Breaking news this week out of the college world was that Penn State College fired their head football coach and also the college's President. The story broke out about a sexual abuse scandal by the football team's former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. Joe Paterno, the now former head coach, is the winningest coach in college football history and had a 62 year tenure with Penn State that included 46 years as the Head Coach. The President, Graham B. Spanier, was also one of the longest tenured and highest-paid presidents in the nation and helped to raise the profile of the College to an internationally known status. Jerry Sandusky, the focus of the controversy, is a serial pedophile who was charged with sexually abusing 8 boys over 15 years. Both Spanier and Paterno were dismissed because they knew of the incidents but failed to report them to authorities. Paterno planned to retire at the end of the season anyway but the Board of Trustees refused to allow him to finish. In 2002, a graduate assistant from Penn State, witnessed an assault by Sandusky involving a young boy in the football building's showers and reported what he saw to Paterno. Instead of telling the police, Paterno told the graduate assistant to tell the athletic director. Mr.McQueary, the graduate assistant, claimed to have seen Sandusky having anal sex with the young boy.
This news came out of nowhere to shock the sports world. It is being regarded as one of the most controversial events in sports history. It has completely destroyed the legacy of a prestigious coach and a very recognized athletic program. Some people don't agree with the school's decision to get rid of Paterno but, quite frankly, knowing about what has happened and not reporting it, is an offence within itself. Paterno's amazing reputation has been hit quite hard with this horrific incident. It would have been nice for him to finish off his final year but his firing needed to happen. I feel bad that Paterno's legendary run had to end this way as it wasn't he who committed the crime, but it was very foolish of him not to report his knowledge of the incident. Knowing that an alleged pedophile was walking around on your campus is unacceptable. Had the news been reported earlier, it could have saved many young boys from being sexually abused. The main concern of many people is the boys who are now men that have to deal with what happened for the rest of their lives. Paterno will now be remembered for what happened this week rather than all he has accomplished in his illustrious career. I will end this with Kirk Hebrstreit's quote that will now define Joe Paterno's career: "It's not so much what Joe did, it's what he did not do."
Paterno is Finished at Penn State, and President Is Out
November 9th, 2011
ESPN effective, nuanced in coverage of Penn State game
November 12th, 2011
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/mccarthy/story/2011-11-12/mccarthy-on-tv-espn-penn-state/51179546/1
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