(read the entire Freeh Report)
“The facts are the facts,” Mr. Freeh said. “There’s a whole bunch of evidence here. And we’re saying that the reasonable conclusion from that evidence is he was an integral part of this active decision to conceal. I regret that based on the damage that it does, obviously, to his legacy.”
Joe Paterno is revered as something akin to a god on the campus of Penn State University in College Station, PA. His name and visage is everywhere, including on the campus library. Being that this is an institution of higher learning we’re talking about, you could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps Paterno made one or more significant intellectual contributions to the university. Alas, you’d be mistaken, because Paterno was the school’s football coach. Yes, he was one of the most famous and successful football coaches in NCAA history…but he was a football coach. Not a doctor. Not a physicist. Not an engineer.
A football coach.
His long record of success on the gridiron put Penn St. on the map. He sent numerous player off to the NFL, and he made Nittany Lion football a symbol of excellence that made generations of alumni proud. When it came to protecting children, though, he failed. Miserably. Paterno, along with members of the university’s administration, spent years covering for former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky, who used his Second Mile charity as a means of grooming children as potential sexual targets, can only charitably be described as a monster. Joe Paterno knew it, and conspired to keep Sandusky’s perversion under wraps. Paterno’s family remains in denial, but the facts are the facts.
Fans of Nittany Lions football are still reeling from the events of the past year or so. Most realize the gravity of what’s occurred, and they understand that football is ultimately only a game, not life. After the jump, though, you’ll see that not all fans are so sanguine about football being put into perspective.
This is what happens when an educational institution with a football team loses its way and becomes a football team with an educational institution. Penn State’s success on the gridiron has over the years become the raison d’etre for Nittany Lions fans. The program’s success, while bringing notoriety and renown to Penn State, has become the school’s worst enemy. It’s created a culture that corrupted whatever values the school once had as it continued chasing success on the football field. That pursuit of that success became all-consuming, pushing aside anything else that should have taken priority…including the safety and well-being of children.
Former FBI director Louis Freeh said Thursday that the most “telling” piece of information in his nearly eight-month investigation into the university’s handling of Sandusky’s misconduct is a 2000 incident in which a Penn State janitor witnessed the once-revered coach performing oral sex on a young boy in a university locker-room shower.
“The janitor who observed it says it’s the worst thing he ever saw,” Freeh said, outlining the explosive findings of his 267-page review, which found a complete failure of the university leadership to stop Sandusky. “He’s a Korean War veteran. … He spoke to the other janitors. They were awed and shocked by it. But, what did they do? They said they can’t report this because they’d be fired. They were afraid to take on the football program. They said the university would circle around it. It was like going against the president of United States. If that’s the culture on the bottom, God help the culture at the top.”
Over the years, the culture at Penn State has become so thoroughly corrupted by their football program that no one dared to question what had in effect become the 800-lb. gorilla. What the football program wanted, it got, quickly and without question. Over his 61 years at Penn State, Joe Paterno had come to be seen as a deity; no one dared question him, because to do so would have been a death sentence for one’s career and/or reputation. The slavish devotion to perpetuating the success of the football program led to what evidently was a willful and coordinated effort to cover up for Jerry Sandusky. No one condoned Sandusky’s preying upon children, but evidently protecting him and keeping things quiet was deemed of greater importance than risking a scandal.
The Paterno family can complain all they want about how JoePa was never someone who would actively conspire to protect and cover for a child molester. The report speaks for itself, and the facts are what they are. Is the report exhaustive? No, because Louie Freeh did not have subpoena power and some persons of interest chose not to cooperate with his investigation. The report details a culture devoted to football above all other considerations and concludes that Paterno both knew of and followed closely the effort to cover up Sandusky’s monstrosity.
(The Sandusky case has reverberated here in the Portland area. Nike has (finally and rather belatedly) decided that the time has come to change the name of their on-campus Joe Paterno Child Development Center.)
A very wise man once told me (if you’ll pardon the language) that one fuck-up will cancel once a dozen “attaboys.” After 61 years of service to Penn State, Joe Paterno’s legacy will not be as the most successful football coach in NCAA history. No, he will be (justifiably and deservedly) remembered as an enabler who covered for a child molester. Paterno’s inaction and silence makes him responsible for who knows how many other children being sexually assaulted by Jerry Sandusky. A man who claimed to live to do the right thing conspired to allow a monster to continuing preying on children…all to protect his reputation and shield Penn State football from scandal.
I only hope that he’s claimed his reserved parking space in Hell.
