Family of Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno Bring Further Disgrace Upon the Late Coach, Penn State and the Victims of Abuse by Jerry Sandusky

Sad and Disgusting – the Only Words to Describe the Latest Cover-up Attempt

Penn State Assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has been tried and convicted of sexually assaulting young boys while he was an Assistant football coach, and of using Penn State University facilities to do so.  An independent report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh determined that the Penn State Administration was complicit in covering up the crimes, and that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno knew about the charges and did nothing to bring Mr. Sandusky to justice or to prevent further crimes.

The family of Mr. Paterno, who died soon after the extent of the crimes were revealed hired a former U. S. Senator to whitewash Mr. Paterno, and he did so.

The family’s findings said that Paterno:

—     Never asked or told anyone not to investigate an allegation made against Sandusky 12 years ago, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2001.

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—     Never asked or told former administrators not to report the 2001 allegation.

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—     And never asked or told anyone not to discuss or hide information reported by graduate assistant Mike McQueary about the 2001 allegation.

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“Paterno reported the information to his superior(s) pursuant to his understanding of university protocol and relied upon them to investigate and report as appropriate,” the family’s analysis said.

That last sentence is the key here.  Mr. Paterno is told about a horrendous crime done by Mr. Sandusky in the Penn State athletic facilities.  He reports it not to the police, but to his supervisors, forgets about it and goes about his life.  He does, according to the Paterno supporters absolutely nothing.  And for this reason they claim he is exonerated?

It is indeed sad to see the family try to continue the cover-up, no matter how strong their motivation to protect Mr. Paterno and his reputation.  And while there is not enough space here to go into the details that show Mr. Paterno was indeed aware of and did nothing to stop the horrendous acts,  there is the ‘smoking gun’ contained in an e-mail.

Freeh on Sunday cited grand jury testimony by Paterno in 2011 in which Paterno said a graduate assistant relayed to him the 2001 allegation against Sandusky of a “sexual nature” with a child.

He referred to a key point in the July report in which he said Spanier, Schultz and Curley drew up a plan that called for reporting Sandusky to the state Department of Public Welfare in 2001. But Curley later said in an email that he changed his mind “after giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe,” according to Freeh’s findings.

There it is, Curely changed his mind after talking it over with Joe.  There is simply no way around those words documented in an e-mail, no way to whitewash the fact that Mr. Paterno was a part of the process that knew about the crimes and decided not to report them to the authorities.

As for the victims, we feel far greater for their welfare than for the welfare of a fabled coach, who, when faced with the not so difficult moral dilemma of whether or not to protect his football program and school, or to protect children,  chose the wrong path.  Sorry Paterno family, Joe P. was not what he purported to be.  Maybe he never was.