The fact is, McQueary never told Paterno that he witnessed an actual rape. But the old man was creeped out enough by the possibility that his former assistant coach may have done something "inapproriate" that he did indeed send the matter up the chain of command to people who were supposed to look into it further. Those people failed to do so.
It's scary, all the big-mouth nobodies who love to crucify Paterno because they apparently think it's no big deal to point at a man and accuse him of being a homosexual pedophile. They never consider the ramifications of a mistake. (Obviously, Sandusky actually did turn out to be a homosexual pedophile, we now know.) But imagine if an accusation against a man turned out to be totally false, the result of a complete misunderstanding or even malice? What would they say then? "Oops. Sorry about that, heh heh."?
As far as I'm concerned, you don't make that kind of accusation against a man unless you see it with your own two eyeballs. Paterno did not. McQueary (apparently) did, although even that is by no means clear. (Anyway, I still don't get how McQueary, who was at the time in 2002 a 28-year-old employee of the university, has skated on this thing so far?)
All those years went by and no victim (or victim's guardians) ever came forward (aside from the woman in 1998 whose son came home with a wet head)? How is that possible? Like Paterno said, Sandusky had everybody fooled. Homosexual pedophiles are sneaky that way, by nature. I don't know how the cops investigate accusations of child molestation, but I suspect they do it very quietly and carefully. Actual victims coming forward would certainly propel the case.
Anyway, Sandusky didn't get away with decades of homosexual pedophile rape because Joe Paterno and a couple of other university officials looked the other way - - Sandusky got away with homosexual pedophile rape for decades because a hundred people, including his family and friends, his Second Mile associates, university donors and benefactors, and reporters looked the other way. Hell, even The Creamery made fun of Sandusky's affection for young boys with their "Sandusky Blitz" ice cream dish.
But no - - small people have more fun laying everything at the feet of Paterno.
FRegards,
LH
Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: RULE 13: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
Paterno is the easy target, that's why so many focus on him. Those that do are at a minimum, lazy. This was far more layered and complex than Paterno's reporting what McQueary told him to his boss Curry and also Schultz, the head of the campus police.