Joe Paterno Must Resign
By now, most everyone has read the news about the scandal at Penn State. If you want to know more details, find a copy of the grand jury report. No link here. It is disturbing. In any event, The Confidential has reached the conclusion that Paterno should resign immediately.
Paterno was probably not under a legal obligation to report the abuse that he did not witness. His status as a non-supervisor seems to prevent same. And it is apparent that there is at least some debate as to whether Paterno was morally obligated to call the police. While the overwhelming majority of the comments are zealously advocating that he was morally obligated to do so, there is a reason why these incidents are under-reported to the point that states must pass laws to compel reporting. For whatever reason, human beings are able to talk themselves out of reporting crimes that they should. If Paterno deviated from his moral responsibility, his deviation is not unique.
What is unique is that Paterno is entrusted to run a major football program. Running such a program requires him to police the interactions between his players and boosters. It requires him to look out for the best interests of the 18- to 22-year-old men that parents entrust to him. Most of all, it requires him to be engaged with the program. What this scandal demonstrates is that Paterno has not been engaged with the program for some time now.
It is unfathomable that Paterno allowed Sandusky to come anywhere near Paterno’s program. There were reports of an incident of some nature occurring in 1998. Even if Sandusky was cleared, one would think that Paterno would not want him anywhere near the program.
Regardless, even if Paterno’s first knowledge was truly 2002, that should have been enough. Paterno should have wanted that guy to be 1,000,000 yards away from his campus, much less the weight room and football facilities. The fact that Sandusky was able to continue to use these facilities at any point after 2002 suggests that Paterno either did not care that he was using the facilities or did not know. If he did not care, then this means that abuse of a child is a non-issue for Paterno. That’s bad. If he did not know, then this means that Paterno is simply not capable of running the program. How can he NOT know?
If Sandusky was paying Penn State players, would Paterno know? He has to. If Sandusky was convincing Penn State players to use steroids, would Paterno know? He has to. And if Paterno does not know that the guy he reported to his supervisor as abusing a child was not in his locker room, that’s a failure. A football coach in today’s game has to know a lot more about his players than how fast they are and how well they block/catch/tackle.
Even worse, Paterno is routinely entrusted with youth. While his players are not as young as Sandusky’s victims, they are still the young sons of parents. Can parents rely on Paterno to make sound decisions about their kids’ well being? If something happens with one of their kids, will Paterno take action or will he refer it upstream and forget. As a parent, there is an easier solution than wondering, you tell your kid to go elsewhere. This will hurt recruiting.
But this is not about recruiting. This current issue is not about recruiting and wins. It is about young men that will be permanently scarred by what happened in Paterno’s locker room. It is about whether Paterno can be entrusted to run the program anymore. Even if there is an argument to be made that Paterno did not have a duty to call the police, are we really to believe that he did not have a duty or obligation to follow-up to see what happened? If not a duty, perhaps an innate curiosity to see “whatever happened to that investigation”? But… nothing. As noted above, either he did not know or he did not care. Only two choices here. Neither are acceptable.
That’s not the Paterno that is morally superior to anyone. That’s a Paterno that is running a program from the press box, only without the headphones to connect him in. And if he is not connected to the program, then he should not be running it. The sad thing is that we are not talking about the future, but about the past. His resignation is not due, it is overdue.
This does not mean that others do not deserve blame. The perpetrator of these crimes naturally comes first. And there may be facts that show others are more or less responsible than Paterno. But long before the full story comes out (if ever), Paterno needs to step down and let someone else do the job. The new coach may win fewer games and be less of a legend. But, for now, Penn State will have to settle for a head coach who is engaged with the program on a daily basis.
The Confidential 
Well said. There’s one more additional aspect to this situation that I haven’t seen discussed. Joe Paterno is unique among modern NCAA coaches in the amount of power he possesses at his institution as a “living legend”. Although he is nominally under the supervision of others, it’s no secret that Paterno has more real power at PSU than the AD and, arguably, the president. And to my mind that makes these allegations all the more damning.
