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From across the country and across the state, columnists are opining on the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky sex scandal and most of them are focusing on Joe Paterno, whose resignation, effective the end of the season, was announced this morning.
With due respect to my friends in sports writing, none has the clout of Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, who writes this of Joe Paterno at the moment he learned from Mike McQueary of Jerry Sandusky's rape of a young boy: ``The family man who had faced difficult moments at Brown University as a poor Italian with a Brooklyn accent must have decided that his reputation was more important than justice.''
Maureen Dowd, New York Times
My nephew Anthony, 10, is the proud owner of Penn State shorts, underwear, socks, jerseys, sweatshirts and plastic football players.
The thrill of his young life was seeing the Nittany Lions beat Indiana at FedEx Field last year. He even bravely broke with generations of family tradition to declare that he loved Joe Paterno more than Notre Dame.
So I’ve got to wonder how the 84-year-old coach feels when he thinks about all the children who look up to him; innocent, football-crazy boys like the one he was told about in March 2002, a child then Anthony’s age who was sexually assaulted in a shower in the football building by Jerry Sandusky, Paterno’s former defensive guru, according to charges leveled by the Pennsylvania attorney general.
Paterno was told about it the day after it happened by Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant coach who testified that he went into the locker room one Friday night and heard rhythmic slapping noises. He looked into the showers and saw a naked boy about 10 years old “with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky,” according to the grand jury report.
Read the rest of the story.
* * *
Gene Collier, Post-Gazette: PSU handling worst nightmare in worst wayJonathan Mahler, New York Times: Grand experiment meets an inglorious end
Cory Giger, Altoona Mirror: Paterno's career appears to be ending
David Jones, Patriot-News: Paterno's successor will encounter huge vacuum
Mike Vaccaro, New York Post: Sad flicker for beacon of integrity
Dan Le Betard, Miami Herald: How could Paterno have not done more?
Mike Lupica, New York Daily News: It's time for Joe Paterno to call it a day
John Smallwood, Philadelphia Daily News: Penn State brass shows Paterno who's boss
Rick Telander, Chicago Sun-Times: Penn State scandal is much bigger than school, coach
Tim Sullivan, San Diego Union Tribune: Victims are the higher priority
Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Penn State scandal is an outrage
Michael Rosenberg, Detroit Free Press: Doing nothing does harm at Penn State
Mark Kiszla, Denver Post: College football fans tragically gazed through Joe's-colored glasses
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written by Fortinbras, November 09, 2011 - 09:43 AM
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written by BobRobertsonsbunt, November 09, 2011 - 09:46 AM
Paterno is getting negative attention because HE CHOSE to ignore the rape of a 10 year old child. All the while preaching character...he showed his true character IMO. An ego-maniacal control freak who thought this CRIME could be buried because he wanted it that way. Good riddance to him, Spanier and the rest...they should ALL go. It's the only way Penn State, the university, not the football team, can regain it's once great name.
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written by alexpo, November 09, 2011 - 09:48 AM
This really looks like Rene Portland all over again. It was likely either resign-or-be-fired. The difference is Rene was only 54 while Joe is 84 so his looks much more like a retirement than Rene's did.
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written by SteelVa2, November 09, 2011 - 09:50 AM
An ok article by Dowd.
I'm not a purveyor of the pablum the PG often puts out, but Geno Collier's article has been, by far, the best on this sordid subject.
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written by Max, November 09, 2011 - 09:51 AM
There is too much focus on Paterno.
Fix the problem at the top - Spanier - and everything else will be taken care of. It's analogous to the Pirates - until the ownership problem is fixed . . . .
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written by pittfan55, November 09, 2011 - 09:54 AM
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written by turbolover, November 09, 2011 - 09:59 AM
"In other words, Jer, if you want to violate kids who live in cow town where everything revolves around the idolatry of Penn State and Paterno, kindly take them off campus. The predator was still welcome on his own, though; he was spotted at the football team’s weight room working out last week.
Curley told the university president, Graham Spanier, about the matter, and it got buried. Paterno, Curley and Schultz disingenuously claim they were left with the impression that the contact might have been mere “horsing around,” as Curley put it. That’s grotesque."
Paterno's statement this morning indicates that he is out of control, and his lawyer son is delusional and providing horrendous advice. They dared the trustees to fire him and played it as if they spent further time considering his fate then they are ignoring the plight of the victims. Please! Who ignored the victims for nine years?
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written by pittfan55, November 09, 2011 - 10:02 AM
"At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status"
Wow - the arrogance is stunning.
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written by 66Bucs, November 09, 2011 - 10:04 AM
Think of the environment created at State when janitors know not bring such things to the attention of police and when people like McQuearry feel that they shouldn't stop an in progress rape of a child or report it before running it by Paterno.
And sure enough McQuearry is rewarded for such behavior by being made a coach and recruiting coordinator.
If that big red headed coward and Paterno take the field on Saturday it will be a disgrace.
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written by pghsportsfan, November 09, 2011 - 10:08 AM
Joe Paterno, resigning, is only the first step in the long journey of correcting a grevious error.
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written by BobRobertsonsbunt, November 09, 2011 - 10:09 AM
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written by Joe D, November 09, 2011 - 10:19 AM
he just doesn't get it..
the board should not spend a minute regarding his status... really.
who said they want you on the sideline saturday...
who said they want you to assist the university in any way down the road...
completely delusional...
better yet... that is called Drunk with Power.
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written by B to the C, November 09, 2011 - 10:33 AM
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written by shitzngiggles, November 09, 2011 - 10:35 AM
Like Collier mentioned in his piece: "Nearly all men can stand adversity," said Abraham Lincoln. "But, if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
Paterno and many others clearly failed the character test at Penn State.
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written by chippedham, November 09, 2011 - 11:16 AM
It may be a reason that you'll never see another coach being allowed to run a football program past the age of 70. We always hear about how things were so much better in the old days, here's an argument that the olden days weren't so great after all.
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AS the introduction to this post states, most of the journalists are focusing on Paterno. And that is wrong. Paterno is getting all the negative attention because he is the most well know name involved here.
Meanwhile, the (alleged) perpetrator of these acts is getting less attention. Certainly it was higher ups in the university administration who wanted to quiet this allegation. Paterno can be faulted for going along with that, sure, but for him to get all the negative publicity is out of proportion to his culpability.