Joe Paterno Must Resign Immediately
November 8, 2011 by Sal Marinello
Filed under The Healthy Skeptic
If Joe Paterno is half the man he has been advertised to be, he should resign before Penn State plays Nebraska Saturday. I don’t want to hear about how unfortunate it is that his career is going to end over the child molestation scandal involving Penn State and former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Regardless of what actually happened, based on what we know now, Joe Paterno must resign.
I was going to write that he should be fired. But by whom, the hayseed administrators who were complicit in the attempt to cover-up what will go down as the worst sports scandal, ever? For as bad as Joe’s behavior is, if he really is a good guy who royally fucked-up, he should be wise enough to take his medicine and walk away. Come clean, apologize and step down. Give Penn State a sliver of good in this maelstrom of bad.
Penn State is scandalized, and they have only themselves to blame. And the fact Paterno may have followed the proper procedure when he reported the claims of Sandusky’s deviant behavior to his superiors means nothing. The excuse that Paterno did his job, fulfilled his responsibilities and possibly didn’t know the full extent of Sandusky’s behavior doesn’t jive with the facts, and strains credulity to boot. He was arguably the most powerful man in the state of Pennsylvania and – chain of command be damned – could have made sure the right thing was done regardless of the actions of his superiors.
If Paterno felt that the situation was being swept under the rug he could have fired Sandusky. He could have picked up the phone and called any number of people in a position of authority and gotten it done. But he didn’t.
The head coach of a football team needs to be aware of every aspect of his program and is held responsible for everything that is done by members of his coaching staff and his team. The excuse that Joe Pa didn’t know doesn’t cut it, for if he was ignorant of Sandusky’s behavior when there was a full-fledged investigation into the matter, he should be fired for incompetence.
The argument that Joe was covering for an old friend is disgusting, as it equates Sandusky’s behavior of raping 10-year old boys with taking money out of the petty cash drawer or coming to practice after having a couple of early afternoon cocktails. You can be a good friend and a good coach despite being a low-level klepto or a lush. Child rapists don’t get that benefit of the doubt. I don’t know about you, but I won’t be giving any of my buddies a mulligan after they violate some little boys.
The Paterno defenders who say they support the coach because they don’t believe he would do anything that wasn’t the right thing are as “right” as members of the Flat Earth Society.
Coaches of other programs have been fired for far lesser offenses. Coaches have been fired for a variety of ridiculous recruiting infractions and ticky-tack personal peccadillos that are minor in the face of the Penn State scandal. Resign Joe, now.
He wasn’t a doddering old man when he was derelict in his duty.
But’s let’s not lose sight of the fact that the real evil party here is Sandusky. It’s his scandal. The Penn State administrators who have done their best to make sure this situation was handled in the worse way possible all deserve to go. But it’s the Sandusky Scandal.
Sandusky has done irreparable, incalculable damage to the coaching profession. His abberant behavior has destroyed the bond of trust that exists between coaches, players and the players’ parents. There isn’t a parent in the country who will feel totally safe leaving their kids with their coaches, or any kid with any coach. Thanks to Jerry Sandusky. The Penn State administration and Joe Paterno have done their fair share of damage, as well.
It would have been horrible enough if Sandusky performed his preternatural acts, got caught and was fired, convicted and imprisoned. The fact that his employers didn’t do everything they should have, both legally and morally, is an affront to coaches, parents and players everywhere.
Resign Joe, resign.
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