Posted on 01/30/2012 5:00:54 AM PST by Kaslin
January 22nd was a sad day in America. A pitiful and depressing episode that confirms how a lawyer-controlled and weak-kneed society, ended with the tragic death of Joe Paterno. As sure as day turns into night, the actions taken last November by the Board of Trustees of Penn State University were responsible for the premature death of this great man.
I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, next door to Paterno’s domain: Pennsylvania. My father graduated from Ohio State, and I was – and still am – a born-and-bred Buckeye fan. I clearly remember the emergence of Joe Pa at Penn State, which had not yet joined the Big Ten – that wouldn’t happen for another 25 years.
In that time we had the great Woody Hayes, but now we were butting heads with this scrawny- looking guy with goofy glasses who was somehow stealing a number of our recruits. Because he wasn’t in the Big Ten – and, of course, because Michigan was the center of everything evil in the world – I developed a mild liking for the guy. If the Buckeyes weren’t winning the national championship, then Penn State and Joe Pa seemed to be an acceptable alternative. It was certainly better than some others (like USC). Sure enough, it didn’t take him too long to produce undefeated seasons – reeling off three very quickly in 1968, 1969 and 1973 – but he had to wait until 1982 to win his first national championship.
Paterno went on to become a national icon. There have been many great college coaches with stellar, decades-long careers, but Joe Pa was beginning to set records. From the time he turned 70 – and then 80! – we all participated in the annual rite of speculation about whether he would or should retire.
Whenever I was asked about it, my answer was always the same: the Bear Bryant Syndrome. Joe knew very well that Bryant had passed away a little over a month after his retirement, and in fact had told sportscaster Brent Musburger that Bryant’s untimely death was one of the reasons he continued coaching. His team, school, and community – along with his wife of nearly 50 years – had become his life.
The Jerry Sandusky scandal shocked everyone; it always smacks your senses when someone is accused of such despicable acts. I read the transcript of the grand jury testimony with utter horror, and yet the fact that it engulfed the entire Penn State University made this sordid story even more appalling and disgraceful. Still, something seemed to be missing.
Mike McCreary, a young staffer for the football team, had walked into the locker room in the Penn State athletic complex while Sandusky, now a former employee, was sodomizing a young boy in the showers. McCreary claimed that he reported it to Paterno, who promptly informed his superiors, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice-President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz. When Curley and Schultz testified that they had heard a different story than what McCreary related to the grand jury, the two men were indicted despite no further verification by the grand jury and then summarily fired by the Board of Trustees. Then McCreary changed his story, telling the press something different than he told the grand jury. The Trustees still fired Paterno.
The most iconic person in Penn State history, an employee for over 60 years, was fired via telephone call. He was not given the chance to explain his side of the story. A group of weaklings who were more concerned with protecting their jobs and fending off lawsuits just started canning people. Even someone who has been with the University for one year deserves to have their side heard. Someone with 60 years of exemplary service merits a little extra consideration.
The villain in this story, Jerry Sandusky, was now lost in the shuffle and the focus of the sports world was on Paterno and the Trustees. Every sanctimonious sportscaster started whimpering about how they would have done more and how everyone involved should have done more. They, of course, were only thinking of the children.
When Joe Pa finally broke his silence, it was accompanied by yet a third version of McCreary’s story. Apparently, he never really told Paterno what actually happened in the shower. He justifiably couldn’t bring himself to tell a 76-year-old legend the ugly details. The fact that an aging Paterno wasn’t really able to comprehend the whole matter will not convince some of his lack of blame. Some people will insist that he should have been able to understand such despicable behavior, and they will never accept that some among us come from an era where such repulsive activities were utterly inconceivable. So Coach Paterno reported what he had heard from McCreary, and that was all he knew.
Some say Joe died of a broken heart. I say he died from a knife in the back. Does it shock me that the man is now dead? No – there is, after all, the Bear Bryant Syndrome.
There will always be those who maintain that Paterno should have done more. There are those who claim that if they were in the same situation, they would have done more. But the only thing anyone should really say is if they are ever in the shoes of the Trustees, that they would give everyone the decency and fairness of an honest hearing, that they wouldn’t jump to conclusions, and that they would never, ever try to cover their own butts by ruining the lives of others.
Precisely what I was thinking, and read no further than that rather strange statement.
Yes, and the author probably has no clue that the darkness was working through him in writing that!
I really don’t understand all you Monday morning quarterbacks. Just what else was Paterno supposed to do? Go to Sandusky’s home & beat him up? Call press conference to expose (poor choice of words) the “facts”? What facts did he have - McQuery’s word? What if McQuery had a personal vendetta & made the whole thing up? Would you really risk ruining a man’s reputation on some else’s say-so? All Paterno had was, legally, a rumor.
Have you ever witnessed and reported a crime? Did you “follow up”? And if the authorities you “followed up” with told you things were being handled, then what?
