He was the last “living dinosaur.” A Legend. His legacy was golden, and could not be touched. Or, so we thought. Joe Paterno stood for everything that was great about collegiate athletics: loyalty, he’s been coaching there for over four decades; passion, players go to Penn State to play for Coach Paterno because of his passion; integrity, when Paterno says something, you listen, he is the John Wooden of college football.
But, not long after winning his record setting 408th game on Saturday, all of that was about to come crashing down. The recent charges that his former assistant faces are brutal, disgusting, and could quite possibly tarnish everything that Paterno has done for Penn State, and college football. To the NCAA, this has probably been one of the longest years it can remember. Scandal after scandal, violation after violation kept coming across the desks of those in charge in Indianapolis. This, however, might be the straw that breaks the camels’ back.
This is not a scandal at Penn State it is a full fledged mess that came barreling over the top of the dam on Sunday. And, what this shows is just how flawed the NCAA and college athletics have been, for a very long time. What makes this even more disturbing, grotesque, unbelievable, insert your own adjective here, is that these acts were done by a person, by people, who were supposed to be the model, who were supposed to be leading our young individuals.
It is one thing when student-athletes make mistakes. And sure, trading your stuff for tattoos, or smoking dope, or taking money from someone associated with the school might seem stupid, silly, and ignorant. But when it’s the coaches, and administrators that are taking part in something that is profusely, and morbidly wrong, what does that say about the student-athletes. How can we degrade a student-athlete for being young and immature when the people leading and developing him or her are acting irresponsible, and decidedly more immature?
I do not want to get into the disgusting, and embarrassing details of what the former Penn State coach, Jerry Sandusky, did or took part in. If you want to read more about that you can find it on your own time. What is bothersome to me, and should be to everyone, is that the graduate assistant coach who saw it, the head coach who is in charge, and the administrators who found out about it, never, not even once, contacted authorities to let them know that this was going on.
We are talking about children, many of whom were not even teenagers (not that it would make it OK if they were), who were victims of a sick, repulsive person. And the University just swept it underneath the rug and tried to pretend nothing happened. All they did was tell Sandusky he could no longer bring youth down on the field for football games. In fact, Sandusky was at Beaver Stadium on Saturday to see Paterno get his landmark victory.
I am not even sure how the NCAA will handle this mess. The comparisons of how they handled the scandal at Ohio State and LSU are not even in the same atmosphere of severity. To sit back and think about the media outrage, and societal outcry over what five student-athletes did at Ohio State by trading and selling their game jerseys and trophies for tattoos; I cannot even fathom how that would even come close to being comparable to what happened at Penn State. To think that Jim Tressel lost his job because he did not go directly to the AD when learning about the allegations when he first found out is a more punishable offense than Joe Paterno who simply told his AD what his graduate assistant had seen take place in the showers at the football facility is senseless. How could you believe that simply telling the AD about sexual abuse of a child was doing your duties? Not once thinking, “This is wrong. I should call the police.”
Paterno is not a viewed as a suspect in the investigation, but his statement ought to make him one. “If true…While I did what I was supposed to do with the one charge brought to my attention…I cannot help but be deeply saddened these matters are alleged to have occurred.” Where to begin with this statement? Well, how about the beginning, if true? Clearly we have an eyewitness account of sexual abuse of a child, rape of a child, if true Joe? How about the “While I did what I was supposed to do...”? Really? You have a witness saying he saw a child under the age of 10 being sexually abused by an adult in the shower of the football facilities and all you are supposed to do is tell your AD? Last time I checked reporting child abuse or sexual abuse is the law. Just because you told your AD, and covered your tracks, does not get you off the hook for what you did not do.
Nor does it make what the graduate assistant who witnessed this act right either. The fact that the person who witnessed it and Paterno never followed up with this, nor ever contacted the police about what they saw is a matter of ethics, and moral judgment. And if the people in charge cannot make the right moral and ethical decision, how can we expect the student-athletes they are leading to do so?
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