Check this out from last night, if you haven’t seen it already. I followed most of this on twitter.
People are excusing students for their blind love of Paterno and I say there’s no excuse. THAT’S the problem. Institutionalism and certain people who have a legendary status attached to them are given a free pass.
We don’t know just how much Joe Pa did to try to bring this horrible crime against a child to light, but it’s obvious that he didn’t do enough. Perhaps he went to the AD or even the cops and maybe they gave Coach Sandusky a free pass based on his celebrity. Perhaps there’s more to come. But regardless, don’t you think Paterno should have been asking why this guy was still coming to work each day?
My old colleague Vince DeLisi, has some thoughts that I found interesting:
Sexual abuse cannot be forgiven. This said shame on you Penn State for trying to make Joe Paterno take the fall. This is a man of integrity who could have walk away in the 70’s and been a coach in the NFL for the New York Giants. He stayed ran a great program making sure his graduates were prepared for life after football. He cared about his players and made sure they had a good education.
Paterno had people to answer to and I am sure he was told to report what he knew and others would take care of this. He was a good employee. Should he have done more and ignored his bosses, maybe yes but one thing is for sure, he should not take the fall.
I want to agree with Vince, but I just can’t. We all want to love Joe Pa and give him a free ride, but that’s exactly what’s wrong here. And after viewing that video I’m not sure Paterno realizes how serious this is. Now he is of a certain age and these types of things just weren’t talked about in his day and perhaps he’s in over his head at this point. But when he says things like “The victims…or whatever you want to call them” and then jumps right past that comment with a rousing cheer for Penn State–you’ve got to question if he understands the levity of the moment.
I don’t think he does.
Paterno won’t make it to Saturday and I doubt that Penn State will play their game this Saturday against Nebraska. The Penn State athletes here should show us all a little something and REFUSE to play on Saturday. Nebraska should phone the NCAA and refuse to play as well. Penn State’s season should be cancelled at this juncture and the student-athletes should be given another year of eligibility and Joe Paterno needs to go away.
Three words: Call the cops. I hope we find out that he did and that his calls were ignored. Still, when Sandusky’s next to him on the sideline, knowing what he knew…how did he keep him on board?
Philadelphia’s Archdiocese, Bishop Finn in Kansas City-St. Joseph and now the athletic department at Penn State….they all learned nothing from the Dallas Charter. They fail to understand that child sexual abuse is the biggest black eye out there and that covering it up or not responding forcefully makes that other eye more black than the first.
This will not end well. Mark my words.