Mike McQueary's Bad Habits and the Job Search

by Barry Bozeman

This week's Big Game is Mike McQueary vs Penn State for alleged defamation resulting in a lack of coaching job offers. Did Penn State harm McQueary's chances in the wake of the Nov 2011 indictments against former PSU coach Sandusky, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and VP Gary Schultz?

Today is the 2nd day of testimony and witnesses have offered explanations for McQueary's lack of job opportunities. PSU's defense claims McQueary's inaction when he claims to have seen or heard something between Jerry Sandusky and a boy of 10 in a locker room turned off the potential customers for his services. 

Either McQueary witnessed a sexual assault and failed to do anything about it, or he was confused about what he heard and "visualized" it as a sexual assault. Either way, his actions or inaction has been the cause of his lack of offers according to some.

McQueary blames this statement from Graham Spanier for his inability to land a job 

GRAHAM SPANIER SUPPORTS HIS STAFF MEMBERS

But there have been reports of something other than the 2001 Sandusky situation and the 2011 fallout from the November ambush that have been raised by ESPN and other media outlets.

From THE WHISTLEBLOWER'S LAST STAND 
ESPN the Magazine 
3/04/14
Don Van Natta Jr.

  At Penn State, buddies dubbed him Mr. State College because he projected a squeaky-clean image. But some who knew him then insist it was a facade. "He always kept up this appearance of the star quarterback, the model guy," says a close friend from those days. "But he was far from it." 

According to several of his classmates and teammates, McQueary developed a compulsive gambling habit at Penn State. He bet and lost thousands of dollars on poker and sports wagering, mostly on pro football, though he also bet, several of his former teammates say, on Nittany Lions games. One former teammate specifically recalls that Big Red bet and lost on his own team in a November 1996 game against Michigan State at Beaver Stadium. With McQueary serving as a backup on the sideline, favorite PSU won on a late field goal 32-29 but didn't cover the eight-point spread. 

As his losses mounted, McQueary owed thousands of dollars to a bookie, a debt that was eventually erased by his father, several people say. A college friend recalls urging McQueary to slow down. "It got pretty bad," the friend says, "and it just kept snowballing and snowballing. He was very impulsive." 

Whether Paterno or his assistants were aware of McQueary's gambling isn't known, but several teammates and former coaches say they doubt it. By all accounts, McQueary was fooling fans across Happy Valley -- and pulling the wool over on Paterno. "I love Joe to death," says a woman who worked for years in the football office. "But in a lot of ways, he was clueless."

Shortly after this ESPN report Deadspin joined in with this on 03/05/14

In 1995, Mike McQueary threw a touchdown late in garbage time of a Penn State blowout over Rutgers. Then-Rutgers coach Doug Graber and Joe Paterno got into a shouting match after the game because Graber thought Paterno was running up the score. The touchdown put the 20-point-favorite Nittany Lions up 59-34. None of this is interesting at all but for a tiny anecdote about McQueary's gambling habit while enrolled at Penn State, buried in ESPN's profile on the Penn State whistleblower.

 Any late score can seem like more than a coincidence when it takes money out of your pocket, and sports betting is full of conspiracy theorists, but this is at least interesting. A Penn State alum, who was there during McQueary's playing days, told BettingTalk.com that he recalled hearing rumors about McQueary's gambling, but never believed them. Then he read Van Natta, Jr.'s story and remembered the Rutgers game.

 It sounds good, but that's how these things work. There's never a smoking gun—the absence of which you can use as proof that nothing is rigged or proof that everything is rigged really well—and always another explanation, but this is more than your typical crazy-play-allows-team-to-cover-late story. This is a guy with an alleged gambling problem—including betting on his own team—coming in for mop-up duty and immediately covering the spread with a 42-yard touchdown pass in a game that was over.

It "doesn't take a Rocket Scientist" as Mike McQueary said to his father and Dr. Dranov that night in Feb 2001 to figure out that rumors this specific are completely deadly to anyone on a coaching job search. No university is going to offer a person accused of betting on his own school's games with much less evidence than is available on ESPN and Deadspin.

