And I'm sure you can guess the effect of lynch mobs dictating the law.
My own take on this mess is that Paterno dismissed the allegations against Sandusky as false accusations motivated by jealousy. Had this been the case, he of course was horridly wrong. But, consider what this take means for the future.
Ever hear of "defensive medicine?" It's one of the practices that keeps health-care costs up. Defensive medicine is the practice of ordering up tests that the physician is sure aren't necessary, in order to exhaust the possibility that the patient isn't afflicted with some illness that's very hard to detect in a routine examination. Why? Because of a lynch-mob mentality in the courts that equates honest mistakes with culpable negligence.
Look, if you will, at the coming era of "defensive athletics." The lesson learned by any non-clueless administrator is that a coach or an assistant coach who's accused of molesting children, whether those accusations are substantiated or not, has to be either suspended or canned outright.
Now: imagine, if you will, a less-than-ethical competitor who's skilled at working the rumour mill. Granted that such malignments (or slanders) are mud that won't stick in some cases, but in some cases it will. Particularly, at the high-school level.
What better way to take down the state champ than to spread that mud around and impugn the school's coach?
As I said, welcome to the era of defensive athletics. Given the emotionality, it's a safe bet that miscarriages of justice will be part of it.
How many years did Paterno have to do something about it? And that whole time, people including myself, still bought into the myth that Joe was somehow different than the others, that Penn State did things right. To keep this stuff under wraps as long as it was kept under wraps took involvement from a lot of parties, it only took ONE person to do the right thing and to bring justice, and it didn’t happen, until conveniently, Joe passed Eddie Robinson for most wins.
If Paterno thought McQueary wasn't a credible witness and was motivated by jealousy or other malicious intentions - why was he given a job for the next decade plus?
Would you want someone prone to making up wild accusations around your organization for the next decade?
The mother who was concerned about her son showering with Sandusky was motivated by jealousy?
True. Just like domestic violence, date rape, etc (while all horrible crimes), became a tactic used to ‘get back’ at people. There was the Dallas Cowboy player that got creamed before the accuser retracted and countless lesser known victims. This can definitely be used in the future.
Of course, as you said, the evidence here was clear and Paterno should have acted differently. They had first hand evidence...not mere accusations...but next time, who knows...it will be over-reacted to, just to avoid a similar fate.