Penn State

I couldn't get myself to come up with a title for this blog post, because I usually try and do a play on words or something fun. There is nothing fun about what has happened at Penn State.

I've been avoiding writing about this story, but it's become way too big of a deal to keep off this blog if this blog is supposed to be about covering sports.

There is no angle I can take on this story that hasn't been exhausted, and no expertise or explanation that I have to provide to anyone looking for answers about it. There have been some really excellent pieces written on this, especially by Michael Weinreb of Grantland.com, who grew up in State College, Penn.

What has bothered me especially over the last couple days is our country's willingness (maybe even excitedness) about moving on to vilify Joe Paterno so quickly. Make no mistake, I am not defending Paterno or what he did(n't do). All I'm saying is that the grand jury report came out, and there was uproar about Sandusky for a day. Then we focused on the graduate assistant telling Paterno what he had seen and Paterno telling his superiors and doing nothing else. As my Dad said afterward, that meant Paterno knew this guy was a criminal and kept him around, let him stay around young men for years. A reprehensible thing to do, and something Joe Paterno deserved to be fired for. But all we've heard about for what seems like forever is reaction from former Penn State players and college football experts about Paterno.

How is it that the guy who was actually sexually abusing boys has gotten lost in all of this? How is it that Paterno and Mike McQueary are now shouldering the entirety of the blame for this scandal? From what I can tell, neither of them did anything to boys.

I don't want this to be misunderstood. Joe Paterno and Mike McQueary and everyone else at Penn State who was aware of what Sandusky had been should be held accountable for not doing more to stop it. So far, all of them except McQueary have been held accountable. They've lost their jobs. They've lost everything important to them aside from their families (who probably aren't that happy, either). For Paterno, he's lost what he built for over half a lifetime. To ask for more than that is ludicrous. Remember, these men did not break a law. The committed a sin of omission, without a doubt, but in this country what they did(n't do) was not illegal. There is no basis for punishing them beyond what has happened.

It goes back to our country's obsession with celebrities, which is such a fun guilty pleasure most of the time (like when its about Lindsay Lohan or Kim Kardashian) but an absolute cancer in times like right now. It's just that there are so many more important things going on in this situation than Joe Paterno. Like Jerry Sandusky. Like the boys (now men and young men) who suffered sexual abuse, have been living with it for years, and are now reliving it. Read the Grand Jury report(fair warning: I couldn't get through it in one sitting, I was getting pissed off and depressed), and if Paterno is still your biggest concern, then have at him.

But I'm with Rick Reilly. This is about waaayyy more than Joe-Pa.