We want to see people we respect brought low; especially those in the entertainment industry of which any sport, even college sports belongs. Tiger Woods, Mel Gibson, Alex Rodriguez, and countless others.
Look, I’m not defending Sandusky in this even though he professes his innocence and there has been no trial yet. But, most of the articles I’m reading have nothing to do with him and instead are damning a school with a near flawless record and a beloved coach in Joe Paterno.
Check out this quote from an article I just read, “This isn’t about Sandusky“… “If the allegations are true, Joe Paterno should be instructed to take his 46 years and 409 wins and leave in disgrace.”
It isn’t about Sandusky? If a man Paterno KNEW committed a crime, he should be fired in disgrace? Now I suppose the central question is whether or not JoePa knew if Sandusky was/is a child molester. If he did, that’s pretty fucked up. No complaints there from me.But, come on. Think for a minute. Just one fucking minute. Look past your moral outrage, cause god knows you (every one of you people reading this article (that’s right all three of you (if I’m lucky that many))) have every right to be outraged. Fucking please. Wasn’t there a line in the Bible about he who is above guilt should be the first one casting stones? Don’t get me wrong, guilty people should be punished, but enough with the being superior bullshit. What is this display for? Who benefits from you being outraged at terrible acts? Why are you outraged about this scandal, but don’t even think about genocide going on in other countries RIGHT THIS SECOND? Or if that’s too far away, about the other cases of child molestation that are in the paper, but weren’t perpetrated by someone as famous--- EXCUSE ME, not perpetrated by someone famous, but perpetrated by someone who WORKED for someone famous? Hey, I know when you hear about those things you say, "That's horrible" and really mean it, but then it's forgotten. There's none of this moral superiority.
But, back to my point. Let’s for a moment hypothesize about that day nine years ago when a ‘distraught’ and ‘traumatized’ grad student went to coach Joe Paterno’s house to inform him that he saw Sandusky rape a 10 year old in the football team shower.
“Are ya sure?” asks Joe. I don’t know the student’s answer, but most college kids know what fucking looks like and if one of the participants is a 10 year old, it’s rape no matter what.
“Ya, I’m sure.”
Now, I’m Joe Paterno. I’m gonna ask the kid why he didn’t go to the police, but instead came to me first. I’ll give the kid the benefit of the doubt. He’s confused. He just didn’t know what to do.
“Are you sure?” asks Joe again. Hey, he’s known this guy and been friends with him for like 40 YEARS. You can’t discount that. Imagine someone who is a friend of yours for 40 years. A good friend. A person who you would NEVER think could POSSIBLY be a pedophile.
Ok, look. Joe doesn’t want his college implicated whether it’s true about Sandusky or not and hey, I can’t fault him for thinking this. So he tells the student to go home and then calls his bosses. Now this is following PROPER CHAIN OF COMMAND for wrongdoings at a college.
What happened at THIS meeting? I mean, seriously, what do you think the President of the college told Paterno? Don’t worry Joe. I can’t believe it either. We’ll talk to Sandusky. We’ll talk to the grad student. Hell. We’ll talk to the kid. We’ll get to the bottom of this and by George if there was a crime committed we’ll go straight to the cops.
Good, thinks JoePa. Great. Gather all the facts and make a decision. That’s smart. I still don’t believe it’s true. It’s Sandusky for Christ sake. He’s not a pedophile!
Meanwhile, Joe’s an incredibly busy guy who goes back to his life. Trust me, he didn’t forget about this. Maybe a week or two passes. Maybe more before he asks the President what happened with that ‘incident’.
We talked to everyone involved. There was no rape. It was all a misunderstanding. Just to make sure that no more misunderstandings happen we’ve told Sandusky he can’t bring kids onto campus anymore.
Ah, ok. I KNEW it. I’ve known Sandusky for 40 YEARS!
You’re sure? There’s no need to go to the cops?
Positive! Trust me, if he’s molesting children I’d go straight to the authorities.
Would you have gone to the police to turn in your friend? With no evidence whatsoever? Maybe you’d even question the guy yourself. I have to assume he’d flatly deny it. Hell, he’d probably be morally outraged that you’d even think such a thing.
Meanwhile, six more years go by without incident.
Is Paterno to blame? Should be fired in disgrace?
Obviously, in this fictional dramatization the college President is somewhat of the bad guy, but that doesn’t have to be the case either. Maybe he really did question everyone involved and HONESTLY felt it was a misunderstanding and there was no reason to go to the police. I mean, what if that one episode had been the only one and it turned out to really not be any sort of crime. You’d drag his name, the college, and everyone else involved through the mud on a MAYBE.
Now, it’s looking like it’s way more then just a maybe at this point, but 9 years ago we couldn’t say that.
Could future crimes have been prevented if something had been done back then? Maybe. Possibly. Probably. Can you really blame people for not doing more? Do you REALLY think they knew Sandusky was raping children and they shielded him to protect the college? These are intelligent men. I kinda doubt they would do that. Perhaps these men, who also knew Sandusky as a person, probably couldn’t believe these allegations either. I know from having been personally accused of a crime I did not commit, it’s nice to know your friends will stand by you. And it’s terribly scary when people you’ve never met look at you as if you’re complete scum even though you’re innocent and they don’t know fact one about your case.
But it’s ok for them to be morally outraged…
If the guy is guilty he deserves to be punished to the full extent of the law, same as any other criminal. In the end this is about those alleged crimes that he committed against those young victims. It’s not about bringing down a famous person or institution because YOU decided he or it’s to blame because of association AND because, fuck it, we like seeing our heros abased.
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Former-Penn-State-LB-Matt-Millen-gets-emotional-?urn=ncaaf-wp9465 (Sorry, couldn't figure out how to embed it)
I'm all for punishing ANYONE who is guilty, but check out this video of Matt Millen, a former Penn State linebacker (Sandusky was the linebackers coach) explain his thoughts. He's SPOT ON in my estimation.
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Comments are also MOST WELCOME
It's pretty simple. Paterno, as probably the second most important/powerful person on the PSU campus, had a moral responsibility to make sure the CRIMINAL claims against Sandusky were investigated. And that doesn't mean having self-preserving employees of the school (not the president btw) carry out the investigation and then being content when they clear Sandusky. That means immediately getting police involved. If JoPa had done that and then chose to bury his head in the sand and hope everything turned out okay for Sandusky, that would have been understandable (though still morally dubious). JoPa's celebrity in this case is incidental. He should be fired, at minimum, for his complicity through inaction in the crimes against those kids.
ReplyDeleteI have lots of thoughts on this. I agree with lots of what you said and I can see your chain of reasoning on what might have been going on in Paterno's head. And I think you sort of get at the most important point in all of this - we simply don't have enough information to judge yet.
ReplyDeleteI will say this - if there is a person who walked into the shower room and saw a naked ten year old boy up against the wall police-search style being raped by a coach, and that witness told someone they knew but didn't go to the actual police, they should be prosecuted. IF that person exists. And if there are school authorities (Paterno or others) who received reports and participated in any kind of cover up, they should be prosecuted.
But back to the main point - IF these things happened.
The other important point you make that I agree with is how often people look for an excuse - any excuse, absolutely any excuse at all - to become a mob. Next time I see you, remind me to share my thoughts on that recent viral video of all the "heroic" people "coming together" to lift the burning car off the motorcyclist and "save his life." Because to my eye, that's only sort of what was going on in that video.