OK, sorry JoePa, but you can’t weasel out of this one with some kind of lame excuse about notifying the chain of command. Not only are the reports about former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky reprehensible, simply passing the information along without checking up on it, is the equivalent of sticking one’s head in the sand.
That such a thing could happen at an institution like Penn State is remarkable enough. But the cumulative actions of the three people in position to take the right and proper action at the time is, in my opinion, criminal. Due diligence on the part of Penn State’s revered football coach, Joe Paterno, should have included following up on the allegations, and demanding that there be some kind of investigation.
Is he so dumb as to think that such things wouldn’t eventually come out? There appears to have been ample evidence, and credible evidence at that, concerning Mr. Sandusky’s deviant behavior. No fewer than eight witnesses have already come forward and talked to the Grand Jury. The grand jury offered up 40 charges against Sandusky. And the prosecutor fully expects more victims to come out of the wood work as this case moves along to trial.
So for all you Penn State fans who think that Coach Paterno is beyond reproach in this matter, stop and take a look at what happened. JoePa did not look out for the kids, he did not look out for himself, he did not look out for the university, and he did not look out for his football program. Given the magnitude of the allegations, and the incredibly egregious nature of the offenses, how could anyone fail to grasp how this would play out when it became public knowledge?
There is really only one way to save grace in the face of such staggering revelations. Step up and take the hit. Get out in front of what was destined to become a media frenzy, acknowledge what happened, and get the investigation rolling with the full support of the University and University officials. Will it keep your good name from getting smeared? Probably not, but it shows how seriously the university, and the Penn State Football program, and Joe Paterno, take such allegations.
Instead, university officials took the low road. Joe Paterno, according to testimony heard by the grand jury, told the AD, Tim Curley, and the college’s senior vice president for finance and business, Gary Schultz, about the allegations. Curley denies ever hearing about such allegations, and both he and Schultz have been charged with covering up the abuse allegations. Both men have since resigned.
That something went seriously wrong in the reporting procedure is obvious. That there was a cover up, or at least an attempt to cover things up, hoping that nothing would come of the allegations, is also obvious. Either the proper authorities were informed or they weren’t. What they chose to do instead was try to wash their hands, they either denied they were told or said that no one told them the extent of the allegations. There wasn’t much quibbling over what had happened according to the Grand Jury indictment. It was very explicit, and I am sure that the graduate student, who spoke with Joe Paterno on a Sunday, the day after witnessing the event, didn’t quibble over what he saw. It was not, as some have tried to say, just some minor touching incident. But even if it had been just that, it still should have been investigated.
Needless to say, handing the problem over to two other PSU administrators and not taking the time to bother to follow up is wrong-headed. The only way to preserve even the slightest dignity was to hold an investigation, discover the facts, and nothing but the facts, and then summarily throw the guilty party under the bus. Instead, the administration tried to pretend nothing happened. They diminished the extent of the incident and tried to play it off as if it were accidental touching between a man and a boy “wrestling” in a shower. Sorry, but I can’t even write that sentence with a straight face. It wasn’t “wrestling” according to the testimony.
For me, JoePa is just as guilty as Curley or Schultz. It was his program on the block; don’t tell me that he wasn’t concerned. He may have played along with the game, may have thought that Curley and Schultz had things under control, but the reality of it all rolls right back to him. He should have insisted on an investigation, and at the end, depending on the results, proffered charges and wrote the kind of letter that the College Board did:
"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."
It’s tough when a man of such stature is painted by such an odious scandal. In the year that JoePa set the record for most wins by a D1 college coach he finds his comeuppance in the scandal to beat all scandals. How the school officials, JoePa included, operated in this situation is just another example of the deteriorating moral convictions that seem to run rampant in our society today. Call him collateral damage if you will, but the only way to start the healing is to remove all aspects of the cancer. Unfortunately some good must go in order to ensure all of the bad is removed. The only honorable thing to do at this point is to resign. The football season is nearly over; maybe it should be your last.
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