Joe Had To Go

To paraphrase Rick Perry, if you could read about the sexual abuse claims against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky and not want to vomit, you have no soul. If you could read about Joe Paterno’s limp response and believe he should have been able to dictate when he left Penn State, you have no brain.

Coach Paterno’s lackadaisical action during the past nine years shows a person that apparently cared about one thing: wins and losses on the football field. The fact that children were being raped at his facility seems not to have concerned him in the least.

Victim Two was 10 years in 2002. My son was 11 years old that year. This child was raped in a Penn State locker room shower by Jerry Sandusky. While this was occurring, a graduate assistant coach stumbled upon the crime and he did what any human being would do: beat the fecal matter out of this low life and then called the police.

This would have happened if it was not in a world controlled by an egomaniacal college coaching legend. Instead, this graduate assistant coach, (who nine years later is the Penn State recruiting coordinator) immediately left the premises and called his dad. After that, this young man called Coach Paterno. At that moment, this icon of college sports sprung into action and called…..the athletic director, which at Penn State is like General McArthur calling Beetle Bailey.

I’m going to make this easy, so that even a football player can understand it. If you walk into the showers of a locker room and you see a grown man raping a child, you are to call the police first-not your dad. I’m even going to make this so easy, even a football coach can understand it. If anyone approaches you and tells you that they just saw a man raping a young boy, you are suppose to call the police-not your boss.

You would think Coach Paterno would have been horrified by what happened in 2002. It took him a while, about nine years. In the written statement announcing his retirement he said, “I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief”. It would have been nice to grieve for the children and their families in 2002. It would have been nice to pray for their comfort and relief in 2002. But hey, when Michigan is on the schedule you got to take what you can get, kid.

You would think the NCAA would have something to say about all of this. I’m sure someone will point out there’s not a lot they can do about it. That’s probably correct. After all, it was only children being raped-not something serious like a player getting a free tattoo. If that happened, The NCAA would be all over it like a duck on a June bug.

Penn State University hasn’t responded better. The administration knew this former defensive coordinator was a sexual deviate and was dangerous to be around children. Yet, for years, they allowed this creature access to its facilities to be around children. Their response: they were going to appoint a committee to “investigate”.

Finally, The Board of Trustees stepped in and fired Paterno and the President of The University. Some students of Penn State, showing all of the cognitive thought processes that college students are supposed to have, started to riot. It wasn’t fair to Joe, after all he’s done for the university.

True, Paterno did a lot for Penn State University. He just didn’t do anything for Victim Two.