Paterno’s statement’s not enough, Penn State dropped ball
Joe Paterno is retiring, but he will be allowed to coach the rest of the season. (AP photo)
Joe Paterno will coach at least three more football games.
This is not going to be pretty.
Paterno confirmed this morning that he will retire at the end of the season. This follows ugly sexual abuse claims against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky and the belief by many that school officials, including Paterno, may have been complicit in covering up the matter and/or could have done more to push for an investigation.
Paterno released a statement in which he conceded, “With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”
They were the proper words. But they should have been spoken, not released via email, before anybody at Penn State even considered allowing him back on the sideline.
I can’t imagine any university, company or entity handling a situation worse than how Penn State has handled the past few days.
Paterno’s complete statement:
“I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.
“I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today.
“That’s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can. This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.
“My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this University.”
I wrote the other day about how sickening this whole saga is, that potentially something so despicable could go on for so long. Paterno had met his legal obligations in the Sandusky matter but questions about whether he had met his moral obligations lingered.
I also wrote that before I jumped on the growing “Paterno Must Go” bandwagon, I wanted to hear what he had to say — live, in a room, behind a microphone, with people. Granted, Paterno was being crushed by public opinion and it seemed implausible that he could not have known — 0r done –more. But to me it all seemed a little too much too fast, given Paterno’s stature and reputation before this story broke.
I believed that Paterno needed to get behind a microphone, answer every question, show remorse and make us believe that there was no intent on his part to cover up such alleged heinous crimes for a long-time friend.
Because anybody who enabled Sandusky also belongs behind bars.
But Penn State already has made its decision. That’s a mistake. It’s as if the university is allowing Paterno one final power play in State College.
It’s going to be ugly in “Happy Valley” at Saturday’s final home game against Nebraska.
It’s going to be ugly and scary when Paterno and Penn State go on the road for the final two games to Ohio State and Wisconsin.
If Paterno coaches in a bowl game, the atmosphere certainly is not going to seem like a season celebration, which is what bowl games were intended to be.
Penn State dropped the ball. And when everybody looks at Paterno on the sideline Saturday, the first thought most will have won’t be, “There’s a great football coach.”
By Jeff Schultz
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590 comments Add your comment
Icepack
November 9th, 2011
3:22 pm
Right now, right away. Gone. No way should he stay one more day.
TechMan
November 9th, 2011
3:22 pm
Actually, I am defending JoePa in regards to his moral responsibility. I believe he fulfilled it. That is based on the facts we currently have.
Kramer
November 9th, 2011
3:23 pm
Gee tech man I wish we had your intelligence and tolerence. You are a *** damn genius gump!
A person SMART enough to know......
November 9th, 2011
3:23 pm
North ave Moron………….go smoke some dope with Joe Hamilton. Pretty sure you have defended some questionable things Tech Coaches and Players have done. Did you defend or throw under the bus the Tech player accused of beating his girlfriend? He was never charged.
Joe Pa did follow his chain of command. The rest of the judgment is between God and Joe Pa. Joe didn’t break the law. The Secret Service men didn’t break the law by not reporting that bill Clinton was having Sex with Monica in the White House. Didn’t they have a Moral Responsibility to tell Hillary and bring down the whole administration? Joe Pa told the power people what he heard. Don’t put your MORALS on others unless you apply your morals evenly to everybody.
phil
November 9th, 2011
3:23 pm
There are at least 3 of us on here with some measure of sense, including one from Tech.
The rest of you are surely smart too.
Don’t make yourselves look and sound stupid by wanting to crucify the entire Penn State campus until this mess gets a chance to play itself out for more than half a week. Honestly.
Remember how guilty Casey anthony “clearly” was? Exactly.
Bdog
November 9th, 2011
3:23 pm
You guys are nuts if you think Joe Pa didn’t know what was going on !! He knew the details from the graduate assistant and if you think he didn’t your just as stupid ! His lack of action caused other boys to be molested plain and simple. !
phil
November 9th, 2011
3:24 pm
Make it 4…..smart enough to know has good sense too.
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:25 pm
Techman. So you think by simply reporting it and then ignoring it for the next decade was doing his moral obligation? This guy was a decades long friend. At the very least shouldn’t he make sure the allegations weren’t true? You’re giving JP a pass he doesn’t deserve.
phil
November 9th, 2011
3:26 pm
Bdog….please.
Do everyone a favor and don’t ever apply to any institution requiring you to actually form an intelligent, coherent or rational thought.