And to top it off even THE NEW YORK TIMES got into the act: 

McQueary's 42-yard touchdown pass to Chris Campbell, 58 seconds from the end of Penn State's bizarre 59-34 victory over Rutgers at Giants Stadium, led to an angry exchange between Doug Graber, the Rutgers coach, and Penn State's Joe Paterno. 

Suddenly, Penn State's 20th consecutive victory, and the types of defensive lapses that could eventually derail a second straight trip to the Rose Bowl, were overshadowed by a quarrelsome handshake. Paterno had to be restrained from pursuing Graber after the Rutgers coach made a parting remark. 

Afterward, Graber chose not to talk about the margin of victory -- which didn't exceed the Las Vegas point spread of 19 1/2 to 20 points until the final score -- or the controversial touchdown, and his players followed his lead. Paterno explained that the last pass was to go to the tight end and was not designed to produce a score. "Doug was upset, and he has a right to be," Paterno said.

 When ESPN and Deadspin have stories like this from the Winter of 2014 over 30 months ago and just two years after McQueary was not hired by Paterno replacement Bill O'Brien, it's not that difficult to comprehend why jobs were not flooding into his inbox. If these stories surfaced in early 2014 it's quite likely that rumors of these events were surfacing long before since that NYT piece on the Rutger's game was Sept. 1995.

When doing a coaching search it's certain that the 'grapevine' for input is heavy with fruit. These coaches interact with 100's of players and other coaches. As big as NCAA football is the aspect of fraternity and community is exceptionally strong. Teammates have special bonds and little can be hidden in such a glass fishbowl.

The only question, one might ask, is why the PSU defense has not yet played these reports as part of their defense. But we are only in the first quarter and there is a long way to go in a trial estimated to go on for 2 weeks. I look for the long ball of betting to come when the defense wants a maximum effect for their winning score in the second half. Once PSU is in the RedZone the odds are 5 to 1 we will see this play develop and 10 to 1 it will win the game for the Nittany Lion defense. Any takers? Mike? 

ONE LAST CHANCE TO DO THE RIGHT THING for MIKE McQUEARY

McQUEARY “I Would Do Anything for Joe Paterno”

by Barry Bozeman -

continued from McQueary Seeks Big Payday

Will Mike McQueary be the hero or the goat in this final chapter of his role in the sports scandal of the decade? Will Mike's legacy be the destruction of the Success With Honor legacy of Joe Paterno? Or will Mike finally redeem himself and become a key pivot point in the restoration of Joe's legacy?

The Whistleblower Trial this week is the last time Mike McQueary can prove his high regard for Joe. This trial will be covered by significant numbers of the media so Mike can finally do what he should have done in Nov. 2011 by:

• Telling the media to tell the world "I did not tell Joe of “anal rape”.
• Telling the media of 45 seconds and 2 1 or 2-second glances 
• Telling the media that Frank Fina and Linda Kelly completely misrepresented his words in the Presentment Lie that ruined Joe's reputation when they wrote:

(McQueary) saw a naked boy, victim 2, whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. ....(McQueary) reported what he had seen to Joe Paterno.

And if Mike truly wants to help his Alma Mater and his community.

• Mike can publicly denounce the Office of Attorney General that claims to seek justice for victims, for failing children by never investigating the Second Mile
• Mike can demand the media hold the PA OAG accountable for failing the child victims of The Second Mile - an agency they were responsible for monitoring - and State agencies that should have exposed Sandusky long before 2001.  

In Nov 2011 when his team, coach, school, and community were under assault due to a LIE attributed to Mike, he failed to do the right thing. Mike had been elevated to a position of honor and respect as QB of the Nittany Lions and had capitalized on that success by becoming a part of the coaching staff.

In Nov. 2011 everything Mike was raised, groomed, and worked hard to become was destroyed when Mike failed to do the right thing and tell the world that what Kelly stated in the Presentment was a lie. A lie he knew was destroying the reputation of the man he says he loved. The man who had given him the opportunities that resulted in the identity that defined him.  

This wasn't about being a coward in 2001 in that locker room. That was a fiction Fina created with Kelly when they chose to take Mike's "visualized" imaginings and make them into - Mike SAW Sandusky sodomizing a 10-year-old boy and told that to Joe Paterno, in order to sensationalize their case and make PSU into the primary enabler and villain.

