In the frenzied hours after the Penn State Board of Trustees announced that Joe Paterno was being relieved of his duties as football coach effective immediately, students in State College took to the streets in support of the former coach while college football analysts around the country sought to place his fall from grace in perspective.
Several hours earlier, Paterno had issued an independent statement, revealing his own intention to retire after the season. Clearly, the Board of Trustees felt Paterno needed to go sooner for his complicity in -- or, at least, his indifference toward -- the heinous sexual assaults allegedly committed by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
With Paterno's career having come to a sudden, inglorious conclusion and Beaver Canyon overrun with students, some whom flipped two television news trucks, it seemed that Penn State had reached its nadir.
Perhaps not.
Shockingly, there are reports that even more depraved details about the sexual crimes allegedly committed by Sandusky will be revealed in the coming days. As the quasi-riots shook the Penn State campus late Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning, SportsByBrooks began tweeting ominous messages about allegations that have yet to become public.
SPORTSbyBROOKS I can confirm there will soon be new, major allegation involving child sex abuse in Sandusky case. Told tonite it could come before Saturday
SPORTSbyBROOKS If what I was told tonight about the details of the new allegation in Sandusky child sex case is true, it will horrify the public.
SPORTSbyBROOKS This is a deadly serious matter. Keep the victims in your thoughts. Cannot emphasize that enough. In your thoughts.
Several hours after these SportsByBrooks tweets, Pittsburgh radio host Mark Madden appeared on The Dennis and Callahan Show on WEEI in Boston and shared what he believes those allegations to be.
"I can give you a rumor and I can give you something I think might happen," Madden said on the radio. "I hear there's a rumor that there will be a more shocking development from the Second Mile Foundation -- and hold on to your stomachs, boys, this is gross, I will use the only language I can -- that Jerry Sandusky and Second Mile were pimping out young boys to rich donors. That was being investigated by two prominent columnists even as I speak."
Madden has been following the Sandusky case long before the former coach's alleged sex crimes against young boys became widely known several days ago. In April, Madden authored an article for the Beaver County Times positing that Sandusky's sex crimes had been swept under the rug by Penn State in the late 1990s in exchange for his quiet resignation.
"The other thing I think that may eventually become uncovered, and I talked about this in my original article back in April, is that I think they'll find out that Jerry Sandusky was told that he had to retire in exchange for a cover-up," said Madden during his Thursday morning radio appearance. "If you look at the timeline, that makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
If the allegations that Madden is making are indeed the same ones foreshadowed by Brooks and they turn out to be true then this entire scandal will continue to metastasize and the firing of Paterno will only be the beginning.
Although Madden's April article appears to have been largely on point regarding the seriousness of Sandusky's alleged crimes and the indifference -- or, worse, complicity -- showed by Penn State personnel, not everyone is willing to immediately accept his latest, and arguably most disturbing, account as he does not cite his sources. Among those taking the moderately-polarizing, sometimes shock jock's story with a grain of salt is Ben Jones. Among the must-follow tweeters throughout the scandal at Penn State, Jones is a college football reporter for BlackShoeDiaries.com.
Ben Jones I'm not saying it isn't true, but if Madden had such a source, why didn't he break the whole story?