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:26 pm
Personsmart has a major hard on for adultery. Did your wife cuckold you? Once again adultery /= child rape. Simple to understand.
shyril
November 9th, 2011
3:27 pm
For all of you “attempting” to defend Joe Paterno. What would you have done? No the better question is suppose it had been your 10 year old son, brother, nephew or cousin? An adult sees the Coach(performing anal sex) in the shower with your son, brother, nephew or cousin. What do you think the appropriate action should be? You tell the head coach, the legendary, powerful Joe Paterno. He tells the athletic director. At that point do you really think he has fufilled his legal and moral obligation to the child, the child’s parents and to himself, Paterno.
I want him gone before Saturday, but the great Penn State and the great Joe Paterno are going to go out on their own terms! I hope he is booed on the road in Wisconsin and Ohio State. I hope Penn State doesnt win another game. If my child were had committed to Penn State, he would have to rescind the commitment. Somebody, somewhere, somehow has to take a stand and do whats right! I hope from now on every microphone placed in front of him ask him about this incident. I hope he never gets to rest another day of his life without being asked about the incident. That is a small price to pay!
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:28 pm
Casey Anthony was acquitted, doesn’t mean she didn’t kill the child. Just not enough evidence for the jury to convict.
Joe
November 9th, 2011
3:28 pm
but TechMan, Schultzy said Joe’s statement wasn’t enough, so that makes it true right?? Don’t we have to hang Joe Pa before anyone else does? We can’t read the grand jury report or wait for new facts, the clock is ticking!
phil
November 9th, 2011
3:28 pm
We have zero idea if he ignored this for a decade or not.
Paterno isn’t the FBI, a lawyer, a prosecutor, a grand jury, an investigator, etc.
He’s a football coach. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t do enough.
Why not just wait and see. Is that so hard? Apparently it is for many.
Kramer
November 9th, 2011
3:28 pm
phil, no one wants to crucify the entire PSU campus. Just those that knew this was going on and turned the other way. You do recall the Catholic Church and its similar issues? Joe admitted today that he should have done more and did not. The guy was being honest and knows he screwed up.
A person SMART enough to know......
November 9th, 2011
3:30 pm
personsmart?…………..According to GOD’S Top 10 list of bad things they are exactly the SAME. Don’t use the morals argument and then ignore God’s code to morals.
Legally Joe Pa did what he should. Morally maybe not. Legally Leeburn hasn’t broke the law either, but Morally he is no different than Sandusky & Joe Pa. RIGHT? please apply your Morals evenly or not at all.
TyreH
November 9th, 2011
3:30 pm
Joe P also knew that Sandusky was at the PSU athletic facilities as little as a few months ago with another young boy. So did he forget about 1999 or did he just not care?
Woody Hayes is a Saint compared to JP.
7576DAWG
November 9th, 2011
3:30 pm
This is my question to Paterno: After you found out what McQueary saw WHY IN THE HELL WOULD YOU STILL BEFRIEND AND HAVE SANDUSKY ANYWHERE AROUND YOU?
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:31 pm
Phil. No “maybe”– He didn’t do enough. He has said so himself. That alone tells me all I need to know. He’s got to step down, now.
Merciless
November 9th, 2011
3:31 pm
This is an example of what Occupy WallStreet is about. The Top deciding how to run things. Follow the dollars and you’ll understand why the cover up. Even if JoPa came forward he would have done so at his own demise. In the end, its all the same.
jvillebil
November 9th, 2011
3:32 pm
Anyone that has ever been in coaching knows that nothing, I mean nothing gets past the head coach if he’s in control. He has spys everwhere. Someone is always will to rat someone out. And yes, many times they need to be ratted out. So many people over the years knew things about Sandusky and yet, it was never brought to JP’s attention. Give me a break!! He knew the guy 30+ years. Janitor’s, late night watchmen, even McQueary. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, & quacks like a duck, I don’t need to bring in a jury of peers to get permission to shoot. United States has less than 4.2% of the world’s population but over 20% of the world’s lawyers. I’d say we’ve done a pretty good job of screwing things up. So yea let the legal system work! I mean as OJ’s lawyer said, “If it doesn’t fit you must aquit.”
Kramer
November 9th, 2011
3:33 pm
Merciless, you are joking right? Occupy Wallstreet gets tied into boys being molested? Time for your meds.
doggoneit
November 9th, 2011
3:33 pm
Bad reporting jeff. Your assuming to much. a kindergartener can do as much!
