It seems a shame that a man like Joe Paterno, who has done so much good for an institution like Penn State, will now be remembered for what is beyond the shadow of a doubt, the most reprehensible college football scandal of all time. When word hit the street about Jerry Sandusky’s actions with young boys, it was almost too astonishing to believe.
But what was even more beyond belief was how the school officials handled the situation. Paterno did the absolute minimum when he was told of the offenses that one of his graduate student coaching assistants witnessed. He went to the AD, Tim Curley, and the college’s senior vice president for finance and business, Gary Schultz, and told them about the allegations. That in itself should have started, at the very least, an internal investigation to find the truth. But instead, Curley denied ever hearing about such allegations, and both he and Schultz have now been charged with covering up the abuse allegations. Both men have since resigned.
Late Wednesday night, as word of Paterno’s firing started to filter into the mainstream news, JoePa uttered his dismay at the turn of events, he said “I wish I would have done more” back then. But he didn’t, and by not following up on the reported abuse, and by not demanding an investigation, he jeopardized the reputations of both the college and his football program. Of all people, JoePa should have known that this incident wasn’t simply going to go away. Not following up on it turned into the exact beast he feared, and now he and the rest of the administration have to pay.
He offered to resign following the end of this football season. But in the end, that was not to be. Wednesday the Penn State University College Board said “"We cannot begin to express the combination of sorrow and anger that we feel about the allegations surrounding Jerry Sandusky. We hear those of you who feel betrayed and we want to assure all of you that the Board will take swift, decisive action."
Swift and decisive happened later that night when the board called JoePa to tell him his services as head football coach were no longer needed. They also canned university president Graham Spanier. It’s mind boggling to me that people would even be concerned that those two were fired. Paterno knew. There is no question that he knew about the allegations, nor is there any question that he did the absolute minimum in terms of handling the matter.
The bigger question is how could he have lived with himself over the past 12 years knowing that this kind of evil, and Sandusky’s treatment of those eight kids is nothing but evil, existed at Penn State? Not just that, but the entire incident took place through the college and the football program. Sandusky was a trusted coach. He played on that trust when he developed his program The Second Mile. He systematically used the program to provide himself with more and more victims. His actions, as outlined in the grand jury’s indictment, are beyond horrible. Just reading them is bad enough, to know that they are likely true boggles the mind.
So what should JoePa have done? After contacting the police about this alleged crime, he probably should have called the AD and the school president and let them know that he felt compelled to call the police. He should have thrown Sandusky under the proverbial bus, and let him fend for himself.
But that’s not what happened. He should and probably will agonize over his inaction for the rest of his life. He had his chance. Things like this don’t just go away. There’s an old Chinese proverb that states you can’t wrap fire in paper, and that is apparently what this group of school officials tried to do.
Not being an attorney, I can’t really say at which point JoePa did all he was legally bound to do. But I do know a bit about ethics, and he certainly didn’t follow through on this the way he should have. How would he have acted had the victim been one of his children? Does one really have to go that far to understand the enormity of this crime? Sandusky was hit with 40 child abuse charges. At what point do we start to think that there may be a little fire with all that smoke?
Common sense tells you this matter was serious. Common decency required Paterno and his cronies to do the right thing. That they didn’t do the right thing is nothing short of a condemnation of the school, the football program, and the people involved in the cover up. It would seem to me that everyone in this mess deserves what has happened and what is bound to happen over the next year or two as the authorities sort out the mess. In the meantime, the PSU Board of Trustees has done exactly what needed to be done, and their actions were indeed “swift and decisive.” We can only hope that the court case that comes out of this is also swift and decisive.
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