Game Over: Jerry Sandusky, Penn State, and the Culture of Silence [Hardcover]

Bill Moushey (Author), Robert Dvorchak (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 17, 2012

The shocking details chronicling how a beloved coach and esteemed university became enmeshed in one of the worst scandals in U.S. sports history

It's a scandal that began in a place called Happy Valley. But it's not as happy as it once was, as the child-sex-abuse charges against a longtime coach and the conspiracy of silence surrounding the allegations have rocked America and Division 1 college sports.

The shocking stories started to pour out after the November 6, 2011, arrest of Jerry Sandusky, a former coach under the Penn State football legend Joe Paterno. Sandusky had been Paterno's top lieutenant for thirty-two years. He was also the founder of a charity, The Second Mile, that devoted itself to helping disadvantaged youth. It turns out Paterno was told about an incident involving an underage boy showering with Sandusky in the football locker room, but reported the incident to school officials rather than the police.

The numerous boys in Sandusky's program who have come forward told a grand jury lurid stories of a sexual predator who stalked and abused them, sometimes even in the showers of Penn State's football complex. In Game Over, journalists Bill Moushey and Bob Dvorchak investigate claims of a startling cover-up within the Penn State hierarchy that attempted to protect its football legacy, quite possibly at the expense of disenfranchised children.

Game Over is filled with the shocking details of how a culture built around one deified coach with a glorious vision to have "success with honor" fails to act in the best interests of the most vulnerable. University president Graham Spanier has been consumed in this firestorm along with Joe Paterno himself in what spiraled downward into the worst scandal in the history of college sports.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bill Moushey is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist who specializes in documenting abuses of the criminal justice system. He worked with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette for twenty-three years before becoming a professor in the School of Communication at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. In 1997 he won the National Press Club's Freedom of Information Award for his groundbreaking exposé of an out-of-control witness protection program.

Bob Dvorchak worked for forty-four years as a journalist with Uniontown Newspapers Inc., the Associated Press, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He has received awards from the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Golden Quill awards program for deadline reporting and sportswriting.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (April 17, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062201131
• ISBN-13: 978-0062201133
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent overview October 1, 2012

By Ryan Smith

Format:Hardcover

This is obviously an emotional topic (as witnessed by many of the 1-star reviews). I wanted to get a good overview of the story and was particularly interested in the culture that fostered this sad series of events. Here is my take on the book:

*The book is, in general, an easy read and provides a quick overview of the story. Many already know the basics, but it adds more details that I was not aware of.
*With the exception of one chapter (the chapter on Penn St.'s culture), I thought the book took an objective approach. In fact, I felt like the authors were just cataloging stories, recollections, and events.
*The authors painted Paterno as a complex man, at times were sympathetic to him, wrote many pages about all of the good things he did, and at the end of one chapter even praised him. I did not come away thinking Paterno was evil or even negligent. They paint him as a human being, and all human beings have flaws.
*From my perspective at least, the authors assign more blame to the culture that allowed this to happen. Stories changed as they were communicated up the chain of command, people felt they were doing due diligence or, in a few cases, acted out of fear. I think the authors are pretty clear that it was this context, not any kind of intentional malfeasance (with the exception of Sandusky, of course).

Overall, I would recommend this book as a good overview of the story. There is the narrative of a culture of silence, but other than that, this book merely catalogs events and stories. I would recommend it if you want to know more, but if you followed the story, you probably won't need it.

Finally, I had two reactions to the book. Obviously, Penn St. does a lot of positive things. I did not come away with negative feelings about the university or Paterno. The book describes events in which the Penn St. community acted nobily and where the campus community demonstrated sympathy. Second, for all the emotions involved in defending Penn St., I have yet to find a new or different narrative in which to describe what happened. Clearly, many people had reason to suspect something wrong was happening for many years, and the events continued to transpire. Unless convinced otherwise, many will continue to believe it was the culture and a failure of leadership (which determines culture) that led to an environment in which Sandusky got away with his horrible crimes for many years.

27 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to read April 25, 2012

By Crutch

Format:Hardcover

I agree it seems as if the bulk of the reviewers here haven't read the book and I'm guessing many of them are Penn State/JoePa fans. In truth it is very well written and clarifies the chronology of events leading up to the legal action taken. If you believe this account of Sandusky's M.O. he's nothing but a garden variety sexual predator and the big story is that it happened at a famous institution. Though Penn State does not come out looking good, the greater message here is that it could happen anywhere. Because we live in a culture so fearful of addressing sexual issues of ANY kind, we're ill equipped to deal with those of abuse. The Sanduskys of the world get a big boost from our fear of discomfort. Read this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing you can not find on google November 15, 2012

By dts

Format:Hardcover

A few things: 1) This book was published before the verdict so no Freeh Report, no sentencing etc. 2) The content is very shallow, nothing you can not find on the internet. It seems like the author just took all of the news articles and wrote a book essentially summarizing them. 3) The author makes it seem like the whole scandal is about Joe Paterno. Yes Joe Paterno had a significant role, but the book should have focused more on Jerry Sandusky.