Joe Paterno has been one of the most beloved head coaches in college football history. He has held the position for 45 years and has been on the coaching staff for 62 years. JoePa as he is genuinely referred to has been the true figure head for Pennsylvania State University. Recently Penn State has been all over the news because of the sexual abuse scandal where former defensive coordinator Jeff Sandusky and this is according to the grand jury indictment that states he is being charged with 40 criminal counts involving the sexual abuse of eight boys between 1994 and 2009.
According to the grand jury report, the University’s athletic director, Tim Curley, and business administrator, Gary Schultz, knew Sandusky engaged in sexually explicit behavior but did nothing to protect the little ones.
Now this is one of the most disturbing allegations that I have heard in a while being that Joe Paterno is the head coach of this football team and had knowledge of this and in so many words “passed the buck” to administrators.
With the supremacy that JoePa has at this institution there is no reason for me to believe that he did what he was supposed to do. Those words should not come out of anyone’s mouth when you are talking about someone’s child being sodomized on a college campus and the fact that he was allowed to use the school’s facilities for his non-profit organization that he used to “trouble” little boys.
On March 1, 2002, grad assistant Mike McQueary went to JoePa with his father to give an account of what he saw Sandusky doing, now this is what makes me want to throw up. McQueary stated that he saw Sandusky in the shower with what look like a 10 year old boy. When JoePa was told this pertinent information to say the least, his next action should have been to go to the police but he decided to pass the buck and not take responsibility and leave that decision up to people who wanted to sweep it under the rug and make it go away.
The president of the school, the athletic director, coaching staff all will suffer because no one had enough gall to stand up and say something. Joe Paterno has been a legend, philanthropist, and has put in 60 plus years of hard work building that program and the fact that he was a mime to that situation will and should be the demise of it.
The fact that people are outside his home chanting his name and saying they are behind him makes me first think that there are some idiotic people who don’t understand the severity of these charges and two college football as you can see is obviously more important to them. JoePa made a decision years ago on the way he wanted to go out as the head football coach I am sure this is not what he had in mind.