And you seem to be implying that Paterno had some kind of influence with the Sandusky Foundation.
Why do you think that?
No. But Penn State shouldn't have allowed its athletic facilities to be used by Sandusky for sleepover camps until 2008. And I respected Joe Paterno enough until Monday to believe that he would know when his friend of 43 years (by 2008), who had an issue with small boys, was holding these camps.
Let me rephrase everything, because my posts appear to petty at this point.
Joe Paterno wasn't just a coach. Joe Paterno was a moral authority figure. Joe Paterno spent his career working with 'young men." They were boys when he started recruiting them - 17 or 18 - and 19 when he went into living rooms and told parents that they could trust him and Penn State to take care of their sons. Joe Paterno wasn't just a coach. He was a father figure, and then a grandfather figure. He ruled the NCAA with moral authority, not legal authority.
Sportscaster, average citizens, and football fans felt something in his presence because of his moral decency and his statements on morals.
But when it came time to protect preteen boys, in 1998, or 1999, or 2000, or 2002 - boys who hadn't signed a letter of intent - Joe's compass was no longer a moral compass. His excuse was "I did the bare legal minimum, and then I didn't worry about what happened to the boys." If anyone had the moral authority, or could generate the moral outrage, to stop what happened, to find out what was happening, and to prevent it from happening on Penn State property - much less in the football showers - it was Joe Paterno.
For over 40 years, the man assured the parents of boys that they would be safe in his hands at Penn State. And when one or more pre-teen boys needed a protector, Joe Paterno said "I did the bare legal minimum, what more should you expect of me."
I'm through. Defend him all you want.