I know I'm a couple of days jumping on the pile on the JoePa interview in the Washington Post, but I found it a fascinating read. One of the key things I saw was that when Mike McQuery went to JoePa to report the 2002 incident involving Jerry Sandusky, he left out a lot of the graphic description in deference to Paterno's age and standing. Now, I don't know if you are buying it, but I am and here's why: My Dad is a couple years older than JoePa and while I can discuss things with him, there is a certain line I don't cross with him. I do not use profanity (because he doesn't) and I do not use sexual euphemisms. My father is no shrinking violet, he served his country in Europe at 19, and knows all those words, but he raised me to not be crude in his presence. So, I get where McQuery was coming from.
If you drink what JoePa is serving, he claims he had issues with the whole thing and turned it over to people that he felt could better handle it. I believe that this is true and I think somewhere between Tim Curley, Gary Schultz and Graham Spanier, the ball was dropped. The fascinating component of this whole story is why didn't Curley, Schultz and Spanier act and report Sandusky to the police. My guess is that they knew ten years ago the repercussions the scandal would have on the university and they wanted to keep it in house. That said, continuing to allow Sandusky any involvement with the university was horrible judgment on their part.
I think in JoePa's case, he did what he thought was right and correct in terms of university policy. He phoned his superiors and reported the incident. What he didn't do is follow up or use his power within the university to demand Sandusky be brought up on criminal charges. He could have, probably should have but didn't, and in not doing so, brought himself down in November.
There is also a great deal of conjecture about the Penn State board of trustees. If, as the new President of the university, Rodney Erickson asserts, he is an employee working for the trustees. If that is the case, did former President Spanier report the incident to the trustees? If he did and they didn't act, then that is not only a huge moral lapse, it's a huge financial liability.
I think at the end of the day, while JoePa had a role in all of this, he probably had less of a role than any of the principles. I think his age, his generational values and his desire to act according to policy worked against him in this situation. How he will be judged in the future will be a topic of much debate.
Two other quick notes: First, while I understand some of the Penn State alums are not happy with how the JoePa deal was handled or how the search for a new coach was handled, I think it was a good thing for Penn State to clean house. After forty-five years of a singular philosophy, I think it may have been time to change some things. That said, Franco Harris needs to stop making an ass of himself and ruining his own legacy by acting like a spoiled child.
Second, it is easy for overly testosterone driven sports talk hosts to regale us of what they would have done. But the truth of is none of them were there, nobody had any idea this was going on and all the woulda shoulda coulda talk is speculation and gum flapping at this point. The legal process will decide who did what to whom and who knew what when. Saying you hope someone dies is over the line. And I hope that listeners respond by turning off their radios and realizing that no matter how repulsive this situation is, there are more civil ways to present discourse.