Football First in Happy Valley

Another scandal has rocked collegiate sports, however, a legendary coach is in the middle of this scandal and he needed to resign immediately or be fired, not allowed to retire at the end of the season to get a record breaking win. Joe Paterno needs to step away from coaching at Penn State now, plain and simple. The university dropped the ball on this one so Coach Paterno can get that one win to pass Eddie Robinson. Once again Penn State is putting football ahead of what is right. Paterno failed in his duty to do what was right in a scandal that rivals the Boston church scandal. He is college football's equivalent to Cardinal Bernard Law.

In the past we saw legendary coach Bobby Bowden being forced out at Florida State after a cheating scandal, which he may or may not have been directly involved in. He knew about it and the president of the school forced him to retire. All time winning basketball coach Bobby Knight was fired from Indiana University after an incident where he berated a student whom he felt disrespected him. Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach was fired because he hazed a football player with an injury. Butch Davis (UNC) and Jim Tressel (OSU) were fired because they lost control of their players getting benefits from agents that in some respect the NCAA should be providing players. Lastly, Duke Lacrosse coach resigned amid a scandal of his players raping a woman at a party. The players were falsely accused, but the coach never got his job back.

All of those reasons to be terminated are somewhat valid and I don't mean to dismiss them as not serious. But these pale in comparison to what is going on at Penn State. If the examples above stopped at the desk of the head coach and he was ultimately held responsible, then the same needs to happen here. Paterno not only lost control of an assistant coach who was sexually abusing children. He knew about it. The fact that all Paterno did was give the name to his superiors is not enough, he should have called the police. If he was waiting for the school administration to do that, then he should have dropped the dime when it was clear that was not going to happen. Joe Paterno failed miserably in this regard and needs to be held accountable for that.  Read the indictment and tell me that Paterno could not have done more

People are defending Paterno claiming he did the right thing, as one of my Facebook friends stated "I guess we have different opinions on what "the right thing to do" is in this type of situation." he couldn't have been more spot on. When the AD and VP of the school did not report to authorities Paterno should have reported them as well. What Paterno did was not only wrong, it was criminal and how he will stay away from prosecution is beyond me. All Joe Pa had to do was pick up the phone and dial 9-1-1.

Jerry Sandusky, the accused coach, used his standing as a Penn State official to lure boys into his charitable foundation and prey on them. He would bring them to Penn State Football facilities and then he would have them sleep at his home. These were very vulnerable and underprivileged children he was dealing with. When the students wanted to distant themselves from Sandusky he became angry and confrontational. That is the work of a sick individual and anyone who protected him by not reporting him should be ashamed. To protect the sanctity of a football program over the innocence of an 11 year old boy is absolutely sickening. This definitely explains why professional coaches have the "I am better than the world" mentality. We have seen it all the top schools and all the top coaches. Nebraska, Ohio State, Miami, Auburn, Louisville, UNC and so on. Coaches are coronated as kings the moment they step into town and they act that way.

Joe Paterno failed miserably. Not in coaching, not in managing, but in basic human decency. Will the public respond to him being set free as they did with Casey Anthony, probably not. Paterno didn't commit the crime but he helped Sandusky get away with it for 11 years. He did not have to see all the incidences, he didn't have to know about all of them. He knew about one and that was far more than enough. There is no more respect heading towards Happy Valley. The school needed to do "the right thing". They should not let him retire, they let Sandusky retire and he used his retirement benefits to harm children.

If Penn State wants to truly show that football doesn’t come first, either forfeit the season or reject any bowl invitations.  They play one final home game, this Saturday against Nebraska.  Play the game and take all the proceeds from the game and give it to the victims that Sandusky violated.  Then end your season at Wisconsin on November 26.  It won’t do anything in the long run.  Joe Paterno should not get the media attention through the month of December promoting his last game.

3D

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