or they don't care about justice.
I do agree that PSU was railroaded, but the old guard BoT did that by throwing the program under the bus instead of letting the courts handle this. They gave the ammunition out to the media and kept pouring gas on the fire. The total lack of leadership was atrocious, but they thought they could just point to Joe/football and the 3 admins and this would all go away. They pretty much pushed for sanctions that had nothing to do with what the NCAA is in place for. I'm pissed the school did this to themselves, but I'm not going to say Jerry didn't get his day in court. He did with a lawyer he decided to hire and pay for. How many people sitting in jail could afford to do that? His actions landed him in prison just like the actions of the old administration jacked up everything else. I can easily separate the two things, but as you said a few are holding out hope this was all just a prosecution based witch hunt.
While we are putting people in buckets, I will go ahead and put myself in one:
I believe pedophilia is an awful thing. Believing that doesn't make me or anyone special.
I believe there is something wrong with Sandusky and have no problem with him being in jail at this point. For a variety of reasons, I do wonder how far he ever progressed with his "acts", but regardless he went way over the line.
I do not feel that he was well represented (his problem as you say, and I agree) or that the Pa Justice system gave him a particularly "fair trial". I am curious about what we would learn in a retrial, but I do not expect one and spend zero time worrying about one.
I strongly believe that some of the "victims" who testified, and many of those who didn't but were paid anyway, lied/embellished their stories to enrich themselves, with assistance from a smarmy lawyer and the OAG. I do not believe that "adults" are less likely than children to do that. I actually believe they are more likely. I also believe some victims gave honest testimony. I do not know which are which.
Most of the above is pretty irrelevant to PSU. The only important "victim" in this case as it pertains to PSU was victim 2. I believe MM either f'd that up beyond recognition that night by waiting to report "it" to a football coach, or lied/embellished on the stand a decade later. Maybe both.
I do not believe C,S,S or Joe thought Sandusky was a pedophile based on what MM told them in 2001. Their actions in the lengthy aftermath were in no way consistent with them thinking that or with trying to orchestrate the coverup of a child sexual predator. There is also nothing in any of their lengthy track records to suggest they would do something so heinous.
I believe the OAG was and is corrupt and used MM to bolster their case, taking the PSU administrators down as part of the narrative. In doing so, they ignored TSM, other state agencies, etc and children in Pa are not safer because of their actions.
I believe the BOT hired Louie Freeh with the full intent to dump this matter squarely on the administrators and Joe and move on, regardless or perhaps even in spite of the truth.
I believe that when they did the above they did not expect the NCAA to take it so far, but once it did they were forced to stick to the false narrative in which they were complicit.
I believe I would reconsider my views on almost anything if I noticed that elvis, osprey and/or jive were agreeing with me very often, but that is a whole 'nother topic. Just sayin'....
There are a lot of other things I believe, but those are many of the big ones.
So it seems that I too can separate the two and that we actually agree on many points. Buckets are too simple. Perhaps where we differ is that I am still highly interested in the aspects of this matter that apply to PSU, and I enjoy much of the dialogue here about those aspects. For those that don't, I suggest not opening these threads as you are likely to get frustrated.
Mean old me. I think Jerry should be in prison.