Of course the kids come first, and Joe never failed to mention that they were, first and foremost, the victims.
That being said, Joe was also a victim —— of the BOT, medical wonder that they are: spineless, gutless, ball-less.
Joe could have went against the system to save young males. He decided not to do that. It cost him his life and his honor on a bad decision. Joe paid a cost for that. His friendship to Jerry killed him.
You wrote:
“I didn’t know who Joe Paterno was.”
Okay, but he was a national icon. I have been all over the USA and have seen his image and name on bumper stickers, T-shirts, etc. The guy has been famous since the 1960s. I suppose if someone knows nothing about college football, he might not know him, but he also was involved in Republican politics too.
Paterno was surely not so virgin-eyed or -eared that he hadn’t heard stories of the buggery of the navies of old, or read it in the bible, or heard it warned about from a pulpit?
Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.
Jerry never gave Joe cancer, unless they were REALLY weird.
Now now, don’t go depriving the age of consent abolition lobby of their martyr.
Report the allegation to police, mentioning all he had learned including McQueary’s allegations. If McQueary was the villain here, police investigators and Sandusky’s own attorneys (not difficult to get given his posh position) would be the cure.
Nonsense. None of this is new. You really think they didn’t know about pederasty and pedophilia before now?
Paterno didn’t act upon knowledge that he should have acted upon. Little kids continued to be abused. I feel bad for him, but he made his own decisions.
I don’t know all the details of the story but didn’t this sandusky already get fired and told not to run his camp on campus? Which is why he only took boys one by one on specuial trips to the locker room or games? So Joe Pa would have known that Sandusky had this issue.
Paterno died because he was old, had terminal cancer, and his time had come. Would he have lived another 20 years if this Sandusky thing hadn’t happened?
Your comment is very simple and does not take into account the stress Jerry put on Joe. Your comment was more RedNeck than HiTech. The comment was not funny either.
JoePa should have been let go years ago. He was nothing more than a figurehead. This just provided an oportunity to get rid of him and move on.
Yes, thank you for having the courage to tell the truth about what went on at Penn State. The truth is: liberalism once again won, and a man who held to conservative standards was sacrificed on the twin altars of cowardice and political correctness.
To those who bleat, “Well, I care about the children,” please stop insulting the rest of us with your self-righteous effluvia. We all care about the children. As did JoPa — who spent his life caring about the children and molding men.
With the knowledge he had, Joe Paterno did what was right and just. He reported to those whose job it was to investigate and take appropriate action. Should he have gone on a vendetta against Sandusky based on the skimpy information we now know he was given?
No — for three reasons.
First, as noted, he reported to those whose responsibility was to investigate the charges, the ones who had the tools to thoroughly do so.
Second, he proceeded with his own job assuming that if further action from him was required, he would be so informed.
Third, he worked for a college president who was a notoriously “gay rights” zealot, a man who had made it known that any employee or student who criticized homosexuals could be punished (he even went after the Boy Scouts for being “homophobic”. So, JoPa should have martyred himself in a case in which he didn’t even know the full story?
The leftwing board of Penn State considered Joe Paterno an anachronistic conservative. They hated his standards, morals, and virtues. They saw a chance to scapegoat him — and like typical liberal vipers, they couldn’t wait to strke.
Given the harm that's been done of late by those professing to do good in the name of "the children," I think I'll go with the former; though I would freely admit that in the grand scheme of things it's not particularly important. Let's just say that in this grand scheme of things my view of "the children" is closer to Churchill's view than it is to Hitler's.
ML/NJ
These are the same who when Michael Jackson was accused; not only 'looked the other way'; but concluded/accused all who did not take Jackson's side; as being racist. These same; made/knew what became 'iconic jokes' re Sandusky; and that was ok - to not go to the truth of them.
Sandusky was the perp;and no matter what was said; no one knows how Paterno internalized the info; nor do we know; just how that info was framed. There can be no question; of course; that more could/should have been done. But, by turn; what was done to Paterno; should scortch some souls as well.
In the end; the damning indictments cannot ignore the mind/moral-numbing impact of our now Liberal culture which makes light of sexual mores/taboos; and in fact; appears by every measure of Liberal education; to invite and give sanction, to the worst. No question; our current culture's 'moral clarity' has turned opaque.
(And those who do not so synthesize the politically correct rewrites; are punished, for their resistance.)
Sandusky was not Paterno's employee and had not been for years. Joe reported what was told him. He did what he was supposed to do. Joe was destroyed by the perfect storm of the evil press, the liberal mind-set that shields homosexual behavior from scrutiny AND a the growing number of self absorbed, self righteous and arrogant people that believe they can easily understand reality by what is spoon-fed them via their TV's and computer screens!
Kids are being molested all around our nation everyday, just check the national sex offender data base and see how many live within a mile radius of your home. . .what are you doing about that. . .anything?
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