Joe Paterno is the head football coach, oops, was the head football coach and the face of the University for over 40 years. He's been with the University for over 60 years. From what I understand, some ginger, who is a 28 year old man, witnessed inappropriate acts in the shower of one of Penn State's facilities. As a grad student and apparently a huge pussy, he went home and told his father. His father informed him to tell Joe Paterno what he saw. Joe then told his boss, the athletic director, what he was told about an old man with a 10 year old boy in the shower. Then . . . nothing happened.
First of all, child molestation is serious, gross, unacceptable and should never be overlooked. Mike McQueary should have acted the second he saw what was going on. He didn't and he'll get what he deserves as well. That's not the big story. I'm not sure anyone knows the big story.
Obviously I have a huge problem with what happened and the fact that 8-10 little boys have had their innocence taken from them by a low-life scumbag (allegedly). I could write all day long about how sad this makes me and how infuriating this whole situation is. But I'd like to take this time to focus on what has been engulfing the media for the past 3 or 4 days.
Joe Paterno had announced that he would retire at the end of the season. The board of directors for Penn State didn't like that decision and fired him immediately. That's what is causing the outrage. If you feel that Joe got what he deserved and should have been fired then we're on the same page. If you think he got a raw deal and should have been able to finish this season, then we're not on the same page and I have a problem with that.
His legacy, his records, his reputation, all his contributions to the University; these are the reasons that everyone thinks he should have been able to finish his career on the field. However, they are the exact reasons he needed to be fired on the spot. He is the face of that University and needed to be the one to step up. I keep hearing over and over that he did what he was supposed to do, and told who he was supposed to tell. You know what else he did? NOTHING ELSE. He needed to be the one to follow up and make sure the police knew about this and would investigate. He did the bare the minimum. If this was a case of a coach stealing hot-pockets from the university store I would be satisfied with the bare minimum. We are talking about child abuse and rape!
Maybe it's because I have a 10 year old nephew or because I have a level head but I am not satisfied with the Icon of a University not doing more. I'm also a little disappointed with how everyone is handling this. The riots on campus were ridiculous. Come on guys, get your shit together and look at the big picture. Here's a hypothetical situation I want you to consider:
"There have been allegations made that a former coach of Bloomsburg University was witnessed with a young boy in the shower doing inappropriate things. This was brought to the attention of the head football coach, who told the athletic director immediately. There was no follow up and the police were never involved. It has come to everyone's attention that this has been going on for quite some time and had the head football coach done more, a number of children could have been saved from the horrendous acts that occurred."
How do you feel about that head coach? His name is irrelevant, how long he's been there is irrelevant, how much money he gave to Bloomsburg is irrelevant. So what's the difference between Joe Paterno's situation and this made up situation? Wait for it . . . NOTHING. There is no difference. The reason there is no difference is because it has nothing to do with football. We're talking about children being raped in the shower.
Maybe this will help. Joe was told that there was a possibility that his buddy Jerry was raping boys in the shower. He told his boss but didn't follow up on it. I guess that's okay though, he did what he was supposed to do.
Apparently as soon as you tell someone something it just disappears from your brain. Well if I knew that something like that might be happening, I wouldn't be able to sleep until I knew the truth. Joe Paterno is pretty old and probably just falls asleep after dinner at 4:30. I couldn't do that.
I feel like I'm rambling a little bit so allow me to sum up my general message.
This situation is terrible and I can't begin to know what this is doing to the victims. Again, it has nothing to do with football. Anyone, and I mean anyone, that knew about this needed to step up and make sure that justice was done. Especially the most well known person on campus. So yes, it's a shame his illustrious career ended this way. However, he brought on himself because he should have done more.
I'd also like to reiterate that Jerry Sandusky is a real piece of trash and will get what he's got coming to him. Mike McQueary is a ginger pussy who should have done something. I wanted to focus on the main story and that was Joe Paterno. So I did. Now, I'll go into the kitchen and give myself a Ham Sandwich.
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