Sadly his recent passing has some retracting prior sentiments towards Paterno and his actions in the recent Penn State scandal.
The long-time face of Pennsylvania's most recognizable institution of higher learning, is the very reason for PSU's current prestige. But in the end, questionable actions have created a hideous overcast that hover over all he has achieved.
The court of public opinion often had Paterno under the microscope more than the real monster in Jerry Sandusky.
What seems to get under my skin more than any other aspect of this now tragedy is the amount of scrutiny placed on the recently deceased coaching legend. The crutch that most seem to be using is "he did not do enough". It was noted that Joe Paterno had so much influence in State College and the campus in particular, that he could complain about litter on the ground and in an instant university staff would have the matter handled in a moments notice.
But this was not as simple as garbage. We are talking about people. Allegedly young people, which happen to be boys that were manipulated and raped, as horrid as that sounds.
Jerry Sandusky's first incident was in 1998 when a when the mother of an 11-year old boy reported that her son had showered with Sandusky. In the end he retires, promised to never do it again and the university police chief advises that the case be closed.
Joe Paterno's name was never mentioned in the initial incident in the timeline on CNN.com. The first time he was introduced into the situation was March 2, 2002 when a graduate assistant ( who later was revealed as former assistant coach Mike McQueary) told him he saw Sandusky performing anal sex on a young boy that was about 10 years of age. Paterno then takes appropriate action and tells his superior in Athletic Director Tim Curley.
Next a meeting takes place between the young McQueary, Curley and the Senior Vice President of Finance and Business for the college, Gary Schultz.
Curley and Schultz take it upon themselves to hide the truth from the grand jury and tell say that had not been told of any sexual allegations against Sandusky, after McQueary notified the grand jury of what he saw in the locker room between the child and Sandusky.
The second mile, founded by Sandusky hears about the allegations and Curley tells the organization that the matter was being reviewed internally and there was no finding of wrong doing, after they were told of a first hand account of child rape.
Joe Paterno's superiors suppressed information, in an attempt to keep matters in house. How can Paterno be blamed when he filtered the information along to his bosses and they then commit perjury after lying to the grand jury about what they were aware of?
The action taken was the revocation of Jerry Sandusky's keys, although he was still allowed full access to the campus and football activities.
The cat was out of the bag in 2002 and multiple people knew about the allegations. No one knows how any of the internal conversations went between Paterno, Curley, or Schultz. Paterno passed the proper information on.
But I guess he was supposed to hold a press conference in front of national television to reveal the finding, in the middle of his football season, recruiting, or spring practice.
Or he should have told during the investigation because the law was not doing enough, and in the end hamper the investigation because he is Joe Paterno and he is above the law and State College Police who should have filed charges from the beginning, instead of finding no wrong doing and enabling a predator to terrorize countless young boys.
Let's not forgot Joe Paterno was not the law but a great football coach.
Jerry Sandusky is the monster here not Joe Paterno, RIP "Joe Pa"
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