From the ESPN article:
The coach defended his decision to take the news to Curley. Paterno said it was obvious that the graduate student was “distraught,” but said the graduate student did not tell him about the “very specific actions” in the grand jury report.
So the question really is “What did JoePa know and when did he know it.” What did McQueary tell him?
Until we know that (or until someone in authority knows that), calls for Paterno to be fired are premature.
Note - I’m not a Penn State fan and I think Paterno should have been gone several years ago.
Sorry, but we already have Paterno's testimony on file via the Grand Jury Presentment. And according to that, he was "specific enough":
quoted from p. 7 of the Grand Jury Presentment:
"...the graduate assistant telephoned Paterno and went to Paterno's home, where he reported what he had seen. Joseph V. Paterno testified to receiving the graduate assistant's report at his home on a Saturday morning. Paterno testified that the graduate assistant was very upset. Paterno called Tim Curley (‘Curley’), Penn State Athletic Director and Paterno's immediate supervisor, to his home the very next day, a Sunday, and reported to him that the graduate assistant had seen Jerry Sandusky in the Lasch Building showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy."
Now did you catch that last phrase: "or doing SOMETHING of a SEXUAL NATURE TO a young boy"???
There's no two ways about it: It's just as much of a felony to commit other forms of child sexual abuse as it is child rape! (Why can't people like ESPN and others get that thru their head?)
Therefore, due to the Grand Jury presentment, we know when he knew: He knew at least sketchy details via a phone call the night of the attack (March, 2002)
And by the meeting at his house the next day, he heard direct eyewitness testimony -- the kind of testimony that had it been presented to a police detective would have resulted in the immediate arrest of Sandusky. IOW, this wasn't just multi-generation "rumors" from a non-credible source.
We don't know EVERYTHING Paterno learned from that meeting with McQueary, but we know he knew it was "something of a sexual nature to a young boy."
So what's there to wait about there?
Besides, the real problem Paterno has morally and dereliction of duty-wise and violating NCAA bylaw 2.4 is what he FAILED to do 2003 and beyond. He was supervisor of the Wide Receiver Coach who was the eyewitness, but somehow lacked authoritative or moral compulsion to convince that coach to report the crime over the long run.
Paterno was irresponsible and wreckless with his ethical response to the situation over the long run.