Is This Where our Society Stands?

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For a man with such a legacy, to do nothing is the greatest shame.

"Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience." - Jay Paterno, son of Joe Paterno

"This much is clear to me: If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno's response," - Nike chairman and CEO Phil Knight

"Now, with grown children grandkids and 42 years removed from my playing days, I thought Joe Paterno had taught me all that he could teach me. I was wrong," Pitman said. "Despite being pushed away from his beloved game, and under the extreme pressure of the events of the past few months, Joe's grace was startling."

I decided to preface this article with a few quotes from this ESPN story. I did not make any of the above quotations up, once again, check the ESPN link I posted.


To be honest with you I have no idea how I am even going to write this. When the story broke that Paterno's long time assistant Jerry Sandusky had, on multiple occasions, molested young boys on the Penn State grounds I was horrified. I was horrified that this did not happen once, it happened multiple times with multiple victims. I was even more horrified (and a bit disgusted) when I read that Joe Paterno had done absolutely nothing to stop this, even when he was told about what was happening. Now, I am well aware that Paterno told the athletic directors of Penn State (allegedly), but they decided that the prestige of a football program was more important then the health and well-being of young boys. Read that last sentence again: Penn State cared MORE about football then human (read: children) lives! It is well documented that molestation at an early age can have serious psychological consequences on the victims, causing them to have problems that will impair their ability to live. I am in no way defending the athletic directors, the fact that they basically swept this situation under the rug is a disgrace that I could write another 10,000 words about, but that is for another time. Why? Because no one is defending the actions of the directors, but they are defending the late Joe Paterno. If Paterno really cared about what was happening and wanted to stop it he could have done so by dialing 2 digits on a phone (one of them twice). Did he contact the police? Did he fire Sandusky? Did he offer his support to the families of the victims? NO! He did absolutely none of this, and that is exactly the reason that he should be held just as accountable as his athletic directors.

Look, I get that the guy was a great coach, and I get that he was a big part of building up the reputation of Penn State, all of that is fine. What is not fine is choosing to use those accomplishments as means of defending him. This article would not have been written had Phil Knight (see above quote) and Pitman tried to defend Paterno's actions. had they just focused on the positive things Paterno accomplished in his life, and chose to stay quiet about the very sensitive issue of his role in a child molestation scandal, I would have been fine with this. Let me rephrase, I would not have been fine, but I would at least understood honoring the man for all he did. But put yourself in the shoes of the families who were victimized by Paterno's lack of action, I can't imagine a worse hell then reading and hearing about how great of a man Paterno was. Look, the facts are simple; if your child (or loved one) was molested, or raped, and some adults (with power to do something about it) did nothing to help out your child/loved one/sister/friend you would be outraged. In fact, I do not think it is a stretch to suggest that you would want those people punished too, see where I'm going with this? What a person has accomplished in the field of athletics should not give him the right of immunity (just ask Tiger Woods, and Kobe Bryant-who both received much more of the media's venom than Paterno did), especially when it comes to the well-being of children. Pitman would sing a completely different tune had his child been molested, so would have Phil Knight. By defending Paterno the CEO of Nike is saying that its OK to enable child molestation as long as you are a good football coach. What kind of society do we live in? If this was the case with a less famous coach with even less authority, the media would have crucified him.

Celebrate the good things Paterno accomplished, never forget what he did not accomplish, and please, think of the victims and their families before defending 'JoePa'. When it comes to human rights, no one (I don't care how famous, or successful) who had the power to do something and didn't should be defended. I know I am going to receive some harsh criticisms for writing this, but I also know that if I had been in Paterno's place I would have done something. I would know that I did EVERYTHING IN MY POWER to help those poor, poor families. We know that Joe Paterno did not.


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