Joe Paterno's ordeal

I can't help it. I have been thinking and reading about this story all night. Yesterday, I thought that JoePa should not be held accountable for the actions of accused pedophile Jerry Sandusky. But the more I read and the more I found out about this I don't think I can support JoePa anymore. Not that it matters. I am just one person out in cyberspace.


The troubling issues are that Jerry Sandusky was investigated for showering with an 11-year old boy in 1998. This was four years before he was observed raping 10-year old boy in the showers, the incident witnessed by Mike McQueary in 2002. There was another witnessed event in 2000 when Sandusky was witnessed by a janitor to having oral sex with an 11-13 year old boy in the Penn State showers. So this was a pattern of behavior, witnessed by more than one person and we are expected to believe that JoePa did not know anything about it? Furthermore, all of these incidents were in the showers and Sandusky had keys to these showers for three years after he retired! I suspect that this "retirement" was in fact a way for JoePa to quietly get rid of a huge problem.


Most accounts tell us that JoePa was CEO of Penn State football, more powerful than the president of the university. People answer to him, not the other way around. So if he told the athletic director about Sandusky in 2002, he was likely looking for a way to solve an unpleasant problem and expecting the AD to take care of it. The truth may come out in the end, but I now expect a lot of people to start pointing fingers. We may even find out that Penn State made Sandusky get treatment for his problem. The quote I posted yesterday was strange. Here it is again.


"If this is true we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families."


Scores of professionals trained is such things? Does this mean that Penn State sought the advice of professionals to evaluate Sandusky to see if he really was a pedophile? If this is true it will be mind-bogglingly crazy. Did they suspect him, evaluate him and then determine that he was safe to be around children? If this is true, Penn State would be even more liable for damages. Did JoePa have these evaluations done on his own, without telling Penn State? This is critical information. Even Sandusky's foundation must have known he was a potential threat to children and still no one could believe it. Matt Millen, a member of the Second Mile board said he was like "the guy next door." What if the board knew he was a possible pedophile and continued to let him take young boys over to Penn State to see the showers?


Everyone needs to come clean at this point. Millen needs to say, yes I heard something. Maybe this is why he is so emotional about this. He knew about it too! JoePa needs to tell the truth, as soon as possible.


Finally, he and any coaches that knew about Sandusky and did not act should step down, today. The Second Mile organization should be dissolved and its board investigated.