I listened, talked to a variety of people - some smart, some close-minded, some ignorant of the facts, some lucid - and cringed while watching some TV.
And it was numbing.
I grew up about two hilly hours from Penn State, didn't grow up a Penn State fan.
Between adulthood and the job, I never really warmed to Joe Paterno. I found him fairly arrogant and smug and snotty, and part of this "bigger than the university" arrogance that we got from Bowden, and to an extent, Bear. This garbage about letting a coach - a coach - retire on his own terms is a billboard for ignorance and idiocy.
And it is of decades of manipulation, and yet the latest example of how remarkably misguided the priorities of a large chunk of this country are.
Way, way, way, way too many misguided people are focused on how Paterno was treated, how the football team will be affected. This isn't surprising. We're not a bright country, exhaustingly so.
Kids were molested by Paterno's No. 2 man, and Penn State dimwits are worried about a football coach. OK, here's what we'll do: put your younger brother or nephew in a shower with Jerry Sandusky.
Or, hey, we'll put YOU in a shower with Jerry Sandusky. Maybe make you sit down and visualize being a 10-year-old in a shower with Jerry Sandusky.
And then we'll talk about by far the most powerful man at Penn State and among the most powerful men in the entire state doing the absolute minimum.
The absolute minimum. As far as we know. And here's the problem: in a massive cover-up, it's clear that we don't know nearly as much as we think. How much can we trust from the people in charge at Penn State? The indictment shows that they've lied.
After all, they've lost their jobs or will lose their jobs, and no doubt, they've spent years trying to keep their jobs.
As it is, there are about 15-20 people who should be fired, and rest assured, their lives as they know it are over as well. Hope their mirrors are clean. Give that process time.
But this was the No. 2 guy on the Penn State football team, for decades. The No. 1 guy found something out, and then did the absolute minimum.
Did Joe Paterno ever accept the absolute minimum as a head coach? No. But the absolute minimum as a human was apparently enough.
Said one stupid Penn State student, destined for management or political office: "Regardless of whether he did what the board or whatever the trustees say, as what he should have done as far as going to the police and everything, he did what was asked of him.
"And maybe that's not morally right. Maybe he should have done more. But just because of that, I mean, I can't even describe how sad it is that they won't even let him one more game. One more game.
"JoePa is Penn State football."
Yes, and here we are. Please pass the liquid Advil to be emptied.
Another: "He said he could have done more. What more do you want from him?"
More than that weak-ass argument. And for the love of God, can somebody be armed with the minimal of facts before yelling? Read something.
Blathered another one: "JoePa should be here till the end of time. JoePa should be here for life."
Why? Because you're too simple to grasp a bigger picture than a damn football game?
One was asked of Paterno would be proud of the destruction in State College.
"Not necessarily, but it's in spite of what the university did to him. We're not doing it for Joe. We're doing it for what the university did, for what Sandusky did."
Sounds like recent and current presidential candidates.
Oy freakin' vey.
I've said for awhile, when listening to political discussions and racial discussions: I'm glad Charlie Manson isn't a _____, because that simpleminded and narrow-minded faction would be cheering him and defending him.
Don't doubt that for a minute. Not for a blessed minute.
To all the future higher-ups and politicians, to the simple-minded football fans who think anybody involved in the game can do no wrong, to those who think doing the minimum when lives are at stake is plenty, do one thing:
Read the damn indictment.
Read it. Pay attention to the time frames. The winningest coach in college football can't add two plus two?
Based on reported timelines, we can assume the molestation began around 1995.
In 1998, university police were called by a mother whose son Sandusky showered with. The DA decides not to press any charges.
In 1999, Sandusky is told he won't succeed Paterno, and takes obviously early retirement, and is given emeritus status.
Question: nobody's heard anything about anything at this point?
2000: A janitor, a temporary employee, sees Sandusky performing oral sex on a youth, reports it to his supervisor. The janitor is so upset, co-workers fear he may have a heart attack. The supervisor passes the buck to the temporary employee by telling him who to report it to, but it's unreported.
2002: Mike McQueary opens the first major crack by seeing Sandusky forcing sex on a youth. McQueary, who is apparently seen by Sandusky and the youth, tells his father. The next day, McQueary goes to Paterno's house with the information. Paterno calls the AD, saying "McQueary told him that he had seen Sandusky in the showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy."
HellLOOOOO. Unless Paterno thinks McQueary is a raging liar and dirtbag - which he doesn't, because he's on the staff, so you presume Paterno trusts him - how does Paterno's skin not crawl?
McQueary meets a few weeks later with the AD and a VP and told they would look into it.
A few weeks later, the AD tells McQueary that Sandusky's keys to the locker room were taken away and it was reported to Sandusky's foundation. The AD tells the president, who approves.
2003: Sandusky is banned from holding youth camps on PSU’s campus, by the AD and the VP. He does, however, hold them for eight years at a branch campus, in Erie, as well as at PSU-Middletown, Robert Morris U. and Muhlenberg College, among others.
2008: Sandusky volunteers at a local high school, is caught in a compromising position, and barred from the school district. The matter is reported to authorities.
