Joe Paterno would be glad that he is dead, especially when considering new revelations about Paterno’s knowledge of Jerry Sandusky’s kiddie diddling. These new allegations have come to light thanks to the efforts of CNN and have been circulating the news cycle.
The inevitable result will be one of the biggest lawsuits against a public university in the history of the United States. Not only will Penn State lose an extreme amount of money due to both lawsuits from the victims against the university, but also from potential budget cuts from the state of Pennsylvania. However, Penn State has lost one thing in the eyes of not the college football community and the American pubic as a whole that can never be fully repaired: its reputation.
Penn State will be forever known as the Catholic Church of American universities with Penn State’s beloved Pope Joe Paterno being complicit in covering up the rape of those boys. And just like the Catholic Church, Penn State made no effort to reprimand Sandusky and bring him to justice and instead made an active effort to hide these facts so as to protect a creepy old man with a certain fondness for diddling.
What makes this entire saga even more disgustingly depressing is that not only the fact that Paterno and his fellow “cardinals” tried to cover up “Father” Sandusky’s crimes, but that they did all of this while claiming to be a model athletic department where there was some form of morality.
Unfortunately, in my estimation at least, there is nothing the NCAA can do in this case against Penn State because there was no recruiting violation or technical violations of NCAA bylaws, so there can be no penalties directed from the NCAA. That is just the sad and cynical reality that the only way there is going to be any retribution from the school will be derived solely from suing the institution itself.
However, when suing Penn State, the money will not come from the athletic department, but instead from the academic budget and from necessary services like financial aid, which is going to harm not those who were in charge and covered up old man Sandusky, but instead the students—everything is sacrificed so the athletic department can live.
Hopefully, Penn State will never again be relevant in college football and go into an SMU-style plunge into irrelevancy. The only legacy that Paterno and his merry men leave behind is one of broken promises, abuse of power and destroyed lives.
I imagine Joe Paterno is thinking to himself, “Thank God I am dead.”
