Penn State Child Molestation Case: Joe Paterno Retires.

Mr. Paterno, the head football coach at the university for the last 45 years issued a written announcement of his retirement this morning effective at the end of the season in January. At this writing it is not known if the university will accept his timetable.

More than any single person Mr. Paterno was responsible for raising the visibility and academic standing of Penn State.  It was a remarkable accomplishment, unprecedented for a sports coach. One of Penn State's slogans is "We Are Penn State."  The slogan expresses both the pride and the unity of Penn State people. Really though, the slogan should be "He Is Penn State," for Joe Paterno was. 

It would be inaccurate to say that Paterno is another victim of the child molestation case; that would denigrate the children.  It would be inaccurate also because Paterno grievously mishandled the situation and caused his own downfall.  Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant football coach, testified before the grand jury that in 2002 he witnessed Jerry Sandusky performing anal intercourse on a boy who appeared to McQueary to be about 10 years old in the showers at Penn State. McQueary said he told Paterno. Paterno issued a written statement last Sunday, November 6, after the indictments, completely denying the details above. Paterno alerted his university superiors and his involvement ended there. There is a substantial conflict between what has been reported to be McQueary’s grand jury testimony and Paterno’s November 6 written statement. Prosecutors did not charge either McQueary or Paterno with perjury and specifically excluded Paterno from any criminal suspicion.  At the least, Paterno should have followed up in the last nine years. For that, at least, he deserved to lose his job. It is no bold prediction that university president Graham Spanier will also lose his job. And he should. Spanier was told something of the 2002 incident also, and also did not adequately follow-up.

Penn State is a prominent university in America and this story is prominent in the thoughts and discussions of Americans. What made Penn State a prominent university was football. Football and Joe Paterno and Penn State were inseparable. Football and Paterno were too powerful at Penn State, but Penn State is not unique.  It says here college football--and basketball--are too powerful in America. Football and basketball coaches are the highest paid employees at many American universities. College football and basketball should be deemphasized; I don’t know how, I haven’t thought beyond that.

Whatever Penn State’s or Joe Paterno’s or college sports’ prominence in America, this case is, at base, and it is very base, a criminal case.  What has happened and will happen to Penn State people is very nearly irrelevant when compared to what prosecutors say was done to the victims: the kids, they were just children.