JoePa still is...Penn State

I realize this blog post isn’t likely to make me any new friends, but I feel quite strongly about this topic, so here it is anyway.  Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno died yesterday of complications from lung cancer, and the question of his legacy looms larger than ever.  There are those who feel that Coach Paterno is as responsible for the abuse of young boys as the alleged abuser himself, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.  I am not among them.  While I wish that the child sexual abuse allegations had been tackled head on immediately, and that any number of people had shouted their allegations from the rooftops, let me be clear.  There is one person to blame for the atrocious alleged abuses of boys, and that person is Jerry Sandusky. 

That Sandusky’s abuses were allowed to continue for so long was due to an entire series of systemic failures to follow up, to grasp the sickening reality of the situation, and to take decisive action.  In 1998, a victim’s mother reports her son’s account of inappropriate behavior on the part of Sandusky to Penn State police, an investigation is undertaken, yet no charges were filed by the district attorney.  In 2000, a temporary janitor at Penn State witnesses Sandusky in the athletic center showering with, and allegedly performing oral sex on, a young boy.  The janitor informs the permanent janitorial staff but no other reports were filed.

In March 2002, Penn State graduate assistant Mike McQueary witnesses Sandusky touching a young boy inappropriately in the football facility shower.  After talking it over with his father, McQueary tells Joe Paterno the next day about what he saw.  Paterno reported the incident to Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, and to the vice-president of finance – who also oversaw the campus police – Gary Schultz.  Both men met with McQueary regarding his observations, yet neither man ever reported the incident to the authorities.  The only actions they apparently took were to confiscate Sandusky’s locker room keys and report the incident to Sandusky’s charity, The Second Mile.

Coach Paterno took the actions at the time that a reasonable person would have taken.  Sandusky had not been on Paterno’s coaching staff for 3 years, and no longer had daily interaction with Paterno; it makes sense for Paterno to conclude that not he, but higher university officials, should confront the issue.  There were no further incidents involving Sandusky on the Penn State campus; it made sense for Paterno to assume that the issue had been confronted and resolved.   Should he have followed up?  Knowing what we know now, of course he should have, and Paterno has said as much himself.  But none of us are granted the benefit of a crystal ball when we make life-affecting decisions.  We'd all make fewer mistakes if we did, eh?

Why do I even care about defending JoePa?  I’ll tell you why.  I grew up in an era when college football coaches did more than just prep young men for the pro game, and then jump to the NFL themselves.  I attended the University of Michigan while Bo Schembechler coached football.  Bo was not perfect; he had a nasty temper at times, and was, by many accounts, quite sexist.  But he cared deeply about his players as young men with potential both on and off the field, not just as position players who won games.  He cared deeply about the University of Michigan, and not just for the paycheck it provided.  Joe Paterno was cut from the same cloth.  The words of his former players, his fellow coaches, and the Penn State family do not lie.  He and his wife have donated over $4 million to the university – for a library and academic scholarships, not towards football, I should note.  His ambition was never to win Super Bowls and make more money in the NFL than he could ever dream of as a college coach, but to have a hand in helping young men reach their potential, and helping Penn State become a world-class university.  This is not erased by one day of poor judgment.  It cannot be.  Those who loved him will not allow it.

I firmly believe that Joe Paterno died on Sunday morning of a broken heart.  Not because his reputation was tarnished, but because a decision he made in 2002 caused him to let down the players he lived for, the university that he loved, and several young boys whose lives may never be made right.

 

Comments

[North Face Denali Gloves]

A UNC Asheville Groundwork gained products because of much more than one hundred and fifty bestower whom expressly enquired this ones own products turn for manufacture, supplying along with yard involving Pisgah Place. The products was basically through the est involving Allene Highsmith, that partner involving UNC Asheville's to begin with chancellor, that's employed to identify a powerful endowment to support afford having involving gatherings by just up-to-date along with potential future chancellors. Weaver Boulevard.

[boldtcastle.com]

Cedar plank Oaks MOBILE HOME Holiday resort can be found 3 stretches n . in Grove under the banking companies in Awesome Sea and 1 distance southerly in Cruise Ship Connect. The particular turn has got in excess of 100 internet sites using 40 as well as 50amp maximum hookups along with capabilities bathhouses using showers, any laundromat, zero cost Wi-fi The web, any cruiser boat dock, shuffleboard legal courts along with permits dogs and cats. Website visitors often get pleasure from doing water activities, reef fishing, cooling off, playing together with other normal water sporting events..

[Michael Kors handbag is going to impress you]

There's a lot of erika kors services that anyone can locate with all erika kors Store available at the moment for this reason it happens to be problematic to decide when what we should are usually investing in will be counterfeit and also genuine.

[Ralph Lauren Sverige]

It's got it has the industrial facilities situated in Parts of asia -- Pakistan, Cina, Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia together with China. Nike at this time providers a great variety of physical activities likes and dislikes products and services together with products for your a pair of men together with ladies. Path performing shoes or boots have been his or her first products and services and from now on Nike's selection offers baselayers, shoes or boots, pants, jerseys, and many others intended for physical activities this type of when cricket, tennis game, basketball game, sports, its polar environment tennis, riding a bike, fumbling, snowboarding, cheerleading, playing golf or anything else.

[Ralph Lauren Sverige Online]

This specific job application offers you modern home elevators every futures globally, along with possibility sport shifting press releases occurring globally. As you purchase a certain commodity you may have every data you may possibly demand within the commodity, along with the present-day news flash the commodity, fine against your arms, not having generating all certain option to be consumed completely to another webpage.

[recalcitrance]

The Bullock Pulpit: Calculated musings of a pragmatic idealist: JoePa still is...Penn State

[omcdurham]

Well said!