RC - I have read and admired your posts over the years, and I’d like to try to convince you to take a step back.
It’s not about the legacy, it’s just about the Freeh report. The biggest issue with the Freeh report is the wild conclusions and accusations made on an incomplete investigation. Paterno dedicated his life to helping others, to trying to make young men into exceptional human beings, teaching life lessons that would last long past the football field. And make no mistake, he wanted to win as many football games while doing so and was very driving and demanding in the pursuit of all of these goals tied together.
However, this does not mean he had no faults. He was the all-time most winning coach in college football. However, there were many times that his team was stopped on fourth down. Many times he ran when he should have thrown, kicked when he should have gone for it, etc. And just like the rest of us, he made mistakes off the field as well.
The Freeh report comes to the wild conclusion that Paterno and Penn State knowingly harbored a child predator and did so to benefit a football program. I am not here to try and convince you that Joe Paterno, or Penn State, handled the situation exactly as it should have been handled. But we sit here ten years later and are able to analyze this situation with the benefit of hindsight, and we are able to see what a monster, what a manipulator Jerry Sandusky was. Paterno did not have that knowledge. In his last days, he admitted that with the benefit of hindsight, he wished he had done more. But at that time, neither Paterno nor anyone else involved in the situation knew the severity of what a monster Sandusky was. We can argue back and forth whether he and other Penn State officials should have better recognized the severity of the situation and thus handled things in a different manner. The misunderstanding of how serious this situation was resulted in grave and significant consequences. And to that, Paterno admitted that is one of his life’s greatest regrets. But that is a fair cry from the wild accusations in the Freeh report, that these individuals, including Paterno, who dedicated his life to helping young people, knowingly covered up the actions of a child predator.
A concise and poignant rebuttal, unlike some of the replies and emotions other thread conjure up. I will always lean to the side that he knew something, but I also like to remind myself “but for the grace of God go I...”.I have the luxury of saying I would have acted on it, but arm chairing is easy. I have confidence that he did wish he had done things differently.
I think he should have been quietly retired and barred from Penn State activities but removing his statue and the calls for him to be imprisoned were a bit aggressive.