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:33 pm
Sorry, but God means nothing to me. I’m an atheist. And if those crimes are equal in your God’s eyes then he’s a big a loser as you are.
TechMan
November 9th, 2011
3:34 pm
You guys make my brain hurt. personsmart? – JoePa got info from the GA. He said he received non-specifics. He took this information to not only his superior but the person in charge of the university police. It is not a right nor requirement of his to become some sort of vigilante to make sure the justice system is running its due course. As someone correctly pointed out, you can’t go around spewing hearsay. That will have you in a civil lawsuit in no time, especially if it has to do with raping children. It’s also not his job to gather information. That’s law enforcement.
Do we actually know how much time Sandusky spent with the program since he retired? If I read the story correctly, the GA story was during an away game for the team. I know he had access but how much time did Sandusky actually spend there? I think one point everyone wants to gloss over is that these children were the responsibility of the charity, not Penn State. It has been noted that PSU contacted the charity to let them know about the allegations. Where are they at?
If you want to say I’m giving JoePa a pass, that’s your right. I’m simply saying that based on the facts currently presented, he doesn’t deserve this witch hunt.
PaternoDefendersAreMoralFailures
November 9th, 2011
3:35 pm
Paterno has destroyed his legacy. He will always be remembered as Coach Coverup of Pedo State, who did nothing when informed by a young grad assistant that his long-time coach of what, 30 years?, a man he KNEW was always in the company of young boys, had created a home for young boys, brought young boys on weekend game trips, to coaches meetings, into locker rooms (really, it’s all in the Sandusky Grand Jury document), when knowing all this, Paterno still chose to do NOTHING meaningful and may even have downplayed the crime, when he was told that Sandusky raped and sodomized a ten year old boy in a Pedo State football lockerroom.
That’s the truth of the Paterno legacy: Coach Coverup of Pedo State.
jvillebil
November 9th, 2011
3:35 pm
Can anyone answer the question of “I wish I had done more.” ? I mean at what point do you think he came to the realization he should have done more. While it was going on or when he got caught up in the mess?
South Georgia Writer
November 9th, 2011
3:36 pm
Put the old billy goat out to pasture and while you’re cleaning house order some new uniforms that don’t look like the good humor man.
Dawgsgone
November 9th, 2011
3:36 pm
This dispicable act happened in 2002. Did the GA or JoePa either one see Sandusky at all over the next 9 years???? You would think that they would have crossed paths just by accident at least during that time. Wonder what they thought he was doing with the kids he was still taking to ball games, buying gifts for and having spend the night at this house. And please don’t say they didn’t know what he was doing. They should both be ashamed to be seen in public never mind on national t.v. pretending to be “men of integrity and honor.”
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:37 pm
Techman. From reports I’ve read Sandusky was a regular on campus as late as last week. Also after the 2002 incident they told him not to bring children back into the complex. That speaks volumes as to whether they thought the charges were spurious. So yes the old adage applies, where there is smoke there is usually fire. Joe and the other admins knew and swept it under the proverbial rug. He and they need to go, now.
TechMan
November 9th, 2011
3:38 pm
I’m just going to start copying your responses. Since you disagree with me, I hope you can see how ridiculous they are:
“Anyone that has ever been in coaching knows that nothing, I mean nothing gets past the head coach if he’s in control. He has spys everwhere. Someone is always will to rat someone out. And yes, many times they need to be ratted out. So many people over the years knew things about Sandusky and yet, it was never brought to JP’s attention. Give me a break!! He knew the guy 30+ years. Janitor’s, late night watchmen, even McQueary. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, & quacks like a duck, I don’t need to bring in a jury of peers to get permission to shoot. United States has less than 4.2% of the world’s population but over 20% of the world’s lawyers. I’d say we’ve done a pretty good job of screwing things up. So yea let the legal system work! I mean as OJ’s lawyer said, “If it doesn’t fit you must aquit.”
7576DAWG
November 9th, 2011
3:39 pm
The only reason Paterno is saying he should have done more is because the truth finally came out. If the indictment had not come out and McQueary had not spoke out Sandusky would still be welcome at Penn State and Paterno would still be welcoming his friend to Penn State.
TechMan
November 9th, 2011
3:39 pm
Thanks personsmart?