Was the honor and trust bestowed by the positions of QB and coach violated when Mike chose to gamble on PSU games? Did Mike fear being exposed for those transgressions?

FOURTY FIVE SECONDS THAT DESTROYED JOE PATERNO'S REPUTATION 

Fina and Kelly made Mike out to be a coward when he was confused, suspicious, and distraught that he might have just missed seeing something heinous. Mike did not see anal rape. His evolving embellishment's make that clear. 

Mike heard what he interpreted as sexual slapping sounds he attributed to adults in a shower. He "visualized" adults engaged in a sex act - and in the two 1 or 2-second glances when he glimpsed anything in that shower he expected to see a sexual act. 

TWO GLANCES 1 or 2 Seconds Each

45 SECONDS TOTAL TIME

45 seconds - the total time McQueary says
he spent in that locker room.

Two 1 or 2 second glances - the total time he observed anything in that shower.
Click images to enlarge

There is no fault in confusion or suspicion.
The fault was a failure to make what 
happened that night clear - to his father, Dr. Dranov, Joe, Tim, or Gary and ten years later to Fina and Kelly. The CRIME against Joe and PSU was his failure to publicly state the truth when all the public knew was the LIE in the Presentment. 

Joe and PSU were under assault because the public believed that he had seen a child being sodomized, told Joe that, and then told Tim and Gary that. Mike, you know that is not the Truth -yet you watched your university, team, coach, and community vilified as a culture of football crazed pedophile enablers led by a demigod - all because of you.  How do you live with that?

Now you have the opportunity to redeem yourself, Mike. Now you can tell the media and through them the world the TRUTH. Tell them it was 45 seconds total time in the room and two 1 or 2-second glances that made you suspect the worst because you had "visualized" a sex act in your mind and believed you were witnessing "some kind of intercourse".  You have already testified on the record to those facts. 

Now is the time to begin a process to rehabilitate the reputation of the man you say you love and the team and university you are sworn to honor. Linda Kelly is no longer in power. Frank Fina is a disgraced email porn king. Whatever hold they had on you to maintain your silence is gone and you can tell the world how you were pressured and why.

When you do that you will erase those claims of cowardice for running out on a rape victim. You can become the man who exposed the lies of Kelly and Fina and who initiated the reversal of the erroneous and damaging narrative instigated by two corrupt prosecutors out to make a name for themselves by destroying a man of honor. That can be your legacy. Instead of the goat you can become the hero of your own story. 

IS THERE A CHANCE TO IMPACT THE NARRATIVE? A CALL TO ACTION.               

Anyone with TV or Internet access in Nov. 2011 could not escape the images of Joe Paterno surrounded by cameras at his home or the PSU football practice facility in the wake of the malicious premeditated libel deliberately designed to evoke outrage in a language that inspired maximum media coverage. The Presentment Victim 2 stated:

(McQueary) saw a naked boy, victim 2, whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. ....(McQueary) reported what he had seen to Joe Paterno. 

Yes, this act of malicious contempt for truth and justice did involve the misuse and abuse of Mike McQueary. Yes, he was victimized by the State of PA in the form of Frank Fina and AG Linda Kelly. Kelly and Fina are certainly to blame. But Mike McQueary could easily see what was happening to the man he to this day says he loves - the coach he still says he would do anything to support. McQueary has said those words to friends who have spoken to him. Maybe Mike is capable of honoring Joe deep down but we need to reach that desire in him.

Comments below and on the long thread beneath the post of this article on Facebook Group WE intend to vote out the Penn State Board of Trustees include remarks from PSU people who say this:

I knew Mike. He was always a liar, who lied to please others, impress others, and inflate his own ego. A bullshitter, little lies here, there and everywhere. When the news first broke, my mind immediately went back to him being a pathological liar, who I didn't think ever even realized he was making shit up.

and 

 My wife has known him since middle school ... I recall her informing me in no uncertain terms that he was nothing but a rat fink that would say or do anything to get what he wanted... isn't funny how this case has proved that out?

We do not need these reports to know Mike has a problem with TRUTH. His 'evolving' under oath testimonies that have changed with time bear that out in his own words. And as one comment says:

"His use of the phrase "I would have said..." with regard to his reports to Curley & Schultz, indicates to me that he didn't know or remember much at all, or that he didn't report those things at all; however, if he had reported them, "He would have said..." There was only one instance where MM added, "I did say that." 