If Paterno had said “This is horrifying- we have to insure the safety of that child”, is there any doubt that Curley would have complied? Conversely, it’s all too easy to speculate that it was Paterno’s own long-standing relationship with Sandusky that was the impetus for PSU to cover up his crimes. It’s sad that this will be Paterno’s final legacy- he was a giant in college athletics; but ultimately it was caused by his own choice- the choice to either actively cover up a felony or to turn a blind eye, instead of making the ethical choice to bring these allegations to the attention of law enforcement.
Looks like it just a matter of when, not if, Paterno is done.
You did not reference the link, but did you read the report? He had emiritus status and retired coach status at PSU which gave him the access that he had to the facilities. Why does JoePa care when this guy is showering? If it was blatantly obvious from reading the report, Sandusky tended to pick times when nobody else was around for his crimes. I think JoePa had enough other things to worry about in his job then what this guy was doing.
The reaction to this story is warranted but the lynching of Paterno is not. God bless the victims.
Disagree. JoePa was alerted that this guy was showering with a kid in JoePa’s locker room. Whether this guy was a relative, friend, school employee, or stranger, Joe Pa had every motivation at that point to make sure that this guy was (a) punished; and (b) never in that locker room again. Ever. That’s how it would be for most reasonable people at their place of business. Go away and never come back. The ordinary coach who is engaged in his program is concerned about having a stained image.
Separate and distinct from that is the fact that Joe Pa did not do anything to ensure that this guy was not only not showering in the locker room, but was not showering anywhere with kids. This required a criminal investigation. A criminal investigation might have exonerated Sandusky–which would have given PSU free reign to perhaps let him continue to use the facilities. More likely, it would have convicted him, sparing future victims. I disagree with those who say that Joe Pa had to make the call himself… there is no reason why the GA or the AD could not do so. But because this took place in his locker room, Joe Pa could not just wash his hands of it.
Nobody is saying Paterno is the most culpable guy here. I place him 3rd or 4th… after Sandusky and the GA… and perhaps tied with the AD. But all of them failed. The fact that Sandusky is allegedly a sicko and the GA/AD did not see fit to report does not give Joe Pa a cover. He had the moral duty to do so for the good of society.
“Lynching of Paterno?” Wow.
There’s a simple reason why Paterno is taking a disproportionate amount of flak in this story- the disproportionate amount of power he held at PSU compared with other college football coaches. Do you think Sandusky held emiritus status and access to PSU’s facilities without Paterno’s blessing? No matter what else Paterno had to worry about in his job, the fact of the matter is he’s given sworn testimony that he knew in 2002 that McQueary “had seen Jerry Sandusky in the Lasch Building showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy”. And he never stepped forward. And he allowed Sandusky to continue to have that same access until as recently as last week.
Paterno is being “lynched”? What did Paterno do to Sandusky’s victims?
I disagree that Paterno is the one handing out emiritus status to Penn St retired faculty. That doesn’t make any sense. He gave testimony that he heard about it, and reported it to his superiors. I would agree with all of you if he had been the one that witnessed it, but he did not. Did he do enough? Probably not. Is he guilty of some giant conspiracy to cover this up and let it continue to happen – no way.
5 people knew about the fondling/whatever. None reported to the police. All deserve to go. All have gone or will go.
If Paterno had the character he professed to have, he would have supported McQueary in taking this to the police for a full and proper investigation. And if McQueary was unable to do so, Paterno should have done it himself. This responsibility falls on all of us in society and is not relieved simply because our superiors–a laughable concept of its own with respect to Paterno given that his superiors told him to retire and he said no AND got away with it–do not handle it properly.
There is a reason why child abuse has special reporting requirements that do not apply to other crimes. Here, the child abuse was NOT reported and there ended up being subsequent victims. Joe Pa is not responsible for the first victims, he shares responsibility for the subsequent victims. Whether it is 20% or 1% or .0001%… it is not zero.
But hey… how sad that he didn’t get a standing ovation on Saturday. What a victim Joe Pa is. And the poor students who will not be able to look out onto the field….errr… up to the press box… and see him coaching on Saturday. How will they cope with the tragedy???
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