IL Jacket
November 9th, 2011
3:39 pm
Buffalo Bill @3:15, what I have heard most people on this blog is the status of Joe Paterno and his continued fitness to serve as Penn State’s head coach. It is not about Sandusky’s guilt-that will be detemined by a judge, jury or plea. Nothing in Paterno’s limited statements indicate he was not aware of some irregularities. “I wish I had done more,” doesn’t sound like a man who thinks nothing happened. So the issue of what Paterno did is the issue at hand and one can make a decision about Paterno’s actions without reaching the question of Sandusky’s guilt.
jvillebil
November 9th, 2011
3:39 pm
Thank you 7576DAWG, Exactly
gbal
November 9th, 2011
3:40 pm
reckingball – my issue is that JP nor others should be expected to talk details of the incident when this crime investigation has not been completed. Jeff should not expect JP to enter a press confrence and answer any and all quiestions until it is time.
Kramer
November 9th, 2011
3:40 pm
TechMan, what part of he kept Sandusky in his inner circle and allowed him access to the university do you not understand? Once again, he admitted today that he did not do enough. The man himself knows he did not do what was needed a long time ago. Last week he becomes the winningest coach and this week his past catches up with him. it is a shame but, it is the cold facts and he admits it. Time for his supporters to do the same.
phil
November 9th, 2011
3:40 pm
Amen, Techman. Amen.
That said, does it LOOK good for Paterno?
No. Obviously it doesn’t look good.
And yes, he says he wishes he had done more.
I wish I had done more before a relative of mine committed suicide a few years ago. I realize there’s a big difference here, but my point is that sometimes these “realizations” aren’t as obvious as the peanut gallery would like to think they are.
Walk a mile in those other shoes first, know it alls…..
jvillebil
November 9th, 2011
3:41 pm
Bottom line is either Joe knew or didn’t. It’s black or white. You either lie or tell the truth. The fact of the matter is their is no such thing as a white lie and you can straddle the fence forever.
phil
November 9th, 2011
3:42 pm
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:33 pm
Sorry, but God means nothing to me. I’m an atheist. And if those crimes are equal in your God’s eyes then he’s a big a loser as you are.
********************
Congratulations on your athiest beliefs. Thanks for sharing.
TechMan
November 9th, 2011
3:42 pm
uhm, what person, when presented with the number of molestations/rapes that occured, would NOT say ,”I wish I had done more.”? Wow, you guys are reaching. I wish I could’ve done something about it and I have nothing to do with the situation.
Kramer
November 9th, 2011
3:42 pm
God phil, that was a pathetic attempt to rationalize Paterno’s actions or lack of. Please feel free to try again.
gbal
November 9th, 2011
3:42 pm
Then, report the facts.
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:43 pm
I only brought it up because the “original” personsmart played his God card. And you’re welcome.
UGA Insider
November 9th, 2011
3:44 pm
Where in the hell is the NCAA?? These crimes were committed on the campus, why can’t the NCAA come in and shut the program down for the rest of the season. People are mad and I’m afraid violence at a game could easily ensue. The wound is too fresh for Paterno to coach a game Saturday.
TechMan
November 9th, 2011
3:44 pm
Kramer, can you give me a link that says Sandusky was in Paterno’s inner circle recently?
jvillebil
November 9th, 2011
3:44 pm
Every criminal in jail always wishes he or she had didn’t something different. But the fact of the matter given the same situation and circumstances they would have did it just like they did the first time. You either have morals or not! Hind site is 20/20
Merciless
November 9th, 2011
3:45 pm
Shyril…
To your point, what would you do if someone told you exactly what the GA saw? You’d think JoPa would say he (Sadysk) has to go!! Today!! Right know!! He had the power to do that. He had the responsibility to ensure that. It was hidden for 12 years. It is just as horrible as though it was yesterday.
A person SMART enough to know......
November 9th, 2011
3:45 pm
personsmart?
November 9th, 2011
3:33 pm
Sorry, but God means nothing to me. I’m an atheist.
So why would you care what Joe Pa did? He didn’t do it to your or your kids. no GOD & no Morals makes this a survival of the fittest world. Money & Power are all that matters. Joe didn’t do anything LEGALLY wrong. Leave Joe alone.
Kramer
November 9th, 2011
3:45 pm
So tech man if you saw a man molesting a young boy and you reported it to lets say to a security guard you would feel you have done all you can. Then when you hear that these actions are still going on you would sit idle because hey, you reported it once. What do you care? Paterno is better then that he is admitting it today.