Joe Paterno must be fired.
I’m gonna be honest…this post is going to be a little emotional because of the subject matter, the legal process is still going and everyone should be presumed innocent until proven guilty…but this is the court of Bryan Fraker. I dictate the rules.
Everyone knows about the issue at hand, but in case you for some reason have yet to hear about the situation at College Station, here are the Cliff Notes:
Jerry Sandusky was arrested Saturday after a three year investigation led to 40 charges of various sexual assaults involving eight boys and spanning 15 years starting in 1994. Sandusky was a Penn State assistant coach/defensive coordinator from 1969-1999. At one time he was considered to be the heir apparent to the head coaching job if Paterno ever stepped down.
Sandusky used a foundation he created in 1977 called Second Mile to meet the boys. According to their website Second Mile is “for children who need additional support and who would benefit from positive human contact.” Sandusky would get the boys gifts, take them to Penn State practices and have them spend the night at his house where he would sexually abuse them.
Where Joe Paterno comes under fire is from one of these incidents that happened in 2002.
Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant at the time and current wide receivers coach, walked in on Sandusky performing anal intercourse on a boy in the Penn State football showers. McQueary ran out, told his dad about it and they both told Joe Paterno.
Paterno, as is required by law, then told Athletic Director Tim Curley. Curley is legally bound to tell the police about incidents involving child abuse, but he never did. He only banned Sandusky from bringing children around the football building. Not only did Curley not tell police about it…he lied to a grand jury about what he did. As a result Curley has been charged with perjury and is currently on administrative leave. Additionally the man who oversaw the Penn State police department, senior vice president of finance and business Gary Schultz, was indicted on perjury as well and he has resigned.
Let me make this perfectly clear: everyone in this chain is to blame. Every single person who knew about this and didn’t tell police. I don’t care if the book says to tell your superior about illegal activity and that’s all you have to do. The book is for NCAA issues…this is a legal issue. If you see a superior sexually abusing a child your duty is no longer to the university and its chain of command…it’s to society.
You have to tell the police immediately. I hear people saying there’s fear of a lawsuit and that a graduate assistant won’t have much say…bullshit. If you saw what you saw you report it because it will be taken seriously. This is a horrible crime that should never go unreported to the cops.
Now let’s breakdown everyone in this scenario one-by-one, starting with McQueary: No sane person should ever allow another man to abuse a child. Ever. McQueary walked in on Sandusky and the boy…then walked out! How can you live with yourself after that? I don’t care if the man’s bigger than you. You find something to stop the heinous act of a man violating a child.
If I saw this happening anywhere you’re damn right I’m going to give everything I have to stop it. I may lose, but I will try until I can’t try anymore. I can defend myself against another man…a child cannot.
McQueary screwed up by not stopping what he saw and then not reporting it, but at least he told someone. Curley didn’t even do that. He felt that not allowing Sandusky to bring kids in the football building was good enough. That’s just saying “Hey, I don’t like you having sexual contact with kids in my football shower…do it somewhere else.” Getting it away from you does not mean it will stop. How is that not flawed logic?
At least Curley will get hit with the perjury charge and hopefully thrown in jail for his erroneous actions from the 2002 incident; Paterno doesn’t have that. He’s clean according to the law…but he still needs to be punished.
Not only did Paterno not file with police, but Sandusky was allowed to come to campus after the 2002 incident happened. There was even talk of Sandusky being at a practice in 2007…with a kid! What?!?!? He should have had his Penn State privileges revoked for life and never allowed to step on campus again. Paterno is the big man on Penn State’s campus and could easily have had this done.
I know we are seeing everything now nine years after the incident and after Sandusky was arrested, but even if we take the emotions out and Paterno should have acted based on the seriousness of the charge. The negatives that come out of telling the police about a man molesting a child and being wrong far outweigh the negatives that come of hearing a story, not telling police and that story being true.
For those people who say Paterno is just old and couldn’t handle all that was happening…shut up. He was the head coach of Penn State football. It doesn’t matter if you’re 25 or 85…you have the same responsibilities and standards as every other coach. You still get the wins. You still get the fame. You still get the money. That means you still get the blame when the shit hits the fan. Age is not an excuse.
This isn’t meant to be a rail on Joe Paterno post. The man was a great coach. He was at Penn State for over 60 years with 46 of them as the head coach. He made that program what it is today. He has donated to Penn State and helped out in the community in other ways. He is a revered man…but this is the end.
Paterno’s son has said that his dad is in this for the long run and isn’t going to resign. That’s fine. In this case it might be better to be fired. If Paterno resigns right now the public may see that as an admission of guilt on his part and that he knows more than he’s letting on.
This vile scandal is more depraved than the recent Baylor basketball scandal in 2003 when a player (Claude Dotson) killed a teammate (Patrick Dennehy) and the head coach (Dave Bliss) tried to cover up illegal money he gave Dennehy before he died by telling his team to lie and say Dennehy was a drug dealer to cops after Dennehy died. Bliss was caught on tape, fired and placed on a 10 year “show-cause” penalty, essentially being blackballed from coaching again…Sandusky was allowed to continue molesting boys for seven more years after the 2002 incident…but his day will come.
Say what you will about the prison system in America, but there are two people who don’t do well in prison: pedophiles and rapists. If Sandusky is found guilty of these crimes he’ll get what’s coming to him. He will get real close to Bubba and when he passes on, if there’s a Hell, I’m sure there will be some special treatment waiting for him.
As for the Penn State football team itself there should be no sanctions on the program. The kids already in the program didn’t know about this and there’s no reason to punish them. It wasn’t an attempt to get a leg up on competition. Although the players should be safe there needs to be a complete gutting of the coaching staff and administration who oversaw this will need to be done.
These men will face the consequences for their actions, or inactions, in this scandal. What we don’t know is how or when everything will wrap up, but there’s one thing that is for certain needs to be done:
Joe Paterno must be fired.