Sandusky tells Second Mile of an investigation for such stuff.
OK, now you're telling me that there's not a murmur of a hint of a rumor?
2009: The state attorney general begins an investigation after a teen reports of Sandusky's actions.
2010: Sandusky retires from Second Mile.
Ah, I knew I remembered something when this all broke that registered. I remember thinking when I read about something that "this ain't gonna be good."
And yes, in MARCH were the initial reports that the AD was charged with perjury in "Sandusky sex case," as reported by the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
Then, a headline on April 2, 2011: "Paterno: No comment on Sandusky."
In the story: "On Thursday, The Patriot-News reported that, according to five people with knowledge of the case, an investigation has been ongoing for 18 months.
"No charges have been filed and Sandusky, through his attorney, Joe Amendola, maintained his innocence in a statement released Thursday afternoon.
"Paterno was asked about the Sandusky investigation at the start of his Friday afternoon news conference in State College but said he would only talk about the 2011 football team. 'I don't have any comment on that,' Paterno said.
"According to a person with knowledge of the investigation, Paterno and athletic director Tim Curley were among those who appeared before the grand jury in January at the attorney general's Strawberry Square office complex."
March. So, yes, Paterno knew something, and knew it for a long time. And did what, as far as we can tell?
Here's the thing.
Nobody molests just once. Nobody beats a wife just once. Nobody has just one violent outburst and pummels somebody to near death. Nobody steals just once.
Sandusky was banned from bringing kids to campus. How could Paterno not grasp that, react to that? How could he not inquire more into that first incident? Your longtime No. 2 can't bring kids to campus and you just drop it at that?
How could he not have Sandusky banned? When does loyalty, an overused sound bite, supersede morality? When does being a monster eliminate friendship, especially when so many lives - and lives through jobs - are at stake?
There's focus on Mike McQueary, the then-graduate assistant who apparently witnessed Sandusky raping a youngster.
Here's the thing. Imagine a grad assistant seeing Bear Bryant's top assistant doing something wrong. Do you not think that person's life wouldn't be in danger by doing what we think he should do?
I'm guessing McQueary thought he'd done what an early-20s subordinate should do: go to an elder, and then go to the boss, and expect something to be done. The pressure on an early-20s subordinate who can pull the card out that drops the house? Immeasurable.
As for McQueary stopping the incident, there is merit on both sides of the argument. But he doesn't know if Sandusky will suddenly become violent. After all, look at what Sandusky is doing in the first place. Maybe make a noise to end the incident, and then perhaps he should have followed up more as well.
But he doesn't have the power that Paterno does. Did. And word of that eked out?
The problem? McQueary continued to work at Penn State, knowing - we have to believe - that nothing, or not enough, was done. That his boss knew there was a situation and nothing was done. That he likely knew of the three-year investigation into Sandusky, and remained.
Frankly, it's absolutely impossible to believe that Paterno didn't hear more about Sandusky. Nothing is more incestuous than major-college sports, except politics. It is absolutely unbelievable that the only time Paterno heard anything about his longtime No. 2 doing something obscene was that one day.
And as those stories in the spring show, that wasn't the only time. He knew.
He knew.
And after that, how in the world does Paterno not look at Sandusky with disgust?
How does Paterno not follow up in a few weeks and at least ask his AD what was going on.
Speaking of that, get a grip.
Yeah, Paterno told his "superior", who had less power at Penn State than Paterno's friggin' wife. If the power structure were properly in place, Paterno wouldn't have the arrogance of "I'll go when I go". He could have been "retired" by the school after having four losing seasons in five.
Nobody on that campus had more power than Paterno, and he didn't use it properly when it matter the most.
When he could have changed the lives of kids, of those who weren't football players, he didn't.
Still, Wednesday might have been the most knee-rattling, WTF, smh, sad and angering sports story of my days. Can't ever see closure with this 'n, not close.
"Joe Paterno is no longer the head football coach, effective immediately."
Numbing.
Kids, and adults, rioting is nothing new. We have scores of attention-seeking simpletons who love showing as much when cameras show up. Witness the lugnuts in downtown DC after Bin Laden was killed.
More than anything, we have an ADD and a CDD - Clued Deficit Disorder - country. The Penn State students hammered their school's reputation and their own degree for being brain-dead.
The love fest, and how Paterno handled it, has been pretty icky at a minimum and pathetically misguided at a maximum. He threw out that he got the news by phone, subtle manipulation. Face to face is better, but we saw what a mess it was anyway. Moving Paterno to campus or officials coming to his house is a potential disaster of massive proportions. We saw how civil things were without that happening.
Then, "Thanks, and pray a little bit for those victims," he told a crowd at his house.
Pray a little bit? After absorbing all the love, he remembered the whole thing, and suggested praying a little bit for those molested by his No. 2 man for decades.
OK.
Arrogance led to this ending for Paterno. His own and that of others.
Ignorance led to this ending for Paterno. Ditto.
Fear led to this ending for Paterno. Ditto.
His firing is too much, and it's not enough, and you can't help but be disgusted and sad from start to finish.
I don't see closure coming in this story. Not ever.
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