Good points that you and others made here. However, let us face the fact that the apologists for Paterno will never see that facts are facts, and hero worship is hero worship.
The whole thing stinks, from A to Z. There is no doubt that Paterno stayed too long and was shielded from a program he no longer had the capacity to manage, that the football program was insulated, that Sandusky was a child sex offender. There is no doubt that long before any firings, media investigation or reports MANY people in Happy Valley knew about Sandusky. As with all disasters, there were many warnings and as with all disasters, many things had to go wrong before the situation finally came to light.
If anything can be learned from this mess, it should be that if you are going to be a coach, know when to leave, make sure you understand you duties and responsibilities. Paterno was too old, out of touch. Those that continue to defend Penn State have to come to grips with the facts
Those that continue to defend Penn State have to come to grips with the facts
Not only that, they fail to acknowledge that Penn State was given a tremendous pass when it came to sanctions....SMU was given the death sentence i.e.
The 1987 season was canceled; only conditioning drills (without pads) were permitted until the spring of 1988. All home games in 1988 were canceled. SMU was allowed to play their seven regularly scheduled away games so that other institutions would not be financially affected. The university ultimately chose to cancel the away games as well. The team's existing probation was extended to 1990. Its existing ban from bowl games and live television was extended to 1989. SMU lost 55 new scholarship positions over 4 years. The team was allowed to hire only five full-time assistant coaches instead of the typical nine. No off-campus recruiting was permitted until August 1988, and no paid visits could be made to campus by potential recruits until the start of the 1988–89 school year
This for a recruiting violation!!!
If anything can be learned from this mess, it should be that if you are going to be a coach, know when to leave, make sure you understand you duties and responsibilities. Paterno was too old, out of touch. Those that continue to defend Penn State have to come to grips with the facts
...this is one of the most cogent posts on this subject I’ve read on this forum...if Paterno had left at 75, a reasonable age to have done so, he would have escaped any opprobrium from this, as he would have had no reason to know (other than by rumor, as he testified to the grand jury, thus letting the cat out of the bag about JS’s well known debauchery)any specifics...
...I have limited sympathy for Paterno, limited because he made his own bed by losing touch with his own creation, and because he tried to set the terms of his own leaving when he had no capital left to dictate anything...but, I firmly believe, a younger more intense Paterno would have grabbed this monster by the shirt and tossed him all the way to Bellefonte...but by 2001, that Paterno was a memory, and things played out the way they did...
...one thing I think we’ll someday find out is why Paterno told JS he would never be the head coach...the cover story that he spent too much time with Second Mile is ridiculous, as he could have said that to him ten years earlier and it would have been equally true then...knowing that would be good information to have...