Paterno: Sad and tragic ending, all the way around

***If you have a squeamish stomach and do not want to read about controversy or child abuse, please do not read this article...You have been warned!***



Joe Paterno passed away this week. Some say he died of a broken heart. While I am sad for the Paterno family's loss, I'm pretty sure lung cancer is what got him, which would have happened even if he was never fired.

For those of you living under a rock, here is a recap of what happened over the last few months.
Mike McQueary, (a former player,then assistant coach and grown man), witnessed Jerry Sandusky, (former Defensive coach and then member of a youth outreach program), rape a 10 year old boy in the shower of the Penn State football facility.

McQueary has made several different statements about his actions following this incident, ranging from doing nothing and leaving to physically separating them and leaving. Any way you slice it, not much there to cheer about. Me? I would have beat Sandusky to a bloody pulp, or at least called the police. But that is another matter.

This action was then reported to Paterno the next day. Joe Pa, as he is affectionately known, has also given several accounts of what happened next, anything from reporting "something funny" happened to "maybe a little inappropriate tickling". Who did he report to? The police on campus? The state police? A detective? A prosecutor? Sandusky himself? Nope. The president and athletic director...Hmmm...Protecting a football program? I think so.

So they certainly took appropriate action, right? Nope. Not once was an investigation conducted. No law enforcement called. Not even a ban of Sandusky from the building. Now here is where I start to really get mad.

This incident. The one witnessed by a credible grown man. It was reported to Joe Pa in 2002. TEN YEARS AGO. Sandusky had free reign of this facility and the youth outreach program called Second Mile the whole time. Joe knew this. He knew no action was taken. Then he defended that by saying he was "...hesitant to make follow-up calls because I did not want to be seen as trying to exert any influence for or against Sandusky. I didn't know which way to go, and rather than get in there and make a mistake . . ."

Joe Paterno, a man of high regard. A man with decades on the record of "doing things the right way", was hesitant to get involved on behalf of a raped ten year old boy. Seriously? Get in there, throw your weight around and make sure something is done. No ambiguity, no grey area, no tough call. There is only one clear path forward. The cost of going forward is high, but the cost of not going forward is life changing. I refuse to believe this mighty man, the moral compass of a community and even a nation, had a hard time figuring that out. Only one conclusion can be drawn from this. Paterno did nothing for fear his football legacy would be tarnished.

Now the apologists are saying he got a raw deal. You have to forgive the man of one small mistake and not let that over shadow his decades of good work. To this I say, how can you call it ONE mistake? How can you call it a SMALL mistake? He had ten years to step up and do the right thing. He chose not to, and who knows how many more boys suffered the same fate.

Yes I understand that any one of the people in this story, starting with McQueary, should have stood up and shouted. Joe did not witness this himself which is probably the one thing that saves any grace for him. Yet I can't help but get sick when I hear Joe Pa apologists shout "Look at all the good he did", or "Look how many lives he touched". I can't help but think of the lives he should have touched and didn't.

Everyone deserves forgiveness. We are all human and we all make mistakes. I don't wish to vilify Paterno and suggest that the body of his work is now worthless. What I do wish to point out is simply this. Before you suggest him for sainthood don't forget, the most powerful man in college football history, the most influential man in Penn State, the one who is famous for 'doing things the right way', stood by and did nothing in the most crucial hour. That I will never forget.

God bless the victims and their families. Football is just a game...