A Man Who Did To Little
A horrifying sex scandal at Penn State University has now swept the nation. One of the biggest outcomes of this was the firing of head coach Joe “JoePa” Paterno. Most people agree with the firing, but there are also some who don’t think he should have been fired. But when you let child molestation from a former assistant coach just go by, and you do about as little as you can about it, being relieved of your duties sounds about right to me.
Jerry Sandusky began working for Penn State in 1969 as a defensive line coach, promoted to the linebacker coach in 1970, and in 1977 he became the defensive coordinator, holding that position until his retirement in 1999.
Sandusky was considered to be one of the greatest assistant coaches that college football has ever seen. He became the reason that Penn State dubbed the name, “Linebacker U,” because of how dominate his defense and linebackers became there.
In 1977 Sandusky founded The Second Mile charity to provide care for foster children and in 2002 he was honored with a, “Congressional Angels in Adoption,” award from U.S. Senator Rick Santorum.
Also in 2002, graduate assistant Mike McQueary, now assistant coach, walked in on Sandusky sexually assaulting a ten-year-old boy. McQueary went to head coach Joe Paterno and informed him of these actions, and Paterno then went to athletic director Tim Curley.
Curley and senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz (who oversaw the Penn State police department) only told Sandusky to stop taking boys from Second Mile to the football building instead of taking it to the police.
On November 4, 2011 Jerry Sandusky was indicted on 40 counts of sexual activity. On November 5th he was arrested and charged with seven counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse; eight counts of corruption of minors, eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child, seven counts of indecent assault and other offenses.
Time Curley and Gary Schultz were charged with perjury and failure to report suspected child abuse by Sandusky.
On November 9th Joe Paterno, after a 45 year head coaching career with Penn State, was fired.
The firing of Paterno started and outrage throughout the entire campus of Penn State, the student body did not agree with the firing of, “JoePa,” and rioted on the campus.
The student body thought what they did to him was unfair after the career he had at Penn State and all the things he had done for the university.
So was the firing of Joe Paterno the right thing to do? Should the other members such as Mike McQueary, Time Curley, Gary Shultz and many others be fired?
Yes.
I don’t care about the career that Paterno had. He should not have been able to leave on his own terms. He might be one of the greatest coaches the NCAA has ever seen, but that does not exclude him from the wrongful acts he did.
Paterno should have done more, he should have gone to police himself and continuously pressured the board to fire Sandusky, but instead he told them one time and then let it be.
You do not let child molestation be.
The fact that he did so little to stop it, shows that he was basically allowing all these things to happen.
When Woody Hayes, former Ohio State football coach, hit a player from Clemson in the 1978 Gator Bowl, he was immediately fired. When Jim Tressel, former Ohio State football coach, was found to have known about his players selling Ohio State gear for tattoos and didn’t tell anybody, he was fined, and then resigned as head coach.
Paterno was knowingly allowing Jerry Sandusky to molest young boys, and did about as little as he could about it. When fired, Paterno said himself, “I wish i had done more,” meaning that he knew about it, he knew he could have done more and didn’t. With the power that Paterno had at Penn State, he could have gotten it all resolved if he kept at it instead of letting it go.
Tim Curley, Gary Shultz, and Mike McQueary should be fired as well, I don’t think i need to explain why.
The Second Mile program should also be shut down, and the members of it should have some sort of punishment put upon them. That program is now being looked at as possibly where Sandusky was getting all his victims from.
Anyone who knew, or was involved with this should all be fired, and Sandusky should be sent to prison.
You can be mad at Paterno being fired and say that he did his job as head coach to reporting it once and then going back to do his job as head coach. But when it comes to child molestation, you don’t let it go, you continuously push for it to be taken care of.
The legendary career of, “JoePa,” is now tarnished because of all this.
If he had done what he was supposed to do back in 2002 and pushed to have it stopped and Sandusky arrested then, he might have lost his job, he might have not gotten another 9 years of coaching. But he would have been looked at as a hero, a man who stood up and tried to get this stopped and not only would he have been remembered for his illustrious career, but also for his stand against child molestation.
Instead, he let it go. He got 9 more years of coaching, and now he’ll be remembered by most as a man who did to little.
Who knows what else is going to happen with this scandal, who knows how many other victims there are, and who knows what will happen to Joe, Jerry, and all the others involved.
But all we do know, is that two great college football coaching careers are now tarnished, and a schools football prestige is crushed.
Anonymous