The content below the McQueary Seeks a Payday post  contains testimonies that prove Mike embellished and twisted the truth. But even these variations, never say what AG Linda Kelly's Presentment says was said. 

Paterno was under attack as the person alerted by McQueary that Sandusky was seen anally raping a 10-year-old boy in a PSU shower and Joe only told AD Tim Curley. 

Mike knew that. Mike could see all that media at Joe's house and at the practice facility. 

ALL MIKE HAD TO DO WAS GO TO JOE'S HOUSE AND SAY "I NEVER SAW ANAL RAPE-NEVER SAID I SAW ANAL RAPE-AND NEVER TOLD JOE I SAW ANAL RAPE"

Mike could have told that TRUTH to the media at the practice facility and at that point in time it would have made all the difference in the media narrative. That would have made AG Linda Kelly a liar and kept Joe Paterno's honor intact. 
  

But Mike did not have the will, the moral fiber, the courage, the love of Coach and Alma Mater, the respect for his community and neighbors, or the simple common decency - to tell the media, his friends and neighbors, or the world that he did not say what AG Linda Kelly wrote in that presentment. 

Mike was too concerned with his image as a coward who ran while a boy suffered rape to do anything for the Coach he says he loved and revered. And the strange thing is he would have redeemed his tarnished image as a coward by doing the right thing and saving the reputation of his coach. He did not see anal rape and run. He was uncertain of what he saw and conflicted by what he thought he heard, imagined, and visualized.

Mike gathered the players in his charge to tell them he had once been abused and that he stopped whatever was happening prior to leaving. He was willing to challenge the Presentment on that to salvage his own self-respect but unwilling to challenge the Presentment lie that he saw "anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. ....and reported what he had seen to Joe Paterno."  

Mike has never told the Media "I did not see anal rape and did not tell Joe I saw anal rape" and he will suffer in this prison of his own making until he does that.

That's where you come in. If you live within driving distance of the courtroom where the McQueary trial is being held you have one last chance to confront Mike and make him know that he will only regain some semblance of respect and esteem if he uses this moment in time with the media assembled to finally TELL THAT ONE TRUTH. 

If you know Mike or someone who does a copy of this article should be sent to him, to his father, to Dr. Dranov and the medical business in State College where they work. Mike should know what is being said and how he can alter the narrative and his own image by finally just saying these words to media. "The Linda Kelly Presentment was a LIE. I did not see anal rape and never told Joe I saw anal rape". 

Mike could say "What I thought I was seeing was not clear. Time was too short and vision too obscured. Due to the slapping sounds, I visualized something sexual between adults so I believed I was seeing molestation but in the 3 to 6-second view of Sandusky's back I could not be certain and that was clear to AG Kelly and the Grand Jury." Mike should say "AG Linda Kelly lied and the Grand Jury presentment was a lie."

Now the trial for Sandusky is over and he was found not guilty of the anal rape charge. What Mike says now about that charge and the Presentment will have no bearing on any case. The only effect it could have is to help rehabilitate Joe Paterno's reputation. 

I personally believe he should also come clean about what he did not tell Tim and Gary but he is trying to make money off that lie so I doubt he will change it while a chance exists. But he can do Paterno a great service and he has said he "would do anything" for Joe. 

This is one last opportunity where Mike McQueary has to appear in public. One last chance to confront the lies of Linda Kelly and Frank Fina. One more chance to redeem the good name of Joe Paterno.  

Now that Linda Kelly is out of office and Frank Fina has been exposed as the porn spreading by email king, there can be no repercussions for Mike McQueary. Mike can tell the world whatever Fina did to pressure him into not revealing that lie.  

The world outside those of us who follow this website or support PSU, still believes Mike saw a boy being anally raped and told Joe he saw a boy being anally raped. This could be a chance to put a dent in that perception. The whole world isn't watching but enough media should be on hand to cover this and it could touch off a spate of articles and broadcasts.  

McQueary is alleging defamation against Dr. Graham Spanier for this statement in support of Tim Curley and Gary Schultz.