SMU? Jaywalkers. USC and Reggie Bush? A parking violation. Fantasy crimes in the fantasy world of the NCAA, but as nothing in real life. When it comes to real life, nothing, and I mean nothing, that has happened in college athletics short of one Baylor basketball player murdering another is more disgusting and sordid than what’s come out at Penn State. Being a legal type, I’ll let the system run its course as far as the accused, former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky. I will say that I have read the grand jury report, and it is disgusting and sickening.
No, what this is about has nothing to do with whether what is alleged actually happened, but what the allegedly responsible adults in authority at Penn State did when it was reported to them. It starts with the ancient Joe Paterno and goes from there all the way up to the university’s president.
The basics of it are that, nine years ago, a then-graduate assistant (now assistant coach and recruiting coordinator) saw Sandusky in the showers at the Penn State football building engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a ten-year-old boy. But let’s be honest – he walked in on a rape in progress. You can read the grand jury report yourself if you want to lose your lunch over the details. The GA reported what he had seen to Paterno, and Paterno reported it to the athletic director, Tim Curley, now under indictment by the grand jury.
Now, let’s stop right there. If Paterno reported this to his boss (yeah, right – Paterno works for the Penn State AD about as much as Bob Stoops works for the guy who cleans the toilets in the Switzer Center) as a first step, before calling the police, or child welfare officials, or someone, that would be one thing. But he didn’t do that. He told his boss about it and washed his hands of the whole affair like it never happened.
Astonishing doesn’t even begin to describe it. What kind of person is told by an eyewitness that a child has been raped, basically on his watch, and doesn’t make sure that something is done so that other children aren’t victimized as well?
It doesn’t matter the identity of the accused. It could be a stranger or it could be your brother or son. Doesn’t matter. If you know someone is harming a child, especially like that, you do something about it. I don’t care whether Paterno “fulfilled his legal reporting obligation” by telling the AD. This is about a child, actually a number of children, being victimized in a most profane manner, and those in a position to do something about it sitting on their hands. There are such things as moral obligations in this world, and those who like to be portrayed as paragons of virtue seem to be the worst about failing to fulfill them.
There are many who have said that Paterno should have gone from Penn State long ago. That is obviously true, but not for the reasons most have thought. No, he forfeited his right to his position nine years ago when he washed his hands of a chance to protect who knows how many children from being victimized by one of his own.
Paterno once said that he wasn’t going to retire and leave college football to the Barry Switzers of the world. Really, Joe? We know what you did when you had the chance. I’d venture to say that Barry’s response would have been slightly different. Either way, you’re done, about nine years too late for some kids whose lives might have been different if you had just done the right thing.
But you didn’t do the right thing. You won’t be remembered for the records and the wins and the championships and “doing things the right way” in the fantasy world of college football. No, you’ll be remembered as the guy who didn’t stop a child predator when you had the chance. And in the real world, that’s the only thing here that matters.
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