You might wonder what Terry Pegula, the owner of the Buffalo Sabres, has to do with the Jerry Sandusky investigation. More than Terry Pegula would like you to believe. Pegula, who gave $88 million to Penn State last year to build a hockey arena and start a D1 hockey program, was in the news recently, talking about how PSU officials have "got to come clean." Here's some of what he said:
This is not about covering your ass. Telling the truth now will go a long way towards getting everyone through this. If there's going to be a blind allegiance to anyone or anything here, it needs to be the university and to the truth...that's how we get to the bottom of what happened, that's how we get our image back.
The truth, eh? Pegula might start looking for it by talking to Cliff Benson, whom he hired this October as the Sabres chief development officer. Benson had been working informally as a senior adviser to the team and is described in other media reports as Pegula's "confidante." But he is also on the board of The Second Mile. He has been since 2009.
Last week, the Sabres website listed his role at the charity as "finance chair":
This week, the Sabres covered their fat collective ass and removed all references to The Second Mile from Benson's profile. Maybe Benson didn't know anything. Maybe he did. I couldn't get through to anyone at the Sabres main number. Doesn't anyone want to come clean?